Excerpt from John Smith, A Description of New England, 1616
“My purpose in writing this is not to persuade children to leave their parents; men to
leave their wives; or, servants to leave their masters. People should be willing to come to this
land. Each parish church or village, in the city or countryside, should send thirteen or fourteen
year old orphan children and young married people to New England. Here they can work and
make out very well provided that there are leaders to govern them. There should also be houses
for them and means to defend them. They should be assigned to work as servants for carpenters,
brick masons, fishermen, and other skilled men so that they will learn a trade. These skilled
masters can each take ten, twelve, or twenty young people to work for them and in this way they
will quickly grow rich. The workers will also learn a trade and will, in time, also grow rich. This
will help the King, England, the masters, and also the servants.
Everyone will benefit.”
Questions
1. Why would John Smith want “fatherless children” and young married couples to settle in
America?
2. How would they be helping King and country by leaving England for America?
3. What can people expect when they come to America?
4. Do you think that John Smith was exaggerating the benefits or was he being truthful? How do
you know?
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Excerpt from John Cotton, “God’s Promise to His Plantation,” 1630
[Note: Before leaving England in 1630, John Winthrop and other Puritans attended church
services and heard a sermon preached by Rev. John Cotton. In 1633 Cotton left England and
settled in Boston.]
God places a people in this or that country. God either lets men discover a country
themselves or, upon hearing that land has been discovered by others, God sends them to it. The
settlers can plainly see the influence of God leading them from one country to another. God
makes room for a people to live there when he drives those who live there away by a just war.
Or, God permits his people to settle on land that is vacant even though it is in an inhabited
country. Where there is vacant land, there is liberty for the people who honor God to come and
live there even though they neither buy it nor get permission to settle there.
Questions
1. If you were a Puritan getting ready to settle in New England how would you react to Rev.
Cotton’s sermon?
2. What rights do you have from God to settle this new land?
3. How must you deal with the native people of North America?
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Excerpt from John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630
[Note: John Winthrop left England in 1630 with a group of Puritan settlers bound for
New England. After arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, and before leaving the
ship, Winthrop wrote a statement describing the ideals on which this new Puritan
colony should be based.]
“When God gives a special commission He looks to have it strictly observed in every
article; When He gave Saul a commission to destroy Amaleck, He indented with him upon
certain articles, and because he failed in one of the least, and that upon a fair pretense, it lost him
the kingdom, which should have been his reward, if he had observed his commission.
Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for
this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own
articles. We have professed to enterprise these and those accounts, upon these and those ends.
We have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us,
and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our
commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall
neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and,
dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal
intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in
wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of
such a covenant.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow
the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we
must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly
affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’
necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience
and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together,
mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and
community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in
the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people,
and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His
wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find
that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our
enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations,
"may the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city
upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in
this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall
be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak
evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of
God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be
consumed out of the good land whither we are going.
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And to shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the
Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deut. 30. "Beloved, there is now set before us life and death,
good and evil," in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one
another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and
the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our
God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so
that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits,
and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land
whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.
Therefore let us choose life,
that we and our seed may live,
by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,
for He is our life and our prosperity.
Questions
1. According to John Winthrop, what rules must settlers in this new colony follow?
2. How are settlers to show their Christian charity?
3. Why does he say that this colony is like “a city upon a hill?” How were Puritans to live?
4. Why was the colony to be an example for others to follow?
5. What will happen if settlers do not honor and serve God?
6. What can you learn about Puritan beliefs from Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity?”
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Reader’s Theater: Motives for Exploration and Colonization
Act I characters
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
Sir Edward* (Member of the Royal Court)
Martin Frobisher
Stockholder 1*
Stockholder 2*
Stockholder 3*
Act II characters
Richard Hakluyt the Elder
Richard Hakluyt the Younger
Sir Walter Raleigh
*fictitious characters
ACT I
Scene 1: London, 1576. Sir Humphrey Gilbert is speaking to Sir Edward, a member of the
British Court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Gilbert: I know that we can find a passage through North America that will bring great
wealth to England and our beloved queen.
