Negotiating Cultural Differences in America

2 Dying and Surviving in Virginia

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Historians are detectives, storytellers, and occasionally, mythmakers. As detectives we search for clues about past events, ideas, or people that interest us. Generally, we gather these clues from documents that, by either planning or happenstance, have survived the ravages of time. From a study of these documents—a task that involves discounting some evidence in order to make sense of the whole—we attempt to piece together a meaningful story.

Often the stories we tell provoke interest only among other lovers of history. Some accounts temporarily gain wide popularity but are soon forgotten. On rare occasions, however, narratives of the past (or more likely, retold, simplified versions of an original tale) evoke broad, enduring emotional responses. These accounts are passed forward from generation to generation and become ingrained in the collective memory of a people. Citizens who fail to understand them are considered alien or culturally illiterate. At some point these enduring stories may transcend history and enter the realm of “myth.” In labeling a story a myth, we are not implying that it is necessarily untrue. Rather, we simply mean that the story has become a traditional tale, shared by all members of a community, that purports to explain the origins, customs, and institutions of a people.

The early history of Virginia has become an American myth. Most of us can recall stories about Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America. We can recite tales learned in childhood about Captain John Smith, the savior of the colony, who transformed the lazy colonists into hardened work crews. We remember the man, if not the name, of Powhatan, the powerful Algonquian chief who shared the secret of growing corn with the early colonists. And we remember Pocahontas, the Algonquian princess who pleaded with her father to spare the life of John Smith, and who later married the Englishman John Rolfe and converted to his Christian religion.

Augmenting these real-life adventures of daring individuals is the inspirational collective history of the colony. Established as a business enterprise, early Jamestown was the property of Virginia Company stockholders who risked their personal assets in pursuit of profit. While their original plan to find gold failed, the stockholders learned from their mistakes, altered their policies, and prepared the way for future investors to extract great wealth from Virginia’s plentiful tobacco harvests. Moreover, in 1619, the company instituted the House of Burgesses in Virginia and thereby planted in American soil the seed of democratic government. Altogether, the colony of Jamestown overcame early setbacks, survived, and left a grand legacy for the American people. More than simply England’s first permanent colony in the New World, Jamestown has become for many a symbol of American achievement. It was a place where courageous and enterprising individuals overcame hardships, tamed the forces of nature, brought glory to their country, and fulfilled their personal dreams.

Our memory of colonial Virginia, as previously described, is not necessarily incorrect, but it is highly selective. After all, the story of English settlement in the land named for the “virgin” queen Elizabeth does not begin in Jamestown in 1607 but in the failed colonies of Roanoke (today, part of North Carolina) in the 1580s. Notwithstanding the inspiration we draw from Jamestown, for both its sponsors and its settlers, early Virginia was a disaster that cost investors their fortunes and colonists their lives.

For nearly a century following Columbus’s first voyage, Spain was the dominant nation on earth. No peoples, either in Europe or in the Americas, were able to challenge Spain’s power in the New World. Midway into Queen Elizabeth’s reign, however, the English monarch quietly gave two half-brothers, Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh, permission to establish an English settlement in any land not actually possessed by a “Christian prince.” In the careful wording of this license, Elizabeth avoided directly challenging Philip II, who had claimed all of North America for Spain, but who actually possessed as his northern-most outpost only a lonely fort in Saint Augustine, Florida. The English queen did not worry herself about affronting the chieftains of the indigenous peoples of North America who occupied the vast majority of the continent.

In 1583, Gilbert attempted to establish an English outpost in Newfoundland. After one winter in the northern climate, Gilbert decided to relocate further to the south. While returning to England for supplies, however, Gilbert’s ship was lost at sea. Undaunted, Raleigh sent a 1584 exploration party to find a more suitable location for an English settlement. This party, under the command of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, explored the Chesapeake Bay area of North America. After receiving the reports of this reconnaissance mission, Raleigh sent in 1585 about one hundred would-be English colonists, most of whom were soldiers, to the region, now renamed Virginia. The colonists built a fort at Roanoke Island on the Carolina outer banks.

Although the English settlers were intruders on land inhabited by the Carolina Algonquian Indians, at least initially a spirit of goodwill existed among the English and the Native Americans. With vastly different languages, customs, and technologies, the two peoples were fascinated by the strange sounds, behavior, and objects of each other. At first, mutual curiosity and the natural desire to learn by exchanging gifts—Native American food for English metals—fostered a semblance of friendship among two peoples. Within a year, however, cooperation gave way to conflict. When the disgruntled English settlers decided to abort the colony and return to England, the Algonquians were happy to see them leave.

In 1587, a second group made up of 155 English recruits, including 17 women and 11 children, reestablished the settlement at Roanoke. These colonists, mainly persons of small resources, hoped to plant an English community of men, women, and children in the New World and to concentrate on subsistence farming rather than on the exploitation of resources for export. Despite their limited ambitions and peaceful intentions, they, too, found surviving in the American wilderness difficult. Just one month after their arrival, they persuaded their governor, John White, to return to England for additional supplies. Keeping a small band of settlers on the island, a group that included White’s daughter and newborn granddaughter, Virginia Dare, Governor White left for England, hoping to secure from Raleigh the needed supplies and to return promptly to Roanoke. England’s war against the great Spanish Armada (1588), however, delayed his return voyage. When White finally arrived at Roanoke in 1590, he found the colony utterly deserted. What became of the “lost colony” is still a mystery.

The twice-failed venture at Roanoke did not destroy England’s ambitions for Virginia, but it did demonstrate how risky and expensive colonization could be. Future colonization efforts would be undertaken not by individual promoters such as Gilbert or Raleigh, but by joint-stock companies, the forerunners of the modern-day corporation. These companies, which generally secured from the Crown special trading privileges, raised funds to support the enterprise by selling shares to investors who preferred to divide among themselves the financial risks as well as the anticipated profits.

In 1606, three years after James I had succeeded Elizabeth as the English monarch, two groups of merchants—one from London and one from Plymouth—persuaded the new king to grant them exclusive rights to colonize in Virginia. The Plymouth Company, which received a charter to settle the northern half of the region, sent a party to a site in the present-day state of Maine. Like the aborted efforts in Newfoundland and Roanoke, however, this colony was soon abandoned.

Meanwhile, the investors from London recruited about 140 colonists to build a colony in the Chesapeake Bay region. Shortly before Christmas 1606, three ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, left England in hopes of an early spring arrival. Barely off the English coast, the winds stilled and the ships sat stranded in the water. For six weeks the men waited. Tempers flared, fevers spread, and precious rations were consumed.

