Jans Kelsey History 201 Prof. Lamphier A Review of Davidson and Lyttle's, "Serving Time in Virginia," in After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection (New York: 2005) In the first chapter of Davidson and Lyttle's After the Fact, Davidson and Lyttle describe the hardships that the English endured when they immigrated to Virginia. First of all, the chapter tells us about the first known encounters with Native Americans, immigration, then the development of the colony, how Virginia became successful, then how slavery was introduced to the colonies. Davidson and Lyttle first tell us about the famous Captain John Smith and his adventures. Supposidly, Captain John Smith was one of the founders of Jamestown or one of the people who suggested the idea of immigration. He wrote a book called " A generall Historie of Virginia" which was published in 1624. This book told stories of his expedition at age 21 when he joined an expedition to Virginia in 1606. Smith starts his story by stating that he was first a prisoner taken by the Turks and then made a slave to a woman by the name of Charatza Tragabigzanda. The woman's brother taunted smith so much that he had enough. Smith "beat out his braines with his threshing bat" and then soon escaped. After this incident smith soon established the first European contact with some of the Indian tribes in America while he was exploring and gathering food. Unfortunately, he was captured by Powhatans tribe. Smith was supposed to be executed although the chief's daughter, Pocahantas fell in love with him. Many of the people who read Captain John Smith's book argued that Smith could have made the story up. Although there is much evidence to back up Smith's story.
Immigration was the first key to starting a colony. Of course, somehow people had to be bribed to come over to America. First, King James granted a charter to a group of London Merchants in 1606. These Merchants were soon known as " The treasurer and company of adventures and planters of the city of London for the first colony in Virginia." England wanted to make a colony in order to obtain from the surrounding land. It was reported that 105 out of 144 settlers reached the Chesapeake ay in April 1607. It took a while for the colony of Jamestown to develop. First, settlers were greeted with a hot, humid, and swampy scenery. It was tough for the immigrants to survive in their new surroundings. About only 46 of the original settlers survived. Since the number of settlers had decreased, a supply ship sent another 120 new recruits although only 38 of these people survived in America. Obviously, the colony was a mess. Even the council members refused to listen or take direction. The council members were known to fight among themselves constantly. The government in the times colonial was very disorganized. Because Captain John Smith had seen the colony at the worst, Captain John Smith decided to flee and go back home to England. England kept on sending over immigrants over the next few years. There was a high death rate in the colony followed by many reasons. The settlers were not able to cultivate their own food, therefore they sometimes stole from the Indians. The supply of food was very low and some people even turned to cannibalism. Sometimes bad things have to happen for good things to happen. After about ten years, the luck of Jamestown changed. A new governor by the name of Samuel Argall was introduced to the colony. Many changes occurred and the colony became organized especially with the help of Sandys. He was elected to become the treasurer for the colony
and he had a goal that he would eventually reach. His goal was to fix the colony from the bottom up. Sandy was able to attract investors to the company. Sandy started by offering land. He told settlers that they were each granted 100 acres or land for their arrival. Sandy's plan worked and promoted immigration. Although there were now 700 people living in the colony, most of them had died from contaminated wells and the fact that the settlers were not able to cultivate. Noticeably, some of the wells caused outbreaks of typhoid fever and malaria. But nonetheless the colony succeeded with the production of tobacco. Tobacco became marketable in 1613 and shipments increased dramatically. Tobacco was even seen as the economic medium of exchange and was considered money. Of course, without labor, it was not possible to cultivate tobacco. Englishmen soon started hiring other men to work for them. When these men were hired they were to make an agreement which was a bond that would give a return for the service that these men had supplied. Soon, Englishmen started importing servants. Planters bought, sold, and traded and sometimes gambled these servants. The servants were treated as a property which was not allowed in England at the time. Since servants were only supposed to work for 7 years and then were free, slaves were soon imported from Africa although the cost was more. I found this chapter to be very interesting and very detailed. I found myself wanting to read a history book and couldn't stop reading. I never really knew all the details about the pilgrimage to America and how intense the living situations were in colonies at that time. The textbooks that I had read in high school had only skimmed the surface. The chapter got me thinking about how far we have come from just a small
colony in Jamestown to where we are today. It shows me that immigrants went through the worst so they could have a new beginning in a different country as well as a new beginning for their future children.