E19 - America Takes Root: Jamestown and the Chaos of Colonization

In this kickoff episode to a deep-dive series following the Jamestown Colony, we introduce the messy, dramatic, and often brutal first two decades of Jamestown—from desperate survival and nonstop infighting to uneasy relationships with the Powhatan Confederacy, the Starving Time, and the major turning point(s) of 1619. Along the way, we start to see how this scrappy, barely-holding-it-together colony became the point of no return that helped set the America—and its eventual revolution—into motion.

The main sources for this episode are:

• Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America, written by Benjamin Woolley, and published in 2007 by HarperPress UK
• Jamestown, The Truth Revealed, written by William Kelso, and published in 2017 by the University of Virginia Press
• Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, written by Camilla Townsend, and published in 2004 by Hill and Wang

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, gentle folks, whenever and wherever you happen to be listening. My name is Alex Jones, not that one, and I am intensely curious about generally everything. And I read a lot. Consider me the girl in your study group that actually did the reading and explains everything you need to know to pass the exam. I'm a former high school English teacher with a master's in secondary ed and a bachelor's in both English and art history, so I'm pretty well versed in research, critical thinking, and fostering curiosity. If you've been wanting to learn more about the things in history you didn't learn in high school, I'm here to share the process of my own learning with you. I'm not a career academic or a historical expert, but I am a pretty well-educated and intelligent person with a knack for learning and teaching, so come with me if you're ready to get curious. It feels a little strange to be putting together episodes about Jamestown right now, the first lasting English colony that led to the establishment of 13 separate colonies that would rebel against King George III to create a democracy. All while the U.S. is continually breaking mass protest records with the No Kings movement. I've said this before, but I started this podcast as my own creative outlet to explore my own curiosities, which, because of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of the Independence, have been focused on how colonization made the American Revolution come about. I started with the Mayflower because that's what I knew best. I have numerous ancestors who came over on that very ship. I grew up outside Boston. I loved learning about my area's role in the revolution. It started pretty lighthearted, but I feel like I've gotten more serious as the situation in the country my family has called home for generations has gotten more serious. And it's all caused me, because I am insatiably curious about why things happen the way they do, especially when it comes to injustice or unfairness, to feel the need to understand why this is happening at the deepest level possible. Both sides right now are using the founding of our nation to justify their positions. But only one side is using the same kind of violent and forceful use of federal law enforcement to beat dissenters into submission that the British used. It feels to me like everything happening right now is an echo or a reflection of the years leading up to those first major conflicts of the revolution. The Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party come to mind when I hear about American citizens murdered by ICE or calls to boycott the billionaire-run monopolies like Amazon. Everyday Americans demanding fair taxation of billionaires is reminiscent of the colonists' cries for no taxation without representation. It wasn't about no taxes, but about fair taxes, about having a voice and having that voice be heard. And like I've said before, no historical event exists in a vacuum. We cannot study it and understand it to the deepest level possible without examining the major events that influenced that one later event, the consequences of earlier actions, the beliefs of the generations before that shaped the beliefs of their descendants, the cultural and societal expectations and their origins. So I believe we cannot understand what is happening in the U.S. today without understanding the exact circumstances, ideals, and outcomes of the American Revolution that led to the country we are today. And we can't understand the circumstances, ideals, and outcomes of the American Revolution without understanding the earlier colonial ancestors of the Patriots, the revolutionary Americans, why they came to this land, how they interacted with the indigenous peoples, what motivated them, what they deeply believed was right and true, their ultimate goals, and the context of the society they existed within. So thinking back in a way, every episode before this series that I am about to launch into has kind of been a warm-up. And with today's episode, a brief summary and kind of cultural framework of the first 20 years of a colony that would change history forever, I'm embarking on my own adventure of learning, an educational endeavor of curiosity. And I want you all to join me so that you can see what it looks like to question what you've always thought was true, so that you can appreciate a non-expert's journey of understanding, and maybe be inspired to take on that journey for yourself. So buckle up, Buttercup, because we're about to launch into some learning. Not only am I following a much longer time period than I did with the Mayflower Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony or the lost colonists of the ill-fated Roanoke colony, but there's a lot of detail left behind about day-to-day experiences, both through written documentation and archaeology working together. And I'm a person who tries to fully immerse myself as much as possible in what it would have been like to be there in that moment in history. The smells, tastes, sounds, the clothing, the food, the entertainment. It's