Teaching with Primary Sources
A historical
investigation question
requires students to
interpret a lesson’s
historical content in
order to make their
own claims.
Rationale
The 1606 expedition and ensuing settlement at Jamestown was the first
permanent English colonial settlement in the New World. The initial settlers
struggled to survive due to insufficient preparations and leadership, a poor
location, unskilled expedition members, and conflicts with the native peoples
for natural resources. These conflicts resulted in attacks on the colonial
settlement by the native peoples and ultimately led to armed conflicts and
usurpation of native lands for settlements, hunting, farming, and tobacco
cultivation.
Historical Investigation Questions
QUESTION ONE
QUESTION TWO
Why did Europeans settlers colonize the region
that became Jamestown and what happened as
a result of their settlement?
How did the settlement of Jamestown affect the
existing native peoples?
History-Social Science Standards for CA Public Schools, K-12
5.3 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between the
Indian nations and the new settlers.
1. Describe the competition among the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Indian nations for control of North
America.
2. Describe the cooperation that existed between the colonists and Indians during the 1600s and 1700s (e.g.,
in agriculture, the fur trade, military alliances, treaties, cultural interchanges).
5.4 Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.
1. Understand the influence of location and physical setting on the founding of the original 13 colonies, and
identify on a map the locations of the colonies and of the American Indian nations already inhabiting these
areas.
2. Identify the major individuals and groups responsible for the founding of the various colonies and the
reasons for their founding (e.g., John Smith, Virginia; Roger Williams, Rhode Island; William Penn,
Pennsylvania; Lord Baltimore, Maryland; William Bradford, Plymouth; John Winthrop, Massachusetts).
Here’s a link to the Standards: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
Secondary Source
From England to Asia
At the dawn of the seventeenth century in Europe, explorers and their patrons focused on the centuries-old
goal of finding a Northwest Passage from Europe to East Asia. Though it was already well known that there was
a significant landmass—the Americas—in the Atlantic Ocean, sailors and explorers were often charged with
finding water routes around it. Such was the case as the year 1606 drew to a close. The English monarch King
James I granted a charter to a private company known as the Virginia Company to build a settlement in the
Chesapeake Bay area of North America. As in other attempts at settlement, two of the primary goals were to
find gold and to find a water route to Asia. The original Jamestown was also intended to be strategically
located far enough from the James River that it would not be in the firing range of ships belonging to hostile
powers such as Spain.
A City on the Swamp
On December 20, 1606, around 100 members of the Virginia Company sailed across the Atlantic. They reached
the Chesapeake Bay in April 1607, and they established a settlement on an island up the James River on May
14, naming it “James Towne” after the current monarch, James I, as was the habit of English settlement. Initial
hostility between the colonists and a confederation of native groups led by Chief Powhatan led the settlers to
establish forts. Nonetheless, the two groups often engaged in trade, which provided a source of food for
Jamestown when settlers were only beginning to clear land for agriculture.
A lack of basic hygiene combined with food shortages and cold weather to cause a number of deaths. By the
autumn of 1607, it was apparent that colonists had not worked enough to ensure a stable food supply. Many of
those who came with the Virginia Company were aristocrats who refused to demean themselves with
agricultural labor. Moreover, Jamestown was in a swampy location, which gave rise to epidemics and disease.
Chief Powhatan supplied the English with food, which likely prevented the settlement from collapsing
altogether, but only about 40% of the settlers had survived the harsh winter when additional colonists arrived at
the beginning of 1608. John Smith was among the colonists who secured food, and thus the colony, through
trade and exploration. During 1607, he devoted his energies to repelling attacks and also explored and
mapped the area. In December, he was captured and taken to Chief Powhatan. The chief released him on
friendly terms after four weeks. Smith later claimed that this was by the efforts of Powhatan’s daughter,
Pocahontas, but there is no evidence to support the claim.
Smith, elected president of the local council in September 1608, imposed a more rigid structure. One of the
main rules under his regime was "He who does not work, will not eat." Laziness, particularly among well-heeled
colonists, put the settlement in such a precarious position that Smith believed they must be compelled to work
to increase the food supply. Though the settlement endured the winter and well into 1609, some of Smith’s
contemporaries chafed at his strict leadership. Smith left Jamestown in October 1609 to seek medical treatment
in London after receiving a gunpowder injury. He never returned to Jamestown, and the settlement
experienced a winter known as the “starving time” during which only a few dozen colonists survived. Many of
the survivors abandoned Jamestown.
