Displacement of Native Americans
Throughout the span of this course, we have used “The Powhatans and the English in the
Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake” and American Yawp, to study the relationship between the
Native Americans and the English and how it has changed throughout the years. With this clash
of cultures came the displacement of the Native Americans, as the English spread throughout the
New World. These three major contributions which led to the Native Americans’ displacement
were agriculture, trade, and disease, and these are all part of environmental history.
During the late 1400s, the Europeans involved themselves in a demanding exploration of
the New World, the Americas. They were curious about what they could find, as well as how
they would be able to monetize from it. Soon enough, the English figured out that the land they
were on was very fertile and had the perfect climate to grow crops. Colonist John Rolfe brought
tobacco to Jamestown in 1610. This item became the first major crop of the English Atlantic
trade. As stated by Thomas Hariot, “For the howses are Scattered heer and ther, and they haue
gardein expressed by the letter E. wherin growth Tobacco…” (1.2 Artistic Depiction of a Native
Village South of the Chesapeake Bay). Here Thomas Hariot was depicting an image of John
White, “The Native American Village of Secota,” and you see how at a small scale the
environmental history of agriculture, caused the Native Americans to build their homes and
displace themselves in order to grow tobacco. This led to a much greater displacement for the
Native Americans in the future, as other people noticed the fertility of the soil such as Captain
Christopher Newport, who stated, “The soyle is more fertill than can be well exprest…” (1.3
Captain Christopher Newport’s Description of Virginia (1607)). This created a race to grow
crops in the New World, which in turn created large plantations, moving the Native Americans
westward.
With this discovery of fertile land and its impact on agriculture, now the only thing left
for the English to monetize this was finding trade routes. This required finding places near water
sources in order to build ports that would open trade to Europe from the New World. One of
these places happened to be Virginia, where Native Americans resided. A major body of water
that helped the English with trade was the James River. As stated by Captain Christopher
Newport, “The mayne river abounds w’th sturgeon very large and excellent good; having also at
the mouth of every brook…” (1.3 Captain Christopher Newport’s Description of Virginia
(1607)). Here Captain Christopher Newport is explaining how James River serves as the entrance
to a network of rivers that lead out of Virginia. This will later serve as one of the biggest trade
routes which will push the Native Americans away and displace them deeper into the Americas.
This makes it a part of environmental history, as the English picked trade advantageous spots
that had rivers so that they could monetize from the new crops they were growing in the New
World.
With the huge growth of agriculture in the Americas due to sugar cane, tobacco, and
cotton, the English were spreading fast. This event introduced diseases that the English had for a
while due to them living near or with animals. The English brought over diseases such as
smallpox, influenza, and tuberculosis to the Americas. The victims of their illnesses were
millions of Native Americans who had never been exposed to these diseases, which killed a great
deal of them. In North and South America, more than half the native population would die. As
stated in American Yawp Chapter 1, “Though ravaged by disease and warfare, Native Americans
forged middle grounds, resisted with violence, accommodated and adapted to the challenges of
colonialism, and continued to shape the patterns of life throughout the New World for hundreds
of years.” Here you can see how so much death among the Native Americans displaced them
even further as their numbers got smaller. In another quote from American Yawp Chapter 1, it is
even stated that “90 percent of the population of the Americas perished within the first century
and a half of European contact.” The spread of these diseases can be a part of environmental
history, as the animals, the English brought carried diseases that helped spread the epidemic.
Environmental history has taught us how interaction with the environment plays an
important role in how history places out. Examples of environmental history are agriculture,
trade, and diseases. These three formed the basis of world history from the 16th century on.
These subjects had major impacts on diverse regions, population structures, and the overall
displacement of Native Americans. This is made even more clear by the sources from “The
Powhatans and the English in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake” and American Yawp. In
conclusion, agriculture, trade, and disease led to the displacement of the Native Americans.