JOHN SMITH
(1580-1631)
· 1570s+
o prosperity
§ QE1: end of Bloody Mary, defeat of Sp. Armada, religious tolerance, ….
§ (English Renaissance)
o public support, political sanction à curiosity, investment
o Bad Luck: 1580s Roanoke Island’s “Lost Colony” (SW Raleigh)
§ à 1580-1600
§ 20 yrs. of fizzle
· 1606: FIRST CHARTER
o King James 1
o Virginia Company
§ Virginia = from Florida to Canada
§ 2 parts: (more manageable)
· southern part (from Virginia south)
o company = based in London
· northern part (including New England)
o members in West Country towns
o based in Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter
o succeeded by other charters in 1609, 1612
o represents a new model of exploration
§ past
· Sir Walter Raleigh
· single controlling figure – heroic model
· 1584
· Queen Elizabeth
§ new
· corporate model
· larger companies of investors (usually merchants w/$$)
· 1606
· King James I
§ set the pattern for English colonial practice for next 100 years
§ compromise between large-scale governmental action & isolated individual effort
§ colonial company
· 1606: James I, 2nd Virginia Colony, Jamestown
o shipwreck in Bermuda
o starvation
o riots
o clashes w/locals
o Richard Hakuyt’s The Principall Navigations (1598-1600)
o Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610-11)
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
· corporate management + individual initiative & commitment = successful colony
· 1580
o Willoughby, Lincolnshire
o farmer family
· 15: apprenticed to shopkeeper near home
· wooed by tales of exploration, piracy, military adventure
o power of LITERATURE
· 1593: tried to join a Sir Francis Drake expedition against Spain (but father interceded)
· 1596: father died
o 16, got his indenture cancelled
o went to Netherlands as soldier to fight in their long war for independence from Philip II/Spain
· privateer: in Mediterranean
· Austrian army 1600
o against the Turks (1593-1606)
o Hungary, Rumania
o gained his captaincy (Captain John Smith)
o bested & beheaded 3 Turkish officers à coat of arms w/3 heads
o wounded, taken prisoner, sold into slavery 1602
o murdered his master, through Russia & Poland, back to Rumania
o back to England 1604-05
· positive traits:
o experienced, esp. for this quasi-military expedition
o military background & temperament
o
· negative traits:
o liabilities of military background = warfare was brutal, soldiers not professional
o unnecessary use of force
o hard-to-control temper
o stubborn self-reliance
· December 20, 1606:
o left for Virginia Colony (1606-09)
o named to ruling council by London company investors (member of the local governing committee)
o arrested: near Canary Islands Feb. 1607, threatened w/execution in West Indies March 1607
o April 1607: land, reprieve: opened secret list of council members
o May 13, 1607: land at Jamestown
· 2nd Virginia Colony @ JAMESTOWN:
o 1607: “period of sickness”
§ starvation, lack of fresh water, attacks by Algonquian Indians
o 1609: “starving time”
· 1607: in charge of supplies
· 9/1608: president of council (colony’s governor), after series of successful explorations
o strong leader
o rigid discipline, strengthened defenses, encouraged farming, warning: "He who does not work, will not eat."
