How does Harriot characterize the Native Americans whom he encountered? Were they peaceful or warlike? Did the colonists have anything to fear from them? Basing your answers on White’s pictures, how would you answer these questions?

HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Topic 2

European and Native American Worlds Collide II: Focus on the First English Colonies

For this topic, in addition to the textbook reading, you have a couple of primary sources written in sixteenth-

and seventeenth-century English (Harriot’s Briefe and True Report and John Rolfe’s letter), which can be

difficult for the modern reader to understand. Be prepared to read the sources a couple of times before you

begin to get a handle on them.

Because these sources are tricky, I have written a number of brief introductions to go with the sources:

these appear in italics. These introductions are not part of the sources themselves! They are just my

explanatory introductions. You should not quote them. Any information contained in them should be put into

your own words in your focus-question answers.

You also have some visual primary sources  pictures drawn by John White and published in Harriot’s

Briefe and True Report, and a portrait of Pocahontas. When using visual sources be sure to discuss specific

features of the picture and try to figure out what perspectives or biases may have influenced how the picture

was drawn. (Remember: visual sources, just like written sources, have biases: see the Tips for Doing the

Reading and Writing.)

Also remember:

 Choose one of the following focus questions to answer. Your answer should be least 300 words long.

 Give the number of the question you are answering in the subject-line of your post.

 Choose a question that few or no other students have answered. If you answer a question that several

other students have already answered you may find it difficult to shed new light on the question in your

own answer, making it difficult for you to earn the full 20 points. And remember: if all of the focus

questions are answered at least once by the Sunday 10 PM deadline, everyone who submitted an answer

gets a point of extra credit!

 Graded posts should contain dates. Note that 16 th

century = the 1500s; 17 th

century = the 1600s.

Key Terms (Discuss relevant key terms into your post.) Roanoke

Sir Walter Raleigh

Thomas Harriot and John White

forest efficiency

Protestant Reformation

Huguenots

defeat of the Spanish armada (1588)

Popé and the Pueblo Revolt (1680)

Juan de Oñate

New France

New Netherland

frontier of inclusion

frontier of exclusion

the Chesapeake

Virginia Company

Jamestown (est. 1607)

Powhatan Confederacy

John Rolfe

Pocahontas

headright grants

Opechancanough

proprietary colony

indentured servitude

HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Focus Questions

Tying the Readings Together (Clearly draw on Out of Many and one or more of the assigned

primary sources for this topic.)

1. How were the first attempts of the English to colonize the Americas similar to and different from

the early Spanish colonies? (Draw on both Out of Many [Chapters 1‒3] and your sources for this

topic.)

2. Why did Harriot write A Briefe and True Report? (Hint: think about some of the following

questions. Why, according to Harriot, did the first colony of Roanoke fail? What was going on

in the Atlantic world in the late 1580s, when Harriot was writing this book? According to

Harriot, what types of commodities were to be found in Virginia and why might these

commodities be profitable to the English?)

3. John Rolfe worried what Sir Thomas Dale would think about Rolfe’s interest in Pocahontas but

Dale fully supported it. What different perspective on the match did Dale’s leadership role in the

colony give him? (Draw on Out of Many, as well as the sources on Pocahontas and John Rolfe.)

4. Supposing that Pocahontas did influence how she was depicted in the sketch by Simon Van de

Passe, what messages do you think she was trying to convey? Discuss specific aspects of the

portrait and what you know about the Chesapeake during Pocahontas’ lifetime to support your

argument.

Out of Many, Ch. 2 (p. 32 to end) and Ch. 3 (up to p. 46): see the “tying the readings together”

questions, above.

Pocahontas and John Rolfe

5. Why did John Rolfe want to marry Pocahontas? What concerns did he have about marrying her?

What concerns did Rolfe think others might have about his wanting to marry Pocahontas?

Excerpt from Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia

6. How credible are Harriot and White as sources for what life would be like for English colonists

who settled in Roanoke? How credible is the information they provide about the Native

Americans who lived in the area around Roanoke? Discuss specific aspects of the Briefe and

True Report to support your argument.

7. How does Harriot characterize the Native Americans whom he encountered? Were they

peaceful or warlike? Did the colonists have anything to fear from them? Basing your answers

on White’s pictures, how would you answer these questions?