John Smith May Seem Heroic Today, But He Wasn’t Too Popular Back in the Day September 10, 2010

John Smith was put in chains and fired by his fellow settlers but today he has a statue at Jamestown

1588 Spanish Armada Destruction Opened the Door For English Colonization

On This Date In History:  The first permanent English settlement in the New World was at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.   While it was established in 1607, English merchants and adventurers had failed several times in attempts to create colonies in America.  Throughout the sixteenth century, Britain was well aware of the existence of the New World and was intrigued by the possibilities.  When Elizabeth I rose to power, a powerful sense of nationalism developed that encouraged dreams of expansion.  But, England was a bit nervous about their powerful rival, Spain.  Spain was the dominant European power in the Western Hemisphere and they had the most formidable navy in the world.  But, in the latter half of the century, “sea dogs” such as Sir Francis Drake successfully raided Spanish merchant ships and confidence in Britains ability to challenge the Spanish on the high seas rose.  Ulitmately, the door for Britain into the New World was opened in 1588 when the Spanish Armada was defeated soundly by the Royal Navy.  It was a bold attempt by Philip II to end England’s ability to challenge to Spain’s commercial supremacy and also bring the island nation back into the Catholic Church.  It turned out to be a total fiasco as the much smaller Royal Navy ended in a single stroke the Spanish Navy’s dominance of the Atlantic.

 

"Croatoan" All That Was Left of the "Lost Colony"

In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert led an expedition to New Foundland, which he claimed in the name of the Queen.  He traveled along the coast in search of a good spot for a military outpost the might become a profitable colony.  Instead, on this date in 1583 Sir Humphrey was nowhere to be found because the previous day a storm had arrived and Gilbert went down with his ship.  Gilbert’s half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh recruited his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, to lead a group of men to Roanoke Island to establish a colony in 1585.  Grenville deposited the settlers on the island.  Grenville returned to England but did stay long enough to piss off the native population by burning down an Indian village in retaliation for a minor theft.  When Sir Francis Drake showed up the following spring, the beleagured settlers promptly boarded Drake’s ship and went home.   Raleigh tried again in 1587 when he sent an expedition of 91 men, 17 women and 9 children.  John White led the expedition and shortly after they arrived back at Roanoke Island, his daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, who was the first American-born child of English parents.  Obviously, White wasn’t too sentimental because he then left the settlers to pick up where the previous Roanoke settlers had left off.  He returned to England with the intention of returning with supplies in a few months.  But, hostilities with Spain messed up that plan and he didn’t make it back until 1590, when he found the island deserted with no clue as to the colonists’ fate except the word “Croatoan” carved on a tree.  No one really knows what happened to them but many historians suspect the Indians knocked off the colonists in retaliation for Grenville’s burning down their village.

 

Roanoke Island "Lost Colony" Not Far From Jamestown

So, by the time the Jamestown colonization attempt came about, the English were well acquainted with failure and Jamestown seemed destined to continue the string of futility.  144 men began the journey to the colony that was established by James I with charters to the London and Plymouth Companies.  But, only 104 survived the voyage.  Since the king had afforded them the opportunity,  they thought it might be a good idea to name the settlement in his honor.  But, the majority of men on the expedition were more interested in searching for gold or other fortune and had no desire to do any work.  After all, the purpose of the colony was to turn a profit and the companies wanted a quick return on their investment.  They also faced unanticipated challenges.   We often hear of how natives to America suffered from disease introduced by European settlers.  Well, it works both ways and many of the Jamestown settlers succombed to diseases that had no effect on the Indians but proved fatal for the British.   Greed and rootlessness contributed to the failure to grow food and a lousy diet limited the colonists ability to fend off disease.   When a ship arrived with supplies in 1608, all but 38 of the settlers were dead. 

 

A Not-Too-Youthful Looking Smith

Now, 27-year-old Captain John Smith had joined the original expedition.  He was a good organizer and had  built a reputation as quite the world traveler.  He was also used to being a captain and probably had a sense of arrogance.  In fact, his abrasiveness became so irritating on the 4 month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that his fellow colonists had Smith put in irons.  When they first arrived at the colony, the settlers opened a locked box which had the names of 7 men whom the company had designated to be leaders of the colony.  I’m sure that the folks were greatly dismayed to find Smith’s name on the list.  However, with disater staring them in the fact, they obviously were desperate because, on this date in 1608, John Smith was elected as Council President of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.   He imposed work and order on the community and organized raids on neighboring Indian villages to steal food.   Nevertheless, the settlement continued to struggle even after Smith took charge when a fire wiped out many of the structures.   But, what appeared to be a concluding event for the life of Smith ended up being a life and colony saver.