On April 26, 1607, those who had survived the passage entered Chesapeake Bay. After spending about two weeks scouting the region, they selected an encampment 60 miles up a river that they named James in honor of their king. The chosen site was a peninsula about two miles long and one mile wide, with a narrow isthmus connecting it to the bank of the river. Surrounded almost completely by water, the site of Jamestown was chosen because it had a deep water shoreline, had an abundance of trees and game, and, most important, could be readily defended from Spanish attack. Unfortunately, Jamestown lacked adequate freshwater springs, and the high ground rimming its shores made much of the peninsula a marshland—an ideal habitat for malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

The Spanish never attacked, but the mosquitoes and Native Americans did. By the time a second shipment of supplies arrived in January 1608, only 38 of the original group remained alive. Later English recruits swelled the population to about five hundred, but all save 60 of these died during the “starving time” of the winter of 1609–1610.

Many of the earliest settlers were gentlemen, who expected to lead rather than work, or the servants and craftsmen of gentlemen, who were accustomed to labor but did not consider field cultivation their line of work. Having come to Virginia with unrealistic expectations, they found the environment unfamiliar and hostile. Ill prepared and ill supplied, they quickly lost both health and spirit. The dictatorial controls of such leaders as John Smith and Sir Thomas Dale kept the colony afloat for a while, but even during the best of times, survival—not the pursuit of happiness—was the only realistic goal. In the worst of times, some resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.

The colony ultimately endured largely because the stockholders back home refused to concede defeat. Although always short of the capital needed to fund the project adequately, the company kept sending new recruits to the wasteland in the hope of making a return on their investment. These latter settlers came largely from the ranks of ordinary English working people. Most were male, typically young, between the ages of 15 and 24, and without skills or wealth. By the second decade of the venture, the great majority of the immigrants came as “indentured servants,” that is, as bound laborers who, in exchange for the price of passage, legally committed themselves to work a set number of years (generally four to seven) for their masters.

In a desperate search for profits, the stockholders in England censored colonial publications and lied about life in Virginia. They secured permission from the king to hold public lotteries to fill company coffers; they brought Pocahontas to England (and to her death!) for promotional purposes; they recruited shiploads of unmarried English women and auctioned them off for tobacco as wives for the Virginia bachelors; they invoked martial law in the colony, and when they deemed it to be to their financial advantage, they instituted a House of Burgesses that gave the Virginians some say in local affairs—subject, of course, to the veto of the company. They searched for, but never discovered, the secret of extracting treasures from American soil. And after the Indian uprising of 1622 eliminated one-third of the white population in Virginia, even the most optimistic of the investors fell into despair. By 1624, when King James finally revoked the company’s charter, the stockholders had lost about 100,000 pounds in the company, an equivalent of $12 million in today’s currency! Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in the New World. It also, however, was a death trap and a financial bust. The colony survived, but most of the colonists and investors did not.

THE DOCUMENTS

This chapter includes descriptions of life in colonial Virginia during the first half-century of attempted settlement by English colonists. The earliest reports, which portrayed Virginia as an earthly paradise, shifted over time to more sordid accounts of disease, starvation, violence, brutality, and managerial incompetence. Read the following documents written by those who participated in these historic ventures, and ask yourself what were the principal concerns of the sponsors and settlers of the first English colonies? To what degree do these descriptions of early Virginia correspond to your preconceived notions? How do you explain the discrepancies?

Introduction to Documents 1, 2, and 3

The first document is an excerpt from Queen Elizabeth’s 1584 charter to Sir Walter Raleigh. Note the references in the document to land “not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People.” The next two documents are taken from a collection of narratives published in 1589 by Richard Hakluyt, a friend of Raleigh’s colonization ventures. Do note, however, that the language has been modernized. Although the documents were written by Englishmen with European biases and were edited to fit the propaganda needs of Raleigh, the texts are important, for they provide us with the first view of North America before English occupation. The excerpts from Arthur Barlowe’s “Narrative of the 1584 Voyage” describe the landscape and peoples of the North American seacoast at the time of contact. (Spelling and grammar have been modernized.) The selections from Thomas Harriot’s A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia detail sympathetic observations of the inner life and beliefs of the native peoples. Harriot’s descriptions of the mysterious epidemics that marked his travels also inform us of one of the appalling results of contact: the spread of European diseases among the aboriginal populations. Compare these descriptions of contact in Virginia with Columbus’s initial impressions of the Caribbean. In what ways are the accounts similar and different?

DOCUMENT 1  Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh: 1584

ELIZABETH by the Grace of God of England, France and Ireland Queen, defender of the faith, &c. To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting.

Know ye that … we give and grant to our trustee and well-beloved servant Walter Raleigh, Esquire, and to his heirs assignee forever, free liberty and license from time to time, and at all times forever hereafter, to discover, search, find out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People.…

And further that the said Walter Raleigh … shall have hold, occupy, and enjoin to him, his heirs and assignee, and every of them forever, all the soil of all such lands, territories, and Countries, so to be discovered and possessed as aforesaid, and of all such Cities, castles, towns, villages, and places in the same, with the right, royalties, franchises, and jurisdictions … reserving always to us, our heirs and successors, for all services, duties, and demands, the fifth part of all the ore of gold and silver, that from time to time, and at all times after such discovery, subduing and possessing, shall be there gotten and obtained: All which lands, Countries, and territories, shall forever beholden of the said Walter Raleigh, his heirs and assignee, of us, our heirs and successors, by homage, and by the said payment of the said fifth part, reserved only for all services.

And moreover, we give and grant license to the said Walter Raleigh … for his and their defense, [the authority to] encounter and expulse, repel and resist … all, and every such person and persons whatsoever … [who] shall attempt to inhabit within the said Countries, or any of them, or within the space of two hundred leagues near to the place or places within such Countries as aforesaid (if they shall not be before planted or inhabited within the limits as aforesaid with the subjects of any Christian Prince being in amity with us) where the said Walter Raleigh, his heirs, or assignee, or any of them, or his, or their or any of their associates or company, shall within sine [six?] years (next ensuing) make their dwellings.…

In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness our selves, at Westminster, the 25th day of March, in the six and twentieth year of our Reign.

DOCUMENT 2  “Narrative of the 1584 Voyage”

Arthur Barlowe

The first voyage made to the coasts of America, with two boats, were Captains Master Philip Amadas and Master Arthur Barlowe, who discovered part of the country now called Virginia, in 1584: Written by one of the said Captains and sent to Sir Walter Raleigh, knight, at whose charge and direction the voyage was set forth.

On the 27th day of April, in the year of our redemption 1584, we departed the west of England with two boats well furnished with men and victuals.…

On the tenth of May we arrived at the Canaries, and on the tenth of June in this present year, we were fallen with the Islands of the West Indies.…

The next day there came upon us diverse boats, and in one of them, the King’s brother, accompanied with forty or fifty men, very handsome and goodly people, and in their behavior as mannerly and civil as any of Europe. His name was Granganimeo, and the King is called Wingina, the country Wingandacoa, (and now by her Majesty, Virginia).…

The King is greatly obeyed, and his brothers and children reverenced. The King himself was sorely wounded in a fight which he had with the King of the next country. … A day or two after this, we fell to trading with them, exchanging some things that we had for chamous leather, elk and deer skins. When we showed him all our packet of merchandise, of all the things that he saw, a bright tin dish most pleased him. He presently took it up, clapt it before his breast, and afterward made a hole in the brim thereof, and hung it about his neck, making signs that it would defend him against his enemies arrows. Those people maintain a deadly and terrible war with the people and King adjoining.