Edward: What makes you so sure? The Spanish and French have failed to find a passageway.
Gilbert: I have studied maps of the continent and there are great rivers that cut across the
continent. Just think of the wealth we will have with a short and safe route to China.
Edward: But, Sir Gilbert, no one has been able to find a passage either from the northern or
southern seas.
Gilbert: We, the English, are far better seamen than the French or Spanish. With our skill we
will find that passage way. I just need our great queen to give me her support and I can raise the
funds for a voyage.
Edward: You must know that Martin Frobisher has organized a stock company to pay for a
voyage of discovery.
Gilbert: Yes, he is a good sailor and I’m sure that he will prove that I am right. There is a
passage through the continent.
Scene 2: London, 1577, Martin Frobisher has just returned from North America and is reporting
to the stock company that paid for his voyage.
Frobisher: We sailed by the coast of Greenland and found a strait that I named for myself.
Frobisher Strait leads to an outlet that will prove to be the long searched for Northwest Passage. I
sent some of my crew to explore the area and they reported seeing many deer, wild birds, bears,
rabbits, and foxes. The land is fertile and will provide all the food that we should ever need.
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Stockholder 1: Martin, this is a great discovery! What do you need to get ready for another
voyage?
Frobisher: I will need ships, more men, and mining equipment. We believe there is gold in the
mountains around Frobisher Strait. If you can provide the money we need for one or two more
voyages we will return with our ships loaded with gold.
Stockholder 2: We will raise all the money you need for two more voyages. Take some men
experienced in mining with you. Make all preparations to sail again as soon as possible.
Scene 3: London, 1580, Stockholder’s Meeting two years after Frobisher’s third voyage. For
two years the rocks that Frobisher brought back have been examined and proved to be
completely worthless.
Stockholder 1: What are we to do with the more than 200 tons of worthless rock that Frobisher
brought back from America?
Stockholder 2: We gave him all the money he asked for and what do we have in return? Tons of
rocks and no passage way to China! We will have to declare bankruptcy.
Stockholder 3: How could we have been fooled? The land he described as being so rich is
actually worthless. We let our desire to make great profits blind us, we should have known
better.
Stockholder 1: We all know how much gold the Spanish are mining in their colonies. It was
only logical for us to believe Frobisher. How did we know that all these sparkling rocks that he
brought home were nothing other than “fool’s gold?”
Stockholder 3: I understand that Martin is doing better now that he has decided to spend his
time raiding Spanish ships. Maybe our stock company should have just bought a fleet of pirate
ships to steal Spanish gold!
Stockholder 2: Oh, if we had only known.
ACT II
Scene 1: London, 1580. A scene in the home of Richard Hakluyt the elder. He is talking to his
younger cousin also named Richard Hakluyt.
Hakluyt: I think England should begin to set up colonies in this new land. We can not let
Spain take possession of all this land.
Richard: Of course you are right. But what can we do? It seems like Queen Elizabeth is too
distracted by other problems than to encourage settlement of North America.
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Hakluyt: There are but three goals of colonization. First, and most important, we must establish
colonies in order to convert the pagans who live there. Second, we need to develop trade. To
meet these two important goals, we must also conquer the land.
Richard: But, how can we convince our government to act?
Hakluyt: One of the things we should do is to point out all the crime in London that is caused by
so many poor people and orphan children with no way of supporting themselves. If we would set
up colonies in America these poor people could be sent there to farm and learn to provide for
themselves.
Richard: That would help solve the problem of so many poor beggars in London. Our prisons
are filled with criminals. Wouldn’t it be better if we sent them to farm in America rather than
execute them for stealing to keep alive?
Hakluyt: Richard, you are well educated and know the power of the pen. Write about the
importance of establishing settlements in America and how it will help solve the problem of
crime in London. Explain to anyone willing to read how important it is that we begin to set up
colonies.
Richard: Yes, but remember Frobisher’s voyages. Who will put up the money needed to set up
colonies after his failure?
