Jamestown and Plymouth Rock

Our Origins

• The first English settlers to survive landed in Virginia in 1607.

• The party consisted of 105 people—all males.

• Plymouth Rock saw its first English settlers in November 1619.

• The party was composed of 102 people—men, women, and children.

Bibliography

• www.mayflowerhistory.com

• www.pilgrimhall.org

• www.apva.org

Bibliography

• Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About The Pilgrims.• Perry Miller, The New England Mind• Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness• Edmund Morgan, Puritan Dilemma and Visible Saints• Summer Powell, Puritan Village• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation• Gary Schmidt, William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful

Pilgrim.• William Kelso, Jamestown: The Buried Truth• James Axtell, The Rise and Fall of the Powhatan Empire in

Virginia.

• Jamestown and Plymouth were alike in many ways—many of the same problems, the same goals.

• There were also critical differences. Many of those foretell the problem of sectionalism—the differences between North and South that led to the Civil War and still impact the country today to some extent.

JamestownBasics

• The Jamestown expedition was a commercial venture by the Virginia Company.

• Friends of the monarch, James I, they were able to receive a charter in June 1606.

• Their goals were to find a route to the Orient, find gold, export raw and manufactured goods.

• And, oh yes, to convert the savages to Christianity.

The Trip--Jamestown

• On December 3, 1606 3 small vessels, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, sailed from London.

• The Susan Constant was 116 feet from stem to stern, the Discovery was about 50 feet long.

• 105 passengers, all men occupied the three ships (one historian called them lifeboats).

• They traveled first to the Canary Islands, then the West Indies, then up the coast to Jamestown, landing 5 months later on May 14, 1607

• A large percentage of the settlers were gentleman; the rest were commoners.

The Trip Plymouth

• The Mayflower left England on September 16, 1620.

• The ship was 80-90 feet long and 24 feet wide.• It carried the crew and 102 settlers, majority

were men, 18 women and 35 children.• Thirty-five settlers were Puritans; 67 were not. • They anchored off the tip of Cape Cod on

November 11, 1620 but remained on the ship until spring. (They were on the ship for approximately six weeks before the September departure.)

ASSIGNMENT # 1

• What would life have been like aboard those ships?

What did they find when they arrived?

Assignment # 2

• Facing life in a wilderness what would you have brought with you?

• We have to gender history at this point. In Plymouth the women would have been responsible for one list and the men for another.

Government

• How would they have governed themselves?

Mayflower Compact

• In the name of God, Amen We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.

• Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, In the Presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid:

• And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.

• In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620.

•

Government Jamestown

• House of Burgesses—first elected legislative body in America.

• Met July 30, 1619

• Acts of legislation could be vetoed by the governor, council, or the King.

Foundations of Democracy

• The Mayflower Compact has been labeled as the beginning of democracy in America.

• That is a bit of a stretch• 1. The House of Burgesses met in Virginia before

the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock.• 2. Look at the Compact—loyal to king, religious

motivation, practical need for law.• 3. Saints and Strangers• 4. Virtual dictatorships were established both at

Jamestown and Plymouth Rock in the early years.

• Can you suggest why both groups might have established dictatorships?

Governing Bodies--Virginia

• The Virginia Company sent sealed orders outlining the government of Jamestown,.

• The governing body consisted of a council of 7 men headed by the highest class gentleman in the group—Edward-Maria Wingfield. The only commoner was John Smith who initially was chained in the hole of the ship because Wingfield thought he was fomenting mutiny.

• Government was thus decidedly elitist.• John Smith was finally released because the Company was beset by

Indian Wars.• He established a virtual dictatorship because of those wars and

because of devastation.• Disease—By January 1608 there were only 38 survivors.• the gentlemen refused to work. Others hunted for gold and bought

corn from the Indians. Smith established a no work-no eat policy.

Governing Bodies--Plymouth

• Nature of Puritanism. Only God gave the plan for an acceptable life.

• Access to God was possible only within the confines of “church authority.”

• Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams.

Codicil—Nature of History

• Beware of taking too simplistic an approach to Puritanism.

• It did indirectly contribute to constitutionalism.• The emphasis upon the Bible as the basis of spiritual

meaning led to an emphasis on literacy. That also leads to individualism.

• The worst excesses of Puritanism led to the expulsion of Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams and to the Salem witch trials.

• The best side led to the creation of such institutions as Harvard University and to the importance of individualism.

• Why does democracy, or representative government, seem to be threatened in a time of crisis?

• Can you think of other times in American history when individual rights and representative government and even constitutional government have been threatened by crisis?

Better times

• Unlike Virginia the Puritans were helped by the natives. The tribe was the Wampanoag. The first native American who came to the Puritans, Samoset, surprised them by speaking English. The second, Squanto, spoke perfect English and had been to Europe.

• Squanto taught them how to fish, how to plant corn, and served as a liaison with the tribes.

• A treaty was signed and a tenuous peace developed.

• Led to the first Thanksgiving.

Better Times

• In Virginia, the Indian problems subsided with a healthier colony—Of the first 900 settlers in Jamestown only 60 survived.

• The marriage of Pocohantas to John Rolfe led the major chief, Powhatan, to cooperate, but his death led to a greater threat.

• In 1611 John Rolfe brought tobacco seed from Trinidad thus creating a source of income.

• In both colonies representative government now became a luxury they could afford.

Lessons of the Early Colonies

• 1. Caucasian sense of superiority over lesser peoples.

• 2. Resiliency of our early pioneers. John Gartner and hypomania.

• 3. Threats to representative government.