honestly why I love historical fiction that actually tries to be as true to the history in small detail as possible while still allowing some creative license, you know, to like make it more entertaining. For example, shout out to Julian Fellows, the creator of Downton Abbey and the Gilded Age. They are my absolute greatest comfort shows that I have watched and will watch again and again and again. And as I listen to more and more historians on the many history podcasts that I listen to, I get the sense that the professional study of history has been going through a cultural shift, focusing more and more on the everyday people and their experience, placing the experience of being human at the center of history's most impactful events, not just like the big names and objective facts and timelines. It's like bringing empathy into history, like I've said before. How do I put myself in the shoes of these people to understand what their experience was truly like and why they did what they did? It's the only way to use history as a mirror for our own actions and beliefs to make the following statement actually true. We study history so that we won't repeat it. The more famous saying, obviously, is that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. And boy, are we seeing that unfold today. Now back to our main topic of Jamestown. The English in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the late 1500s, the early 1600s, did not have a ton of history to look back on when it came to colonizing America. America here means the continent or continents. North America, South America, their island. They really only had the example of Spanish violence in the Caribbean and South America to go off of. So they did try to learn from that and intended to maintain peaceful relations with the Algonquians they first encountered based on mutual agreement. The problem is that both the Spanish and the English, all Europeans, were coming at colonization with very deeply ingrained and problematic beliefs. Religious beliefs, beliefs about what it means to be civilized or the hierarchy of status that society was supposed to adhere to. Not that most people in their time found them to be problematic. But as they continued to grow their presence on the North American mainland, those beliefs clashed significantly with the beliefs of what I see as the rightful owners of this land. Not that most Europeans saw them as the rightful owners because they had a very specific understanding of what it means, and we still have a very specific understanding of what it means to quote own land. And listen, I'm going to be trying very hard in this series to present our uh cast of characters, so to speak, as uh in as fair a light as possible, acknowledging the society that shaped them, while also calling out what we can learn from their actions and misconceptions today. Some of the mostly men we'll discuss are absolutely deserving of whatever negative reputation has been assigned to them. Most, I think, we'll come to learn, were just doing their best based on what they believed at the time was right and true, because they were molded by a specific understanding of what societies should look like and how they should operate. That doesn't necessarily mean that we should view them as being morally right, but simply to explain why they thought it was morally right. But that's just my current assumption that may change as we dive deeper and deeper into the events of January 1606 through December 1625. By January 1606, over 15 years had passed since Roanoke Governor John White returned to his colony to find it abandoned, and was forced to return home to England before he could discover whether or not his colonists, including his own daughter and baby granddaughter, did indeed make it to their allies, the Croatoans, as was indicated by the word Croatoan, being carved into the fort wall, something that he told his colonists to do if they had to leave the colony while he was away. Like carve into the palisade or a tree or something, where you're going. At that time, Spain and England, at one point in history allies, were now at war with each other. One country staunchly Catholic, the other Protestant, one country rich beyond measure through the exploitation of various indigenous peoples in Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, the other, struggling to compete in European politics and economy after generations of succession crises. Spain, rich and Catholic, had already invaded other European nations, like the Netherlands and Portugal, and England lived in constant fear of being invaded, taken over, and forced back into Catholicism. Colonization was their best chance at gaining a level of wealth and power that would protect them from that possibility, because God forbid people have different religions. I have the feeling did a deep dive into the Protestant Reformation and like how so many kinds of Christianity, so many sects, the word is, have come about and the problems that's caused. I have the feeling all of that's coming soon after this because it just keeps coming up as so influential. But by the time of the Jamestown endeavor, England had a new monarch, was at relative yet tense peace with Spain, and because of Spain's belief that they owned all of the American continent, they risked upsetting them and going back to war with them by establishing this colony. So they kept it secret. Now, I do need to acknowledge that we only have so much time dedicated to learning as much history as possible in grade school. And let's face it, how many of us found our high school history classes thoroughly engaging? No shade. I personally still enjoyed learning it, but I'm also a mega nerd who loved going to school every day. So I'm probably not a great example for everybody else. But the more and more I learn about history in my own time as an adult, the more I'm like, oh my God, why didn't I learn this in school? Again, I understand limited time, but still. One of these things that we didn't learn that I kind of wish we did was that there were numerous attempts at colonization by