John Smith Thinking Through History Summary

This however is all an act. These two experiences easily exhibit that John Smith looks at the Native Americans as lesser human beings, who are not even close to being on the same intellectual level as him. The Native Americans are in fact quite smart. They are obviously not as advanced as the Europeans so it is only understandable that they do not know much about foreign objects and beliefs. However, unlike the Europeans the Native Americans know how to survive in the harsh North American Wilderness. They know how to hunt, fish and live off the land. There survival skills are unmatched yet John Smith does not care for he refuses to learn from “savages”. Smith believes that he can marvel the Native Americans in hopes of escape. He is not trying to teach them or help them understand basic knowledge like they tried to do with him and his colony. Everything Smith does is simply to trick the Native Americans so they will let him go free. This really shows how Smith is deceptive and more cruel

Once Smith and Bradford arrive in America, the difference in their use of religion in their writings is more evident. John Smith hardly writes of religion and its impact on daily life again. His narrative is focused more on the relations of the settlers, the Indians, and the adventures that ensue. His use of religion is merely used to explain what he cannot. Smith writes “But now was all our provision spent, the sturgeon gone, all helps abandoned, each hour expecting the fury of the savages, when God, the patron of all good endeavors, in that desperate extremity so changed the heart of the savages that they brought such plenty on their fruits and provision as no man wanted.”(30). In this example, Smith does not understand why the savages have brought them food and saved them from starvation. So his explanation is that God must have intervened the situation. Bradford uses religion to analyze almost all situations in daily life. His opinions of Thomas Morton and Merrymount illustrate this. Bradford writes “...some tending to a lasciviousness, and other to the detraction and scandal of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idol maypole…and here I may take occasion to bewail the mischief that this wicked man began in these parts, and which since, base covetousness prevailing in men that should know better, has now at length got the upper

You look around the camp that you and your fellow colonists have created in the past couple of years. Although, something is off. There are hundreds of men all around coughing and throwing up. Jamestown was infested by many diseases and illnesses that all of you brought to this place. Jamestown had begun in 1607 and had fallen apart in 1610. Jamestown's ‘mission’ was lead by Captain John Smith, and was followed by 11 colonists. Now, with the mission being lead by John Smith, ad there being over 100 colonists to help him out, why did so many of them die? So many of the colonists died due to diseases and illnesses, and this can be proven by what the colonists did inside the camp, where they had settled, and how few resources that they actually had.

The journey to the Pacific Northwest was one of the most interesting and thrilling pioneer expeditions in history. Though this adventure ended up being successful there is no question that there were some moments that could have ended very horribly with multiple deaths. This was the case because there were a few times on their trip where their basic human needs just couldn’t be met. Times like this called for everyone to do anything they could to stay alive and quite often this wasn’t very pleasant. This is why when times got tough they needed to remember to make the right decisions for not just themselves but for their fellow travelers as well. These pioneers often struggled with having the right, food, water, clothing but mostly people to

I infer several conclusions from Smith’s definition and analysis of sympathy. First, sympathy is a mode of perception. The “eye of the mind” or the imagination perceives the situation witch elicits primary sentiments and secondary agreeable or disagreeable sentiments which are the basis of moral judgement. Secondly, I conclude from Smith’s propositions that the mind is a passive recipient, therefore moral knowledge is a by-product of external stimuli. In other words our external sense stimuli provoke a change in our minds, from which our imaginations produce sentiments by which we judge the propriety or merit of another’s conduct.

The $300,000 that John received for services rendered from the court case is considered earned income for the year. The $300,000 is earned income for John Smith and will be reported as gross income either on Schedule C of the individual return or as gross income on the LLC return. “US code defines gross income in 26 U.S.C § 61 states except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) the following items: (1) Compensation for services, including fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items.”

Joseph John Ellis was born in 18th July 1943. He is an American historian and professor. His work extensively focuses on the period and lives of the founders of the United States of America as well as biographies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, the Revolution including the early federalist years. Ellis obtained his B.A from the College Of William And Mary where he was introduced to Theta Delta Chi. Ellis gained his M.A and Ph.D from Yale University during 1969. He was a professor the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1979, he became a senior professor and taught at Mount Holyoke College. Moreover, he is Ford Foundation Professor. Currently, Ellis teaches at the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In his book, Ellis examines selected interaction of individuals who significantly influenced the early development of United States. He developed his book by considering certain events during the decade that followed the 1787 Constitutional Convention to the depict history as it was being developed.

