So Many Questions...

I want to respond to a few questions that were asked anonymously at the end of class last week. 

Several questions revolved around the relationship between Native Americans and the English colonists who settled Jamestown.

How did the Native Americans (the Powhatan Confederacy made up of Algonquian-speaking villages in Virginia) react to the English settlers?  Why were the Natives not joining their tribes together and fighting back on a massive scale?  Why didn't the colonists attempt to befriend the natives and adopt their lifestyle?  Were trading with teh Natives in the 1600s-1700s or just viewing them as hostile?
 These are great questions for which I have inadequate responses.  Much of what we know about this early relationship comes from the English perspective, the written sources that remain.  Many cultures transmitted history through oral tradition (many Native American groups included).  If those Native groups are dying at a rate of 80-90% during this period of English settlement and conquest, tradition suffers, and history can be disrupted, forgotten, or ignored.  Remember, it is the victors who often write history.  In this case, it is the English who triumph over the Natives, so we are getting an English-skewed interpretation from the surviving records.  Additionally, resisting or fighting back is next to impossible when you have disease ravaging your society.  Also, most colonists saw the Natives as vastly different from themselves, as uncivilized (at best) to savage (at worst).  Once we start discussing the settlement of Massachusetts, we will learn that the colonists viewed the Natives there as pretty much minions of the devil.  That's a harsh way to view someone.  So, the likelihood of adopting Native lifestyles is minimal.  With that said, some adaptation of Native culture is undeniable.  The English will adopt food, hunting and cooking techniques, language, and so forth.  There is a cultural exchange happening.  In the index of your book, there is a chapter by chapter bibliography for further reading or research.  In this case, check out Gary Nash's book, Red, White, and Black:  The People's of Early North America.  As an answer to the very last question above, YES.  Colonists are trading/learning from the Natives for survival.  The Natives are also key to the colonial trade in animal skins, which could be very profitable for the Europeans involved.  You want to maintain good relationships to keep these trade/economic doors open.  However, warfare/fighting disrupts these relationships periodically. 

The hierarchy of their society was difficult for me to understand...why wasn't there more revolution?  More people like Nathaniel Bacon?
Great question...I think you are asking why did people seem satisfied with their lot in life?  Why didn't they demand more rights and privileges?  I have no good answer for this except that this is the way it was always done and this is what people expected.  It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks....but one of the benefits of leaving England and coming to a new world was that you were in a new place and that allowed for new possibilities and new ways of doing things.  We do eventually have a revolution (1775-1776) and it changes everything for us, and later for the whole world.  More later in the semester on the factors that led Americans to question the notion of established status or positions within society.

What were other countries doing?  Did other countries, like China, or Russia, try to settle (in North America) as well as England?
Quick response, China...no...Russia...yes.  See map (from the later era) in your textbook, page 255.  Several years ago I visited the Alaskan town of Sitka (beautiful place).  It was settled by Russians, complete with a very Russian Orthodox Church.

When did towns in Virginia form?
The very first town was Jamestown, the original fort.  Remember that in the Virginia colony there will be very few towns, as landholders are often living on their property.  The riverways and waterways are the "road" that connects colonists to one another and to whatever governmental business they may need to conduct.  From the overhead I showed last week, early Virginia towns included Jamestown (1607); Henrico (1611); Fort Henry (Petersburg) (1645); Norfolk (1682); Hampton (1691); Yorktown (1691); Williamsburg (1699).  In 1700, for a colony this size, this is not many towns.

Midterm Exam Hint:  There will most likely be some sort of essay question on the development of slavery in early Virginia.  You may have to also explain this in the context of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Remember that we did the essay/journal on the transition in early Virginia from indentured servitude to slavery.  In the potential essay on the exam, you should be able to explain why this occurred by using specific evidence/discussion/logical historical reasoning.

Did men cheat on their wives?
This may sound like an odd question, but it is a great one, because it gets at the heart of what we want to know about people from the past.  Were they like us?  Were they really different?  The answer I give comes from a previous professor, Winthrop Jordan, a world-reknowned scholar of slavery.  During one particular class Jordan was asked about some behavior/relationship status/activiity between slaves and masters.  I can not remember the exact questions, but perhaps something like, "how often did masters have sex with their slaves?"  Or, "did any of these master/slave relationships involve any notion of 'love' or was it all exploitation?" (An answer to this second question would require a multilayered critical reponse..not for here).  Jordan responded that any human behavior taking place today, or that you can imagine taking place today, took place back then as well.  Whether or not certain behaviors occur with more or less frequency today or then is up for discussion, but the human heart...greed, lust, anger, envy, love, sacrifice, mercy...it happened then and happens now.