· explorations:
o made him the most knowledge person of the area (made his governor)
o 12/1607 prisoner of Powhatan, overlord of Chesapeake Bay Indians
o saved by Pocahontas (perhaps his beheading was little more than a harmless adoption ceremony)
§ returns to Jamestown, arrested for loss of 2 soldiers, would have been hanged
§ 1609: left Virginia, never to return
o characteristic: volatile & unpredictable relations w/Natives
· Smith the writer
o milks the story
o fact/fiction, self-aggrandizing
o recast the Pocahontas story 15 yrs. later à fame
o most of the Jamestown story comes from Smith (responsible for the early history of VA)
· JS & New England:
o published more works on NE than Virginia
o named New England
o was going to be guide for Pilgrims 1620, but they chose his books
· 1631: dead, at 51
The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles [Bermuda] (1624)
· as literature, his works form a BRIDGE between Virginia & New England
· Smith = more the editor, than author of whole
·
· [3rd Book, Ch.2]
· what happened before the 1st supply
· 10 days in = extreme sickness
· this = cause of:
· little to eat & drink –
o while supply ships = near, had biscuits – exchanged for $$, sassafras, furs, friendship
o president Edward Maria Wingfield kept supplies for self (oatmeal, wine, oil, brandy, beef, eggs)
o irony: corn meal had worms so it was bran, booze = water, homes castles in the air
· conditions:
o little to eat, drink
o hard work planting
o extreme heat
· May-September 1607:
o 50 dead
o food = sturgeon & sea crabs
o à deposed president Wingfield, elected Captain John Radcliffe
o (Gosnold dead, Kendall deposed – executed for mutiny earlier in the year)
o recovery: food, general surgeon Master Thomas Wotton
· recovered BUT
o provisions gone
o sturgeon gone
o hope gone
o threat of Natives (constant threat hourly of their attack)*
· RELIGION –
o God changed the Indians’ hearts
o they brought food
· poor reasoning (to “nourish such ill conceits”) @ the council-
o our fault we left w/such poor provisions
o how could we have known what we needed à it’s a NEW world
o “we were all ignorant”
o NEW WORLD: no idea what we were getting into
§ this has always been the case w/new beginnings, such accidents since world’s beginning
§ “everything of worth is found full of difficulties”
· Captain Smith takes charge
o CS in the 3rd person (JS not the author)
o Radcliffe & Martin = “little beloved, weak judgment”
o JS in charge of outside palisades, expeditions
§ led by example, good words, fair promises
§ set some to mow, thatch, houses,
§ reserved the greatest tasks for himself
§ provided lodging for most, neglected himself
· search for trade:
o now that homes & planting down
o but lacked
§ language to communicate w/Indians
§ skills to use boat w/o sails
§ arms (Indians took in raids)
§ clothes & others
§ only 7 men
· Kegoutan Indians
o would only trade corn (probably all they had – not out of “derision”)
o JS shot his gun off (contrary to orders) & scared them away
o 70 vs. 7
o guns vs. arrows, clubs
o guns killed & scared off, British stole their Okee god idol
o peace, return Okee, trade
· [religious couplet as segue, lead-in to next adventure]
o God changed their hearts that would have devoured them
· settlers didn’t learn lessons – didn’t STORE provisions for the future
· PLOT: by Wingfield & Kendall-
o want to go home
o stay, when food is discovered (in Chickahominy area)
§ Indians
§ winter geese, ducks, cranes
§ pumpkins, fish, fowl, wild beasts
· *WHY include infighting:
· place blame on responsible ones rather than the whole colony
· “These brawls are so disgustful, as some will say they were better forgotten, yey all men of good judgment will conclude, it were better their baseness should be manifest to the world, than the whole business bear the scorn and shame of their executed disorders.” (86)
· POWHATAN ADVENTURE:
· went as far as could, cutting trees to make way, finally went ashore
· left men w/boat, orders not to go ashore (they, w/George Cassen, disobeyed & went…& died)
· JS + 2 Englishmen, 2 Indians (“savages”) went farther in canoe
· JS didn’t know of others’ disobedience & slaughter
· JS left 2 men at the canoe – slept, slaughtered by Natives
· JS = taken prisoner (short version)
o surrounded by 200 Indians
o wounded in thigh, shot w/arrows
o prisoner
o 6-7 weeks
o diverted Indians from sneak attack of fort
o not only got free but
o “got himself & his company such estimation amongst them, that those savages admired him more than their owne Quiyoughkasoucks” (87)
· Retold: (long version)
o Cassen told Indians where Smith had gone
o Robinson & Emry slept by campfire w/canoe, killed by Indians
o Smith used his Indian guide as a shield (!), fought until “near dead w/cold” – surrendered
o taken prisoner by Opechancanough, Powhatan’s younger half-brother