the English and plenty of other countries like France and the Netherlands that failed. Not just Roanoke. And yet they kept trying. We have this idea, I feel like, that, you know, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and a hundred years later, the English started colonizing, Jamestown started in 1607, we get Pocahontas helping them out, 1620. The Puritans land in Massachusetts, Squanto helps them out, and fast forward to 1776, there are 13 big colonies that rebel and create a new nation. But there's so much more going on to make all of that happen. And the English had to try over and over and over, and Jamestown itself almost failed many times. But they kept going. In a way, I guess we can respect the sheer doggedness and persistence, but it's hard for me to feel any sort of pride in that when you know what happens to the people who were already here. But even before Roanoke, England had tried to establish a settlement in New Finland, up in Canada, in 1583. Then came Roanoke in both 1585, the first failed attempt with Ralph Lane as governor, and 1587, the lost colony with John White as governor. At the same time as Jamestown, they also tried again up north, this time in Sagahatdock, Maine. There was, I don't know which of the colonies was called Nurembega, but there was that. And a few years later, again in New Finland, twice, one somewhat succeeded, but was absorbed by another colony, and the other attempt just flat failed. They wanted to solidify control of the North American mainland to both the North and the South. Areas that Spain saw little economic opportunity in due to its lack of gold, yet they still claimed ownership of it. And the English still believed there was gold. Inaccurately. But the number of times they attempted to colonize America really shows me how desperate they were to make it a success. As if they were holding on by a thread. And this was the only thing that would save them as a nation and guarantee for themselves a long and prosperous future. I mean, based on how history unfolded, I guess technically they weren't wrong. But desperation can lead to questionable, even vile actions. As we will see when we follow the timeline of events in Jamestown, Virginia. I'm currently also, by the way, trying to figure out how to present the leadership of the colony in a digestible way because the infighting, the drama, and constant change of leadership is just wild. I shit you not. It's like mean girls-level cattiness and manipulation sometimes. Like, I think I might end up like relating it to high school clicks. And that can be explained in part by how the leadership of the colony was at first established. When things start, you know, picking up, when plans start being put into place in 1606, as early as January, um, once they figured out, like, okay, we're going to do a private venture, not a public venture, um, we'll organize like this company to get it going. It was decided that a group of men privately sponsored by the Virginia Company, also known as the London Company, would sail to the Chesapeake Bay to find a suitable location for a colony on behalf of King James I. It was the Chesapeake Bay, not the outer banks of North Carolina where they actually ended up, that the Roanoke colonists had initially intended to settle. And since that failed where they ended up, they saw the Chesapeake still as their best bet. And because of the horror of the number of women and children disappearing in Roanoke, they sent only men at first, prioritizing like military prowess, physical labor, strategy, etc. Again, all in secret, just like Roanoke. It was largely spearheaded by James's Secretary of State, the Lord Salisbury, Robert Cecil, who goes down in history along with his father as a great spy master. There's a council in London who kind of play like puppet masters to the leadership of the colony itself. And instead of assigning a governor before they sail, like Roanoke, the first time they said before they sailed, Ralph Lane, you're going to be the governor. John White, you're going to be the governor. They didn't do that here. They chose a panel of leaders from some of the more experienced and or high-status men embarking on the journey, which almost sounds low-key democratic, but it doesn't really end up working. And get this. Was the captain, Captain Christopher Newport, who was like the only person, I think, who actually knew who the panel was, but was sworn to secrecy. And essentially, while they sailed over and got set up, he would be in charge until it was time to put the panel in place. And I don't know if that was a good or bad idea, the whole secrecy thing, because their journey over is such a mess that there's almost mutiny and executions. But Captain Newport is constantly having to put out those fires by reminding them, like, dude, we can't execute this guy because, for all we know, the London Company chose them as one of our leaders. The this guy I'm mostly referring to in this is John Smith, by the way. Bro arrived in North America as a prisoner in shackles, not even allowed off the ship for a while, before eventually being allowed to take his place as the leader of the comp colony, blah, blah, blah. And then eventually being forced to go back to England. But that's a whole like possible murder attempt, accident drama that we'll get into much later. Upon arriving in the Chesapeake Bay, the English colonizers explored the area, sending various smaller ships and boats up the rivers where they had various interactions with numerous tribes, slowly learning the layout and politics of the peoples they encountered. It took them a while to fully understand the nature and government of the Powhatan people, who we discussed in detail in my Pocahontas episodes, and we'll continue to discuss in more detail throughout these episodes. They had many peaceful interactions as well as many conflicts. Finally, finding an island that they thought at first would be perfect, a small island along the Powhatan River, which they renamed the James River, that was already cleared yet not currently inhabited by the local Paspahague