It’s July 8th in 1615 and Gary and I have just arrived in Jamestowne, VA. OMG what a trip that was. 5 months on the ocean. The ship was so small and there were so many of us. Privacy - ha! and the guy next to us snored. I am so tired of eating dried meat and wheat biscuits with worms in them. Both Gary and I were sick for a good part of the journey. I don’t know why I let him talk me into this. But our journey was paid by the Jamestowne Company which wants new settlers in their colony and our life was so hard in England. It has to be better in Jamestowne.
As we stepped off the ship we were greeted by John Rolfe, one of the settlers, who told us what to expect and told us that our main job was to - Survive. Life was not easy he said, work was expected and we had to do our part to make the colony successful. I just hope that we can have enough food to eat. But we both know we have a hard time in store.
He gave us the whole history of Jamestowne from its founding in 1607 to our arrival.
In 1607 104 settlers arrive in Jamestown. By the next spring only 38 are alive. It was tough in Jamestown that first winter. This is a land of plenty: there were deer, rabbits, fish, oysters, clams, turtles, birds, berries - there was a multitude of things to eat but these settlers starved. Why, in the midst of plenty did so many starve? Several reasons:
Most of them were ‘gentlemen’, few were laborers or craftsmen or farmers
They had brought inadequate provisions since they thought that they could live off what the Natives gave them. Unfortunately the two previous expeditions to this area had resulted in blood shed and the Natives were in no mood to feed any more of these interlopers
they had arrived during the final years of the worst drought in 700 years.
However the next summer new ships arrive with supplies and new settlers. They begin to make a go of this new settlement. At the head of the group is John Smith, arrogant, egotistical, disliked but decisive. He has made peace with the Natives which prevails for a short while. His rule is: no work, no food. That gets those ‘gentlemen’ going.
However, Smith leaves in 1609 having been wounded, the peace dies with his leaving and the winter of 1609 - 1610 is known as the ‘Starving Time’ during which the lack of food takes a real toll. The Natives are also in the midst of the drought and are low on food themselves and ‘lay siege’ to Jamestown not letting the settlers outside to hunt or to fish. Of the 500 settlers in the fort, only 60 live to see the next spring. They had been reduced to eating the horses, the dogs, rats and some were reduced to cannibalism.
In 1610 a new group of settlers is on the way to the settlement but they hit a huge storm, the ships are separated and the ship with the supplies and the leaders fights the storm for 3 days but is finally deliberately driven onto the reefs of Bermuda to prevent its sinking. The other ships with new settlers does get through to Jamestown - just what the settlement needs: more mouths to feed. It takes 9 months but the leaders build two smaller ships and 9 months later head for Jamestown. As they are sailing in, the others are sailing out, giving up but they all turn around and head back to the settlement.
One of the leaders in this new group in John Rolfe who not only introduces tobacco to the settlement, their first cash crop but also married Pocahontas, the daughter of the tribal chieftain, Powhatan, and ensures peace for at least 7 years.
Great story, strong characters - lets make a movie. Oh, wait there’s already been a movie. Here’s John Smith and Pocahontas.
And here’s a picture of John Rolfe. Right?
Hmmm. Interesting. As we know Pocahontas and John Smith were real characters but they hardly looked like this nor were they ever in love. Pocahontas was only 11 when she met John Smith who was a grizzled old war veteran and had quite a history before he sailed to Jamestown. Here’s a period painting of him. Dashing but not a blond-haired he-man who pumps iron every day.
He had been all over Europe by the time he sailed to Jamestown. He had even been a slave in Russia before he killed the guy who owned him and escaped. He was chosen for the Jamestown venture because of his survival skills and his abilities with guns and swords. Of course in the process he was also arrogant, a braggart, aggressive and not well-liked.
Here’s probably a better likeness of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.
Although I like this painting of Pocahontas after she had arrived in England. This is the face of a woman of character and substance. She’s got her game face on and knows what she’s about.
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the Indian chief who had established his power over the other tribes in the area. We all know the story of her saving Smith’s life when he was about to be killed. Truth or fiction? Well, the only person who told the story was Smith in his memoirs, years after everyone else in the story was dead. She was captured by the English, held captive, took the name Rebecca, leaned English, married John Rolfe and converted to Protestantism right after the treaty with the Indians was signed. In 1621 she and John Rolfe returned to England. Here she was quite a celebrity but died as she was boarding the ship back to America.
Those are the facts but there are lots of questions.
There are some who think she was murdered so she wouldn’t run back to her father, Powhatan with word that the English were planning to overthrow him. Why did she stay with the English and why did she marry John Rolfe? Some think that she and Powhatan were making the best of a bad deal, that she did as Powhatan did, marry into another tribe to unite the two. As a chief he had married into several tribes. Another theory is that they saw the guns of the English and the numbers of people coming to Jamestown and saw the writing on the wall. When she married Rolfe, there were 7 years of peace, which the Indians dearly needed.
The third character in this drams is John Rolfe. He sailed to Jamestown in 1610, planted some tobacco and when it was way to strong for the English liking, planted some Caribbean tobacco and it took off, thus saving the colony of Jamestown. He fell in love with Pocahontas, married her and later returned to England with her and their son.
The whole story of Jamestown is fascinating and the film and our official ‘Welcome’ from John Rolfe were impressive.
But I’m glad I live in 2015 and not in 1615.
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