A Jamestown settler describes life in Virginia, 1622
Sebastian Brandt to Henry Hovener, January 13, 1622. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
The first English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, who arrived in 1607, were eager to find gold and silver. Instead they found sickness and disease. Eventually, these colonists learned how to survive in their new environment, and by the middle of the seventeenth century they discovered that their fortunes lay in growing tobacco.
This 1622 letter from Jamestown colonist Sebastian Brandt to Henry Hovener, a Dutch merchant living in London, provides a snapshot of the colony in flux. Brandt, who likely arrived in 1619 in a wave of 1,200 immigrants, writes of his wife’s and brother’s deaths the previous year almost in passing. He mentions that, due to his own illness, he “was not able to travell up and downe the hills and dales of these countries but doo nowe intend every daye to walke up and downe the hills for good Mineralls here is both golde silver and copper.” Most of Brandt’s letter is devoted to its real purpose: putting in orders for cheese, vinegar, tools, spices, and other assorted goods from the London Company that were not available in Virginia. Interestingly, he promises to pay in tobacco and furs—not in the gold and copper he’s looking for.
We know little about Brandt. He does not appear in any known existing official records, and historians presume he died not long after writing this letter. The glimpse he offers into early Jamestown serves as a tantalizing example of the challenges and thrills of studying colonial American history.
A full transcript is available.
Transcript
My comendationsremembred, I hartely [wish] your welfare for god be thanked I am now in good health, but my brother and my wyfe are dead aboute a yearepass’d And touchinge the busynesse that I came hither is nothing yett performed, by reason of my sicknesseweaknesse I was not able to travell up and downe the hills and dales of these countries but doo nowe intend every daye to walke up and downe the hills for good Mineralls here is both golde silver and copper to be had and therefore I will doe my endeavour by the grace of god to effect what I am able to performe And I intreat you to beseeche the Right Hon: & Wor: Company in my behalfe to grant me my freedome to be sent either to me I dowbte not to doo well & good service in these countries humbly desyringe them also to provyde me some [appointed] fellowe & a strong boye to assiste me in my businesse, and that it may please the aforesaid Company to send me at my charge a bed wth a bolster and cover and some Linnen for shirtes and sheetes. Sixefallinge bands wth Last Size pairs of shoes twoo pairs of bootes three pairs of cullered stockings and garters wth three pairs of lether gloves some powder and shotttwoo little runletts of oyle and vinnegar some spice & suger to comfort us here in our sicknesseabowteffyftie pounds weight of holland and Englishe cheese together, Lykewyse some knyves, spoons, combes and all sorts of cullerd beads as you knowe the savage Indians use Allso one Rundlettwth all sortes of yronnayles great and small, three hairesives, two hatchettswthtwoo broad yrons and some Allum And send all these necessaries thinges in a dry fattwth the first shippingedyrected unto Mr. Pontes in James Towne here in Virginia And whatsoever this all costes I will not onelywth my moste humble service but allsowth some good Tobacco Bevor and Otterskins and other commodities here to be had recompence the Company for the same And yf you could send for my brother PhillippsSonne in Darbesheere to come hetheritt [were] a great commoditieffor me or suche another used in minerallworkes And thus I comitt you to the Almighty.
John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634
John Winthrop to Nathaniel Rich, May 22, 1634. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Between 1629 and 1640, 20,000 Puritans left England for America to escape religious persecution. They hoped to establish a church free from worldly corruption founded on voluntary agreement among congregants. This covenant theory governed Puritan social and theological life, including the annual elections in which all free men, or church members, could vote. As John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, explained in his letter written on May 22, 1634: “Our civil Government is mixt: the freemen choose the magistrates every year ... and at 4: courts in the year 3: out of each town (there being 8 in all) do assist the magistrates in making of laws, imposing taxes, & disposing of lands ... Our Churches are governed by Pastors, Teachers ruling Elders & Deacons, yet the power lies in the whole Congregation.”
Writing in 1634 from Boston, less than four years after the city had been founded, Winthrop described a population of 4,000 settlers “well provided of all necessarys.” The American Indian population did not fare as well. Epidemic diseases introduced by European fishermen and fur traders reduced the population of New England’s coastal tribes by about 90percent by the early 1620s. Their numbers continued to dwindle after Winthrop’s colony arrived in 1630, a development he took as a blessing: “For the natives, they are near all dead of the smallpox, so the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess.” This sentence—the last in this letter mostly about the weather and crops—reveals a belief in divine providence that would shape relations with Native peoples for centuries to come.
An excerpt is available.
