American Discovery
1) Was Jamestown “doomed”? What helped Jamestown survive in its early years? What role did the natives play? James town was doomed from the very beginning do to its location. The stealers at Jamestown believe the safest place to settle was on a peninsula jutting out from the James river banks. This was a mistake because the peninsula was on low ground privy to flooding it was, also a swamp and was very humid. These conditions introduced the settlers to malaria a disease they never before came in contact with , and they we now plague with outbreaks of the deadly disease. The peninsula was also a mistake to encamp upon because it was in the middle of a major Native American Imperial tribe, led by Powhattan. Also the inhabitants of James town were only men so it was had for them to look on James town as permanent. All the settler that came Sand that were to come failed to make James town hospitable and profitable , until a Captain by the name of John Smith took charge of the town when he was voted president of council in 1608. Smith reorganized the way the town was run. He imposed work orders on the settlers and organized raids on the neighboring Indians for food and supplies, and captives for slave labor. The raid s introduce the settlers to corn and tobacco, and the cultivation of the land . 2) Virginia in the 1670’s had a case of political turmoil. What caused this situation? Names and suspects involved, What was the resolution? The Political Turmoil in the 1670’s was partially due to the different fraction seeking favor with the English movement. The distress was also over the Indian policy. In 1644 Sir William Berkeley was governor of Virginia. In this time there were numerous Indian uprisings due to the settlers pushing west onto Indian lands. Sir Berkeley squashed the Indian uprising , by promising the Indians that the white settlers would most moved in to the territories promised to the Indians inciting the Indians once again. But the Indians were not the only people to get riled up. The Virginia government had a counsel of Burgesses that were first elected in1619, and any male over the age of 17 could vote. But by 1670 only land owners could vote and the were only allowed two burgesses per county, leaving the larger new western counties without proper or no representation. This eventually led to an up rising in 1676 led by a gentlemen by the name of Nathaniel Bacon. Bacon was a wealthy Cambridge scholar who came to Virginia .