Jamestown Reemerges
The arrival of Lord De La Warr with supplies and new colonists revived Jamestown after its near abandonment in
June 1610. De La Warr’s ships intercepted many fleeing settlers, a number of whom decided to remain in
Jamestown under his governorship. The settlement experienced a much more stable period in the years after
De La Warr’s arrival, largely from the efforts of John Rolfe, who arrived with the new settlers in 1610. Rolfe is
credited as a pioneer in Virginia’s tobacco industry, successfully introducing and cultivating tobacco, which
became a major export to England. He also ushered in a period of peace between settlers and natives when
he married Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, in 1614. In 1619, two major events foreshadowed later
developments in American history. On July 30, a representative body called the House of Burgesses convened
in response to an order by the Virginia Company to establish a government for the entire colony, making it the
first of its kind in North America. That same year, a Dutch trader introduced what may have been the first
African slaves to the continent.
Though the settlement to this point had been essentially a business venture administered by the equivalent of a
private corporation, the 1620s brought major changes to the colony. The native people became increasingly
frustrated with the encroachment of settlers on what they considered to be their lands. In 1622, attacks made
on various colonial plantations left 300 dead. Jamestown was spared, but this episode discredited the
administration of the Virginia Company. Jamestown was in many ways a losing business venture. In 1624, James
Secondary Source (cont.)
I revoked the Company’s charter and designated Virginia as a royal colony.
The town thrived for several decades in the seventeenth century, but declined in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, however, archaeologists uncovered several of the settlement’s
buildings, and today visitors can view many of the homes and belongings of the people who first brought
Jamestown into being.
Library of Congress Teacher Guide Primary Source Set,
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/jamestown/pdf/overview.pdf
Primary Sources
Smith, John. Virginia. Map. [London: 1624.] From Library of Congress, Map
Collections. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3880.ct000377
1
Bry, Theodor de. “[The Town of Pomeiock.]” Print. [1590.] From Library of Congress
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. http://loc.gov/pictures/item/2001696973/
2
Bry, Theodor de. “[Village of Secotan.]” Print. [1590.] From Library of Congress Prints
& Photographs Online Catalog. http://loc.gov/pictures/item/2001695723/
3
"Charter for the Virginia Company of London, 1606." 1606. From the Library of
Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 8. Virginia Records Manuscripts. 16061737. Page 4. http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=mtj8&fileName=mtj8page062.db&recNum=3
4
Excerpt:
“We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance
of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the
Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in
Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in
time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled
and quiet Government: DO, by these our Letters Patents, graciously accept of, and agree
to, their humble and well-intended Desires;
“And do therefore, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, GRANT and agree, that the said Sir
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hackluit, and Edward-Maria Wingfield,
Adventurers of and for our City of London, and all such others, as are, or shall be, joined
unto them of that Colony, shall be called the first Colony; And they shall and may begin
their said first Plantation and Habitation, at any Place upon the said Coast of Virginia or
America, where they shall think fit and convenient, between the said four and thirty and
one and forty Degrees of the said Latitude; And that they shall have all the Lands, Woods,
Soil, Grounds, Havens, Ports, Rivers, Mines, Minerals, Marshes, Waters, Fishing, Commodities,
and Hereditaments…And shall and may inhabit and remain there; and shall and may also
build and fortify within any the same, for their better Safeguard and Defence, according to
their best Discretion, and the Discretion of the Council of that Colony… And moreover, we
do GRANT and agree…the said several Colonies, shall and lawfully may…give and take
Order, to dig, mine, and search for all Manner of Mines of Gold, Silver, and Copper…”
(http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/organic/1606-fcv.htm).
