The Jamestown Settlement a Teaching Unit for 4Th Grade Students
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ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME The Jamestown Settlement A Teaching Unit for 4th Grade Students Prepared By: Kaitlin Van Buren Url: http://kvanburen.wmwikis.net/ Submitted as Partial Requirement for ED 405 Elementary and Middle Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction Professor Gail McEachron The College of William and Mary Fall 2010 Contents Historical Narrative Map/Globe Skills: Identifying the significance of Jamestown’s location Critical Thinking and the Arts : Identifying the significance of Powhatan wampum belts Civic Engagement: Biography of John Rolfe Global Inquiry: Exploring archeological findings at Jamestown Assessments: Objective and Essay Bibliography Appendix A: National and State Standards Expenses ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME Historical Narrative Introduction and Alignment with Standards The commonwealth of Virginia has been a birthplace for many of the United States’ founding fathers and has played a major role in the history of our nation; however, before Virginia became a part of the United States, it was a colony inhabited by English colonists, the Powhatan Indians, and African slaves. In fact, the colony of Virginia possessed the first permanent settlement of the English colonies after a group of one hundred and four men and young boys sailed from London and landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They hoped to profit from the opportunities in the New World. The Jamestown settlement was named after England’s King James I and the fort that the European settlers built was called James Fort, both to honor the English crown. The Jamestown settlement is important for Virginia fourth grade students to learn because it marks the beginning of Virginia history and gives students insight about interactions among the European settlers, Powhatan Indians, and Africans during the early years of United States’ history. When learning about Jamestown, the students are exposed to the physical geography of Virginia, the reasons behind English colonization, the role of women, Powhatan Indians, and Africans in colonization, what daily life was like in the colonies, and the hardships the European settlers, Powhatan Indians, and Africans had to face to make Jamestown a lasting settlement (See Virginia Standards of Learning in Appendix A). Studying Jamestown engages Virginia students, for the reason that their nation’s history originated in their home state. It is important to present the students with many different perspectives of life in Jamestown and emphasize the multi-gender and multicultural dimension of Jamestown’s history, so that the students may understand that men and women from the Powhatan Indians, Africans, and 2 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME Europeans are all equally significant. This will offer the students a diverse social studies curriculum. Key Ideas and Events The main goal of settling in Jamestown, Virginia, was to create a colony from which England could financially profit. Businessmen, who wanted to make obtain wealth from Jamestown’s resources bought shares of the Virginia Company, often called the London Company. The London Company gave command to Christopher Newport, captain of the Susan Constant , John Ratcliff, captain of the Discovery , and Bartholomew Gosnold, captain of the Godspeed. The three ships carried various supplies needed for settlement including building materials, weaponry, barges for water transportation, gardening tools, hatchets, and mirrors to trade with the natives (Cooper, 2006). While Newport and Ratcliff were brave leaders, Bartholomew Gosnold was perhaps the most influential European man in the history of Jamestown because he initiated the movement in England that led to the King granting a charter to Jamestown in 1606 (Gookin, 1950). Gosnold recruited his assistant John Smith and others to travel with him to the New World. The London Council of the Virginia Company asked him to search for wealth in the form of minerals and natural resources (Gookin, 1950). Gosnold married into the family of the first Treasurer of the Virginia Company, which created a liaison between powerful leadership in Jamestown and the English money necessary to sustain the Jamestown settlement. Unfortunately, Gosnold died of disease just four months after arriving at Jamestown. After Gosnold’s death, John Smith and Matthew Scrivener took on the roles of leaders, yet the two men held opposing views on relations with the native Powhatan 3 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME Indians. The London Council was dissatisfied with the way in which John Smith commanded Jamestown, especially with his maltreatment of the Powhatan Indians (Gookin, 1950). John Smith, who is often known as an explorer, a mapmaker, a geographer, an ethnographer, a soldier, a governor, a trader, a sailor, and an author bullied the Powhatan chiefs by threatening them with weapons in exchange for food (Montgomery, 1994). His recklessness led the Council to support Scrivener’s more passive leadership style. With the death of Jamestown’s leaders like Gosnold and Scrivener within the first year of settlement, power was left in the hands of John Smith who often offended other colonists with his arrogant demeanor. Smith John Smith returned to England in 1609 when he heard that Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates were slated to take control of the Jamestown government until the appointment Governor General of the Colony Lord de la Ware arrived (Gookin, 1950). This negative account of John Smith is rare because many historians and students study John Smith’s biased recording of history found in his diaries. In his diaries, Smith portrays himself as a brave hero who protected the European settlers and eventually befriended the Powhatan Indians. In fact, John Smith’s Eurocentric version of history is the most well known account of early life in the Jamestown settlement. Unfortunately, it is a struggle to discern which aspects of John Smith’s diaries are fact or fiction, and written documents from the Powhatan perspective are rare because most of their accounts were passed down as oral history. Life in Jamestown was difficult from the start for both the European settlers and the Powhatan Indians with plaguing disease, inhospitable relationships, and famine. However, opportunity arose for the European settlers with John Rolfe, an entrepreneur 4 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME who arrived to Jamestown in 1609, experimented with tobacco and created the first profitable export for the colony (Preservation Virginia, 2007). Rolfe obtained his tobacco seeds from the Caribbean and planted them in Virginia soil. Through his experimentation, he established the first American enterprise of tobacco trade that exported over 20,000 pounds of tobacco to England in 1617 (Preservation Virginia, 2007). With the growing economy in the tobacco industry in Jamestown and the desire to gain the most revenue possible from these “cash crops”, the need to acquire more slaves through the trans-Atlantic slave trade increased greatly. Although Africans did not arrive in Jamestown until 1619, it is important to notice their presence. The first known Africans in Virginia were from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola and were forcefully brought to Jamestown for labor in the tobacco fields (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, 2010). At the time that the Africans were arriving in Virginia, it was unclear whether or not they would be considered slaves or indentured servants who would be set free after completing their work. However, the Europeans soon concluded that they would benefit more from slavery, and began to treat the Africans as personal property. While the British colonies struggled to create structure in Jamestown, the Powhatan Indians, who occupied coastal Virginia long before the settlers arrived, lived in villages and had an organized tribal society. The larger group, known as the Powhatan Indians, was comprised of over 14,000 people that were separated into 30 separate tribes based on village location (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, 2010). A Wahunsonacock, also known as a ‘Powhatan’ had control over all 30 tribes. Although the settlers viewed the Powhatans as uncivilized savages, the natives operated in a hierarchical society determined by one’s success and achievement, a governmental structure not appreciated 5 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME by the settlers. The social rankings included simple commoners, great warriors, priests, and rulers. When a native excelled in warfare or obtained luxury items like fur, copper, and beads from trade, he moved up the social ladder and was given a larger home, more wives, and ornate clothing (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, 2010). While the English settlers were Protestant Christians, the Powhatan religion was comprised of a multitude of gods and natural spirits like Oke and Ahone, the gods of protection and good things (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, 2010). The Powhatans presented these spirits with gifts and looked to them for guidance. Men, Women, Youth, and Children In the early years of the Jamestown settlement, over half of the founding colonists of Jamestown were upper-class English gentlemen (Cooper, 2006). However, many men like John Smith were artisans, craftsmen, and laborers who wanted to make a name for themselves in the New World. While influential men appear heroic in textbooks and John Smith’s diary entries, the presence of European women and children has been ignored in recollections of Jamestown’s history. In reality, women and children were living in the settlement by 1610 after the first single, white woman arrived