Jamestown Readings

Introducing the Cheif family

Helen Rountree

No set thesis, just an intro to the structure of native american familial lines. They were large and complicated

A Brave and Cunning Prince Chapters 1-3

James Horn

No set thesis in this, goes over the story of paquiquineo/Don Luis. Early history of jamestown.

From The Jamestown Project, “Elizabethan England Engages the World”

Karen Kupperman

There was a lot of religious and, therefore, political tension in Europe that led to a rush to colonize the New World. England was playing a game of catchup. Focus on religious and economic reasoning behind colonization.

From Seasons of Misery, Roanoke: Left in Virginia

Kathleen Donegan

“In this chapter, I position the story of Roanoke’s lost people differently: not as a prelude to the mythos of the American wilderness but rather as a coda to the forced expulsion that ended England’s dream of inhabiting a New World Eden, almost as soon as it began.”

Covers the multiple attempts at creating a colony.

The disorientation of records like Governor Ralph Lane’s in Roanoke displays something rather than nothing. The lack of coherent writing shows us how he was feeling rather than just being an inconvenience.

“Conquest of Eden: possession and Dominion in Early Virginia”

James Horn

Struggle between the Colonizers and the natives.

Colonizers felt they had a god-given right to take sovereignty of that land. Law of God meant that Christian rulers had to settle land for “the establishment of gods word.

Both natives and the english felt they had sovereignty and were unwilling to give it up

“In these circumstances in which they both didn’t understand each other’s sovereignty and dominion, a bloody struggle for possession was inevitable.”

Smith v Wingfield

Andrew Lawson

Wingfield and Smith’s issues with each other stemmed from social class and the complications that change brought to the English hierarchy. Wingfield was upper class and didnt like that John Smith was able to work for recognition and even fame.

Commentary on the immediate changes of social fluidity in Virginia.

Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown

Karen Kupperman

The laziness characterized in many Jamestown accounts was a mental and physical disease characterized by malnutrition and lethargy that is very similar to diseases among war prisoners.

The Gunpowder Plot, Anti-Popery, and the Establishment of Virginia

Cynthia J Van Zandt

“The resulting tension [from the gunpowder plot of 1605] wove anti-popery into the culture of English America from the beginning, leaving an especially strong mark on early Virginia.”

Anti-Catholicism in Jamestown caused extreme fears of treachery and notable events in the colony.

Escape from Tsenacommacah: Chesapeake Algonquians and the Powhatan Menace

James Rice

Covers the complexity of native relations in early and even pre-colonial Virginia

Argues the importance of understanding these relations in understanding how the english interacted with natives. There are misconceptions of natives being stupid and treacherous when they had complex alliances, rivalries and political system.

“If we moderns read the sources in full awareness that the inhabitants of Quiyoughcohannock, Accomack, and Patawomeck each regarded their homeland as the center of the universe rather than as part of a borderland, or fringe area, then we, too, might escape from Tsenacommacah and begin to see early Virginia with a newly independent vision.”

Lord Delaware, First Governor of Virginia

Emily Rose

Goes over the life of the first governor of Virginia and how he wasn’t what was claimed to be. (Thomas West, Lord De La Warr)

He was only in VA for a short time and didnt hold stocks in the company

He was only a noble figurehead to make this new colony seem valid to investors.

Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall

Thomas Dale, Martial Law that was put in place in early years of Jamestown

From Virginia in 1619, “Bermuda and the Beginnings of Black Anglo America”

Michael Jarvis

“This essay argues that what happened on a small, oft-­ overlooked mid-­ Atlantic island during those three years (1616-1619) matters greatly to the history of Virginia, and, by extension, that of the United States.”

Bermuda was the first english settlement to introduce African slaves. The use of enslaved people in Bermuda would have impacted Virginia. Direct linkage to the introduction of African slaves in 1619

From 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy, “The Great Reforms”

James Horn

Goes over reforms (great charter and new laws) made in 1619 to convert Jamestown’s martial rule status into a Christian commonwealth with fair and common law.