people who were part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Because of the time of year they landed, uh, which was like mid-spring, I think, um because of that and the tidal nature of the river, they thought the water was cleaner and fresher than it really was. And especially since they happened to arrive at the very start of a few series or a few years of serious drought, they quickly learned that the water was actually brackish. That basically means like a mixture of salt and fresh water. We'll learn how much of a disaster that ended up being for them and their survival later. But the island where they set up Jamestown was otherwise a pretty key location that met most of the guidelines set out by Richard Hackett. That name might sound familiar because Hacklett, you'll remember if you've listened to my Roanoke series, was a writer, politician, geographer, and apparently Protestant priest who helped promote and advise the adventure. He essentially wrote the book about what to do and what not to do if attempting to colonize America. And the colonists did their best to adhere to every suggestion he made. For example, they were advised to not build a fort right away, so as to not make their presence seem to the Powatan people as permanent. And they were told, you know, bury your dead out of sight of the locals to try and impress upon them that the English were godlike, could not die, and were like supernaturally powerful, which they never believed, but we'll also see later that that didn't last long. And over the many years of Jamestown's existence, before it finally became clear that it would actually survive, it had many governors. The panel, the democratic panel, whatever, didn't last very long. And the Virginia company ended up having to actually assign governors. Um, and it just the constant change of leadership did not help. The governors were all largely aristocrats, or probably entirely aristocrats, people with position, status, but the majority of men who went over were by the standards and hierarchy of England at the time, honestly, nothing special. George Percy, one of the um higher status leaders, writes that the hundred and four men to settle Jamestown were, quote, gentlemen, artisans, laborers, and servant boys. End quote. The word gentlemen at this time means specifically the aristocratic class. Like, not like we say, like, okay, ladies and gentlemen, like, gentlemen was a specific group of people. But those gentlemen going to Virginia, with the exception of maybe one or two, were second sons. They weren't the oldest. They had someone older than them who was the actual heir or whatever. Like, if you have watched Downton Abbey, or uh you have heard the phrase like an heir and a spare, I think, isn't uh Prince Harry's book like the spare or something like that? I forget. I haven't read it. Um, but if that like sounds familiar to you, you probably have some understanding of the practice of uh what what do historians call it, primogeniture. The oldest son inherits everything. Some money would be set aside to support the other siblings, like dowries for the daughters, but everything really went to the first son, the land, the money, the business, the aristocratic title. Any younger sons would really have to fend for themselves, make their own way in the world, or find success for themselves. A lot of people who end up being clergy are actually younger sons. Um, and Jamestown, or really colonization as a practice in general, provided just that very opportunity. Like, oh, look how rich Spanish colonizers became. Maybe if I can't inherit all of the money and property that my dad had, maybe I can do that for myself. Like that kind of attitude. But they were in for a rude as hell awakening. It was not going to be a, oh, I'm gonna sail over there, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna make money. No. The first few years, especially, were an utterly insane fight for survival. With John Smith playing the go-between for a little bit, the Powhatan supported them for the first, like maybe year or so. But their continuing selfish and violent behavior meant that by the autumn of 1609, they were at war. The very first official war between the natives of Turtle Island and the English, it was called the Anglo-Powatan War, uh, it didn't end until after Pocahontas' marriage to John Rolfe in 1614. So it lasted like five years. And the winter of 1609 to 1610 was I don't I don't even know how to describe the level of suffering they faced because the phrase they and historians use, the starving time, doesn't even it gives a hint, but it really doesn't even begin to capture the depth of desperation they were facing. And somehow, miraculously, that spring in 1610, two ships carrying new settlers, including John Rolfe, and supplies that had been shipwrecked in Bermuda for like a year, finally arrived, providing some assistance, but a lot of those provisions ended up being used while being shipwrecked on an island in Bermuda. Um, but just after that, like two months later, they nearly abandoned everything. Like, literally boarded every ship, left no one behind, unlike when Ralph Lane abandoned Roanoke and uh Grenville came by and he left like 15 men just to man the fort, just to say, okay, we're gonna keep this colony going. Like, no, they they didn't do that. They were all like, no, absolutely not. This sucks. I'm going home. They were supposed to have a resupply ship coming, but it was super late. And they were like, We're gonna die. So they pack everything up, they board the ships, they sail down the river towards the Chesapeake Bay, and in the Chesapeake Bay, on their way to abandon everything, they encounter the resupply ship with the new governor. And they all have to turn back around and go back to Jamestown. Over the next few years, still constantly struggling, they do their best to expand beyond the island of Jamestown. More and more people are coming over. Rolf begins experimenting with tobacco, they kidnap Pocahontas, tobacco starts thriving, they make peace with the Powhatan again, they have like four different governors, the few surviving of the original 104 settlers are granted land by the English crown, like it was theirs to give. Pocahontas dies, and official organized government, the first of its kind in North America, or at least by the English in North America, begins taking shape by the end of 1618. And then 1619. 