2007 issue 4-5 - the history of jamestown - counsel of chalcedon

8/11/2019 2007 Issue 4-5 - The History of Jamestown - Counsel of Chalcedon

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he

History

of

Janwsto wn

for defense and breaking out

the firearms, which had been

crated until

then. Survival

would henceforth call for

defensive diligence as well as

trade with their

antagonists. By

the winter of 1607, more than

one hundred of the settlers had

died from drinking polluted

river water, murder by Indians,

and

starvation-related diseases.

The

majority

of the remaining

Englishmen refused to work or

take steps

to ensure

their own

survival. The council

members

deposed

President Wingfield

and

placed John Smith in

charge

of

securing

supplies,

building of houses, and

developing favorable relations

with the naturals.

The new

president

John

Ratcliffe,

ordered Smith to establish

trade relations with down-

river tribes, and

his

efforts

met with great success. Smith

learned

enough

Algonquin

to strike hard bargains with

the

weroances for food. He

also forced the colonists to

work

hard

at

keeping

up

their

gardens, homes,

and

the fort.

In December of 1607, Smith

was seized by warriors during

a river expedition

and

was

brought face-to-face with the

great chief of the Powhatans

at

the native's capitol,

Werowocomoco. According

to Smith's own poignant

account of this event,

he

was

saved from execution by one

of Wahunsenacah's young

daughters Pocahontas.

The following

year

of 1608

brought several infusions of

new settlers to the struggling

colony and saw the election of

John

Smith

as president. Smith

spent

months exploring and

mapping

the Chesapeake region

and

conducting

both

diplomacy

and

hard bargaining

with the

Powhatans. During the

one

year that he served as leader

of the colony, John

Smith

brought

order

and

discipline

to

Jamestown,

implementing

the

policy, he who will not

work, shall not eat. In late

summer, a new charter arrived

from England and George

Percy became president;

another gentleman whose

incompetence resulted in the

horrible Starving Time which

saw

many

die from hunger.

After suffering a gunpowder

injury, John

Smith returned

to

England

in

October of 1609

leaving five hundred Virginia

colonists

behind. Within six

months

only

sixty

men were

stil l alive.

The

colonists' struggles

continued.

The

new Lt.

Governor,

Thomas

Gates,

arrived at Jamestown

in May

of 1610. After viewing

the

wretched and

apparently

hopeless condition of

the

settlement, he

soon

resolved

to

return to England. Upon

their departure the colonists

buried their cannon and set

out for the mother country

on June 7 As the dispirited

colonists sailed for home,

they

were providentially

met

by the

arriving relief expedition led

by

the new Governor Thomas

West, Lord De

La

Warr.

This

merciful Providence of

God

was obvious for all

to see and

was even

recorded

in a

tract

published

later

that year

in

England

by the

Virginia

Company, which read:

.for if God

had not

sent

Sir Thomas

Gates from

the

Bermudas within four days,

they had

been

almost

famished;

if

God had not

directed the

heart of that noble Knight to

save the Fort from firing

at

their

shipping, for many were

very

importunate to have burnt it,

they had

been

destitute of a

present

harbor and succor; if

they had abandoned

the Fort

any longer time, and had not

soon

returned

questionless the

Indians

would have dest royed

the Fort, which had been the

means of our safety amongst

them and a terror. f they

had set sail sooner and

had

launched into the vast ocean

who would have promised that

they

should have encountered

the Fleet of Lord La Ware,

especially when they made

for New found land, as

they

intended

a course contrary

to

our Navy's approaching.

f the

Lord

la

Ware had

not brought

with

him a year's provision,

what comfort would those

souls have received, to have

been relanded to a

second

destruction? (From John

Smith's Generall Historie of

Virginia)

Governor West ruled with

resolve, as well as with

occasional violence, and

eventually restored

Jamestown

to a

healthy

condition. He,

however, was forced to leave

nine months later due to ill

health. The new Lieutenant

governor, the uncompromising

Thomas Dale, arrived in May

1611

with

three

hundred more

settlers. The English were there

to stay.

Thomas Dale's influential four

year tenure brought about

economic stability based

on tobacco production and

exportation. Entrepreneur John

Rolfe successfully cultivated

various strains

of the noxious

The Gonftsel

of

Gha.lcedon



leaf, and

by

1617 the plant was

grown all

around

even in

the

streets of Ja111estown.

By

the

year 1618,

the

oolonists were

shipping forty

thousand pounds

of tobaooo

to

England.

In 1613, Pooahontas was

kidnapped by the ruthless ship

oaptain Sanluel Argall

and

held hostage for the return of

English oaptives

and

stolen

goods. Even

this

unexpeoted

Providenoe worked to

the

glory of God, for

the n g l i s h ~

speaking

prinoess responded

in faith upon

hearing

the

Gospel,

and

eventually

married

John Rolfe

in

April 1614,

She later bore a son whose

nU111erous

desoendants· today

look with thanksgiving

upon

their

perspioaoious and heroio

grandmother,

The

year

1619 proved

to be one

of the

most

iIllportant in

the

history of

the

oolony and for

the future of Al11erioa. In April

of

that

year, Governor Thol11as

Yeardley

brought the Virginia.

Company's nlost reoent

oharter

whioh oalled for a legislative

assembly

and

allowed for

the

private ownership of land.

Also

in that

year,

the

oOll1pany

Wisely

sent

a

ship

of l11aidens

to

Jamestown to

provide

wives for

the

oolonists, thus

ensuring its survival

through

births rather than oonstant

1l1ale

inll11igration.

By 1620,

the English

population

in

Virginia stood

at

around 2,200.

Additionally,

in

1619, a Dutoh

ship left twenty Afrioans

to

work

the

plantations perhaps

as

indentured

servants. By

the

end of the oentury, slavery

had

beoome institutionalized in

Virginia and all the oolonies.

Though

the

oolony was

IMa king the NaLion s

Christ s

D isciples

growing, conflict

between the

tribes and the settlers

see111ed

ende111io. In

1618,

the great

chief

of

the Powhatans

died.

Over

the

previous eleven years,

few if

any

of

the

original

goals of

the

Virginia

C0111pany

had been met, including

suocessful evangelization of

the

native peoples.

The

two

cultures

re111ained separate

and

at

odds as the Englislll11en

nl0ved

further

inland. In

1622, the new para1110unt

chief, Opechancanough

led

a

nlurderous

o l o n y ~ w i d e attaok

in an

attel11pt

to annihilate

all

the

settlel11ents

and

plantations

along

the Ja111eS

and

York Rivers. More

than

three hundred people were

l11assacred.

The oounterattack

by

the

English was just

as ferocious

and to add to

everyone's woes, plague and

fa111ine

broke out a1110ng

both

antagonists. Finally,

in

April

1623,

the Powhatan chief sued

for peace saying, blud enough

had

already

been

shedd

on both

sides.

The

English

founders

of

Virginia were 111en of flesh and

blood. They faced trel11endous

hardships and nl0st of thel11

died within a year of landing.

Nonetheless

God

in His

wisd0111

had ordained

that

they suoceed

at great

cost and establish free,

representative

govenll11ent

in

North America.

Through the

sacrificial efforts of a

tough

but

wise soldier of fortune

in John

Sl11ith, a gifted

and persistent

Christian

businessl11an

in John

Rolfe,

an extraordinary Indian

princess

in

Pocahontas and a

diverse

c0111pany

of

other

folk,

Providence

secured

a

future

nation.

The

Ilist01:V

f Jarnesto l.Q)ft

2007 issue 4-5 - the history of jamestown - counsel of chalcedon

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