The Seventeenth- Century Chesapeake

1. The Seventeenth- Century Chesapeake

2. Jamestown, 1607 144 Settlers depart England Three Ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery Replica of one of the ships that brought the Jamestown colonists

3. Dreams of Jamestown Find Wealth Build an Empire Like New Spain • Agriculture • Settlement Patterns of Native Americans • Number and Type of Settlers

4. Realities of Jamestown 1607 Powhatan Confederacy • 15,000-24,000 Members • 30 Tribes • A Kinship Network • Ritual Adoption • Annual hunts

7. James Fort Map of Jamestown, 1609. The fifteenth of June we had built and finished our Fort, which was triangle wise, having three Bulwarkes, at every corner, like a halfe Moone, and foure or five pieces of Artillerie mounted in them." We had made our selves sufficiently strong for these Savages. George Percy, June 15, 1607

8. “A more damned crew hell never vomited.” • 105 colonists arrived in Jamestown in 1607 • 38 were still alive after nine months • WHY? • Native Americans • Disease • “Gentlemen Colonists” • The Starving Time (Percy)

9. Early Relations between the English and the Native Americans Attacks on both sides Defined by local skirmishes/conflict and trade

11. John Smith. 1612. “Dictionary of Powhatan’s Language.” Small Group activity: Group these words into categories. --How many different categories of words do you find? --What do the categories suggest to you were the priorities/concerns of the English colonists in these early encounters with Powhatan’s people? --What Powhatan words quickly made it into the English language?

13. Pocahontas and John Smith • Pocahontas loved John Smith and rescued him from certain death. • Pocahontas played a role in a ritual adoption of John Smith directed by Powhatan. • Pocahontas played no significant role in the capture and subsequent release of John Smith.

14. Early Interactions with Powhatan Confederacy • December 1607 • John Smith Captured • Powhatan “adopts” the English into the Powhatan Confederacy. Enacted in the ritual involving Pocahontas. • From Powhatan’s perspective, John Smith becomes a werowance, or subordinate chief.

16. Just Around the Riverbend I feel it there beyond those trees Or right behind these waterfalls Can I ignore that sound of distant drumming For a handsome sturdy husband Who builds handsome sturdy walls And never dreams that something might be coming? Just around the riverbend I look once more Just around the riverbend Beyond the shore Somewhere past the sea Don't know what for ... Why do all my dreams extend Just around the riverbend? Should I choose the smoothest curve Steady as the beating drum? Should I marry Kocoum? Is all my dreaming at an end? Or do you still wait for me, Dream Giver Just around the riverbend? What I love most about rivers is: You can't step in the same river twice The water's always changing, always flowing But people, I guess, can't live like that We all must pay a price To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing What's around the riverbend Waiting just around the riverbend I look once more Just around the riverbend Beyond the shore Where the gulls fly free Don't know what for What I dream the day might send Jut around the riverbend For me Coming for me

17. Land Pressures Increase • March 22, 1622: Attack by the Powhatan Confederacy • 347 colonists killed • May 1623: Colonists strike back • Population • 1607 24,000 • 1669 2,000. (English population in 1670 was 41, 000)

18. Powhatans no longer a threat

19. 1616 to 1793

20. 1840s and early 1850s

22. Banner of the Powhatan Guards

23. Key Changes after 1615 • Private Property replaces Company-owned land • Headright system instituted • Representative Government replaces Martial Law • Heavy Recruiting of New Colonists: 3750 between 1616-1622

24. “Instead of a plantacion, Virginia will shortly get the name of a slaughterhouse.”Despite these efforts, in 1622 the population of Virginia was ~700.

25. Proclamation by Virginia’s Governor, 1618: Every man to sett two acres corn (Except tradesmen following their trades) penalty forfeiture of corn & Tobacco & be a Slave a year to the Colony. No man to take hay to sweat Tobacco because it robs the poor beasts of their fodder and sweating Tobacco does it little good as found by Experience.

26. Tobacco: The “Stinkinge Weede” Tobacco Production: 1624 200,000 pounds 1638 3,000,000 pounds

27. What about Capt. John Ratcliffe? • He was the captain of the Discovery (one of the three ships landing in Jamestown in 1607 • Was the second president of Jamestown, killed in 1609 The story Captain Ratcliffe’s death was documented in an eyewitness account that is included in The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 (Real Voices, Real History), edited by Ed Southern.): ...when the sly old King espied a fitting time, cut them all off, only surprised Captain Ratcliffe alive, who he caused to be bound unto a tree naked with a fire before, and by women his flesh was scraped from his bones with mussel shells, and, before his face, thrown into the fire, and so for want of circumspection miserably perished.