Creation of private property boosted autonomy and productivity

Focuses on the importance of the establishment of an elected general assembly. Precedence of an elected body that could make decisions on their own land.

“The First American Boom: Virginia 1618-1630”

Edmund Morgan

This work explores the economic expansion in Virginia during the early 17th century, highlighting the role of tobacco cultivation and the impact of the headright system on settlement and labor.

Focuses on the profits some men were making at the cost of many people’s freedom and happiness

The brutality of servitude in Virginia that was practically the engine for the men who made wealth there.

Starts a trend of treating men like property

From The Jamestown Brides, “The Marmaduke Maids” and '“The Warwick Women”

Jennifer Potter

Describes the program for women to sign up to go to Jamestown to marry settlers.12 women on marmaduke and 36 women on warwick

The Politics of Pathos: Richard Frethorne’s Letters Home

Emily Rose

Examines letter of indentured servant, often used to understand conditions.

Rose argues that this could have been used as propaganda and for political gains. Frethorne wasn’t a normal indentured servant. He had connections (and did not come from a poor family either)

Violence on the Fringes: the Virginia and Amboyna Masacres

Alison Games

Two episodes, labelled massacres, happened within a year across the globe from each other

Virginia, March 1622, opachancanough attack and Spice Islands, February 1623, Dutch ‘amboyna massacre’

Thus the paired 'massacres' suggest how the English deployed violence, suffered thousands of mile from home, to redefine themselves and to seize new opportunities for commercial and geopolitical prominence”

The english paint these attacks as massacres and use it for political engangement and reasoning to so things like attack the natives.

A New Look at an Old Wall: Indians, Englishmen, Landscape, and the 1634 Palisade at Middle Plantation

Philip Levy

Describes a palisade build as a result of the March 22 attack but wasnt put up until a decade later, and didnt have that much defensive value.

Argues that despite its lack of defensive use, the was further established colonial virginia as it became a second cluster point for plantations further inland/away from the james and the york river

“The wall's actual wooden pales may not have been able to block Indian access to colonial homes and pastures, but the growth of Middle Plantation, the complete transformation of the landscape that attended it, and the ethos of exclusion built into the entire project became, in time, the real wall across the Peninsula.”

Sir John Harvey: Royal Governor of Virginia, 1628-1639

Brent Tarter

Describes what we know of the life of john harvey before and mainly during his governorship.

Relates the unsuccessful nature of Harvey's administration to how the Virginia gov was vastly different from other colonial govs that were royally chartered from the start.

A Governor’s personality had a big role in their success, Harvey was hot-tempered.

Concludes that governors could only succeed if they cooperated with tobacco planters apart of the GA

Order and Chaos in Early America: Political and Social Stability in Pre-Restoration Virginia

John Kukla

The argument that 17th century America was stable

The politics of VA primed the American government

“Our fears surpass our hopes”: Virginian Reactions to the Execution of Charles I (1649–1652)

David L Smith

Covers Virginian reactions to the execution of Charles I 1649

The execution had a range of reactions around Europe. The trial only lasted a couple of days, and this type of execution wasn’t a precedent in England.

Virginians didn’t know the trial was happening until it was over

Gov Berkeley was a big royalist and prompted the idea that this was a disgrace politically and religiously

colony surrendered in 1652 after resistance

The Rise and Decline of Sir William Berkeley’s Golden Age, 1642–74

Ethan A Schmidt

Goes over Berkely’s political career mainly in VA (importance of focusing on his earlier terms)

His earlier service was more successful than later – after 1660

he established the bicameral legislature, divided his own authority.

Had to deal with Bacons Rebellion.

Worked hard to gain loyalty of Virginians, and was very successful for awhile.

Puritans and Religious Strife in the Early Chesapeake

Kevin Butterfield

Describes the puritans settlements below the James

Churches were relatively independent before Berkeley so the Puritans did worship in VA. Sandys encouraged anyone to settle in Virginia.

