Jamestown: He That Doesn't Work Doesn't Eat

I’ve been on an exercise spree this year, which leads to cleaning, which leads to resources for blogging. I know, that’s a stretch, isn’t it?

Well, it works like this. I enjoy long walks outside, and I don't even mind the treadmill on occasion, but then I realized that I needed to spend part of that time working, cleaning the house, washing windows… you know physical labor that burns calories and accomplishes something at the same time.

Last week I emptied a bookshelf that had books and “junk” (notice the books were NOT labeled junk…) that had been collecting dust for over 30 years. It all looks so much better now, and I’m into the clean and uncluttered mindset.

But, let’s get to the purpose of today’s post. In the process of sorting the books, I found a really old paperback titled The First Frontier: Life in Colonial America and set it aside to read since I’m writing in the late 1700s, early 1800s. I hope to do a whole series of posts with some of the most interesting facts that jump out at me from The First Frontier.

Chapter One touches on the journey of the Pilgrims to Roanoke in 1587 and how the entire colony disappeared without a trace. Then it moves on to tell that 80% of the settlers at Jamestown died of disease, starvation, and Indian attacks between 1607 and 1624.

The book shares what most of us either learned in school or have read about how The Virginia Company, a trading and colonizing company, was given exclusive rights to colonize about half of the new world in 1606. Again, most of this is familiar to any amateur historian.

What I found interesting, but not necessarily surprising, was that it was considered socially unacceptable for gentlemen to work. Don’t get me wrong, I am aware that during this time period in England, it was beneath gentlemen of the upper class to work. Somehow they managed to acquire enough wealth and prestige that they had employees, slaves, and servants to make sure things got done. It’s all very strange to me, someone who’s worked in some capacity for as far back as I can remember. But I digress…

Back to Jamestown in 1607 and The Virginia Company.

The Virginia Company and its investors were all about making money, and it was believed that the new world was peppered with riches. The Company ordered one-third of the colonists to search for gold and silver and a passage to the South Sea.

One online source states that there were 105 men who landed in Chesapeake Bay in April 1607. 40 were soldiers, 35 were “gentlemen”, and the rest were various artisans and laborers.

“Since the large number of gentlemen who accompanied the expedition were debarred by their social status from performing manual labor, they devoted themselves almost wholly to these enterprises.”

So, two-thirds of the men set about building and fortifying a fort, planting crops and trying to survive in a harsh, new land, while the remaining third were on a fool’s mission—literally. They thought they found gold, but it ended up being pyrite, “fool’s gold”.

While death stalked the settlement and relief failed to arrive from England, these gentlemen quarreled among themselves and accused each other of “raiding the hen roost” and “drinking up the brandy”. Seriously?

It seemed to me at this point that social status and traditions from back in England, and the desire for riches should have tossed aside in favor of something as basic as survival.

I’ll address several factors in the coming months that helped keep Jamestown from being wiped out completely, but the first turnaround came from an unlikely—and unliked—source.

Captain John Smith

In September 1608, Captain John Smith became leader of the Jamestown Colony. He saved the few remaining colonists by making a rule that anyone who did not work did not eat. This forced all the colonists, including the so-called gentlemen, to plant food, build shelters and fences to protect themselves from attack, and to pull their weight for the betterment of the entire colony.

Bravo, Captain Smith! Bravo!

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Myths about Captain John Smith of Jamestown Colony

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

Captain John Smith was an explorer who led Jamestown Colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a larger than life man who captured the imagination of historians and school children alike. His life was full of adventure and intrigue, but the facts most people know about John Smith are myths and legends instead of facts.

Some of the biggest myths surrounding Captain John Smith are stories about him and Pocahontas. Pocahontas was an Indian girl, daughter of Chief Powhatan, who hung around Jamestown. According to legend, she was so in love with John Smith that when her father threatened to kill him, she begged for his life. Some even belief that John Smith and Pocahontas married. John Smith was the first to perpetuate part of this myth. He claimed that when he was captured by Indians, Pocahontas threw herself across his body to save him.

The truth is historians belief John Smith might have exaggerated the story. Soon after the incident happened, he never mentioned Pocahontas' part in the Powhatans releasing him without harm. Over ten years later, Captain Smith told the harrowing tale in a letter to Queen Anne introducing Pocahontas and asking the queen to treat her with dignity. One historian, David A. Price, believes the incident might have happened but suggested Captain Smith was in no real danger. He could have been involved in a ritual that symbolized his death and rebirth as a member of the tribe.

Whatever the case, Pocahontas and Captain Smith were not in love. When Captain Smith was captured, Pocahontas was only ten or eleven years old. It's also not true that she converted Captain Smith to the Indian religion. After spending years around the settlers at Jamestown, Pocahontas was converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca. In 1614, she married John Rolfe, a tobacco farmer, and in 1616, she travelled to London with her husband where she died of an unknown virus.

Another myth is that Captain John Smith was highly revered by the other colonists. This also is only partially true. During the voyage to the New World, the colonists for the Virginia Company had papers that were to remain sealed until they reached the new land. Apparently Captain Smith was involved in a mutiny aboard ship, and Captain Christopher Newport and the crew planned to execute him when they landed at Cape Henry. When they did arrive at Cape Henry, the letter was opened, and the colonists found out the man they were planning to execute was appointed one of the leaders of the new colony. This saved Captain Smith from the gallows.

