||Smith, John, 1580-1631
||A Map of Virginia: With a Description of the Countrey, the Commodities, People, Government and Religion
||Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (editor). Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907). Pages 75-204.
||133 / 10 (tables)
John Smith (1580-1631) was president of Jamestown’s council
from September 1608 to September 1609. He is credited with
providing the leadership that helped the colony survive the
difficult year between 1608-1609. John Smith had spent his early
years traveling around Europe and participated in battles as a
soldier in the French, Dutch, and finally the Transylvanian
army. The Virginia Company made Smith a member of the council
that would govern the colony but Smith threatened more prominent
members of the expedition and was accused of mutiny and shackled
during the voyage to the Americas and for three weeks after the
party landed. Smith was captured by Native Americans in December
1607 but was saved by Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas. He traded
with the Native Americans who lived along the James River and
his efforts provided much of the food for the colony until a
ship carrying supplies arrived on January, 8 1608. His life was
threatened when the council of Jamestown ordered that he be
hung, but Captain Christopher Newport intervened after he
returned from England in 1608 and saved Smith’s life.
Jamestown Settlement, 1607-1625
In 1606, the London Company received a royal charter from
King James I to organize an expedition and establish colonies in
North America. The Plymouth Company would establish the
short-lived colony in Maine (see AJ-042). The Virginia Company
set up England’s first permanent colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
Their primary goal was profit; investors hoped settlers would
find valuable natural resources, such as lumber, herbs, pitch,
and even gold, to send back to England. However, the English
government also wanted to resist the Spanish colonization of
North America (see AJ-077 for a Spaniard’s account of the
Jamestown colony). One hundred and four men and boys came ashore
in May 1607-no women arrived until the following year. Over the
next three years almost eight hundred settlers would arrive to
colonize the Virginia coasts-six hundred of them arriving in
1609. Unfortunately, Jamestown was not an ideal spot for a
colony. The low marshy land was not healthy, and clean water
could be difficult to find. Attacks by the Powhatan Indians
began shortly after the English colonists built their first fort
at the Jamestown site. Fighting between the English and Indians
continued, despite the settlers’ reliance on the Indians for
corn during the difficult winters. In addition, many of the
settlers were hardly qualified to farm and survive in this
difficult setting. During the first years, mortality was very
high through disease, starvation, and accident.
Captain John Smith was elected president in September 1608
(see also AJ-074). By enforcing strict discipline and requiring
all settlers to farm, he increased the food supply. However, a
serious injury in 1609 forced his return to England. George
Percy was president of the Virginia’s council during the winter
of 1609 and 1610, called the “starving time” when only sixty
settlers survived (see AJ-073). In June 1610, they decided to
abandon the town, but the arrival of the new governor, Lord de
La Ware (see AJ-076), and his supply ships brought the colonists
back to the fort. In 1612, the settlers began to grow tobacco on
their plantations-over time, this successful crop transformed
the colony into a successful venture. John Rolfe, who married
Pocahontas (see AJ-079), is credited with first planting a
marketable tobacco in Virginia. In 1619, the same year Africans
were brought into the colony as slaves, the first representative
assembly in North America was set up-the Virginia Assembly (see
AJ-080). In 1624, the Virginia Company dissolved and Virginia
became a royal colony under the governance of the English Crown.
In his Map of Virginia, Smith lists some translations
of words and phrases he had learned from his encounters with
Native American tribes, provides many details about the
landscape and waterways he explored, describes the animals,
plants and vegetation that flourished in and around Jamestown.
Smith’s extensive travel and trading expeditions put him in
contact with many Native American’s in the colony and he writes
extensively of the nature of these interactions.
Fellow colonists and friends of John Smith wrote the second
document, The Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia.
They describe the settlement of Jamestown and highlight the
major leaders and accomplishments of the colony. The document
includes descriptions of the idea to colonize Virginia by
Bartholomew Gosnold, the trip to the New World, hardships of
establishing a fort and maintaining supplies, and the
interactions of the colonists with Native American tribes. The
authors focused on the efforts of Captain John Smith, whom they
credit with keeping the colony from folding in spite of the
attempts of other leaders to discredit and remove Smith from
leadership. Important information is also given about the
Jamestown Fire of 1608 and the rebuilding of the fort,
explorations of the major waterways on the Virginia coast and
the transition of the management of the colony from the Council
to Governor De-La-Ware. The Proceedings of the English
Colonies in Virginia were first published in Oxford in 1612.
Smith’s Description of Virginia and Proceedings of the
Colonie was sent to England for publication in 1608. T.
Abbay published the tract in 1612. A revised portion of the
tract was published in Samual Purchas’ His Pilgrimes, Vol. II
in 1625. The document shown here is from Tyler, Lyon
Gardiner (editor), Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625.
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).
Other Internet and Reference Sources
The Jamestown Rediscovery archeology project website at
http://www.apva.org/jr.html contains historical summaries, a
timeline, biographies, and description of the archeological
findings made at Jamestown.
At the Virtual Jamestown website, you can find other
first-hand accounts of the Jamestown settlement (see
The Public Broadcasting Station website on the history of
Africans in America presents a narrative of the early years of
Virginia’s history and explores the settlers’ difficult
relationship with the Native Americans and the introduction of
black slavery at
The Library of Congress website, “America’s Story” at
contains a short biography of Smith and discusses his importance
in the English colony.