Love and Hate in Jamestown  Free Essay Example

John Smith was born in 1850 to a simple farm family. They were close to the bottom of the social scale, barely above the peasants. Smith was shorter than average, but he was stocky and tough. The young John Smith attended grammar school, but what what he really wanted was an overseas adventure. By the age of thirteen, Smith was tired of daydreaming and attempted to run away from home. He had hoped to make it abroad, but his father, George Smith, stopped him.

At fifteen, John Smith became a merchant’s apprentice. In an unexpected turn of events, Smith’s father died two years later. With no one left to stand in his way, John Smith headed to the Continent to fight under Captain Duxbury. He helped the Netherlands in their war of independence against Spain.

When he returned to England, John Smith practiced horsemanship, memorized torchlight signals, and became an explosives expert. Now Smith was ready to continue his career as a soldier, using his newly-learned skills to help the Austrian forces in Hungary against the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

However, his life took an unfortunate turn when he was captured on the battlefield in Romania in 1602. Smith was sold into slavery, but soon killed his master and escaped.

Several years later, John Smith was accepted to join the Virginia Company of London’s venture to start a colony in North America for the purpose of extracting gold and other precious metals. On December 19 and 20, 1606, about 105 colonists and 39 crewmen boarded three small cargo ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery.

All three ships were extremely crowded with the passengers, tools, and provisions. The more privileged gentlemen had makeshift cabins, but the rest of the passengers (including John Smith) slept on straw mattresses or in hammocks. There were no women on board. The captain of the Susan Constant, Christopher Newport, was in charge of the mission until the ships reached Virginia. Each ship carried a box containing the Virginia Company’s instructions for the colonists and the names of the settlement’s leaders. The boxes were to be opened within 24 hours after arriving in Virginia.

After weather caused a lengthy delay in the English Channel, the ships finally set sail for the Canary Islands where they stopped to get fresh water. Smith was familiar with the area and offered several unwelcomed suggestions on how to proceed. One of the high-ranking gentlemen was offended by a commoner overstepping his bounds and had him arrested on trumped up charges. The ships continued westward and followed the trade winds to Virginia. The trip took four months. They anchored in the Chesapeake Bay and Newport took thirty gentlemen ashore to explore. That night they were attacked by five natives with bows and arrows. When the Virginia Company’s box was opened, John Smith’s name was listed along with six gentlemen who would serve as the colony’s council. The gentlemen elected to leave Smith a prisoner on the ship for the time being.

The colonists spent the first couple of weeks exploring along the James River looking for a place to settle. Edward-Maria Wingfield, the man who had insisted on Smith’s arrest, was elected president by the council. John Smith was not allowed to take to take his place on the council at this time, but he was released from captivity to assist in building the colony. The Virginia Company had instructed the colonists not to offend the natives, so Wingfield did not allow any fortifications to be built and he insisted that the guns should not be unpacked. Smith disagreed with this policy. Curious natives made several “friendly” visits to the colony, but they were armed with bows and arrows. While Newport and Smith explored the territory up the James River, they met several tribes and learned of the powerful Chief Powhatan that ruled the entire empire. On their way back to Jamestown their native guide suddenly left them, causing Smith to have an uneasy feeling. Smith and Newport hurried back to the colony and discovered there had been a surprise attack. Wingfield now agreed to the building of a fort, but minor attacks continued.

When Newport and his sailors left for England most of the workforce was gone. The gentlemen in the colony refused to do manual work. Food became scarce and many colonists died of disease and malnutrition. Smith accused President Wingfield of hoarding provisions for himself and his friends while the other colonists starved. Wingfield was replaced with John Ratcliff, but nearly half of the colonists had already died. The colonists expected the natives to attack them in this weakened state, but instead they began to bring them corn and other supplies to help the colony recover. Ratcliffe put Smith in charge of dealing with the natives. Smith knew the English needed to appear to be strong in order to bargain with the natives. He was able to trade copper pots, beads, and small trinkets for much-needed food and supplies. Smith took time to learn the native’s language and studied their customs and daily lives.