The generall historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles, together with The
5
true travels, adventures and observations, and A sea grammar - Volume 1, Chapter
I. http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/lhbcb:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbcb0262adiv11)) [by John Smith, 1624]
Excerpt:
“Now falleth every man to worke, the Councell contrive the Fort, the rest cut downe trees
to make place to pitch their Tents; some provide clapbord to relade the ships, some make
gardens, some nets, &c. The Salvages often visited us kindly. The Presidents overweening
jealousie would admit no exercise at armes, or fortification, but the boughs of trees cast
together in the forme of a halfe moone by the extraordinary paines and diligence of
Captaine Kendall, Newport, Smith, and twentie others, were sent to discover the head of
the river: by divers small habitations they passed, in six dayes they arrived at a Towne called
Powhatan, consisting of some twelve houses, pleasantly seated on a hill; before it three
fertile Isles, about it many of their cornefields, the place is very pleasant, and strong by
nature, of this place the Prince is called Powhatan, and his people Powhatans, to this place
the river is navigable: but higher within a myle, by reason of the Rockes and Isles, there is
not passage for a small Boat, this they call the Falles, the people in all parts kindly intreated
them, till being returned within twentie myles of James towne, they gave just cause of
jealousie, but had God not blessed the discoverers otherwise then those at the Fort, there
had then beene an end of that plantation; for at the Fort, where they arrived the next day,
they found 17 men hurt, and a boy slaine by the Salvages, and had it not chanced a
crosse barre shot from the Ships strooke down a bough from a tree amongst them, that
caused them to retire, our men had all beene slaine, being securely all at worke, and their
armes in dry fats [casks for stacking guns].”
After the ships’ arrival in Virginia, a Council of leaders and a president were appointed. The
settlers began working to build a fort, repair the ships, and plant gardens. They were visited
often by peaceful Native Americans. A group, including Smith, left to explore the area and
encountered the peaceful Powhatan tribe. Upon their return to the new fort, they found
that it had been attacked by a group of Native Americans, who succeeded in injuring 17
men and killing a boy.
The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay
6
Region, ca. 1600-1925, The generall historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer
Isles, together with The true travels, adventures and observations, and A sea grammar /
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/lhbcb:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbcb0262adiv23
)) [John Smith, 1624].
LOC Introduction: One variety of tobacco was native to Virginia, but it was quite bitter and
inferior to the variety grown in the West Indies. In 1612, John Rolf introduced the latter into
Virginia; two years later he sent four hogsheads (about 2600 pounds) to England. This crop
appeared to be the staple product the colonists had been searching for. King James I,
concerned about the health of his subjects, opposed growing and selling tobacco. Even
so, the market for tobacco in England continued to expand, and, by 1617, Virginia shipped
around 20,000 pounds of tobacco to England.
Excerpt:
In James towne he [Captain Samuel Argall] found but five or six houses, the Church downe,
the Palizado's broken, the Bridge in pieces, the Well of fresh water spoiled; the Store-house
they used for the Church, the market-place, and streets, and all other spare places planted
with Tobacco, the Salvages as frequent in their houses as themselves, whereby they were
become expert in our armes, and had a great many in their custodie and possession, the
Colonie dispersed all about, planting Tobacco…had we but Carpenters to build and make
Carts and Ploughs, and skilfull men that know how to use them, and traine up our cattell to
draw them, which though we indevour to effect, yet our want of experience brings but little
to perfection but planting Tobaco, and yet of that many are so covetous to have much,
they make little good; besides there are so many sofisticating Tobaco-mungers in England,
were it never so bad, they would sell it for Verinas, and the trash that remaineth should be
Virginia, such devilish bad mindes we know some of our owne Country-men doe beare, not
onely to the businesse, but also to our mother England her selfe; could they or durst they as
freely defame her.
Captain Argall and John Rolf arrived in Jamestown in 1617 and discovered that the settlers
were neglecting the maintenance of the settlement in order to grow tobacco. They argue,
against those in England who were not in support of the settlement, that the land was rich
and productive for farming if only the settlers were more skilled farmers and craftsmen. The
inexperienced laborers found planting tobacco much easier, but it was not yet profitable
as tobacco sellers in England considered it low grade.
Passenger list for a ship bound for Jamestown. http://www.packratpro.com/ships/jamestown.htm
7
December 20, 1606, 150 passengers left Blackwall, London, England in three London
(Virginia) Company ships, Susan Constant with Master Christopher Newport and 71
passengers, Godspeed with Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold and 52 passengers and the
Discovery under Capt. John Ratcliffe, carrying 21 persons. They headed for the New World
and in search of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (John White's 1587 trip with 150 passengers
landing at Hatorask on July 22.) After 6 weeks, the ships landed in Cape Henry, Virginia. 105
survivors established the town of Jamestown.
April 30, 1607: The ships arrive at Cape Comfort, a vanguard boat stopped at Kecoughtan
where the natives welcomed the English
The California History-Social Science Project
University of California, Davis
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Davis, CA 95616
Office: (530) 752-0572
Website: http://csmp.ucop.edu/chssp