o JS dazzles them w/his “round ivory double compass”
o cosmology: talks of the world: sun, stars, nations, peoples
§ “antipodes” opposite sides of the world BUT also more than geography
o tied to tree, about to be shot BUT saved by king b/c of compass – feast
o description –
§ of village: 30-40 hunting houses (tepees = his “tents”)
§ dance, war paint
o politeness –
§ feed JS well (more than 20 men) before they ate themselves
o next brush w/death –
§ father wants to kill JS b/c he slew his son
§ JS convinces that there’s a magical “water” back at Jamestown that could cure him
§ plans attack on Jamestown (trick)(JS like a TRICKSTER)
§ they thought JS was magic b/c he seemed to “divine” what happened at fort
o JS taken to various other tribes, on way to Powhatan
· [couplet – as if in HELL]
· the Indians’ “strange & fearful conjurations” made them seem like devils
o New World = Hell
o Indians = devils, demons (red skin, wild screams, odd behavior/dances)
· description: trust ceremony, chief priest
o 3-day ceremony, no food all day, rattles w/song, laying down of corn, sticks
o meaning: if JS intended them harm or no; circle of meal = their country; circles of corn = the sea; the sticks = his country….cosmology: world = flat & round (like a flat wood dish) & the Indians in the middle
· gunpowder = corn: they intended to plant FP as if it were a seed, like corn
· JS = well fed, none would eat
· [bad dreams]
· meets Powhatan – braves look at JS “as if he had been a monster”
· Powhatan in “greatest braveries” (description)
· near execution #3:
o POCAHONTAS (c.1591-1617)
o JS’s head = on stump, they ready to club his brains
o she entreats at 1st & then lay her head upon his – Powhatan relinquishes – JS to be craftsman, make hatchets & bells, beads, copper
§ *JS changes history –
§ Pocahontas appeared in early versions but only as heroine after her death in History (1624)
· [quote from Euripides – living in constant fear of death]
· JS lived in constant fear of death
· JS thought they were feeding him such to fatten before cannibalism
o GOD “had mollified the hearts of those stern barbarians w/compassion”
· trade: canon & grindstone for land
· ------
· return to Jamestown:
o 3rd attempt to run away
§ dissent within the colony fermented due to laziness, lack of supplies, & desertions
§ Smith vs. other leaders
o Smith = arrested (wanted to kill him for deaths of soldiers, Robinson & Emry
§ (“Levitcal law” 24:17: “and he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death”)
o Pocahontas: brought supplies
§ saved many English who would have else starved
· [God sent relief]
· everyone fear-less now that receive bounty from Powhatan & Pocahontas
· “yet you see by what strange means GOD hath still delivered it” (near destruction, saved by God
STYLE:
· description: of land, peoples
· bitter verbal irony, sarcasm
· shows the warts & all,
o in-fighting, unpreparedness, mistakes
o shows how they lacked discipline, lacked foresight, lacked planning, lacked supplies
· wanted to go home at 1st hardship
o constant desertions
o laziness, idleness, poor governing/leadership,
· Indians = savage BUT also polite, kind – esp. w/food
· Indians & food:
o *lots of it
o share food, even w/prisoners
o feed prisoner/guest 1st
o *no waste
o C/C vs. English: not much food, eat it all (gluttony), no planning for the future (storing)
· Indian king: does work just like the rest of them, makes his own stuff, plants, hunts… “or do anything so well as the rest” (C/C English!)
· religious – GOD
· starvation
· in-fighting
· unpreparedness for New World
· JS as leader, “hero”
· Natives as savages, devils
· Natives’ food, weapons, dress, customs, chivalry/Christian magnanimity/generosity
· [4th Book]
· Smith’s farewell to Virginia
o 10/1609
o leaves Virginia, never to return
o goes back to England (for burn tx)
o infighting, corruption à Smith leaves Jamestown to map Chesapeake Bay, find food
· wrote what he did b/c “in the Company’s name I was requested to do it”
o too much for some, too little for others
· “I thank God” I never untook anything for personal gain, carelessness, dishonesty
· may God protect them
· [from A Description of New England]
· April 1614: returns to New World: Maine & Massachusetts Bay areas
· names area New England
· do good deeds:
o plant, till land he’s won by hazards of his life
o “industry”
· conversion—
o (like ACTS of the Apostles)
o “If he have any grain of faith or zeal in religion, what can he do less hurtful to any; or more agreeable to God, than to seek to convert those poor savages to know Christ […]”
· the good life:
o industry
o conversion of heathens
o honor & honesty, discovering the unknown, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching virtue, colonizing for “native mother country,” finding jobs for the unemployed