 

True or False, Smith's Story of Being Saved by Pocahontas Has Been Etched in History

 The story, as told by Smith and disputed by some historians, was that he and two companions were ambushed by some Indians who killed his buddies and took Smith back to Chief Powhatan, who intended to ritualistically club the young Captain to death. But, the 11 or 12 year old daughter of Powhatan, Pocahontas, threw herself between Smith and her father and convinced the Chief to change his mind.  Correspondingly, Smith changed his un-neighborly ways and struck up better relations with the locals and “befriended”  Pocahontas who visited the settlement often and acted as an emissary between her father and the English.  

 

Indians Had the Upper Hand On Jamestown in 1622

Attacks from local tribes declined as, presumbably, Smith had figured out that stealing food from the neighbors wasn’t too smart.  In turn,  the Indians helped the greenhorn English to learn how to live in the New World.   That second winter, only 12 of the nearly 200 colonists died and by the summer of 1609, Jamestown appeared to have a chance at survival.   I guess Smith’s heavy handed ways were not seen as any longer necessary because, with conditions improving, the council deposed him from his position and he returned to England to get treatment for a serious powder burn.  The goodtimes didn’t last in Jamestown though as by 1610, famine and disease took its toll and only 60 people were left when a ship with more settlers showed up.  Relations with the Indians also went in the tank with several wars.  The Indians, of course, eventually lost but it wasn’t a total blowout as evidence by the settlements razing  in 1622.  You can visit the reincarnation of the Jamestown settlement.  You’ll be amazed at how small the ships they used to sail the seas really were.

 

Pocahontas After She Became Rebecca Rolfe

It is interesting that the majority of the images that we have of Smith don’t seem to resemble that of the youthful man who  took the helm at Jamestown. Most paintings do not depict Smith as a young man at all, but instead a robust man who might fit in an Old Spice commercial. Prior to photographs, it was possible for artists to depict their heroes or villains as the wanted them to appear, but not necessarily as they really did appear.   In any event, as I mentioned, John Smith was an adventurer and while he was in the colony he mapped much of the Tidewater area. He is credited with discovering Tangier Island, where Snow White and I vacationed a couple of years ago. Smith saw the Island with a white beach (which has largely disappeared) and it reminded him of Tangiers…so he called the Island Tangier. Smith was obviously not a very creative fellow because a nearby Island he named after himself. The third island in the group he called Watts Island, after one of his crewmen. The collection of three islands, Tangier, Smith and Watts, he called the Russell Islands,or Russell’s Isles….again after one of his crewmen. If Donald Trump had been on board, perhaps we would have the Trump Islands. Good thing Englebert Humperdink wasn’t part of the crew.

Weather Bottom Line:  Not much of a change. I told you it would be too dry for rain today and I think that the dry air will be tough to overcome on Friday but the atmosphere should moisten up from top to bottom enough that rain chances will get reasonably healthy by late Friday.  Now, a warm front will lift through the area on Saturday so we’ll be back into the mid to upper 80′s and it will be noticeably more humid. That will set the stage for a cold front that will bring rain and t’storm activity on Saturday.  It’s possible that the SPC will issue a slight risk outlook for our area for Saturday but by late Thursday that was not the case.

The Cry For Liberty That Echoes For the Ages March 23, 2010

Patrick Henry 1736-1799

On This Date in History:  When one visits Colonial Williamsburg, a popular and common person you find wandering the streets is Patrick Henry.  Henry was born on May 29, 1736 in Hanover County in the Virginia Colony.   He was home-schooled and later studied the law on his own.   One of the homes that is prominent at Colonial Williamsburg is that of the Randolph family and Patrick Henry took his attorney’s examination before several prominent lawyers including John and Peyton Randolph. 

