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In the beginning of the seventeenth century, America was vastly unknown. This unknown
opened the way for the largest exodus in the world. John Smith, William Bradford, and John
Winthrop were three visionaries who devoted their ability to archiving life of the colonial period.
After immigrating to America, all three men took on vastly different roles and approaches as they
documented the social and economic challenges of the New World.
John Smith was an English explorer, soldier, governor and author. Between September
1608 – August 1609, Smith was the leader of the Jamestown settlement. Smith trained the first
settlers how to farm and fish, developed critical friendships with the indigenous people. Soon
after Smith’s arrival to the New World he would begin writing what many consider to be the first
book ever written in the American colonies, A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents
of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia. Smith returned to England in 1609 after an injury and
wrote a second book expanding on his time in Virginia before returning to the New World in
1616. Smith’s most recognized piece, A General History of Virginia, New England, and the
Summer Isles was printed in 1624, where Smith paints himself as the hero of his recollection of
his time in the New World. This is in great contrast to Bradford and Winthrop.
Much like John Smith, John Winthrop was committed to serving his colony as governor,
in hopes of Puritanism flourishing in Massachusetts. Winthrop came to America in 1630 from
Suffolk, England after attending Trinity College and Gray’s Inn (Vile, J.R.2009). In contrast to
Smith’s work, Winthrop’s godly vision became the foundation for a religion that remained in
Massachusetts until after the First Amendment was adopted in 1791. Winthrop’s sermon titled, A
Modell of Christian Charity in 1630 became a major contribution to the literary world but would
remain unpublished until the late eighteenth century. Winthrop adamantly denied the need for
separation of church and state and dedicated himself to a commonwealth that confined voting to
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the males in the church congregation. Of these three literary influences, Winthrop had been
presented with a childhood of wealth and privilege. These privileges allowed for his travels
throughout New England where his financial education would lead his creation of the
Massachusetts Bay Company with the intention to trade and colonize the land between the
Charles and Merrimack Rivers in America based on the Puritan foundation. Winthrop’s literary
contributions acted as a diary of his religious faith, as well as his journey to the new world that
illustrated his beliefs to follow the Lord in his endeavors.
In contrast to both John Smith and John Winthrop, William Bradford was born into
turmoil with the early passing of his father and being abandoned by his mother, leaving him
orphaned. During a childhood plagued with illness, Bradford devoted his time to studying the
bible and other religious literature. Bradford’s literary contributions were heavily influenced by
scripture. His earlier pieces documented his journey on the Mayflower and the eventual creation
of a colony where he could institute the worship of God with the “simplicity of the gospel.”
(Halsall, P. 1998) While Bradford continuously wrote about the hardships Plymouth Colony
experienced, their first winter in America, the first Thanksgiving and how their trust in God was
the only salvation in success, his literary works would not be published in his lifetime.
John Smith, John Winthrop and William Bradford all elaborated greatly on their
involvement in the new world, politically, personally and spiritually. All three documented how
God and scripture influenced their lives and the creations of colonies, but John Smith took a
more hero-like complex on his personal and professional accomplishments and his personal
achievements for King James. These three essential men documented the course of History, not
only for archives, but to recruit the people of England to the new world with hopes of
establishing further colonies. Their thirty years of literature and documentation of early America
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illustrated reactions to Puritan colonists as well as Indigenous Americans while being regarded as
distinguished work of the seventeenth century. Colonial literature taught many lessons as we
continue to study the works of Smith, Winthrop and Bradford but it also taught about moral
heroism and the steadfastness of faith in God over human autonomy. The documentation of their
enterprise, enduring hardships and capabilities are tools to restore our own faith in the spiritual
truth and the allowance of religious freedom and autonomy, to decide with free will without the
dictation to worship those in a position of power.
References
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Halsall, P. (1998, July). William Bradford: from History of Plymouth Plantation, c. 1650.
Internet history sourcebooks: Modern history.
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1650bradford.asp
Morse, J. M. (1935, May). JSTOR. The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 1, No. 2.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2191722
Vile, J. R. (2009). John Winthrop. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1232/john-
winthrop
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