The Handy American History Answer Book. David L. Hudson

Island had also been the site of the first English colony, set up in 1585 by about 100 men sent there by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554–1618). Raleigh had perceived the island to be a good spot for English warships (that were then fighting the Spanish) to be repaired and loaded with new supplies. But the plan was unsuccessful: The land wasn’t sufficiently fertile to support both the colonists and the Indians living nearby, and because the surrounding sea proved too shallow, ships could not get close enough to the island. The colonists returned to England in 1586. In the meantime, Raleigh dispatched a second group of colonists from England. They arrived at Roanoke just days after the original settlers left. Seeing that the site had been abandoned, all but fifteen of the colonists opted to return to England.

      In the spring of 1587, Raleigh sent a third group of colonists to America, but these ships were headed for areas near Chesapeake Bay, farther north (in present-day Virginia). Reaching the Outer Banks in July, the ships’ commander refused to take the colonists to their destination and instead left them at Roanoke Island. The colonists’ 10 leader, John White, who had also been among the first settlers at Roanoke, returned to England for supplies in August 1587. However, a war between England and Spain prevented his return until three years later. Arriving back at Roanoke in August 1590, he expected to be met by family members and the hundred or so settlers (including some women and children). Instead, he discovered the colony had been abandoned.

      The only clue White found was the word CROATOAN engraved on a tree. The Croatoan, or Hatteras, were friendly Indians who lived on an island south of Roanoke Island. White set out to see if the colonists had joined the Indians, but bad weather prevented the search, and his expedition returned to England instead.

      Two theories explain what might have become of the lost colonists. Since the shore of Chesapeake Bay was their original destination, the colonists might have moved there but, encountering resistance, perished at the hands of the Indians. Other evidence suggests that the colonists became integrated with several Indian tribes living in North Carolina. Either way, no European ever saw them again.

      What was Jamestown?

      Jamestown, Virginia, is considered the first permanent English colony in the New World. In April 1607, a group of settlers under the auspices of the Virginia Company arrived at the James River and created the Jamestown settlement. They arrived by three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. The settlers searched in vain for gold and suffered through what historian Robert V. Remini calls “the starving season.”

      Led by military leader Captain John Smith (1579–1631), the colonists managed to survive. The colonists interacted with a powerful Indian chief named Wahunsonacock, or Powhatan (?–1618). Relations were uneasy at times, but the colonists and the Indians managed to carve out a largely peaceful existence. This was helped by the marriage of Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas (1595–1617) to English planter John Rolfe (1585–1622), the first recorded interracial marriage in North America. Rolfe was best known for successfully cultivating tobacco.

      Born to Eleanor and Ananias Dare on August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare was the first person born to English parents in the New World. She disappeared along with the rest of the Roanoke colony.

      After whom was the colony of Jamestown named?

      It was named after the English king at the time, James I (1566–1635), the first of the Stuart kings. He was King James VI of Scotland before the Scottish and English crowns were united. His mother was Mary, Queen of Scots. He succeeded Elizabeth I (1533–1603), who was also known as the Virgin Queen. Because Elizabeth I had no children, the crown passed to James. King James disliked tobacco and even wrote a treatise entitled A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604), in which he called tobacco a “filthy habit.”

      What happened to John Rolfe?

      He traveled back to Virginia after losing Pocahontas. He began farming and working on his plantation. He remarried Jane Pierce, with whom he had a daughter. Unfortunately, Rolfe died in 1622 after an attack by Native Americans. It is unknown whether Rolfe died directly during the attack or from an illness contracted shortly afterward.

      What was the Jamestown Massacre?

      The Jamestown Massacre, or the Indian Massacre of 1622, was an attack by the Powhatan Indians on the Jamestown colony that led to more than 340 deaths suffered by the colony. Relations between the Indians and the colonists were generally good when Chief Powhatan was alive. However, after Chief Powhatan’s death in 1618, his half-brother, Chief Opechancanough (1554–1646), led a series of attacks upon the colony. Under his reign, Opechancanough participated in the Second and Third Anglo-Powhatan Wars.

      What happened to Chief Opechancanough?

      Chief Opechancanough lived more than ninety years. Some historians list his age as more than one hundred. During the Third Anglo-Powhatan War, begun in 1644, the colonists captured him. A soldier assigned to guard the chief allegedly shot and killed him.

       How did Pocahontas die?

      Most historians believe Pocahontas contracted smallpox, causing her death at only twenty-two. In 1716, Rolfe and Pocahontas traveled to England, where Pocahontas was treated very well. In 1717, the couple boarded a ship and planned to return to Virginia. En route to Jamestown, Pocahontas became very ill. She was taken ashore and died a few days later. She was buried in Gravesend’s St. George Church.

      What legislative body was created in Jamestown?

      The Virginia House of Burgesses was created in Jamestown, becoming the first legislative body of elected members in North America. It held its first meeting on July 30, 1619. It was the governing body of the colony of Virginia until it was replaced by the Virginia House of Delegates in 1776.

THE PILGRIMS AND THE PURITANS

      Were the Pilgrims explorers?

      The Pilgrims were early settlers who sought religious freedom and self-government in the New World. Since theirs was a religious journey, they described themselves as pilgrims. In fact, they were Separatists, Protestants who separated from the Anglican Church to set up their own church. In 1609, they fled their home in Scrooby, England, settling in Holland. Fearing their children would lose contact with their own culture (becoming assimilated into the Dutch culture), the group decided to voyage to America to establish their own community. In 1620, they arrived on the rocky western shore of Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. Their transatlantic crossing aboard the Mayflower took sixty-six days. Two babies were born during the passage, bringing the number of settlers to 102. Only some thirty-five were Pilgrims; the rest were merchants. On November 21, 1620, the Pilgrims drafted the Mayflower Compact, an agreement by which the forty-one signatories (the men aboard the Mayflower) formed a body politic authorized to enact and enforce laws for the community. The Compact’s members elected religious leader John Carver (1576–1621) governor. Although their colonial charter from the London Company specified they were to settle in Virginia, the Compact’s members decided to establish their colony at Cape Cod, well outside the company’s jurisdiction. By December 25, 1620, the Pilgrims had chosen the site for their settlement and began building at New Plymouth.

      During the first year, the Pilgrims faced many hardships: thirty-five more colonists arrived aboard the Fortune, straining already limited resources; sicknesses such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and scurvy claimed many lives, including that of Governor Carver; and the merchants in the group challenged the purity of the settlement. Having secured a new patent from the Council of New England in June 1621, the lands of New Plymouth Colony were held in common by both the Pilgrims and the merchants. However, this communal system of agriculture proved unsuccessful. In 1624, William Bradford (1590–1657), who succeeded Carver as governor, granted each family its own parcel of land. The Wampanoag Indians, who had previously occupied the land settled by the Pilgrims, proved friendly and helpful advisers in agricultural matters. In 1626, the Pilgrims bought out the merchants’ shares, claiming the colony for themselves. Although inexperienced at governing before arriving in America,