Henry Delivers His "Treason Speech"

Henry was a firey orator and was an early advocate of protest against what he saw as unjust oppression by the Court of King George III.  In 1763, he proclaimed that if a king vetoed a local law voted on by a local assembly, then that king was no longer the people’s patriarch, but instead was  ”a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects.”  When he brought his protest of the Stamp Act to the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765 his arguments are said to have bordered on treason.  When he called out, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third…” calls of treason rang from the gallery but Henry merely continued with his rant to the point that his argument won over the rest of the burgesses.  This is known as the “Treason Speech.”

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

Words can be powerful weapons but left on their own, they are simply words.  Those words can call for action though and when the call for action is a call to arms, then those words take on a different meaning altogether.  On this date in 1775, not only did Henry issue a appeal to arms, but also an appeal to the Almighty.  Patrick Henry’s speech read in part, “ There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free–if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending–if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained–we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!”  When we hear that the founders intended on a separation of church and state, clearly if that was the case they did not intend for individuals to be separated from God because in the 6 paragraphs of Henry’s speech, he mentions or calls on God 5 times.  In fact, the most famous line of Patrick Henry that is well known to most Americans was preceded by his final call for Divine intervention:  “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Nearly Every Painting of Henry Giving a Speech Shows Him with his Arm Raised

While Patrick Henry is closely associated with Williamsburg, his call to “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” was made at St. John’s Church in Richmond.  Apparently, Henry’s theatrics were so overwhelming that the exact verbiage of his speeches were lost on the listener.  Perhaps that is why the text of Henry’s speech was not published until 1816 and that was done after William Wirt pieced the speech together after interviewing numerous people who had witnessed the event first hand.  Nevertheless, it is difficult to say for certain that all of the words are exactly what Henry said or if there were ommissions.  One thing that is for certain, the conclusion was unforgettable and “give me liberty or give me death” has lasted through the decades and will no doubt continue to do so.  According to Charles Cohen, Thomas Jefferson was impressed with Henry, but also had a difficult time recalling exactly what the emotional orator had said.  “Although it was difficult, when [Henry] had spoken, to tell what he had said, yet, while speaking, it always seemed directly to the point. When he had spoken in opposition to my opinion, had produced a great effect, and I myself had been highly delighted and moved, I have asked myself, when he ceased, ‘What the devil has he said?’ and could never answer the inquiry.”

Patrick Henry's Speech Helped Spur the Call To Arms

So, what’s the big deal about this speech? I mean, after all, Henry had been making lots of imflammatory speeches.  One has to consider that the Boston Massacre had taken place in March 1770 which had followed the 1765 Stamp Act Crisis.  Then came the Boston Tea Party in 1773.  After all of these events, colonists had tried to reason with the British Parliament and the King.  The crown thought that the colonists were being unreasonable and just plain difficult. Still, the talk of revolution was not all that prevalent.  Then, in 1774, the first Continental Congress  ,led by first Continental Congress President Peyton Randolph, met and determined that crackdowns going on in the Massachusetts Colony represented a threat to the liberty of all the colonies.  The Continental Congress called on continued resistance to the Coercive Acts, a general boycott of British goods and for the establishment of colonial militias.  Naturally, when Parliament heard of this, especially the notion of raising an army of sorts, it declared that the American colonies in rebellion in February 1775.  Massachusetts had worked taking up arms but no other colony acted.  When Patrick Henry made his speech(video of re-enactment) in Richmond, it was at a convention to consider the issue.  When Henry finished, the room sat silent as the audience may have reacted as Thomas Jefferson had described and so they had to take a moment to understand what had been said.  Slowly, it sank in and the room filled with shouts of approval.  The delegates voted to make military preparations and that set the stage for the American Revolution.  It was one thing for the rabble rousers in Boston to take up arms.   But when the Virginia colony made the move it signaled to the others that there was no turning back and it was Patrick Henry who served as the catalyst.

Weather Bottom Line:  Chilly start Tuesday morning led to a seaonally mild afternoon with highs in the low 60′s.   I betcha we get to the upper 60′s on Wednesday.  Clouds will be increasing but it will still be a great day.  Thursday a storm system passes us to the South and will bring a pretty good chance for rain with some t’storms but I think the strongest storms will be well South.  We get a pokey front coming in from the north around the same time so clouds and showers on Friday will be around with Saturday improving and not too cool before another front messes up Sunday a little.   I”m lazy..have an exam to make up for my students and it’s pretty boring so I’m not telling anything more..that’s all you need to know.