[The people] are of color yellowish, and their hair black for the most, and yet we saw children that had very fine auburn and chestnut color hair. … No people in the world carry more respect to their King, Nobility and Governors than these do. The King’s brother’s wife, when she came to us, as she did many times, was always followed with forty or fifty women.…

The King’s brother had great liking of our armor, a sword, and divers other things which we had, and offered to lay a great box of pearl in exchange for them. But we refused it for this time because we would not make them know that we esteemed it until we had understood in what places of the country the pearl grew (which now your worship does very well understand). He was very just in his promise, for many times we delivered him merchandise upon his word and always he came within the day and performed his promise. He sent us every day a brace or two of fat bucks, conies, hares, fish, the best of the world. He sent us divers kinds of fruits, melons, walnuts, cucumbers, gourds, peas, and divers roots, and fruits very excellent good, and of their country corn, which is very white, fair and well tasted and grows three times in five months. In May they sow, in July they reap; in June they sow, in August they reap; in July they sow, in September they reap. They only cast the corn into the ground, breaking a little of the soft turf with a wooden mattock or pick ax. We proved the soil and put some of our peas into the ground. In ten days they were of fourteen inches high. They have also beans very fair, of divers colors and wonderful plenty, some growing naturally and some in their gardens. And so have they both wheat and oats.

The soil is the most plentiful, sweet, fruitful and wholesome of all the world. There are above fourteen several sweet smelling timber trees. … They have those oaks that we have, but far greater and better.…

The following evening we came to an island which they call Roanoke. [It was] distant from the harbor by which we entered, seven leagues. At the north end thereof, there was a village of nine houses, built of cedar and fortified round about with sharp trees to keep out their enemies. The entrance into it made it like a turnpike very artificially. When we came towards it, standing near unto the waters side, the wife of Grangyno, the King’s brother, came running out to meet us very cheerfully and friendly. Her husband was not then in the village. Some of her people she commanded to draw our boat on the shore for the beating of the billow. Others she appointed to carry us on their backs to the dry ground and others to bring our oars into the house for fear of stealing. When we were come into the outer room, having five rooms in her house, she caused us to sit down by a great fire, and after took off our clothes and washed them and dried them again. Some of the women pulled off our stockings and washed them. Some washed our feet in warm water, and she herself took great pains to see all things ordered in the best manner she could, making great haste to dress some meat for us to eat. … We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty, after their manner, as they could possible devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the golden age. The earth brings forth all things in abundance as in the first creation, without toil or labor. The people only care to defend themselves from the cold in their short winter, and to feed themselves with such meat as the soil affords. Their meat is very well sodden, and they make broth very sweet and savory. Their vessels are earthen pots, very large, white and sweet. Their dishes are wooden platters of sweet timber. Within the place where they feed was their lodging, and within that their Idol, which they worship, of which they speak incredible things.…

DOCUMENT 3  From A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

Thomas Harriot

Within a few days after our departure from every … town, the people began to die very fast, and many in short space, in some towns about twenty, in some fourty and in one six score, which in truth was very many in respect of their numbers. … The disease also so strange, that they neither knew what it was, nor how to cure it, the like by report of the oldest men in the country never happened before, time out of mind. A thing especially observed by us, as also by the natural inhabitants themselves.

Insomuch that when some of the inhabitants which were our friends, and especially the Wiroans Wingina, had observed such effects in four or five towns to follow their wicked practices, they were persuaded that it was the work of our God through our means, and that we by him might kill and slay whom we would without weapons, and not come near them.…

This marvelous accident in all the country wrought so strange opinions of us, that some people could not tell whether to think us gods or men, and the rather because that all the space of their sickness, there was no man of ours known to die, or that was especially sick. They noted also that we had no women amongst us, neither that we did care for any of theirs.

Some therefore were of opinion that we were not borne of women, and therefore not mortal, but that we were men of an old generation many years past, then risen again to immortality.

Some would likewise seem to prophecy, that there were more of our generation yet to come, to kill theirs and take their places, as some thought the purpose was, by that which was already done.

Introduction to Document 4

The next document is taken from John White’s “Narrative of the 1590 Virginia Voyage.” This return voyage to Roanoke reached Virginia on August 17, 1590. High winds destroyed one of the boats as it approached the island. Seven sailors perished in the accident, and crew morale among the survivors plummeted. It was dark before the party came ashore. The following excerpts detail what White found when he reached the deserted colony. (Once again, spelling and grammar have been modernized.) What clues does this account provide to the fate of the famous “lost colony”?

DOCUMENT 4  “Narrative of the 1590 Virginia Voyage”

John White

It was so exceedingly dark that we overshot the place a quarter of a mile. There we spied towards the north end of the island the light of a great fire through the woods, to which we presently rowed. When we came right over against it, we let fall our Grapnel near the shore and sounded with a trumpet a call, and afterward many familiar English tunes of songs, and called to them friendly. But we had no answer. We therefore landed at daybreak, and coming to the fire we found the grass and sundry rotten trees burning about the place. From hence we went through the woods to that part of the island directly over against Dasamongwepeuk, and from thence we returned by the water side, round about the North-point of the island, until we came to the place where I left our colony in the year 1586. *  In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the savage feet of 2 or 3 sorts trod that night, and as we entered up the sandy bank, upon a tree in the very brow thereof were curiously carved these fair Roman letters CRO: which letters presently we knew to signify the place where I should find the planters seated, according to a secret token agreed upon between them and me at my last departure from them, which was, that in anyway they should not fail to write or carve on the trees or posts of the doors the name of the place where they should be seated; for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoak 50 miles into the mainland. Therefore at my departure from them in 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name, a cross ⊢ in this form, but we found no such sign of distress. And having well considered of this, we passed toward the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken down, and the places very strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees with curtains and flankers very fort-like. One of the chief trees or posts at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and 5 foot from the ground in fair capital letters was engraved CROATOAN without any cross or sign of distress; this done, we entered into the palisade where we found many bars of iron, two pigs of lead, four iron fowlers, iron sacker-shot, and such like heavy things, thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grass and weeds. From thence we went along by the water side, towards the point of the creek to see if we could find any of their boats or Pinnissee, but we could perceive no sign of them, nor any of the last falkons and small ordinance which were left with them at my departure from them. At our return from the creek, some of our sailors meeting us told us that they had found where divers chests had been hidden, and long since dug up again and broken-up, and much of the goods in them spoiled and scattered about, but nothing left.…

Introduction to Documents 5, 6, and 7

The following documents were written by two of the fortunate survivors of early Jamestown: George Percy and John Smith. The spelling and grammar of these documents have been modernized. Percy’s observations on Jamestown in 1607 describe the tenuous relationships between the English and their Algonquian neighbors. Smith’s account details the “starving time” of 1609. These documents reveal the horrors of the early settler’s struggle for survival. The third document in this section is Smith’s recollection of a 1609 speech by Chief Powhatan. In this speech to Smith, Powhatan expresses concerns about his relationship with the Anglos and with the neighboring Namesmond Indians. As the document reveals, the struggle for survival in early Virginia was not limited to the Anglo settlers of Jamestown.