Hakluyt: The stockholders who put up money for Frobisher were misguided. We need to make
sure that people recognize the three goals I have stated. And always remind people how
important it is to solve the crime problem caused by poor beggars in London and our other large
cities.
Richard: Walter Raleigh, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, is a friend of mine. Maybe he can help
win approval from the queen to set up colonies in America.
Hakluyt Richard, why not write a pamphlet explaining how important it is to colonize and
present it to your friend Raleigh.
Scene 2: 1584, Home of Richard Hakluyt the Younger. The younger Hakluyt is seated at his
desk. Walter Raleigh is standing looking over his shoulder as Hakluyt finishes writing.
Richard: Walter, it is finally finished. Will you give copies of this to our beloved queen and to
important members of the Court?
Raleigh: Of course, Richard. You have done a great service to our country. I am sure that Queen
Elizabeth will be very impressed with this book that explains how important it is for us to
compete with Spain in the Americas. You have explained better than anyone how important
colonies will be for England. Your cousin should be very proud of you as you have written for
all to understand what he has been saying for years.
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Richard: If only the queen will agree. I regret that your half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert was
lost at sea last year on his return from his second voyage to find the Northwest Passage. I fear
that this great loss will cause Queen Elizabeth to …
Raleigh: Don’t be concerned, the Queen has already told me that I could continue my brother’s
work.
Richard: I know that you are planning a voyage soon and I wish you luck.
Raleigh: Richard, I don’t think you realize how important you are in this effort. You are more
important in this task than any ship captain. Continue to write about the richness of America and
we will succeed in becoming a great and wealthy country.
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Richard Hakluyt to Sir Walter Raleigh, 1584
[Note: Richard Hakluyt the Younger, a Protestant minister, published several books to
encourage the establishment of English colonies in America. He collected different eyewitness
accounts of explorations to America for his book, Voyages to the New World. The book became
so popular that it has been said that no English ship traveled to America in the 1600s without a
copy of Hakluyt’s Voyages. The following report from Voyages tells of the riches to be had in
America and the friendly people who lived there (in and around Roanoke).]
“The Indians entertained us with love and kindness. They gave us many gifts which is
their custom. We found the people to be most gentle, loving, and faithful. They were not sneaky
or in any way disloyal to us. The land is rich and produces an abundance of crops without any
work like the Garden of Eden. The people are only interested in defending themselves from the
cold during their short winter and to feed themselves. . .”
_____________________________________________________________________
Richard Hakluyt, “A Discourse on Western Planting,” 1584
“All the commodities of all our old decayed and dangerous trades in all Europe, Africa,
and Asia . . .may in short space [count] for little or nothing [compared with]...that part of
America which lieth between 30 and 60 degrees of northerly latitude, if by our slackness we
suffer not the French or others to prevent us. . . .
For all the statutes that hitherto can be devised, and the sharp execution of the same in
punishing idle and lazy persons, for want of sufficient occasion of honest employments, cannot
deliver our commonwealth from multitudes of loiterers and idle vagabonds. Truth it is that
through our long peace and seldom sickness (two singular blessings of Almighty God) we are
grown more populous than ever heretofore; so that now there are...so many, that they can hardly
live one by another, nay rather they are ready to eat up one another; yea many thousands of idle
persons are within this realm, which having no way to be set on work, be either mutinous and
seek alteration in the state, or at least very burdensome to the commonwealth and often fall to
pilfering and thieving and other lewdness, whereby all the prisons of the land are daily pestered
and stuffed full of them, where either they pitifully pine away or else at length are miserably
hanged, even 20 at a clap out of some jail. Whereas if this voyage [to the New World] were put
in execution, these petty thieves might be condemned for certain years in the western parts,
especially in Newfoundland, in sawing and felling of timber and masts of ships, and deal boards;
in burning of the firs and pine trees to make pitch, tar, rosin, and soap ashes; in beating and
working of hemp for cordage; and, in the more southern parts, in setting them to work in mines
of gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron; in dragging for pearls and coral; in planting of sugar canes,
as the Portingales [Portuguese] have done in Madeira; in maintenance and increasing of silk
worms for silk, and in dressing the same; in gathering of cotton whereof there is plenty; in tilling
of the soil there for grain; in dressing of vines whereof there is great abundance for wine; olives,
whereof the soil is capable, for oil; trees for oranges, lemons, almonds, figs, and other fruits, all
which are found to grow there already;...in building of forts, towns, churches; in powdering and
barrelling of fish, fowls, and flesh, which will be notable provision for sea and land; in drying,
sorting, and packing of features, where of may be had there marvelous great quantity. . . .
