The Jamestown Colony A Teaching Unit for Kindergarten Students Prepared by: Amanda Blair Url: http://arblai.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 Spring 2009 Contents: - Historical Narrative: The Jamestown Settlement - Map/Globe Skills Lesson: A Voyage to the New World - Critical Thinking and the Arts: Portraits of Pocahontas - Civic Engagement: Pocahontas: Friend of the Settlers - Global Inquiry: Exposing the Truth in Disneyʼs Pocahontas - Assessments - Bibliography - Appendix A: National and State Standards Historical Narrative: The Jamestown Settlement Introduction The study of the Jamestown settlement is a necessity for any kindergarten through sixth grade student in the United States. This settlement was the first English stronghold in North America and planted the seeds for what would become the United States of America, a country whose culture, government, and religion stem from an English settlement and way of life. The interactions of these first settlers with the native people also set a standard for how these groups of people would be treated later on. In addition, the study of Jamestown can be implemented into just about every level of social studies. For example, Kindergarten students can study the importance of Pocahontas to the early settlers, the terms near and far as related to the start and finish of the voyage to Jamestown, and the use of inquiry to find out the truth in Disneyʼs movie on this topic. (See Appendix A) Key Ideas and Events The story of Jamestown begins with the granting of a charter by King James I to the Virginia Company of London in order to establish a settlement in North America. In addition to settling the land, they are also instructed by the king to find gold and to locate a route by water to the Orient. In December of 1606, 104 settlers consisting of gentlemen, artisans, craftsmen, and laborers leave London by ship. They arrive on May 14, 1607 on the banks of the James River (“History of Jamestown”, 2009). The early days of Jamestown did not prove to be easy. Settlers found themselves, almost immediately, in combat with the native Algonquians. This forced the settlers to build some sort of security. Within a month of settling in Jamestown, the residents had already built a wooden fort in the shape of a triangle around their homes, church, and storehouse. This fort did not totally protect them from the attacks by the natives and did nothing to protect the early settlers from the disease carrying mosquitoes of this swampy area. These circumstances in addition to a famine took a toll on the population of Jamestown. If not for the leadership of Captain John Smith, as explained in an upcoming paragraph, the colony might have completely disappeared (“History of Jamestown”, 2009). The winter of 1609 brought even harder times for the settlers. A failure to plant crops early enough led to a severe shortage of food, known as the “Starving Time”. Only sixty of the original settlers survived this time period. The summer following this hard period saw the settlers completely giving up hope and deciding to abandon Jamestown. Just as they were leaving, a new governor, Lord De La Ware, arrives with supplies, and the settlers are persuaded to return to their fort (“The Starving Time”, 2009). The years that followed still held their fair share of suffering, but there was at least a period of peace between the natives and the settlers due to a marriage between Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the natives, and John Rolfe, a tobacco entrepreneur. John Rolfe also brought a source of income into Jamestown by helping to introduce the settlers to tobacco farming. Tobacco eventually became the first “cash crop” of Virginia and the only industry that settlers seemed to focus on (Borio). This new industry caused a need for more laborers. In 1617 the headright system was established by the Virginia Company. This system allowed current settlers to pay for the passage of servants in return for land. These servants had to work on the land for a period of time following their arrival. Eventually these indentured servants were replaced by slaves brought from Africa (Crandall). During this more peaceful time period, the first representative assembly was held in the “New World”. This assembly met from July 30 to August 4, 1619 in the Jamestown Church. The assembly consisted of a governor, six members of the governorʼs council, and two representatives from each of the surrounding settlements and plantations that met in order to establish one government over all of Virginia to provide laws and governance. Much like our present day government, the representatives of this assembly were elected by the citizens to speak for the citizens (“The First Legislative Assembly”). The period of relative peacefulness ended in 1622 when the Algonquians attacked the settlement again and killed more than 300 people. The occurrence of this attack and the fact that the Virginia Company still had not made any sort of profit caused King James I to revoke the Virginia Companyʼs charter. In 1624 Virginia was made into a crown colony, and it remained a colony until its independence in 1776 (“Colonial Jamestown History- From Settlement to Colony”). Men, Women, Youth, & Children John Smith is probably one of the most well known names associated with Jamestown. He was one of the original settlers and also one of the original seven council members who were selected to govern Jamestown. During the hard times at Jamestown he helped hold together the colony and lead others in fending off the natives. However, in December 1607 he was captured by Algonquian hunters and taken back to their Chief Powhatan where his fate would be decided. John Smith was forced to take part in some sort of trial where he believed he was eventually supposed to be killed, if it were not for the chiefʼs daughter, Pocahontas, saving his life (“Captain John Smith”). Pocahontas could probably be considered the most important female role in the sustaining of Jamestown. As the favorite daughter of the chief of the native Algonquians she helped save an important leader of the Jamestown settlement at the age of twelve. In addition to this, she also helped colonists to get food and often warned them of upcoming attacks by the natives. At one point Pocahontas was captured and held hostage by the settlers. During this time she was wooed by John Rolfe, and in 1614 she married him. Their marriage brought about a period of eight years of peace between the settlers and the natives (Sahlman). John Rolfe, as mentioned before, was a tobacco entrepreneur. His introduction of tobacco farming to the settlement became the first profitable enterprise. The profits from this cash crop allowed settlers to pay for slaves and women to come to Jamestown. The African slaves were purchased from the Dutch and brought in to help with the labor of tobacco growing. Female slaves were seen as of particular importance to settlers, because of their ability to reproduce the labor force (Borio). Women were brought over to become wives of the settlers. The Virginia Company thought this would be a good idea in order to try to make the men feel more invested in Virginia since they would be forming a family there (Graves). The first women arrived in Jamestown in 1608. There names were Mrs. Forrest and Anne Burras. Mrs. Forrest gave birth to the first child of Jamestown during the winter of the “starving time”, and it is unsure whether she or her child made it through this rough period. Anne Burras did survive, and she wound up becoming the wife to a laborer in what would be the first marriage of Jamestown. She and her husband raised four daughters in Jamestown. The arrival of women, wives, and children did help to establish a sense of stability among the settlers and allowed them to see Virginia as not simply a land of profit and adventure but also a place to start a family (Kion). Closing and Legacy Although Jamestown was not the first European settlement in North America and despite the fact that it is not much of a settlement today, it was an important place. It was Englandʼs claim in the “New World”. It is the settlement that eventually lead to the United States of America. If England had not claimed this land, our country might be a very different place. If Spain or even France had taken control of this area, there would most likely not be this, our country that we know and love (Roberts). Jamestown also left another important legacy with tobacco farming and selling. This cash crop helped build the wealth of our nation. It also brought about slavery, a very important though regrettable part of our history. Voyage to the New World A Map Skills Lesson Grade Level: Kindergarten Prepared by: Amanda Blair Students: class of 24 students divided into pairs (whole group) Time: approximately 1 hour Standards: History and Social Science Standards of Learning in Virginia K.3 The student will describe the relative location of people, places, and things by using positional words, with emphasis on near/far, above/below, left/right, and behind/in front. K.4 The student will use simple maps and globes to describe places referenced in stories and real-life situations;locate land and water features. Objectives: Given a map of the world and following a discussion of the voyage of the early settlers to Jamestown, students will demonstrate their map skills by a)recognizing basic map symbols (land, water) b)locating places referenced in the history of Jamestown (England, the Atlantic Ocean, Jamestown fort) c)describing the relative location of places such as England and Virginia using terms like near and far.