A year later, Captain Smith became the president of the council. He proved his leadership abilities, saving the colonists from starvation, by initiating strict policies including an order, “He that will not work shall not eat." He built the first well in the fort and repaired many of the buildings. Even though his leadership helped to save the colony, not everyone liked Smith. One night, while he was sleeping on the boat, a mysterious gunpowder explosion went off causing him to be injured. Some historians suggest it might have been an attempted assasination.

Another myth is that Captain John Smith lived in Jamestown for the rest of his life. The truth is he arrived in Jamestown in 1607, became president of the council in 1608, and sailed to England because of his injury for the gunpowder explosion in 1609. Captain Smith never returned to Jamestown. He died in 1631 in England at the age of 51.

During his years in England, John Smith encouraged colonization in America by writing accounts of his time there and giving detailed maps of the land. He was a major part of the Jamestown Colony even though he was only there for three years.



Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. Her Novels, Red Sky over America and Alice’s Notions and her novellas Resurrection of Hope and A Christmas Promise are available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

Will the Real Captain John Smith, Please, Stand Up?

Thank you for stopping by Heroes, Heroines, and History today. I’m Michele Morris, and I’d like to share with you some truths about the life of Captain

John Smith. 

Let's start by going back in time more than four-hundred years to December 19, 1606. Captain John Smith and an English expedition of 105 settlers sailed on three ships headed for The New World. They landed April 26th, 1607 on the shores of what is now Cape Henry, Virginia. King James had chartered the London Company branch of the proprietary Virginia Company for a for-profit venture, and he commissioned Captain Christopher Newport to lead the sea voyage.

The trip must have been fraught with chaos because days before they arrived,

The Virginia Company's claim in the New World

Captain Newport charged Captain John Smith with mutiny and sentenced him to the gallows. Luckily for Smith, Captain Newport read The Virginia Company’s sealed settlement orders before Captain Smith’s execution. The document appointed Captain John Smith as one of the seven leaders in the colony, thus, possibly saving his life.

On May 24, 1607, Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, head of the leader’s council, picked the Jamestown site as the location for the settlers’ new home.

Jamestown's location

Jamestown, an island in the James River, became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

After a four-month long sea voyage, the colony’s food supplies were alarmingly low. Each man was allotted only a cup or two of grain-meal per day, and due to poor water sources, Indian attacks, and diseases, at least sixty men died by September 1607. Captain John Smith wrote that for a time, one man died every day.

Though times were tough, 27-year-old John Smith began exploring the new land. While mapping Chickahominy River in December 1607, Powhatan warriors captured two colonists and Smith. At the time, the Powhatan Indian confederacy consisted of around thirty Tidewater-area tribes led by Chief Wahunsonacock, known as Chief Powhatan to the English. Smith’s companions were killed, but, according to a 1624 account by Smith, he was spared and released because of the intervention of Chief Powhatan’s 13-year-old daughter, Pocahontas.

Pochahontas saving Captain Smith

In early January 1608, Captain Newport brought nearly one hundred new settlers. After their arrival, a carelessly set fire accidently burnt most of the fledgling village, thus forcing the settlers to live in the burnt-out ruins during the remaining harsh winter months. Food supplies ran low, and although Native Americans (including Pocahontas) brought some food, Smith wrote that "more than half of us died."

After Jamestown’s disastrous first year, Smith became president of the colony.

Jamestown

Much of the past discord within Jamestown came as the result of some of the more affluent colonists believing they were above manual labor. Many constricted others to do their share of work. Captain Smith immediately imposed order by ruling everyone must work. The captain trained the settlers to farm the land and to contribute to the betterment of Jamestown, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated, "He that will not work shall not eat."

John Smith continued to explore and map the area. In 1608, he led a team up the Chesapeake Bay. It is believed they traveled as far north as Baltimore. On their return trip, they took a turn up the Potomac River to modern-day Washington, D.C. During this trip, Captain John Smith caught a stingray. The ray stung and almost killed him. To this day, that area of the Rappahannock River is called Stingray Point.

In 1609, Smith was injured from a fire in his gunpowder bag. His injuries were severe enough to force his return to England for medical care.

John Smith returned to the New World in 1614. He did not go back to Jamestown, but instead explored the New England coast from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod. Interestingly, that April, Pocahontas married the English planter John Rolfe in Jamestown. She eventually served as an Indian ambassador in England where she contracted smallpox and died.

In 1615, Smith was captured by pirates off the New England shoreline. He managed to escape after three months of captivity, then returned to England where he educated others about the New World and wrote of his adventures. He died in 1631.

Captain John Smith played a vital part in the settlement of Jamestown and mapping the eastern coast of the New World. His life was filled with bravery, excitement, and adventure. There have been many fictional stories told about Captain John Smith, including his relationship with the Indian princess Pocahontas. Although I love a good story, it’s important to know the truth behind the fiction.

What do you think of Captain John Smith’s adventures and the differences between fact and fiction in the stories told about him? Please, comment below, and thank you for joining me today at HHHistory.com. 

Award winning author, Michele Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan dreaming of days-gone-by and knights-in-shining-armor. Therefore, it only makes sense that she now writes historical romance with a touch of suspense. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their six children, three in-loves, and six grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. When not spending time with her large brood or writing, Michele enjoys photography, genealogy, and cooking.