Once the colony had plenty of food, Smith set off to explore further inland. On this trip one of his men was captured, tortured, and killed. Smith himself was captured and taken from one village to another. He was finally taken to Chief Powhatan. It was at this meeting that Pocahontas first saw John Smith. When Powhatan decided to have Smith executed, she threw herself between him and the executioner, saving his life. Two days later Powhatan told Smith that they were now friends and he should go back to Jamestown. Smith was instructed to send two “great guns” and a grindstone back to Powhatan. Smith pretended to agree but he told Powhatan’s men to take two 3,000 pound cannons, which they had no way to carry. Pocahontas began to regular visits to Jamestown to visit Smith and play with the English boys there.

When Smith arrived back at the colony, he learned that about ten gentlemen were trying to take the Discovery and sail back to England. Smith stopped them by threatening to sink them with the cannon. These men planned to have Smith executed the next day, but Newport arrived on the ship, the John and Francis, and stopped them. He brought about 60 new colonists and fresh supplies, but one of them accidentally started a fire a few days later that burned most of the colony and the supplies in the storehouse. Once again, Smith had to trade with the natives for food. Powhatan also sent gifts of venison and bread for Smith and Newport. The great chief invited them to visit him, but wanted them to come unarmed. Smith did not agree to this. Powhatan took advantage of Newport’s desire to please him and convinced him to take about 8 gallons of corn for items for which Smith had expected to get about 63 gallons. Smith compensated by tricking Powhatan into trading nearly three hundred bushels of corn for some “rare” beads that he pretended he did not want to part with.

When they returned to Jamestown, Newport began working on his true mission. The gold flecks in the soil samples he had taken back to England on his first voyage had turned out to be “fool’s gold”. He was determined to prove that there really was gold to be found in Virginia. Smith disagreed, but President Ratcliffe and the other gentlemen joined the project with enthusiasm. They loaded the John and Francis with ore samples and, after staying three and a half months, Newport and his crew departed for England, taking Wingfield with him. This ore was also worthless, and gold never was found.

Before Newport departed, Powhatan had sent men with twenty turkeys and convinced him to trade for twenty swords. After Newport’s departure, Powhatan attempted the same trade with Smith. Smith refused to arm a potential enemy, so Powhatan began to send small parties to steal weapons and tools. The English captured several of the natives during these assaults and, when Powhatan asked for their return, Smith said they would be exchanged for the swords and tools which had been stolen. Instead, Powhatan took two colonists captive and offered to exchange them for the prisoners. Smith got permission from President Ratcliffe to take the offensive and raided several native villages, burning their houses and destroying their canoes. The colonists were returned unharmed.

Due to Ratcliffe’s selfish use of the colonist’s labor and supplies, they eventually decided to replace him with John Smith as their president. Smith continued to keep the natives in check with his strong approach in dealing with them. He worked to secure adequate supplies for the colony through trading with the natives, forcing the trades when necessary by threatening to burn their villages. Powhatan sent a message that asked Smith to send him some men to build him an English-style house, fifty swords, a grindstone, a rooster and hen, some guns, copper and beads in exchange for a ship-load of food. Suspecting a trap, Smith prepared the shipment, minus the guns and swords, and went to visit Powhatan. Pocahontas once again saved John Smith’s life by sneaking into his quarters that night to warn him that the men who brought their dinner were meant to kill them while they ate.

When Smith returned to Jamestown, he found that the food had been infested with rats brought over on the English ships, most of the tools and many weapons had been stolen by the natives, and the gentlemen were not doing anything productive. Smith decreed that anyone who would not work would not eat. In the next three months, the men built twenty house, dug a fresh-water well, and planted crops. Smith tried dividing the colonists up as he had seen the natives do when food supplies were low. He sent a third to live on oysters downriver, twenty to fish by the bay, and twenty were sent upriver. The rest were sent to live with friendly natives in exchange for copper. Under Smith’s leadership the colonists survived the food shortage. He wrote to the Virginia Company, urging them to send laborers and supplies.