1619 is an absolutely pivotal year in American history. Kidnapped and enslaved Africans arrived for the first time in this area. I'm pretty sure they already, I mean, they were already in the Caribbean, I'm pretty sure they were already in South America, Florida, but north of that, there were no enslaved Africans yet until 1619. And that kick starts two hundred and forty six years. Nearly the amount of time that we are about to celebrate our country being established. You know, land of the free and all that. But even more than that, we have the arrival of the famous tobacco brides. Women essentially bought by settlers to travel across the ocean to be their wives. Because, you know, things are starting to kind of kick off. There are a few women there, but if we really want to try and make a success out of this, we should be focusing on starting families. And let's face it, these men are probably getting very lonely. Uh, so yeah, send them some wives. I only learned about this actually in the last couple of years, and I was, I don't even know. Like, that shouldn't be all that shocking a practice for the time period, but when we go into detail about this, maybe you'll see what I mean. Like, something about it just like seems weird to me. And 1619 was also the year of the first representative assembly, like actual real government and arguably the first actual quote Thanksgiving feast that they at the time called a Thanksgiving feast. If you listened to my Thanksgiving special during my Mayflower episodes, you'll remember that what we consider to be the first Thanksgiving was absolutely not. But you can go back and listen to that episode if you want the full story. Um, so that's 1619. And tensions are again rising with the Powhatan. If you remember from my Pocahontas episodes, by the time Pocahontas dies and John Rolfe returns to Virginia, Powhatan, Chief Powhatan, the Memenotawic Wahen Seneca, um had retired, and then I think around 1619, he passes away. And now his brother or cousin, uh his number two, Opi Kankano, is in charge. And from the earliest days of these colonizers arriving, Opi Kankano wanted them gone. I think he and his people were even the very first to attack the settlement. And now he's watching this settlement get more and more permanent. Industry starts rising with glassmakers. Um I think they send over people to make like soap or something. Uh other skilled workers, they're arriving. There's a massive amount more settlers arriving, and Opi Kankino tries to finish what he intended the very first time he attacked the fort in 1607. In 1622, he mounts an organized widespread massacre of any settler beyond the confines or immediate vicinity of Jamestown Island itself. A quarter to a third of the population of settlers, something like 350 men, women, and children were brutally murdered. But it doesn't work. Even though another starving time hits, along with another war with the Powatin. And things are such a mess that investigations are launched into the leadership of Jamestown and the Virginia Company. And by the end of 1625, the Virginia Company has lost its charter, it completely disbands, and Jamestown becomes an official crown colony, meaning the king and his government directly control the leadership of the colony. It is no longer a private venture. Thus ends twenty years of Jamestown colony limping from mess to mess, crises to crises, hanging on by thread after thread, somehow succeeding and paving the way for a massive boom of European colonization across North America, forever changing the landscape of what they called the new world, disenfranchising an entire continent of people already living on and cultivating the land, setting up generations of descendants, like mine, or my ancestors, rather, who would call this place home and would fight and die for it to be free from tyranny. Jamestown, I believe, is the moment. 1625 is the point of no return. Arguably, this is where the American Revolution becomes inevitable. Because like no colonies before, so many hopeful colonists begin settling in North America that by 1776, how could one tiny island nation thousands of miles across a vast ocean control two and a half million people across four hundred and thirty thousand square miles, giving them no say in what happens to them despite them being that country's citizens. The lost colony of Roanoke, we may be able to consider the germinating seed. But Jamestown is where America takes root. And we're going to follow a chronological timeline of Jamestown in more detail as I try to immerse us in the day-to-day experiences of what it would have been like to be those individuals, especially those very first settlers, going over colonizing an unfamiliar land, barely surviving. Interspersed, we'll have special focus episodes, I think, diving deeper into like very specific experiences, people, or events, etc. Like, I think I'm going to do one full episode just about the starving time, another one about the tobacco brides, and definitely one about slavery. Although sometime in the future, once I get through all like, you know, colonial and revolutionary American history, we will absolutely be doing like a massive series on slavery, I'm sure. And I have the feeling that the number of episodes dedicated to understanding Jamestown specifically and its impact on the future of America, uh, it'll definitely be in the double digits. But I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really excited to understand a pivotal moment in the history of my country to a depth that I never have before. I really hope you're just as excited as I am to jump in with me, immerse yourself. And last but not least, it just goes for me to say, stay curious, folks. General Curiosity is a research written, edited, and posted by me and Alex Joe.