Intercolonial connections (between Massachusets and Va)

From Women before the court, The varieties of Anglo-American law: property, patriarchy and women’s legal status in England and America.

Lindsay R. Moore

Disagreement with the popular argument that simple judicial system was best and more accessible. complex jurisdictions that had multiple courts like in england were best for women so they could avoid the doctrine of coverture that made them dependent on husbands.

The equity and ecclesiastical courts provided women with important alternative avenues for legal redress. Did not subscribe to law of coverture.

From The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century, Bound Labor: Slavery

Warren M. Billings

Less of a thesis than an overview of slavery in early colonial VA.

More of a preface to primary works listed later in the work.

Contributes to argument that enslavement was complicated in VA.

Ambiguous in its early years.

“Others Not Christians in the Service of the English”

John C Coombs

Opposes the idea that the ambiguity of slavery in early VA law was because the English there were resistant to absolute slavery

It argues that they automatically considered enslaved africans as in that position for life because of prejudice and information gathered over the past 100 years

“This essay offers a very different explanation for the Virginia government’s prolonged statutory silence concerning the legal standing of African captives: that it stemmed not from any reticence or lack of clarity about their eligibility for enslavement, but rather from certitude that they could be reduced to such a condition”

Legal Tender Laws and Colonial Virginia’s Diversification Problem

Christopher Calton

Considering the difficulty VA had with letting go of tobacco

Point to old legal tender laws that basically allowed the use of tobacco as money

Fixed exchange rates not adjusted often enough. but it obviously became a very unsuitable money

These laws were useful for smaller planters rather than larger planters were kind of the go betweens between the colony and england, who didnt consider tobacco as money.

“tobacco regulations reflect the interests of wealthy planters, who were less concerned with diversification as such than with reducing tobacco cultivation outright”

Diversification laws came into play from the assembly that seem to be under the guise of diversification were more for lessening the amount of tobacco so there would basically be less money in circulation.

“The Rise and Fall of the Virginia-Dutch Connection in the Seventeenth Century”

Victor Enthoven and Wim Klooster

The Dutch had a primary role in the tobacco trade in Chesapeake

Were the main exports

The Dutch started trading with VA as early as 1620s, and in 1640s trade networks were well established

The dutch are not detectible very easily after the 1650s/start of navigation acts but the they were still present

Made use of legal loopholes and trade networks that had already been in place

Not until the french war on trade in the 1690s that direct trade between VA and dutch was no longer prevalent

Started getting VA tobacco from English ports to avoid hassle, till consumed VA tobacco just didnt get it straight form there

From Time of Anarchy, “The Contagion of Conspiracy”

Matthew Kruer

“Using modern medical terminology that carries the metaphor further than any seventeenth-century writer, we might say that rebellion, like any communicable disease, required a vector. In this case, it was a form of communication very different from the susur- ration of rumors that shaped the early stages of the Time of Anarchy. The vector was conspiracy theory.”

Both Berkeley and Bacon mobilized conspiracy. Berkeley framed bacons rebellion as sick people infecting others. Bacon frames both the elite and indigenous people as only caring about themselves and not small farmers.

“conspiracy makes a coherent story out of chaos”

usually involves an enemy other, give something for people to lean on.

Cockacoeske’s Rebellion: Nathaniel Bacon, Indigenous Slavery, and Sovereignty in Early Virginia

Hayley Negrin

“As Cockacoeske’s Rebellion shows, policies relating to Indigenous slavery varied because sovereignty was a factor in how Indigenous people were racialized and enslaved in the Atlantic world.”

Covers Cockacoeke’s actions in protecting her people’s sovereign rights. Protecting them from enslavement

Bacon wanted to enslave native people under the idea that they werent actually sovereign, and didnt have nations, and therefore weren't apart of “jus gentium” – Latin for the law of nations or peoples.

Depcitons of native women as barbaric and evil supported idea that they natural law does not apply. Gendered and racialized.