* White’s date is inaccurate. The correct date is 1587.

 

DOCUMENT 5 “Discourse” George Percy [April 26, 1607] about four o’clock in the morning, we described [detected] the land of Virginia. The same day we entered into the Bay of Chesapeake directly, without any let or hindrance. There we landed and discovered a little way, but we could find nothing worth speaking of but fair meadows and goodly tall trees. With such fresh waters running through the woods, I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof.

At night, when we were going aboard, there came the savages creeping upon all fours from the hills like bears, with their bows in their mouths. [They] charged us [looking] very desperately in their faces, hurt Captain Gabrill Archer in both his hands and a sailor in two very dangerous places of the body. After they had spent their arrows, and felt the sharpness of our shot, they retired into the woods with a great noise.…

On the twenty-ninth day we set up a cross at Chesapeake Bay, and named that place Cape Henry. On the thirtieth, we came with our ships to Cape Comfort where we saw five savages running on the shore. Presently the Captain caused the shallop to be manned. Rowing to the shore, the Captain called to them in a sign of friendship, but they were at first very timorsome [fearful] until they saw the Captain lay his hand on his heart. Upon that, they laid down their bows and arrows and came very boldly to us, making signs to come ashore to their town, which is called by the savages Kecoughtan. We coasted to their town, rowing over a river running into the main. The savages swam over with their bows and arrows in their mouths.

When we came over to the other side, there were many other savages which directed us to their town where we were entertained by them very kindly. When we came first ashore, they made a doleful noise, laying their faces to the ground, scratching the earth with their nails. We thought they had been at their idolatry. When they ended their ceremonies, they went into their houses and brought out mats and laid [them] upon the ground. The chiefest of them sat all in a rank. The meanest sort brought us such dainties as they had: bread which they make of maize or guinea wheat. They would not suffer us to eat unless we sat down, which we did on a mat right against them. After we were well satisfied, they gave us of their tobacco, which they took in an artificial pipe made of earth like ours are, but far bigger, with the bowl fashioned together with a piece of fine copper. After they had feasted us, they showed us, in welcome, their manner of dancing, which was in this fashion. One of the savages was standing in the midst singing, beating one hand against another. All the rest were dancing about him, shouting, howling, and stamping against the ground with many antic tricks and faces, making noise like so many wolves or devils. One thing of them I observed: when they were in their dance, they kept stroke with their feet just one with another. But with their hands, heads, faces and bodies, every one of them had a separate gesture. They continued for the space of half an hour. When they had ended their dance, the Captain gave them beads and other trifling jewels. They hang through their ears fowls’ legs. They shave the right side of their heads with a shell. On the left side they wear an ell long tied up with an artificial knot, with many fowls feathers sticking in it. They go altogether naked, but their privates are covered with beasts skins beset commonly with little bones or beasts teeth. Some paint their bodies black, some red, with artificial knots of sundry lively colors, very beautiful and pleasing to the eye, in a braver fashion than they in the West Indies.…

At Port Cottage in our voyage up the river, we saw a savage boy about the age of ten years with a head of hair of perfect yellow and a reasonable white skin, which is a miracle amongst all savages.

This river which we have discovered is one of the most famous rivers ever found by any Christian. It ebbs and flows a hundred and threescore miles where ships of great burden may harbor in safety. Where ever we landed upon this river, we saw the goodliest woods: beech, oak, cedar, cypress, walnuts, sassafras and vines in great abundance in great clusters on many trees, and other trees unknown. All the grounds are bespread with many sweet and delicate flowers of diverse colors and kinds. There are also many fruits: strawberries, mulberries, raspberries and fruits unknown. There are many branches of this river which run flowing through the woods with great plenty of all kinds of fish. As for sturgeon, all the world cannot compare to it. In this country I have seen many great and large meadows having excellent good pasture for any cattle. There is also great store of deer, both red and fallow. There are bears, foxes, otters, beavers, muskrats, and wild beasts unknown.

The twenty-fourth day we set up a cross at the head of this river, naming it Kings River, where we proclaimed James King of England to have the most right unto it. When we had finished and set up our cross, we shipped our men and made for James Fort. By the way we came to Pohatan’s Tower where the Captain went ashore, suffering none to go with him. He presented the commander of this place with a hatchet. He took it joyfully and was well pleased.

But yet the savages murmured at our planting in the country, whereupon this Werowance made answer again very wisely of a savage. Why should you be offended with them as long as they hurt you not, nor take anything away by force? They take but a little waste ground which doth you nor any of us any good.

I saw bread made by their women which do all their drudgery. The men take their pleasure in hunting and their wars, which they are in continually one kingdom against another. Their manner of baking of bread is thus: after they pound their wheat into flour with hot water, they make it into paste, and work it into round balls and cakes. Then they put it into a pot of seething water. When it is sod thoroughly, they lay it on a smooth stone. There they harden it as well as in an oven.…

Captain Newport being gone for England, leaving us (one hundred and four persons) very bare, scanty of victuals and wares and in danger of the savages. We hoped after a supply which Captain Newport promised within twenty weeks. But if the beginners of this action do carefully further us, the country being so fruitful, it would be as great a profit to the realm of England as the Indies to the King of Spain. If this river which we have found had been discovered in the time of war with Spain, it would have been a commodity to our realm and a great annoyance to our enemies.

On the twenty-seventh of July the King of Rapahanna demanded a canoe which was restored. He lifted up his hand to the sun, which they worship as their god. Then he laid his hand on his heart [to affirm] that he would be our special friend. It is a general rule of these people when they swear by their god which is the sun. No Christian will keep their oath better upon this promise. These people have a great reverence to the sun above all other things. At its rising and setting, they sit down lifting up their hands and eyes to the sun. Making a round circle on the ground with dried tobacco, they began to pray making many devilish gestures with a hellish noise, foaming at the mouth, staring with their eyes, wagging their heads and hands in such a fashion and deformity as it was monstrous to behold.

