Jamestown vs. Plymouth

To even begin to compare and contrast the involvement and relationships of the Plymouth Colonies, versus the Jamestown Colonies and their view on Native Americans, we must first understand how they interacted individually.

The first popularly noted explorer of the modern 'New England' went by the name of Captain John Smith. In the year 1614, he claimed this new world as his very own 'discovery.' At this time, European nations (Dutch, French, and English) were beginning to arrive in the land, looking for land, and other trades such as foods, or trades of wampum furs and beads. Captain Smith observed the land which he had discovered, and felt a sense of awe. The people were so peaceful, and close to the land in which they lived. The 'virgin' landscape – which he named it, was dotted with farms and small villages. What was once forest had been burned into vast open meadows, used for hunting wildlife. Yet, Smith did not understand; could not conceive that this land had actually been established. He did not see that a culture different from his own could even be viewed as a culture at all.

"Given a country so planted with corne fields, and so well inhabited with a goodly, strong and well proportioned people... who can but approve this most excellent place, both for health and fertility?... Of all the four parts of the World I have yet seene not inhabited could I heave but meanes to transport a colonie, I would rather live there than anywhere,” quoted Smith.

This is a very ironic situation, however, because the new settlers felt very free to consume and usurp Native produce, but yet they could not even admit that they had established a community, or that they had farmed the very food they were relying on.


A few years after the first settlers arrived, there came to be a great pandemic of smallpox and chickenpox, which swept across the Native Nations, killing up to (on average) ninety percent of tribes. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one of Smith's common men saw this devastation, and seemed almost cheerful about it. He reasoned that such a large disaster that wiped out most of the Native population had to be a good thing. This was so because, now instead of having thousands of Native Americans to contend with, all they had to do was announce their control, and the Natives would have to comply, due to their lack in numbers. This came to be true: the settlements Salem, New Amsterdam, Providence, Boston, Plymouth and Jamestown were all built on desolate Native villages. They simply did not 'settle' the land, but 'resettled' it. Before they could build, they had to tear the land away from its people.

By the spring of 1621, more than half the English settlers had died of starvation. Thankfully, a local tribe by the name of Wampanoag came to the rescue, if only for a while. Understanding the danger of this action, the Wampanoags saw that, instead of holding a grudge on the colonist's for invading, they would try to make peace. They felt an urgent need to re-establish the equilibrium of their past world. Possibly a treaty with these new people would give them some peace at heart. Later, however, the Natives were tricked into accepting a new policy. Eager to become friends, they accepted although the deal was nowhere fair. Nearly every statute that the English applied to the Natives, they broke themselves. Meanwhile, the Native Wampanoags were supplying their colony with maize and other produce. When the Natives came to visit the Pilgrims, they panicked; eager to keep their seperatist lives in check. Banishing all but the Sanchem from their colonies, they alienated themselves from their suppliers. By the year 1633, after the Natives and Colonists had suffered a drought, the Natives had almost had enough. Their land had become increasingly scarce; their attributions had done little to make the new people accept them, and their population was dwindling dangerously low. Through the following years Native tribes began to fight with each other, and with the Dutch over trading goods. This resulted in a sort of anarchy within the Mohegan tribe, until a new Sanchem was anointed. The stability of the tribes steadily disintegrated, with the Puritans on one side pushing for all non-followers of their God to be exterminated, and the Pilgrims still pushing for land. Around the year 1637 was the great massacre of Mystic, which was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Natives were mostly annihilated from New England, and any that were left were under strict jurisdiction of the state.


The Jamestown settlers arrived on the coast of Virginia in the year 1607. This was a particularly bad time for them to arrive: the Natives were already suspicious of any newcomers, as well as the fact that the Powhatans and Chesapeakes were having an all out war. The first few weeks of settlement, the colonists were attacked several times by the surrounding native tribes. During the summer of 1607, more than half the settlers were infected, and died of disease. They had no experience with the land, and no experience of how to use the land to supply themselves with food. They realized that their only option was to look to the Powhatans for help. The Virginia Company assumed that they would require help from the Natives for the first year or so, but never dreamed that they would need their help for years, and eventually end up relying on them

. “Have great care not to offend the Naturals... buy Corne and all other lasting victuals... before that they perceive you mean to plant among them.”

