Account of an Early Settler

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/colonial/jamestwn/problems.html

The account I selected is dated from 1609 to 1612, written by John Smith the Governor of Virginia; it expresses the way of life in Jamestown during this time and illustrates the difficulties early settlers had in establishing colonies. The extract I selected is a personal account, meaning whilst being a historical account is it undoubtedly the biased views of Smith. This is evident in the often extremely negative language that Smith uses; implying a sense of resentment at the less then idyllic way of life in the colonies; a reality those who sailed to the 'new world' had not expected. "(they) ...had little or no care of any thing, but to pamper their bellies, to fly away with our Pinnaces, or procure their meanes to returne for England." This admission that the settlers wished to "returne" indicates that the 'new world' was not everything that the Europeans had hoped it to be. Jamestown was a settlement plagued by misfortune in its early years, starvation, Native American animosity and settlers who had no skill in faming or cultivation meant that the settlement struggled to survive. Smith's account also conveys the class of people who seeked a new life in America, "though they never adventured to know any thing; nor ever did any thing but devoure the fruits of other mens labours." this quote although Smith's opinion, none the less indicates the ill-preparedness of those who travelled to America; those from the middle classes used to a life above the labourers who sought wealth in the 'new world' but were devoid of the skills to establish it. Consequently, Jamestown was a settlement that experienced the harsh realities of early colonial life.