1. For the new United States to be so treacherous for some, and so grand for others is a great example that reflects the propaganda that was being portrayed to bring early Europeans and others to the colonies for the sole purpose to take over land from indigenous people. While there is no specific answer to their claims one way or another, we can see that there must have been some ulterior motives to putting on such a showcase to those far away. In the following passages we get some insight from John Smith about exactly how the new colonies were expanding and just how growth was to be achieved, “Who can desire more content, that hath small means; or but only his merit to advance his fortune, than to tread, and plant that ground he hath purchased by the hazard of his life?” (93) From Smith’s account we can see exactly what needs to be done to grow the colonies. Now we can use two other passages from Farmer James that are in stark contrast to one another, and can lead the readers to believe that the new land was some type of utopian escape from old England. Farmer James describes it as “Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment. Here you will find but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us” (608). Farmer

After reading passage one about John Smith, explain how you believe the colonial settlement influenced the Powhatan tribe? Do you believe that because John Smith was enslaved, that is why he was such a impactful leader? On the other hand, do you believe that it made him arrogant and he resigned from his position so he would not demoted?

Good job on this weeks forum. I did not know who George Bancroft was before I read your post, so I decided to research him in the APUS library. I found an article on George Bancroft that might be useful to you, and it can be found at this link by search George Bancroft: Master Historian.

In Exiles and Pioneers, John Bowes argues that "the history of these Indian communities in the nineteenth century encompasses a contest over geographic and political place” in the United States (3). He focuses not only on how moving west affected the Native Americans, but how the political warfare around them also held a tremendous amount uncertainty over them. These Indian communities would now need to learn the dealings of the Indian tribes in the west, but also learn how to pacify the Americans enough to keep hold of their new land whilst holding enough strength to not be seen as weak and removable. Continually, they now had to learn how to cultivate new land and be prosperous in a completely different environment from their old lands in

Throughout American history, different types of explorers from other continents have settled in this nation. By the seventeenth century, the amount of English settlers had increased tremendously, while the Indian settlers who were Indian chief, Powhatan, had decreased from 14,000 to 600. More than 95 percent of Powhatan’s settlers was exterminated due to the decrease in population of the Indian settlers. The author of this passage explains how, due to the diversity, the amount of tribes and settlers that escaped and were exterminated was high and it had a negative impact on them.

Everyone wants the best for the world, their country, their own people and ultimately themselves. The essence of colonizing new land is to secure a more prosperous life than one was already enduring. Both John Smith, author of The General History of Virginia, and William Bradford, writer of Plymouth Plantation, aim to improve the lives of their own kind while taking two different approaches to accomplish this seemingly impossible goal. The writings of both early American colonists provide meaningful insight to their respective areas of settlement, while sending messages of the author’s character through their personal experiences and style of writing.

First, let us discuss Jamestown. When the settlers first arrived in Jamestown, they arrived at the beginning of the driest period, known as the seven-year drought, which occurred from 1606 to 1612 (Wolfe, “Early Jamestown Settlement”). Food and water were scarce, and the colonists deeply relied on Smith to search for food due to the fact that most colonists were of upper-class; therefore, lacked hunting and farming skills. Not too long after the English arrived, many died from “…swellings, fluxes, fevers, famine, and sometimes wars… (“Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend”). Chief Powhatan sent gifts of food to help the colonists; however, in the winter of 1608-1609- a period known as “the starving time”- Powhatan’s chiefdom ceased trade with the colonists due to the fact the

Abusing. Slave owner. Boastful. All traits that the infamous John Smith possessed that degraded him as a great adventurer. In 1624, John Smith wrote an autobiography about his encounters with the native indians in the new world (The Americas) under the name General History. Meanwhile, Bartolome de las Casas wrote an autobiography about his adventures in 1515 called Relations that talks about the mistreatment of the native indians that he observed in the new world. WIth these two writings there is proof that John Smith exhibits poor traits throughout his writings such as degrading Indians, boasting about himself and lusting for fame establishing that he is a worse person compared to de las Casas, the previous explorer of the Americas.