The Virginia Company had applied for and received a new charter replacing the Virginia president and council with a governor. Smith would have been an excellent choice, but instead they chose a gentleman, Sir Thomas Gates. Smith was assigned to command a small garrison about thirty miles away. Ships brought new colonists and supplies, but the flagship carrying the new charter and governor had been separated from them in a hurricane and had not arrived in Virginia. Smith refused to step down before the end of his term in the absence of the new charter. He sent groups of colonists to establish new settlements, but one group started problems with the natives right away. Smith went to check on the men and tried to solve the issues by buying out the indians town, but the settlers refused to move into native dwellings. Smith was badly injured by an accidental spark landing in his powder keg on the trip back to Jamestown. He decided to return to England for treatment when the ships departed. Any natives who inquired about his absence were told that he was dead. This caused great sadness to Pocahontas when she heard it, and she did not visit the colony again.

Once John Smith was gone, Powhatan directed the natives to make war on the colony and to murder and plunder all they could. All of the settlements except the one at Point Comfort retreated to Jamestown. Without trade with the natives, supplies quickly ran out and the colonists were forced to eat their horses, cats and dogs. Finally they ate the rats and mice that infested the colony, the leather from their footwear, and a sort of porridge made from the starch they used to stiffen their collars. Only sixty of the five-hundred survived the winter. The ship carrying governor Gates had wrecked in Bermuda and the crew had to build a new ship to carry the new colonists to Jamestown. When they arrived, they found about sixty starving colonists and deteriorating colony. Lack of available food caused them to decide to take the survivors to be dispersed among the English fishing boats off Newfoundland which could take them all back to England. They did not get very far before they were overtaken by a boat with a message for Governor Gates from Thomas West, Lord De La Warr. Help was on the way and they were all ordered back to Jamestown. West’s ship carried enough supplies for a year and he ordered a cleanup of the colony. Their situation had improved dramatically, and the colony would never endure another season of starvation. Trade with the natives was never re-established, and relations became increasingly violent. Pocahontas was kidnapped and taught the ways of a Christian lady. The colonists attempted to trade her for all the weapons and tools that had been pilfered from the colony, but Powhatan refused. Pocahontas said her father loved her less than the guns and swords and decided to stay with the Englishmen. She fell in love with John Rolfe and both Powhatan and the current governor, Thomas Dale, agreed to let her marry him.

After their marriage Pocahontas and John Rolfe traveled to England. She was entertained with the high society ladies in England and attended many splendid events. She learned that John Smith was alive, and he visited her while she was in England. Pocahontas would have loved to stay, but her husband needed to get back to his tobacco crops in Virginia. She became ill and died on the trip home.

By 1621, there were over twelve hundred colonists settled in towns and on plantations along the James River. Upon Powhatan’s death three years prior, his brother Opechancanough had become the leader of his people. He tricked the colonists into believing they were peacefully coexisting, and then attacked suddenly on March 22, 1622. Natives were interacting with the colonists throughout the area as they did every day. Suddenly, they all violently attacked the settlers with their own tools and weapons. Nearly 400 English were killed. The English retaliated and raiding parties attacked the native towns, stealing their food and burning their homes. Opechancanough sent a message to Governor Wyatt asking for peace. Wyatt agreed, but planned to betray the natives. When the English party went to meet the Powhatans, they served the natives wine that had been poisoned.The chief survived, but about two hundred natives were killed.

Two years after the massacre of 1622, King James dissolved the Virginia Company and Virginia became a royal colony. Population by colonists continued to increase to 5,200 in 1634. The anniversary of the March 22, 1622 massacre had been declared a holiday for the colonists to abstain from work and celebrate their deliverance from the natives on that date. The war between the colonists and the natives had continued, but memories of the massacre had faded. On April 18, 1644, the natives mounted simultaneous attacks on several settlements once again. Between four and five hundred colonists were killed but, since the English population was so much larger, the impact was not as great. Within two years, the English captured Opechancanough and he was shot by a soldier who was guarding him.

Johns Smith tried several times to sail back to New England to start another colony, but he was never able to make it happen. He spent the rest of his life writing books about New England and his experiences in Virginia. Although John Smith never returned to America, he still saw the potential and used his writing to encourage others to settle in New England. He believed that poor men who were willing to work hard could elevate themselves in this new land. He envisioned a land of personal liberty, where men could pursue their own interest and that this could power a society to greatness.