Excerpt
WorthyeSr
That you are pleased among yr many & weighty imployments to spend so many serious thoughts and good wishes upon us, & the work of the Lord in our hands, I must needs acknowledge it among other the special favours of God towards us, and an undoubted testimony of yr sincere Love towards us: which makes me the more careful to satisfy yr desire, of being truly informed of our estate (this being the first safe means of Conveyance since I received yrs in October last) you may please therefore to understand that first, for the number of our people, we never took any survey of them, nor do we intend it, except inforced through urgent occasion (David’s example sticks somewhat with us) [some Protestants interpreted the Bible as forbidding a census] but I esteem them to be in all about 4000 souls & upward: in good health (for the most parse) & well provided of all necessarys: so as (through the Lords special providence) there hath not died about 2: or 3: grown persons, & about so many Children all in the last year, it being verye rare to heare of any sick of agues or other diseases, nor have I known of any quartan Ague amonge us since I came into the Countrye. For Our susistence here, the means hitherto hath been the yearly access of new Comers, who have supplied all our wants, for Cattle, & the fruits of our labours, as board, pale, smiths work etc: if this should fail, then we have other meanes which may supply us, as fish viz: Cod, bass & herring, for which no place in the world exceeds us, if we can compass salt at a reasonable rate: our grounds likewise are apt for hemp & flax & rape seeds, & all sorts of roots, pumpkins & other fruits, which for taste & wholesomeness far exceed those in England: our grapes also (wherewith the Country abounds) afford a good hard wine. Our ploughs go on with good success, we are like to have 20 at work next year: our lands are aptest for Rye and oats. Our winters are sharp & longe, I may reckon 4 months for storing of cattle, but we find no difference whither they be housed or go abroad: our summers are somewhat more fervent in heat than in England. Our civil Government is mixt: the freemen choose the magistrates every year ... and at 4: courts in the year 3: out of each town (there being 8 in all) do assist the magistrates in making of laws, imposing taxes, & disposing of lands: our furies [?] are chosen by the freemen of everye town. Our Churches are governed by Pastors, Teachers ruling Elders & Deacons, yet the power lies in the whole Congregation and not in the Presbytery [not in a larger council of churches] further than for order and precedence. For the natives, they are near all dead of the smallpox, so the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess.
The Province of Massachusetts Bay requests aid from Queen Anne, 1708
A Memorial of the State of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England to Queene Anne, October 20, 1708. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713) was the second of four great wars for empire fought among France and England and their Indian allies. This struggle broke out when the French raided English settlements on the New England frontier. Fighting then spread south, where English colonists in the Carolinas attacked Spanish territory in Florida. An English invasion of Quebec in 1710 failed, but in the Treaty of Utrecht ending the conflict, France ceded Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the French territory around Hudson Bay to England, and abandoned its claim to sovereignty over the Iroquois.
In this memorial to Queen Anne in 1708, the Massachusetts colonists recounted the many economic losses they had suffered during the twenty years of warfare. They also suggested that the only way to combat the Indians, who had a different style of fighting than the colonists, was to enlist “the service of the Mohawks, and other Nations of the Western Indians that are in Friendship and Covenant with you.”
A full transcript is available.
EXCERPT
It’s nothing short of Twenty years, That your Ma.tys good Subjects of this Province, have been wasting under the Calamity’s of a Distressing and Expensive War, taking the Commencem:t thereof from the Rebellion and Eruption of the Eastern Indians in the year 1688. - save onely the Intervention of Three or four years Cessation after the peace of Reyswick, during the Continuance whereof they forbore to commit their Bloody Villanies and Outrages. The french not dareing then openly to Avow, Assist and protect them therein, Yet in those years we were put to a very Considerable Charge, in keeping Constant Guards & Espyalls over them to prevent Surprizals by their perfidy and Treachery’s -
And very Soon upon the New Declaration of War wth. france, they broke out again, in open Rebelion and hostility, Committing divers barbarous Murders, just after a Repeated and fresh Recognition of their Duty and Allegiance to your Majesty -
We have been sharers in Common with other our fellow Subjects to a great Degree in Losses, both of men and Estate, at home and at Sea, both in the former & the present War, our Trade is greatly diminished, and we are very much Exhausted; our yearly Expence for our necessary defence, and to prevent the Incursions of the Enemy is vastly great. But by the good Providence of God, In the Early Advice from time to time given, of the Motions of the Enemy, and the prudent Methods taken by your Ma:tys Captain General; to Observe them, and preparations made for their Reception in their Descents upon us, has prevented those Impressions, which probably we might otherwise have felt, and they have been forced to Return back Ashamed, not without Loss on their part. -
But we have no prospect of the End of these Troubles, & of being Eased of our heavy and Insupportable Charge and burthen, whilst we can Act only Defensively, and have to do with Enemy’s and Rebels within our very Bowells.