On August 6th died John Asbie of the bloody flux. On the ninth died George Flower of the swelling. On the tenth died William Bruster, Gentleman, of a wound given by the savages, and was buried the eleventh. On the fourteenth, Jerome Alikock, Ancient, died of a wound. The same day Francis Midwinter, Edward Moris, Corporal, died suddenly. … The fourth day of September died Thomas Jacob, Sergeant. The fifth day died Benjamin Beast. Our men were destroyed with cruel diseases as swellings, fluxes, burning fevers, and by wars. Some departed suddenly, but for the most part they died of mere famine.

There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia. We watched every three nights lying on the bare cold ground what weather soever came warded all the next day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches. Our food was but a small can of barley sod in water to five men a day. Our drink was cold water taken out of the river, which was at a flood very salt, at a low tide, full of slime and filth, which was the destruction of many of our men. Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable distress, not having five able men to man our bulwarks upon any occasion. If it had not pleased god to have put a terror in the savages’ hearts, we had all perished by those wild and cruel pagans. Being in that weak estate as we were, our men night and day groaning in every corner of the fort [were] most pitiful to hear. If there were any conscience in men, it would make their hearts to bleed to hear the pitiful murmuring and outcries of our sick men without relief every night and day for the space of six weeks. Some departing from our world, many times three or four in a night; in the morning their bodies were trailed out of their cabins like dogs to be buried. In this sort did I see the mortality of diverse of our people.

It pleased God, after a while, to send those people which were our mortal enemies to relieve us with victuals, as bread, corn, fish, and flesh were in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men. Otherwise we had all perished. Also we were frequented by diverse kings in the country, bringing us store of provision to our great comfort.

DOCUMENT 6 From Journal John Smith … As for corn, provision and contribution from the savages, we had nothing but mortal wounds, with clubs and arrows; as for our hogs, hens, goats, sheep, horse, or what lived, our commanders, officers and savages daily consumed them, some small proportions sometimes we tasted, till all was devoured; then swords, arms, pieces, or anything, we traded with the savages, whose cruel fingers were so oft imbrued in our blood, that what by their cruelty, our Governor’s indiscretion, and the loss of our ships, of five hundred within six months after Captain Smith’s* departure, there remained not past sixty men, women and children, most miserable and poor creatures; and those were preserved for the most part, by roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries, now and then a little fish: they that had starch in these extremities, made no small use of it; yea, even the very skins of our horses. Nay, so great was our famine, that a savage we slew, and buried, the poorer sort took him up again and ate him, and so did diverse one another boiled and stewed with roots and herbs: and one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered [i.e., salted] her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved; now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonadoed [i.e., grilled], I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of. This was that time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say, and scarce to be believed, what we endured: but the occasion was our own, for want of providence, industry, and government, and not the barrenness and defect of the country, as is generally supposed; for till then in three years, for the numbers were landed us, we had never from England provision sufficient for six months, though it seemed by the bills of loading sufficient was sent us, such a glutton is the sea, and such good fellows the mariners; we as little tasted of the great proportion sent us, as they of our want and miseries, yet notwithstanding they ever over-swayed and ruled the business, though we endured all that is said, and chiefly lived on what this good country naturally afforded; yet had we been even in paradise itself with these governors, it would not have been much better with us; yet there was amongst us, who had they had the government as Captain Smith appointed, but that they could not maintain it, would surely have kept us from those extremities of miseries. This in ten days more, would have supplanted us all with death.

* Note that Smith writes in the third person.

But God that would not this country should be unplanted, sent Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Sommers with one hundred and fifty people most happily preserved by the Bermudas to preserve us.…

DOCUMENT 7 Powhatan’s Speech to Captain John Smith: 1609 Captain Smith, you may understand that I having seen the death of all my people thrice, and not any one living of these three generations by myself; I know the difference of Peace and War better than any in my Country. But now I am old and ere long must die, my brethren, namely Opitchapam, Opechancanough, and Kekataugh, my two sisters, and their two daughters, are distinctly each other’s successors. I wish their experience no less than mine, and your love to them no less than mine to you. But this brut from Nansemond, that you are come to destroy my Country, so much frightens all my people as they dare not visit you. What will it avail you to take by force [that which] you may quickly have by love, or to destroy them that provide you food? What can you get by war, when we can hide our provisions and fly to the woods? whereby you must famish by wronging us your friends. And why are you thus jealous of our lives seeing us unarmed, and both do, and are willing still to feed you, with that you cannot get but by our labors? Think you I am so simple, not to know it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children, laugh and be merry with you, have copper, hatchets, or what I want being your friend: then be forced to flee from all, to lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns, roots, and such trash, and be so hunted by you, that I can neither rest, eat, nor sleep; but my tired men must watch, and if a twig but break, everyone cries, there comes Captain Smith: then must I fly I know not whither: and thus with miserable fear, end my miserable life, leaving my pleasures to such youths as you, which through your rash unadvisedness may quickly as miserably end, for want of that, you never know where to find. Let this therefore assure you of our love, and every year our friendly trade shall furnish you with corn; and now also, if you would come in friendly manner to see us, and not thus with your guns and swords as to invade your foes.

Introduction to Documents 8 and 9

Between 1610 and 1616, Virginia’s survival was the result of the stern governments of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale. The regulations imposed by Dale were codified and published in 1611 by William Strachey as Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall. Meanwhile, in England, the Virginia Company published and circulated the tract Nova Britannia in an attempt to persuade the general public to purchase shares in the venture. Selections from each document follow. Compare the two documents. How do their descriptions of Virginia differ? Why?

DOCUMENT 8  From Nova Britannia: 1609

The country itself is large and great assuredly, though as yet, no exact discovery can be made of all. It is also commendable and hopeful every way, the air and climate most sweet and wholesome, and very agreeable to our nature. It is inhabited with wild and savage people, that live and lie up and down in troupes like herds of deer in a forest; they have no law but nature, their apparel, skins of beasts, but most go naked; the better sort have houses, but poor ones; they have no arts nor sciences, yet they live under superior command such as it is; they are generally very loving and gentle, and do entertain and relieve our people with great kindness; the land yieldeth naturally for the sustenance of man, abundance of fish, infinite store of deer, and hares, with many fruits and roots.

There are valleys and plains streaming with sweet springs, there are hills and mountains making a sensible proffer of hidden treasure, never yet searched; the land is full of minerals, plenty of woods; the soil is strong and sends out naturally fruitful vines running upon trees, and shrubs: it yields also resin, turpentine, pitch and tar, sassafras, mulberry trees and silkworms, many skins and rich furs, many sweet woods, and costly dyes; plenty of sturgeon, timber for shipping. But of this that I have said, if bare nature be so amiable in its naked kind, what may be hope, when art and nature both shall join and strive together, to give best content to man and beast?…

… As for supplanting the savages, we have such intent: Our intrusion into their possessions shall tend to their great good; and no way to their hurt, unless as unbridled beasts, they procure it to themselves. We purpose to proclaim and make it known to them all, by some public interpretation, that our coming hither is to plant ourselves in their country; yet not to supplant and root them out, but to bring them from their base condition to a far better: First, in regard of God the Creator, and of Jesus Christ their Redeemer, if they will believe in Him. And secondly, in respect of earthly blessing, whereof they have now no comfortable use, but in beastly brutish manner, with promise to defend them against all public and private enemies.

