Topic: European and Native American Worlds Collide II: Focus on the First English Colonies
For this topic, in addition to the textbook reading, you have a couple of primary sources written in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English (Harriot's Briefe and True Report and John Rolfe's letter), which can be difficult for the modern reader to understand. Be prepared to read the sources a couple of times before you begin to get a handle on them.
Because these sources are tricky, I have written a number of brief introductions to go with the sources: these appear in italics. These introductions are not part of the sources themselves! They are just my explanatory introductions. You should not quote them. Any information contained in them should be put into your own words in your focus-question answers.
You also have some visual primary sources - pictures drawn by John White and published in Harriot's Briefe and True Report, and a portrait of Pocahontas. When using visual sources be sure to discuss specific features of the picture and try to figure out what perspectives or biases may have influenced how the picture was drawn. (Remember: visual sources, just like written sources, have biases: see the Tips for Doing the Reading and Writing.)
Also remember:
• Choose one of the following focus questions to answer. Your answer should be least 300 words long.
• Give the number of the question you are answering in the subject-line of your post.
• Choose a question that few or no other students have answered. If you answer a question that several other students have already answered you may find it difficult to shed new light on the question in your own answer, making it difficult for you to earn the full 20 points. And remember: if all of the focus questions are answered at least once by the Sunday 10 PM deadline, everyone who submitted an answer gets a point of extra credit!
• Graded posts should contain dates. Note that 16th century = the 1500s; 17th century = the 1600s.
Key Terms (Discuss relevant key terms into your post.)
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Roanoke
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Frontier of exclusion
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Sir Walter Raleigh
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The Chesapeake
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Thomas Harriot and John White
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Virginia Company
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forest efficiency
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Jamestown (est. 1607)
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Protestant Reformation
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Powhatan Confederacy
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Huguenots
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John Rolfe
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Defeat of the Spanish armada (1588)
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Pocahontas
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Popé and the Pueblo Revolt (1680)
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Headright grants
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Juan de Onate
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Opechancanough
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New France
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proprietary colony
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New Netherland
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indentured servitude
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Frontier of inclusion
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Focus Questions
Tying the Readings Together (Clearly draw on Out of Many and one or more of the assigned primary sources for this topic.)
1. How were the first attempts of the English to colonize the Americas similar to and different from the early Spanish colonies? (Draw on both Out of Many [Chapters 1?3] and your sources for this topic.)
2. Why did Harriot write A Briefe and True Report? (Hint: think about some of the following questions. Why, according to Harriot, did the first colony of Roanoke fail? What was going on in the Atlantic world in the late 1580s, when Harriot was writing this book? According to Harriot, what types of commodities were to be found in Virginia and why might these commodities be profitable to the English?)
3. John Rolfe worried what Sir Thomas Dale would think about Rolfe's interest in Pocahontas but Dale fully supported it. What different perspective on the match did Dale's leadership role in the colony give him? (Draw on Out of Many, as well as the sources on Pocahontas and John Rolfe.)
4. Supposing that Pocahontas did influence how she was depicted in the sketch by Simon Van de Passe, what messages do you think she was trying to convey? Discuss specific aspects of the portrait and what you know about the Chesapeake during Pocahontas' lifetime to support your argument.
Out of Many, Ch. 2 (p. 32 to end) and Ch. 3 (up to p. 46): see the "tying the readings together" questions, above.
Pocahontas and John Rolfe
5. Why did John Rolfe want to marry Pocahontas? What concerns did he have about marrying her? What concerns did Rolfe think others might have about his wanting to marry Pocahontas?
Excerpt from Thomas Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
6. How credible are Harriot and White as sources for what life would be like for English colonists who settled in Roanoke? How credible is the information they provide about the Native Americans who lived in the area around Roanoke? Discuss specific aspects of the Briefe and True Report to support your argument.
7. How does Harriot characterize the Native Americans whom he encountered? Were they peaceful or warlike? Did the colonists have anything to fear from them? Basing your answers on White's pictures, how would you answer these questions?