 Pitch and Tar Swamp at Jamestown |
 reconstructed pallisade at James Fort |
 modern seawall at Jamestown |
 monument for 350th anniversary in 1957 |
(click on images for larger versions)
Pitch and Tar Swamp at Jamestown |
reconstructed pallisade at James Fort |
modern seawall at Jamestown |
monument for 350th anniversary in 1957 |
After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the role of the Pilgrims and Puritans who had settled in Massachusetts began to receive more attention than the role of the English who had settled Virginia. By 2007, the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, that historical imbalance will be corrected - but the role of Jamestown may be over-emphasized. To understand it in context, it is necessary to understand how international rivalries with Spain and France shaped the location of Jamestown and the settlement of Virginia.
The English were not the first people to arrive in Virginia, just as Columbus was not the first person to realize the earth was round. (Ptolemy showed the earth was round in his Geography, which established the concept of latitude and longitude 1,400 years before Jamestown.). Asian hunter-gatherers got here first, about 15,000 years earlier. The Spanish explored the Chesapeake Bay and, in 1570, sent Catholic missionaries to convert the natives there and to expand the power of Spain north from Cuba.
However, the first permanent European settlement in North America, St. Augustine, never developed under the Spanish beyond its role as a fort (presidio). It prevented pirates or other nations from establishing a base to capture Spanish ships carrying gold and silver home from the New World, and St. Augustine also protected Catholic missionaries - but the Spanish never tried to "plant" a large number of permanent settlers there.
The English arrived at Jamestown after a 4-month journey from London. One basic geography question to explore is "Why did the English settle Virginia - and why did they start at Jamestown?" Factors to consider include:
The English settled at Jamestown, a place chosen in accord with the original instructions to the colony (and in reaction to the Spanish killing 350 Frenchmen in 1565, when they blocked the effort of the French to establish Fort Caroline on the coast of Florida):
| But if you choose your place so far up as a bark of fifty tuns will float, then you may lay all your provisions ashore with ease, and the better receive the trade of all the countries about you in the land; and such a place you may perchance find a hundred miles from the river's mouth, and the further up the better. For if you sit down near the entrance, except it be in some island that is strong by nature, an enemy that may approach you on even ground, may easily pull you out; and if he be driven to seek you a hundred miles [in] the land in boats, you shall from both sides of the river where it is narrowest, so beat them with your muskets as they shall never be able to prevail against you.1 |
They picked that island far upstream to avoid the Spanish, the first Europeans to attempt to establish a settlement in Virginia. To a lesser extent, the English also feared the French and the Dutch. The constant international conflicts between European nations were a key factor in determining the location and the defenses of the new English colony halfway across the world. The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery sailed past the later sites of Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampton, and Newport News. Those were clearly convenient places to settle and there was plenty of fresh water available from inland steams and wells, but Hampton Roads (and of course the Eastern Shore) were too exposed to attack by one or more enemy ships. The fears were realistic. At various times, pirates, Dutch, British, and Yankee attacks showed the Hampton Roads area to be vulnerable to enemy attack.
So the English sailed "so far up as a bark of fifty tuns will float." They could have sailed further upstream than Jamestown, for that matter.
The English ships in 1607 were "shallow draft." They would float in just a few feet of water, and the James was easily navigated upstream to the falls. The ships used by the English to sail across the Atlantic Ocean appear ridiculously small to modern viewers. Visit the Jamestown Settlement and compare the Discovery to the size of a school bus... So why didn't Christopher Newport keep sailing until reaching the furthest point inland, before settling the colonists in one spot?
To answer the question, you have to remember that transatlantic shipping was the lifeline for the colony. The colonists were far better prepared than Father Seguera and the Spanish missionaries when they landed nearby in 1570, but the Jamestown settlement was not able to survive the early years without resupply from England. The delivery of the supplies was not always synchronized with the needs. In January 1608 Jamestown was destroyed by fire right after the First Supply ships arrived. Other ships disappeared or were wrecked in the journey. With 20-20 hindsight we know that the English needed more farmers willing to labor in growing food, and fewer gentlemen interested in adventure and treasure hunting without having to get their hands dirty in Virginia soil. The resupply in 1609 demonstrates the problem most clearly.
Storms interrupted the Third Supply expedition in 1609, diverting the leaders to Bermuda while delivering 300 new settlers in August. That was far too late in the year to plant a crop, and the surviving ships did not bring enough food to feed all the colonists through the winter. The horror of the "Starving Time," when the majority of the colonists died and one person even killed and ate his wife ("powdered" with salt), shows that Jamestown was not a self-sufficient community. Instead, it was an isolated seaport at the end of the line for international trade, an isolated outpost that required constant replenishment until the Virginia Company shifted its perspective on how to settle Virginia.