We require nothing at their hands, but a quiet residence to us and ours, that by our own labor and toil, we may work this good unto them and recompense our own adventures, costs, and travels in the end; wherein, they shall be most friendly welcome to join their labors with ours, and shall enjoy equal privileges with us, in whatsoever good success, time or means may bring to pass. To which purpose, we may verily believe that God has reserved in this last age of the world, an infinite number of those lost and scattered sheep, to be won and recovered by our means.…

And as for the general sort that shall go to be planters, be they never so poor, so they be honest, and take pains, the place will make them rich. … They shall have there employment enough for there is a world of means to set many thousands a work, partly in such things as I mentioned before, and many other profitable works, for no man must live idle there.

And by this employment, we may happily stop the course of those irregular youths of no religion, that daily run from us to Rome and Rhemes for exhibition, which after a little hammering and training there by Parson and his imps, they become pliable for the impression of any villainy whatsoever, as appears by their positions and practices at home and abroad.

And hereby our mariners shall not lie idle, nor our owners sell their ships for want of freight: you know how many good ships are daily sold, and made away to foreign nations; how many men for want of employment, betake themselves to Tunis, Spain, and Florence, and to serve in courses not warrantable, which would better beseem, our own walls and borders to be spread with such branches, than their native country.

The thing to make this plantation is money, to be raised among the adventurers [stockholders], wherein the sooner and more deeply men engage themselves, their charge will be the shorter, and their gain the greater.

First you shall understand that his Majesty has granted us an enlargement of our charter, with many ample privileges, wherein we have knights and gentlemen of good place, named for the King’s Council of Virginia to govern us. As also every planter and adventurer shall be inserted in the patent by name. This ground being laid, we purpose presently to make supply of men, women, and children (so many as we can) to make the plantation. We call those planters that go in their persons to dwell there and those adventurers that adventure their money and go not in person, and both do make the members of one colony. We do account twelve pound ten shillings to be a single share adventured. Every ordinary man or woman, if they will go and dwell there, and every child above ten years that shall be carried thither to remain, shall be allowed for each of their persons a single share, as if they had adventured twelve pound ten shillings in money. Every extraordinary man, as divines, governors, ministers of state and justice, gentlemen, physicians, and such as be men of worth for special services, are all to go as planters, and to execute their several functions in the colony, and are to be maintained at the common charge, and are to receive their dividend (as others do) at seven years end, and they are to be agreed with all before they go, and to be rated by the council, according to the value of their persons, which shall be set down and registered in a book, that it may always appear what people have gone to the plantation, at what time they went, and how their persons were valued. And likewise, if any that go to be planters will lay down money to the treasurer, it shall be also registered and their shares enlarged accordingly, be it for more or less. All charges of settling and maintaining the plantation and of making supplies shall be born in a joint stock of the adventurers for seven years; we supply from here at our own charge all necessary food and apparel, for fortifying and building of houses in a joint stock, so they are also to return from thence the increase and fruits of their labors, for the use and advancement of the same joint stock, till the end of seven years; at which time we purpose (God willing) to make a division by commissioners appointed, of all the lands granted unto us by his Majesty, to all of the colony, according to each man’s several adventure, agreeing with our register book, which we doubt not will be for every share of twelve pound ten shillings, five hundred acres at least. And as for the value and little worth now of those grounds in Virginia, we know that in England within these thirty or forty years, the yearly rent of those grounds (in many places) were not worth five shillings, that now go for forty or more.

DOCUMENT 9  From Laws Divine, Moral and Martial, 1611

1. First since we owe our highest and supreme duty, our greatest, and all our allegiance to him, from whom all power and authority is derived, and flows as from the first, and only fountain, and being especial soldiers impressed in this sacred cause, we must alone expect our success from him, who is only the blesser of all good attempts, the king of kings, the commander of commanders, and Lord of Hosts, I do strictly command and charge all captains and officers, of what quality or nature soever, whether commanders in the field, or in town, or towns, forts or fortresses, to have a care that the Almighty God be duly and daily served.…

6. Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first tolling of the bell shall upon the working days repair unto the church, to hear divine service upon pain of losing his or her day’s allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third to be condemned to the galleys for six months. Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate or break the Sabbath by any gaming, public, or private abroad, or at home, but duly sanctify and observe the same, both himself and his family, by preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they may be the better fitted for the public, according to the commandments of God.…

9. No man shall commit the horrible, and detestable sins of sodomy upon pain of death; and he or she that can be lawfully convicted of adultery shall be punished with death. No man shall ravish or force any woman, maid or Indian, or other, upon pain of death, and know the[e] that he or she, that shall commit fornication, and evident proof made thereof, for their first fault shall be whipped, for their second they shall be whipped, and for their third they shall be whipped three times a week for one month, and ask public forgiveness in the assembly of the congregation.…

13. No manner of person whatsoever … shall detract, slander, calumniate, murmur, mutiny, resist, disobey, or neglect the commandments, either of the Lord Governor, and Captain General, the Lieutenant General, the Marshal, the Council, or any authorized captain, commander or public officer, upon pain for the first time so offending to be whipped several times, and upon his knees to acknowledge his offense, with asking forgiveness upon the Sabbath day in the assembly of the congregation, and for the second time so offending to be condemned to the galley for three years: and for the third time so offending to be punished with death.…

15. No man of what condition soever shall barter, truck, or trade with the Indians, except he be thereunto appointed by lawful authority, upon pain of death.

16. No man shall rifle or despoil, by force or violence, take away anything from any Indian coming to trade, or otherwise, upon pain of death.

17. No cape merchant, or provant [i.e., provision] master, or munition master, or truck master, or keeper of any store, shall at any time embezzle, sell, or give away anything under his charge to any favorite of his, more than unto any other, whom necessity shall require in that case to have extraordinary allowance of provisions, nor shall they give a false account unto the Lord Governor, and Captain General, unto the Lieutenant General, unto the Marshal, or any deputed governor, at any time having the command of the colony, with intent to defraud the said colony, upon pain of death.…

20. No captain, master, mariner, or sailor, or what officer else belonging to any ship, or ships, now within our river, or hereafter which shall arrive, shall dare to bargain, exchange, barter, truck, trade, or sell, upon pain of death, unto any one landman member of this present colony, any provisions of what kind soever, above the determined valuations, and prices, set down and proclaimed, and sent therefore unto each of your several ships, to be fixed upon your main mast, to the intent that want of due notice, and ignorance in this case, be no excuse, or plea, for any one offender herein.…

23. No man shall embezzle, lose, or willingly break, or fraudulently take away, either spade, shovel, hatchet, axe, mattock, or other tool or instrument upon pain of whipping.