Carte de la Louisianeet du cours du Mississipi, 1718
Carte de la Louisianeet du cours du Mississippi [map of North America], by Guillaume de l’Isle, Paris, 1718. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
This map of “la Louisiane” was published by French geographer Guillaume de l’Isle. It is the first detailed map of the Gulf Coast region and the Mississippi River, as well as the first printed map to show Texas (identified as “Mission de los Teijasetablie en 1716”). The map is also the first to identify New Orleans, founded in 1718 (see the inset detail of the mouth of the St. Louis River). De l’Isle obtained most data from French explorers and fur-traders traveling through North America.
A close examination of the map reveals the land routes of early explorers in North America. Each route is mapped out and identified with the explorer’s name and year of travel. The map represents the travels of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in Florida and the southeast in 1539–1542, Alonso de Leon in 1689, and French Canadian explorer Saint Denis in 1713 and 1716, among others. De l’Isle accurately identified the location of many Native American tribes, marked by a small hut symbol and a name.
De l’Isle’s map provoked outrage among the English for extending French claim over British-controlled areas and reducing the size of the English coastal colonies. He further angered the British by stating on the map that Carolina was named after French King Charles IX, instead of after Charles I, King of England, and by identifying Charles Town (Charleston) as “nommé par les Francois,” although Charleston was actually named after Charles II of England.
In recognition of his work in promoting France’s commercial interests, Louis XV named De l’Isle “Premier geographic du Roi.” Despite the availability of new information, the Carte de la Louisiane greatly influenced later maps of North America.
Slave revolt in the West Indies, 1733
John P. Zenger, New-York Weekly Journal, March 11, 1733[/4], page 3. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
The prevalence of slavery in pre-Revolutionary America made actual and threatened slave uprisings of intense interest throughout the British colonies in North America. The West Indies, or Caribbean islands, where slavery predominated, were vitally important to commerce and trade in the colonies, and slave revolts there were particularly newsworthy. In this issue of the New-York Weekly Journal, dated March 11, 1733[/4],* editor John Peter Zenger printed a sloop captain’s report on a slave takeover of the Danish island of St. John in November 1733.
A group of slaves, the captain reported, “kill’d all the Men and aged Women, that they could lay their Hands on, and debauched the young Women, and that they kept Possession of the Island and Fort for 8 Days.” He also claimed that the revolt had been put down after “a number of Whites and Negroes from St. Thomas’s ... attack’d the Fort, which they took after a stout Resistance.” However, fighting continued on St. John until 1734, when English and French forces ended the uprising.
* Zenger mistakenly continued to print 1733 on his masthead after the year changed. He began printing the newspaper in November 1733.
A transcript of the excerpt is available.
Excerpt
BOSTON, January 12.
Friday Night last a Sloop from St. Anguilla, came to Anchor in Nantasket Road, the Master of which informs us, that on the 10th Day of December last, there was the most violent storm at Statia, St. Martins and Anguilla, that has been known in Memory of Man.... The said Master further informs us, that while he lay at Anguilla a Bermudas Sloop arrived there from St. John’s, the Master of which informed him, that the Number of Whites destroyed by the Negroes of that Island did not exceed 60, some having found Means to escape their Fury. That they kill’d all the Men and aged Women, that they could lay their Hands on, and debauched the young Women, and that they kept Possession of the Island and Fort for 8 Days, when a Number of Whites and Negroes came from St. Thomas’s and attack’d the Fort, which they took after a stout Resistance; and among the rest, had the good Luck to take the Ringleader or Captain of the Black Gentry, whom they flea’d alive, and tortured several others of them to Death. Upon this Defeat, most of the Negroes that were scattered about upon the Island, took all the Canoes and other small Craft they could find, and quitted the Place, and ’tis thought they are gone to Cape Fransway, &c. This Rising of the Negroes at St. John’s, has so alarmed our Islands, that they keep 30 or 40 Men every Night upon the Watch upon each Island, to prevent a Surprize. ’Tis further said, that all the Islands in the West Indies are under Apprehensions of a War....
Arguments for educating women, 1735
New-York Weekly Journal, May 19, 1735. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
On May 19, 1735, John Peter Zenger republished this essay in the New-York Weekly Journal. Originally printed in the Guardian, a British periodical, the two-page essay supports the education of women “of Quality or Fortune.” The author, probably Joseph Addison, one of the founders of the Guardian, argued that women should be educated because they had more spare time than men, they had a natural gift for speech, they were responsible for educating their children, and they needed to keep busy. In addition, the article suggests that educated women were seen to be more suitable as “marriage material” by socially prominent men.