Today, I am thankful for those willing to take risks.
As we continue our celebration this week of American laborers who helped forge this marvelous nation, I’d like to take a moment to pay tribute to the true ‘founding fathers’ of the United States. Every year, in late November, we take time to pay tribute to our forefathers who travelled across the Atlantic in 1620 to pursue a new life free from religious persecution. The Pilgrims would settle in New England, from which the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts would arise. We recall their tale of grit and perseverance which allowed them to survive the tumultuous winter of 1620 and eventually pay gratitude for the subsequent harvest. Clearly, as we learned in August, the Pilgrims were risk takers willing to sacrifice everything for the betterment of their humble existences.
Yet, before the Pilgrims solidified their foothold in the New World, a crew of approximately 100 members ventured across the Atlantic to establish a small colony on the James River. Now, I can only imagine the angst and trepidation felt by that Virginia Company, as they were called in honor of the former ‘virgin queen’, Elizabeth I. As they set sail on three ships in December 1606, they were cognizant of the mystery and intrigue of the initial British settlement in the New World, the ‘lost colony’ in Roanoke which for an unbeknownst reason vanished in 1588. After a nearly four-month journey, the Virginia Company settled on a narrow, protected peninsula slightly upstream on the James River, a body of water (so named for the then-current king, James I) that empties into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Over the next eight months, the ‘James Towne’ settlement fought to survive. Saddled by a litany of gastrointestinal infectious diseases caused by their consumption of contaminated water from a nearby pond, the pioneers struggled to find food. As hunger and disease set in, they were also confronted by the local Algonquian tribes, with whom they maintained an ever-tenuous relationship.
In the ensuing winter, one of their captains, John Smith, was captured and brought to see Powhatan, the Algonquian chief, where he immediately ordered his warriors to kill him. As they closed in on the helpless Smith, the chief’s young daughter, Pocahontas, jumped in, placed his head in her arms, and laid her own head on top of his, thereby preventing the tribe from executing the captain. Touched by the kind gesture, the chief decreed that John Smith should live, and he was released to return to Jamestown. In due time, Smith would forge a trade relationship with the local tribes, thereby affording sustenance to a crippled settlement. On this day (Sept 10) in 1608, John Smith would assume the presidency of governing council of the Virginia Company and even lead a campaign back to England in late 1609 to secure the necessary reserves. The colony tinkered on the brink of starvation until John Smith resurfaced in the spring of 1610 with reinforcements and nearly 150 additional colonists. Peace would settle on the colony, at least for the time being, courtesy of the marriage of Pocahontas to a Virginian settler, John Rolfe, in 1614. With the support of the Algonquians, the settlers would learn to cultivate corn and other vegetables, as well as a profitable crop that would soon become the staple of the farming industry in Virginia – a leafy plant coined tobacco.
The events that would ensue over the next 85 years would set the stage for the future birth of an official colony of the crown, Virginia, with Jamestown as its capital. However, the fragile peace with the Algonquians would soon dissipate, especially as the Virginia colony sought to expand its reach beyond the initial peninsula (mainly in an effort to harvest the ever profitable tobacco crop). Sadly, around this time, slavery also flourished to support the cultivation of the leafy plant, as did a number of civil rebellions by the restless colonists. Sadly, the capital of Jamestown burned to the ground in 1698 and was replaced by a settlement north of it, called Middle Plantation. In due time, Middle Plantation became known as the town of Williamsburg, a thriving community that still carries on its colonial traditions. Today, the excavation of the original Jamestown colony remains an active endeavor, thanks to an archaeological recovery project started in 1994.
So, you might ask yourself: What ever became of their illustrious leader, Captain John Smith? After suffering an injury in a gunpowder explosion in 1609, he would return to England for rehabilitation. But, his rest was short lived as he recuperated. Eventually, in 1614, he made another successful voyage to the New World, exploring the northern coast from Maine to Massachusetts, mapping the course along a wide region from Penobscot Bay (near Camden, Maine) down to Cape Cod Bay (south of Boston). He coined this region “New England”, a land whose climate was more reminiscent of the colder temperatures in Britain. Although he hoped to return to New England with another settlement, he never did. Rather, six years later, the Puritans would settle in Cape Cod Bay, somewhat erroneously as their Mayflower veered north of its original target.
So, today, we owe gratitude to those early ‘risk takers’ willing to defy the odds and settle in a foreign land. These early settlers eventually forged a nation of 330 million inhabitants from a small colony in Jamestown of less than 330.
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