How The Influence Of John Smith's Hand-Written Maps

Although Europeans were beginning to spread their influence throughout the entire globe, not one country’s expansion has been so written about and debated over more frequently than North America, more specifically, the future United States. Every individual’s trip across the ocean, from one coast to another, would be either directly or indirectly influenced by maps that John Smith (and other explorers of that epoch) drew (and had commissioned in different parts of the world.) It is now well known that John Smith’s map of Virginia was one of the main driving forces behind the first group of people packing up and heading west. In today’s society, knowing exactly where you are going and how to get there is a luxury taken advantage of far too often.
GPS systems, detailed maps, and even iPhones constantly contribute to a basic necessity of life - getting around the lands we call home and the lands we wish to explore.
It is nearly impossible to realize the significance maps have on societies and culture without first disconnecting from the technologically driven reality we face today, and placing ourselves 400 years back in time…on that dark and dangerous ship in which John Smith was a passenger of. This paper will discuss not only the importance that Smith’s hand-written maps previously had and still currently possess, but also analyze their structural changes over time and how these changes correlate with the birth of a new nation in progress. Beyond the assimilation of key qualitative features of the sources, it is my hope to show that the maps contain much more information than the location of physical landmarks and city
names. One of the first and arguable most important maps of the colonial time period was John Smith’s map of Virginia.
One year after making landfall, Smith set out to explore his surroundings. When analyzing this source, I had to remember that Smith was drawing the map for an audience of potential investors. His ultimate goal was to make Virginia appear worthy of their money and time. This map unignorably mentions numerous Indian tribes, and more importantly, Powhatan’s tribe. The upper left corner of the map shows an ornate drawing of Powhatan himself, showing him sitting above numerous other Indians and in a position of power. The word “Powhatan” is written across the length of the map, with each letter woven throughout trees and other landmarks; this is an obvious indication that Powhatan and his tribe ruled the land in which Smith and his crew mates explored . The map does not show the entirety of the land that would one-day compromise Virginia, just a small portion. Other Indian tribe names essentially form a “fence” around the map. Different tribes most likely prevented Smith and his men, being connected with Powhatan and Pocahontas, to venture out any further than the territory that they possessed. Going past tribal lines would have inevitably led to war between the neighboring tribes and been detrimental to Smith’s experience. Small crosses dot the page in a sporadic way; the legend indicates that a cross represents places he himself had been to, and all other locations
were drawn off of stories from the natives. There are never any instances of a cross being extremely close to an area held by a different Indian tribe. If there were unpleasant encounters between the explorers and the indigenous peoples, this map purposefully does not mention them in order to give the potential investors a rosy view of Virginia. Another fascinating aspect of this map that separates it from others of the same kind is the directional positioning of the drawing itself. During this time, a vast majority of maps were created with due North at the top of the paper. This compass has North pointing towards the right, instead. Smith was attempting to take his audience (the investors) on a journey with the map. When looking at it, it is easy to visualize the ship coming up to shore and looking at this foreign land, full of possibilities, with your back to the direction you came from. There are small circles representing small cities or living areas of “ordinary people,” while the larger buildings represent living quarters of the “royalty.” The map makes Virginia seem like a heavily populated with area, with towns back-to-back along the rivers and tributaries. While it is hard to say, it is unlikely that Virginia was truly this populated; Smith was most likely attempting to once-again persuade the potential investors.