The Role Of John Smith In The Jamestown Colony

Soldier, prisoner, slave and explorer… All these titles belong to one man: John Smith, a historical figure who played a huge role in the establishment of the Jamestown Colony. Remarkably, there were two instances that Smith was rescued from death at the last moment by a love struck princess, one of which involved the iconic Pocahontas who is also a big part of history. Smith tells the exchange like this, “…and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beat out his braines, Pocohontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no treaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death…”(33). But how are we to know that the elaborate stories of this man are true? After the Fact: The Art of
The water was tainted, there was no solid ground to establish on, and not to mention their new brutal neighbors. These few things were just a small portion of the hardships to come, the colony also faced starvation, disease and a poor economy. Firstly, the colonists were sick and weak, most likely from the poor water they were using. The authors describe it like so: “Contaminated wells most likely contributed to outbreaks of typhoid fever, and malaria claimed additional victims.” (41). Due to this, the colony was already falling apart, only a short nine months later their population had drastically reduced. “When the first supply ship delivered 120 new recruits the following January, it found only 38 men alive.” (37). It’s understandable that a beginning colony is struggling at first, but let’s take a jump ten years down the road… 75 to 80 percent of the entire population was dead. Why hadn’t Jamestown prospered and learned to become a strong establishment after a ten whole years? The answer lies here in the proclamation of 1618, “Every man to sett two acres corn (Except Tradesman following their trades).” (41). This was a law to ensure that people grew their own food. It seems simple-minded to have to force people to grow food, if I was in a failing colony such as this food would be my first priority. But apparently the
This was another problem the people encountered; poor government system. It began with one president and thirteen council members, who were constantly in disagreement. There were a couple leaders sent to resolve the governmental system, but nothing was permanent until Sir Edwin Sandys. Sandys gave the push to create a representative body in the colony; “Instead of being governed by martial law, as the colony had since 1609, the company created an assembly with the power to create laws.” (39). This was a huge step forward for Jamestown! The next step toward their success was the arrival of slavery. Slavery came gradually to the colony, one theory is that an economic failure in the West Indies sent the cost of sales lower and began the selling of slaves on the Chesapeake Bay instead. Next, the high demand for tobacco was dropping: “Sometime between 1629 and 1630 the economic bubble popped.The price of tobacco plummeted from 3 shillings to a penny a pound.” (49). It wasn’t until the 1650’s that high death rates started to drop, this was around the same time that laws were passed to establish slaves legal status. With the gradual incorporation of slaves, society was