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In sum, this enterprise will minister matter for all sorts and states of men to work upon;
namely, all several kinds of artificers, husbandmen, seamen, merchants, soldiers, captains,
physicians, lawyers, divines, cosmographers, hydrographers, astronomers, historiographers; yea,
old folks, lame persons, women, and young children, by many means...shall be kept from
idleness, and be made able by their own honest and easy labour to find themselves without
surcharging others.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Ralph Lane to Richard Hakluyt, 1585
[Note: The following is from a letter from Ralph Lane of the Roanoke colony to Richard Hakluyt.
The letter was written in September 1585 shortly after the colony was first settled.]
“…it is the best and most pleasing territory of the world; for the continent is so large that
it is of unknown greatness. It is very well populated and has towns. The climate so good that not
one person became sick since we landed here. To conclude, if Virginia only had horses and a
reasonable supply of cattle, and was settled by the English there would be no country in the
Christian world that could compare to it.”
Questions
1. If you were aware of these reports from the exploration of Virginia, would you be willing to
settle there? Why or why not?
2. How fertile is the land? Could you grow enough food to feed people who would settle there?
3. What do the reports tell about the Indians who live in the area?
4. Could you depend on the Indians for help if you settled at Roanoke?
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NOVA BRITANNIA
Offering Most Excellent fruites by Planting in Virginia.
Exciting all such as be well affected to further the fame.
[Note: In 1609 the Virginia Company published a pamphlet to attract people to invest
money in the new colony. The pamphlet told of a land of riches; a land that would make money
for people who bought stock in the Virginia Company. It also encouraged adventurers to travel
to Virginia where they would find wealth.]
The country is large and great. As yet there is no exact discovery of all the land that is
within the country. . . . The air and climate are most agreeable and healthy. The people who live
here are uncivilized. They live in groups like herds of deer in a forest. . . . They are usually very
loving and gentle people. They are helpful to us and show great kindness. This land provides for
everything we need to live. It has a great deal of fish, unlimited deer and wild rabbits and many
fruits and edible roots.
There are valleys and plains with pure water springs; there are hills and mountains where
there is certain to be hidden treasure that has never before been found. The land is full of
minerals, plenty of woods; the soil is so rich that vines with fruit grow naturally on trees and
shrubs. The land is also rich with many important materials. It has great supplies of resin,
turpentine, pitch, and tar that are profitable. The valuable roots of sassafras trees are used to cure
illness. There are mulberry trees with silkworms and many animal skins, rich furs, and plenty of
fish. The land has many sweet woods and forests of timber for shipbuilding. There are also
plants that produce very expensive dyes. Just think of it. If this land that is not cultivated is so
rich, what may we expect when our people skilled at farming cultivate this rich land? It will
provide wealth for us beyond belief.
Questions
1. How does the Virginia Company try to get people to invest in the new colony?
2. What goods from the colony could be sold in England for great profits?
3. What can settlers expect to find in the colony of Virginia?
4. What dangers will they face in Virginia from the Indians who live there?
5. How difficult will it be to make a living?
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“The Town of Pomeiooc”, Engraving by Theodor De Bry
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“Their manner of careynge ther Children and a tyere of the cheiffe Ladyes of the
towne of Dasamonquepeuc”
Engraving by Theodor De Bry
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“Their manner of prainge vvith Ratels abowt te fyer”
Engraving by Theodor De Bry
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“A weroan or great Lorde of Virginia”
Engraving by Theodor De Bry
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