25. Every man shall have an especial and due care, to keep his house sweet and clean, as also so much of the street, as lieth before his door, and especially he shall so provide, and set his bedstead whereon he lieth, that it may stand three feet at least from the ground, as he will answer the contrary at a martial court.…

31. What man or woman soever, shall rob any garden, public or private, being set to weed the same, or willfully pluck up therein any root, herb, or flower, to spoil and waste or steal the same, or rob any vineyard, or gather up the grapes, or steal any ears of the corn growing, whether in the ground belonging to the same fort or town where he dwelleth, or in any other, shall be punished with death.…

Introduction to Document 10

In the early 1620s, disgruntled investors sent investigating committees to Virginia to assess the poor financial condition of the colony. While the various factions of stockholders were arguing among themselves about who was at fault, the infamous massacre of 1622 claimed the lives of 347 Virginians. Why had the company been unable to prevent the massacre? The following document, “The State of the Colony in Virginia,” was written in 1622 by company officials to defend themselves against charges of neglect. How credible is their defense?

DOCUMENT 10  “The State of the Colony in Virginia,” 1622

That all men may see the impartial ingenuity of this discourse, we freely confess, that the country is not so good, as the natives are bad, whose barbarous selves need more cultivation than the ground itself, being more overspread with incivility and treachery, than that with briars. … The plantations of particular adventurers and planters were placed scatteringly and stragglingly as a choice vein of rich ground invited them, and the further from neighbors held the better. The houses generally set open to the savages, who were always friendly entertained at the tables of the English, and commonly lodged in their bedchambers. The old planters (as they thought now come to reap the benefit of their long travels) placed with wonderful content upon their private lands, and their familiarity with the natives, seeming to open a fair gate for their conversion to Christianity.

The country being in this estate, an occasion was ministered of sending to Opachankano, the King of these savages, about the middle of March last, what time the messenger returned back with these words from him, that he held the peace concluded so firm as the sky should sooner fall than it dissolve. Yea, such was the treacherous dissimulation of that people who then had contrived our destruction, that even two days before the massacre, some of our men were guided through the woods by them in safety. Yea, they borrowed our own boats to convey themselves across the river (on the banks of both sides whereof all our plantations were) to consult of the devilish murder that ensued, and of our utter extirpation, which God of His mercy (by the means of themselves converted to Christianity) prevented. And as well on the Friday morning (the fatal day) the twenty-second of March, as also in the evening, as on other days before, they came unarmed into our houses, without bows or arrows, or other weapons, with deer, turkey, fish, fur, and other provisions to sell and trade with us for glass, beads, and other trifles. Yet in some places, they sat down at breakfast with our people at their tables, whom immediately with their own tools and weapons either laid down, or standing in their houses, they basely and barbarously murdered, not sparing either age or sex, man, woman, or child, so sudden in their cruel execution that few or none discerned the weapon or blow that brought them to destruction. In which manner they also slew many of our people then at their several work and husbandries in the fields, and without their houses, some in planting corn and tobacco, some in gardening, some in making brick, building, sawing, and other kinds of husbandry, they well knowing in what places and quarters each of our men were, in regard of their daily familiarity and resort to us for trading and other negotiations, which the more willingly was by us continued and cherished for the desire we had of effecting that great masterpiece of works, their conversion. And by this means that fatal Friday morning, there fell under the bloody and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhuman people, contrary to all laws of God and men, of nature and nations, three hundred forty seven men, women, and children, most by their own weapons. And not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making as well as they could, a fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying some parts away in derision, with base and brutish triumph. That the slaughter had been universal, if God had not put it into the heart of an Indian belonging to one Perry to disclose it, who living in the house of one Pace, was urged by another Indian his brother (who came the night before and lay with him) to kill Pace. Telling further that by such an hour in the morning a number would come from different places to finish the execution, who failed not at the time, Perry’s Indian rose out of his bed and revealed it to Pace, that used him as a son. And thus the rest of the colony that had warning given them by this means was saved. Such was (God be thanked for it) the good fruit of an infidel converted to Christianity. For though three hundred and more of ours died by many of these pagan infidels, yet thousands of ours were saved by the means of one of them alone which was made a Christian. Blessed be God forever, whose mercy endureth forever.

Thus have you seen the particulars of this massacre, wherein treachery and cruelty have done their worst to us, or rather to themselves; for whose understanding is so shallow, as not to perceive that this must needs be for the good of the plantation after, and the loss of this blood to make the body more healthful, as by these reasons may be manifest.

First, because betraying innocence never rests unpunished.

Secondly, because our hands, which before were tied with gentleness and fair usage, are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence of the savages, not untying the knot, but cutting it. So that we, who hitherto have had possession of no more ground than their waste, and our purchase at a valuable consideration to their own contentment gained, may now, by right of war and law of nations, invade the country, and destroy them who sought to destroy us. Whereby we shall enjoy their cultivated places, possessing the fruits of others’ labors. Now their cleared grounds in all their villages (which are situated in the fruitfulest places of the land) shall be inhabited by us, whereas heretofore the grubbing of woods was the greatest labor.

Thirdly, because those commodities which the Indians enjoyed as much or rather more than we, shall now also be entirely possessed by us. The deer and other beasts will be in safety, and infinitely increase, which heretofore not only in the general huntings of the King, but by each particular Indian were destroyed at all times of the year, without any difference of male, dame, or young.

There will be also a great increase of wild turkeys, and other weighty fowl, for the Indians never put difference of destroying the hen, but kill them whether in season or not, whether in breeding time, or sitting on their eggs, or having new hatched, it is all one to them.

Fourthly, because the way of conquering them is much more easy than of civilizing them by fair means, for they are a rude, barbarous, and naked people, scattered in small companies, which are helps to victory, but hindrance to civility. Besides that, a conquest may be of many, and at once; but civility is in particular and slow, the effect of long time, and great industry. Moreover, victory of them may be gained many ways: by force, by surprise, by famine in burning their corn, by destroying and burning their boats, canoes, and houses, by breaking their fishing wares, by assailing them in their huntings, whereby they get the greatest part of their sustenance in winter, by pursuing and chasing them with our horses and bloodhounds to draw after them, and mastiffs to tear them.

Introduction to Document 11

The final document in this chapter is a letter written in 1623 by a young indentured servant to his family back in England. This pathetic appeal contrasts with the more favorable accounts of Virginia presented by its investors. To what degree did one’s perception of life in early Virginia depend on one’s socioeconomic position?

