The Jamestownstory
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The Story Jamestown Classroom By Ford Flannagan & Bruce Craig Miller Connections Teacher Resources In the Classroom For Teachers & Students Grades 6 - 8 Theatre IV’s The Jamestown Story and the Classroom Connections Study Guide are produced in sup- port of the teaching of these Virginia Standards of Learning in History and Social Sciences: USII.1, CE.1, CE.2, CE.4, CE.9, and in English: 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.1, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7. John Smith Trading with Native Americans Courtesy National At the Library Park Service, Colonial National Historical Park The Jamestown Colony, by Gail Sakurai Play Synopsis: The Double Life of Pocahontas, by The play is told, or narrated, by a troupe of traveling actors. It is 1699, Jean Fritz and the Capital of the Virginia Colony has just moved to Williams- The World of Captain John Smith, by burg. The acting troupe is touring Virginia with their music and drama. Genevieve Foster We learn that they are about to tell the story of Jamestown. But their audience does not want to hear of the suffering and bad times in the first settlement during those early years. They’d rather look away On the Web from Jamestown and the past and look toward Williamsburg, and the future. However, one Englishman, a newcomer to the colonies, whose The following web sites have activities great grandfather had come to Jamestown in 1607, wants to hear the and information related to the James- tale for he desires knowledge of his heritage. So the actors tell The town Colony. Jamestown Story, covering the years from 1606 to 1699. The following is a timeline of their tale: www.apva.org April, 1606: King April 26, 1607: www.virtualjamestown.org James I of England The colonists grants charter to The land at what Virginia Company of is now Cape www.historyisfun.org Timeline continued London Henry. on pgs. 2-3... www.jamestown1607.org www.jamestown2007.org December, 1606: Three May 13, 1607: The colonists www.historicjamestowne.org ships, The Susan Constant, sail up a river they name The The Godspeed, & The James & land at a site they www.jamestownjourney.org Discovery sail from England call Jamestown. They soon with 144 men, led by Cap- meet Algonquian Indians from tain Christopher Newport. the Powhatan Nation. Did you Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Jamestown 1. Three weeks of the five He included this story in his opposed to the rais- month voyage to Virginia in second draft of his Generall ing of tobacco as 1606 - 1607 was spent in Historie of Virginia when Poca- he felt that smoking English waters because of bad hontas was visiting England. was a foul habit. weather. Pocahontas had caused such 7. Today there are seven rec- 2. Only one out of every five excitement that perhaps John Smith wanted a bit of the spot- ognized tribes totaling 9,500 settlers survived the first year Powhatan Indians. The Pamun- at Jamestown. light, so he may have made up the story. However, it is inter- key and Mattaponi reservations 3. Captain John esting to note that it was not (1,000 acres) cover much of Smith was put in uncommon for Indian women the same territory as the origi- chains on the to rescue prisoners from ex- nal lands. These were the first voyage to the ecution. A woman who granted two Indian reservations estab- New World be- such a reprieve would take the lished in the United States. cause several of former prisoner as her own and 8. One of the first English wom- his rivals ac- he would be accepted into en to arrive in Jamestown, in cused him the tribe. 1608, was young Anne Burras. of wanting 5. The first Africans Her marriage to carpenter John to become “king” of Laydon three months after her Virginia. in Jamestown were not slaves but In- arrival became the first James- 4. John Smith’s dentured Servants. town wedding. fabled rescue from Some gained their 9. By 1640, the annual import execution by Poca- freedom after their of Virginia tobacco in England hontas was probably indenture, but it was was nearly a million and a half just that - a fable. common for Africans pounds a year. Smith, a dramatic type to be held in servitude 10. Wahunsonacock was “Chief of person, never made for life. Slavery did not Powhatan.” He was the undis- public this adventure until some become law until 1661. years later while in England. puted leader of 30 Algonquian 6. King James I of England was tribes in Tidewater Virginia. Summer, 1607: Many colo- January, 1608: Smith’s nists die as a result of heat, rivals, Archer and Ratcliff, disease, & mismanagement hold him responsible for the September, 1609: John Smith is se- of the