Maize quickly became a staple of the colonists, and after ten years of dependance on trade with the Natives, the English ego was considerably damaged. The Governor of Jamestown gave this speech against reliance on the Natives, “Nothing can be more dishonorable to our nation then to stand in need of supplies of our most necessarie food from these base Savages nor more dangerous, then to have our lives, and the lives of the colony itself, to depend uppon the uncertain hope of trade with them.” It was also a very large blow to the community, when the colonists began to desert Jamestown to live with the 'savages', where food was plentiful, as well as freedom. Instead of seeing the Natives as friendly and willing to help, the English saw them as a treat to their well being .. even as devil worshipers.

“All things that were able to do to them hurt beyond their prevention, they adore with their kind of divine worship, as the fire, water lightening, thunder, our ordinance, peeces, horses &c. But their cheife God they worship is the Devil. Him they call Oke & serve him more of fear than love,” commented Captain John Smith.

As the idea of Natives worsened, the people began to hate them. Their need for food was still great, and therefore they began to take the food by 'compulsory purchase'; instead of fairly trading with the Natives, they raided their stocks and surpluses, leaving little but a few trinkets behind. This comforted their conscience, for a good Christian such as themselves would never steal. In the end, the Jamestown colonists just stole what they needed, making enemies with the Natives. Little did the colonists care, however. The Native Americans, at one point offered to teach the settlers how to construct fishing weirs, or how to grow maize, but they declined; they were more happy to grow tobacco and steal what they needed from the Natives.

After a while, the Powhatan tribe realized that no matter what they did for the English, they could never win.

“Well perceive and well know you intend to destroy us, that are here to intreat and desire your friendship, and to enjoy our houses and plant our fields, of whose fruit you shall participate, otherwise you will have the worst by our absence, for we can plant anywhere, though with more labour, and we know you cannot live if you want our harvest, and that reliefe wee bring you ; if you promise us peace, we will believe you, if you proceed in revenge, we shall abandon the country.”

As epidemics struck the Natives, their power dwindled evermore, and they were eventually forced out of their own land by the onslaught of new colonists.

When comparing the contrasting these two situations, the first thing to jump out of the epidemics of smallpox and chicken pox. In New England, the first onslaught wiped out almost ninety percent of the local tribes, but did nothing to the English settlers. This made it much easier for them to take over the Native land. In Jamestown, the first epidemic struck the colonists themselves, turning the tables. Later, however, the Powhatan tribe was affected, but not in such a great way as in the North.


Second, is how the Natives were viewed. In New England as well as Jamestown, they were seen as 'savages', as people with no economy or sense of government. This was all completely wrong, of course, yet even though all this was under their very noses, they refused to believe it. The land had been farmed and processed; the very food the Jamestown settlers relied on was grown by the Powhatan tribe; yet they refused to belief that they were farmers and had technology greater than themselves. The Natives were viewed as vile and Devil worshipping creatures, either to be driven away or educated in their own, very correct views on religion.
Also, in New England the way the Natives were exterminated was different than the way they were in Jamestown. The people of New England enraged the native tribes to a point were the began to destroy themselves. Their population was already at a low point after the pox swept in and annihilated their community. The New England colonies were not very quiet about the way they drove the Natives from their nation. The extermination in Jamestown was less sudden. Starving and working the Powhatans to death, they finally drove them away into extinction as more and more settlers arrived and built on their land. The Natives were slowly, but surely wiped out.

All of the tribes in both cases were shocked beyond belief of what was happening to them. To try to re-establish their old equilibrium of peace and harmony, they attempted to become friendly with the English. The settlers in both cases ended up in a bad spell of starvation. The only reason the two colonies survived was because of the Natives themselves. The only difference is, the people of New England did not steal from the Natives as the Jamestown colonists did. Yet, still, in the end of both situations, their land was taken away from them.

“The Times are exceedingly altere'd. yea the times have turn'd everything upside down, or rather we have chang'd the good Times, chiefly by the help pf the white people, for in Times Past, our forefathers live in peace, love, and harmony, and had everything in great plenty...but alas, it is not so now...”

*Quotes out of the Earth Shall Weep, James Wilson