Declaration of the people

Nathanial Bacon

Persuasive got more intense as the document went forward

Grievances over Berkeley and associates rule

We All Smoke Here”: Behn’s The Widdow Ranter and the Invention of American Identity

Peter Herman

The depiction of VA as a separate culture in The Widdow Ranter. By Aphra Behn

“Virginia thus represents for Behn both an ending and a beginning. Prompted by the decline of the Stuarts, Behn uses Bacon’s Rebellion to reevaluate her royalism and her antipathy toward the republicans, and so she recreates Nathaniel Bacon, investing him with a chivalric ideology associated with England’s glorious but dead past.”

“Behn thus constructs Virginia for her audience as a place of possibilities, of beginnings, and the play concludes with Wellman—however much he does not measure up to Bacon’s chivalric grandeur—calling for unity on the grounds of Virginia’s difference from England.”

English Born and Creole Elites in Turn of the Century Virginia

Carole Shammas

“Compares the general experiences and responses of the English-born generation that still controlled Virginia in the 1680s with those of the native group that came to power at the end of the century?”

At the end of the century there emerged new kinds of responses to the problems that arose from living far from the national center of authority and of culture. Virginia's leaders grew more concerned about their colony's deficiencies and more committed to the development of indigenous social institutions. This consciousness was demonstrated by their interest in political activity, education, economic self-sufficiency, and the colony's past.

less dependence on England

The Glorious Revolution in America, “Virginia Under Culpeper and Effingham”

D.S. Lovejoy

No direct thesis

Goes over culpeper and effinghams governorship and virginias political and economic climate after Bacons Rebellion

The crown blamed the assembly for what happened so it wanted to impose more power. Directly making laws for the colony and directly collecting money from them.

Decrease in power to the General Assembly

The Visible Fist: The Chesapeake Tobacco Trade in War and the Purpose of Empire,
1690–1715

Douglas Bradburn

Extreme direct control of the tobacco trade during wartime in the 1690s and 1700. Ended up helping the tobacco prices but only for elite planters

“This convoy and embargo regime this aggressive and expensive effort to secure and control the transatlantic trade in tobacco—had a profound effect on the Chesapeake economy in these years, on the subsequent development of Virginia politics and society, on the articulation of merchant capitalism in England, on the development of mercantilism as a practice as much as a theory, and on the character of the eighteenth-century British Atlantic empire”

created larger gap between rich and poor

more dependence on england !

“Constructing to Command: Rivalries between Green Spring and the Governor’s Palace, 1677-1722”

Virginia B. Price

Green Spring was a prominent location during Berkeley’s governorship and held that power even after his death, as later owners, notably the Ludwells, used the status symbol to their advantage.

“At the end of the seventeenth century and into the early decades of the eighteenth, the mansion at Green Spring was an expression of its owners' transatlantic ambitions, and its architectural statement was part of a bitter contest for personal reputation and political clout.”

Theories and Evidence for the Location of James Fort

Virginia Harrington (1980s)

“The section immediately following will present a thumbnail chronological sketch of the historical and archaeological approaches to identifying the first fort site in the last hundred years”

Uncertainty of where the fort really was at the time

Big questions had come up but ultimately the evidence pointed to where we know the fort is now

The Jamestown Jubilees: "State Patriotism" and Virginia Identity in the Early
Nineteenth Century

David Kiracofe

The story of the Jamestown Jubilees in 1807 and 1857 as well as other involvements

Focus on the romantic and sentimental idea of the decaying church and other parts of the island 

“​​this essay examines the four public festivities held to celebrate the anniversary of the Jamestown landing as a means of understanding Virginia's cultural and political identity in the early nineteenth century.”

“The cultivation of "state patriotism." At the center of this state patriotism was Virginia's distinct historical experience. As the oldest English settlement in what became the United States, Virginia had an obvious source of identity as the birthplace of the American Experience.”

“Robert Sully at Jamestown, 1854”

Charles Hatch

Story of robert sully coming to jamestown and drawing different scenes

Focus on fleeting historical site and romanticization.