colony. Increasingly, deaths of the Englishmen verely burned in an accident and must John Smith is looked to for who had been captured with leave Jamestown. He never returns. leadership. Smith by the Indians. Late 1607: Smith has en- Winter, 1609 - 1610: The Starv- counter with Powhatan & Po- 1609: Jamestown ing Time. After Smith leaves, catontas. Is the legend about gets a second charter, Jamestown suffers its worst Pocahontas ‘saving’ Smith’s giving the Virginia experience. Starvation, disease, life true? It is unlikely. Company direct con- and exposure bring death to 440 trol over the Colony. out of 500. Indian relations are dangerously strained. We Set the Stage for Learning™ Theatre IV, Richmond, VA 2 Names to Remember: Can you Match Them? Chief of the thirty or so Algonquian Indian Tribes in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Though he was resentful of the English invading his land, he did not want war. His real name was Wahunsonacock. Christopher Newport An able and noted sailor who led the first voyage to Virginia. He also was named as a councilman in the first governing body of Jamestown. This farmer came to Jamestown in 1610. He experiment- ed with the tobacco plant and came up with a blend of seeds that appealed to European tastes. Tobacco became John Smith the major cash crop in the colony, allowing it to survive economically. He married Pocahontas in 1614, helping to establish peace between the Native Americans and the English, an era called The Peace of Pocahontas. He was chosen by the Virginia Company of London to be Powhatan the one ‘able and absolute’ Governor when the company was granted its second charter in 1609. After “The Starv- ing Time” he arrived in Jamestown and under his guidance the colony prospered. Poor health forced him to return to England after only one year. Pocahontas Dissent within the colony grew due to lack of supplies, laziness, and chaos; as a result, he was elected president of the local council in September 1608. A strict leader, he strengthened defenses, and encouraged farming. “He who does not work, will not eat.” Because of his strong lead- ership, the settlement survived and grew. Unfortunately, John Rolfe he was injured by a gunpowder burn and had to return to England, never to return to Virginia again. Daughter of Powhatan who befriended the colonists and helped them survive. She married John Rolfe. This mar- riage ushered in an era known as the Peace of Poca- hontas because it encouraged cooperation between the Thomas West, (Lord De La Warr) Powhatans and the English. She traveled to England in 1616 and died there a year later. Upon her marriage, she took the Christian name Rebeckah. 1619 - 1620: To advance the colony, the September 19, 1676: Nathaniel Bacon leads Virginia Company sends large numbers of southside Virginians against the Indians and women to Jamestown. The first Africans also in violation of Governor Berkeley’s wishes. He arrive during this time, probably as Indentured openly rebels against Berkley and burns James- Servants. Representative government begins town to the ground before dying of dysentery on to take hold; Democracy has its roots in these October 26. early years. 1611 - 1614: Thomas Dale, acting Governor, 1624: The Virginia 1698: A fire at Jamestown destroys encourages colonists to fend for themselves. He Company loses its the statehouse and it is never rebuilt. puts an end to the ‘common kettle’ policy, where- charter and James- The capital is moved five miles away to by everyone shares in the colony’s stores, and town becomes a Williamsburg. levies a tax calling for a yearly payment of corn Royal Colony. to build up an emergency surplus. Dale proves to be a stern leader; under him the colony prospers. During this time John Rolfe marries Pocahontas, and develops tobacco as a cash crop. We Set the Stage for Learning™ Theatre IV, Richmond, VA 3 Jamestown’s Economy The colony at Jamestown could not have survived without developing an effective economy. Use the Economics terms from the box as a resource to identify which term belongs with which statement about Jamestown. 1. John Rolfe developed a type of tobacco plant that appealed to tastes in Europe. Tobacco became Jamestown’s cash crop. A plant such as tobacco is an example of what? _____________________ 2 Indentured servants, slaves, and free men and women working in the Virginia Colony were exam- ples of the Colony’s _________________________________. 3. The people in Europe who bought tobacco from the Virginia Colony were ___________________. 4. When Thomas Dale became Governor of the Jamestown Colony, he did away with the policy of ev- eryone sharing equally in the colony’s prosperity, regardless of their contribution.