DOCUMENT 11  An Indentured Servant Describes Life in Virginia in a Letter to His Parents

Richard Frethorne

Loving and kind father and mother:

My most humble duty remembered to you, hoping in God of your good health, as I myself am at the making hereof. This is to let you understand that I your child am in a most heavy case by reason of the nature of the country, [which] is such that it causeth much sickness, [such] as the scurvy and the bloody flux and diverse other diseases, which maketh the body very poor and weak. And when we are sick there is nothing to comfort us; for since I came out of the ship I never ate anything but peas, and loblollie (that is, water gruel). As for deer or venison I never saw any since I came into this land. There is indeed some fowl, but we are not allowed to go and get it, but must work hard both early and late for a mess of water gruel and a mouthful of bread and beef. A mouthful of bread for a penny loaf must serve for four men which is most pitiful. [You would be grieved] if you did know as much as I [do], when people cry out day and night—Oh! that they were in England without their limbs—and would not care to lose any limb to be in England again, yea, though they beg from door to door. For we live in fear of the enemy every hour, yet we have had a combat with them on the Sunday before Shrovetide, and we took two alive and made slaves of them. But it was by policy, for we are in great danger; for our plantation is very weak by reason of the death and sickness of our company. For we came but twenty for the merchants, and they are half dead just; and we look every hour when two more should go. Yet there came some four other men yet to live with us, of which there is but one alive; and our Lieutenant is dead, and [also] his father and his brother. And there was some five or six of the last year’s twenty, of which there is but three left, so that we are fain to get other men to plant with us; and yet we are but 32 to fight against 3000 if they should come. And the nighest help that we have is ten miles of us, and when the rogues overcame this place [the] last [time] they slew 80 persons. How then shall we do, for we lie even in their teeth? They may easily take us, but [for the fact] that God is merciful and can save with few as well as with many, as he showed to Gideon. And like Gideon’s soldiers, if they lapped water, we drink water which is but weak.

And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death, except [in the event] that one had money to lay out in some things for profit. But I have nothing at all—no, not a shirt to my back but two rags (2), nor no clothes but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stockings, but one cap, [and] but two bands. My cloak is stolen by one of my own fellows, and to his dying hour [he] would not tell me what he did with it; but some of my fellows saw him have butter and beef out of a ship, which my cloak, I doubt [not], paid for. So that I have not a penny, not a penny worth, to help me to either spice or sugar or strong waters, without the which one cannot live here. For as strong beer in England doth fatten and strengthen them, so water here doth wash and weaken these here [and] only keeps [their] life and soul together. But I am not half [of] a quarter so strong as I was in England, and all is for want of victuals; for I do protest unto you that I have eaten more in [one] day at home than I have allowed me here for a week. You have given more than my day’s allowance to a beggar at the door; and if Mr. Jackson had not relieved me, I should be in a poor case. But he like a father and she like a loving mother doth still help me.

… Oh, they be very godly folks, and love me very well, and will do anything for me. And he much marvelled that you would send me a servant to the Company; he saith I had been better knocked on the head. And indeed so I find it now, to my great grief and misery; and [I] saith that if you love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do entreat and beg. And if you cannot get the merchants to redeem me for some little money, then for God’s sake get a gathering or entreat some good folks to lay out some little sum of money in meal and cheese and butter and beef. Any eating meat will yield great profit. Oil and vinegar is very good; but, father, there is great loss in leaking. But for God’s sake send beef and cheese and butter, or the more of one sort and none of another. But if you send cheese, it must be very old cheese; and at the cheesemonger’s you may buy very good cheese for twopence farthing or halfpenny, that will be liked very well. But if you send cheese, you must have a care how you pack it in barrels; and you must put cooper’s chips between every cheese, or else the heat of the hold will rot them. And look whatsoever you send me—be it never so much—look, what[ever] I make of it, I will deal truly with you. I will send it over and beg the profit to redeem me; and if I die before it come, I have entreated Goodman Jackson to send you the worth of it, who hath promised he will. If you send, you must direct your letters to Goodman Jackson, at Jamestown, a gunsmith. (You must set down his freight, because there be more of his name there.) Good father, do not forget me, but have mercy and pity my miserable case. I know if you did but see me, you would weep to see me; for I have but one suit. (But [though] it is a strange one, it is very well guarded.) Wherefore, for God’s sake, pity me. I pray you to remember my love to all my friends and kindred. I hope all my brothers and sisters are in good health, and as for my part I have set down my resolution that certainly will be; that is, that the answer of this letter will be life or death to me. Therefore, good father, send as soon as you can; and if you send me any thing let this be the mark.

Richard Frethorne

Martin’s Hundred

POSTSCRIPT

While the early years of Virginia were notably unsuccessful, things began to change. In 1619, settler John Rolfe (who had married Pocahontas) wrote, “About the last of August came in a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars.” The enslavement of Africans by Europeans had been going on for decades, but Rolfe’s offhanded comment is the first indication of a black presence in Virginia. It is unclear whether, in the early years, those Africans were treated more like slaves or like indentured servants. We do know that, by 1660, servitude that lasted a lifetime and extended to one’s children was the fate of Virginia blacks.

But why were these people brought to the troubled colony? Tobacco was the answer. In the very year that the Dutch ship dropped off its African cargo (1619), 45,000 pounds of tobacco were exported to England from Virginia and the British colony of Bermuda. Five years earlier, not a pound had been shipped, but just one year later, in 1620, over 100,000 pounds passed through London. It was the very same John Rolfe who noted the coming of the first twenty blacks who had also procured tobacco seeds from the Spanish West Indies, a variety of the plant favored by the English. King James publicly condemned the “sot-weed,” but he was not about to ban a product that generated rich customs duties.

By the 1620s, tobacco brought boom times to Virginia, as men engaged in a ruthless scramble for wealth. In the 1630s and 1640s, prices stabilized, and planters began to raise more corn and cattle. As food supplies increased, mortality rates declined. The planter elites who had gained their wealth during the tobacco boom came to dominate colony politics. Some of their economic inferiors also prospered, although to a lesser degree. Many former indentured servants, after working several years as tenant farmers, were able to save sufficient funds to purchase their own land and became independent planters themselves (Richard Frethorne, alas, was not so lucky; he died in poverty shortly after sending his letter). By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Virginia population reached fifteen thousand, with more immigrants coming every year. This growth, coupled with the need for fresh acreage by those who planted soil-depleting tobacco, encouraged more English encroachments on Indian lands. The resulting wars dramatically reduced the native population. By 1680, there were fewer than one thousand Native Americans in all of Virginia.

Tobacco had become so profitable that it justified a heavy investment in labor. Although white indentured servants continued to be sorely exploited, they also proved hard to control, and even rebellious. But black slaves could be made to tend crops through the long growing season, and they could be exploited more thoroughly than white laborers. By the third generation after the settlement of Jamestown, a relative handful of powerful white men controlled the best land and owned the majority of slaves. It was these men and their descendants in the eighteenth century who began to create a gracious life on their plantations. After decades of failure, then, it could 

References

Gorn, E. J., Roberts, R. J., Bilhartz, T. D. (07/2007). Constructing the American Past, Volume 1, 6th Edition. [Argosy University]. Retrieved from https://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu/#/books/0558302548/