Abstract: This paper will compare and contrast the Early Jamestown settlers with the Plymouth colony while relating the different interactions with the Native Americans of their regions. It will also show how religion and social interactions affected the relations between the Native Americans with the English settlers if different colonies and different settlements. Sources and support include The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson, websites (http://www.apva.org/history/index.html, http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h519.html, http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/plymouth/, and http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/teaching/jamestown/images/jsmith.jpg) as well as classroom discussions.

Exam #2

~Jamestown & Plymouth Colonies~

The English Jamestown colony along with the English Plymouth Puritan colony pilgrims each had their own reasons and ways of interacting and working with the Native Americans. These interactions can be seen through the reasons for each of these colonies coming to America, religion, King Phillip's War, and also the Powhatan Uprising.

The Jamestown colony was sent by King James I in June of 1606 as a group of entrepreneurs from London they called the Virginia Company . Many of the artisans, craftsmen, and laborers that came to North America helped with every effort that they had to make this colony succeed. The English settling groups have claimed their intentions to have been to spread Christianity, although many say that their real intentions were to find gold and silver. The reason for the move was to make money and they did that by developing exports for England. The settlers also depended on the Native Americans to have the necessary food for their survival and continued to take the food from them. This did not happen to give them a stable economy or colony, they were simply interested in money and knew that the Natives would have food they could live on and take whenever they needed it. This made it difficult for the Natives of Jamestown, who wanted to still have trade with the English, but wanted their food for themselves as well. The Jamestown colony tried to keep things how they were with the Natives, and did so by letting them be afraid. The Jamestown settlers possibly even planned to depend upon the Indians as they got their trade started, but knew they would have to be careful so not to insult them in any way. One of the biggest difficulties once this colony was settled was that they needed soldiers, farmers and craftsmen, but all that they had were men who were not used to manual labor. They wasted time and energy on looking for gold and silver and other ways of making easy money, when they would soon be depending on crops having been planted. These actions resulted in over one-third of the colonists dying of malaria, typhoid fever, scurvy, and dysentery. Later, the colony developed a cash crop of tobacco for their exports and which helped boost their colony and economy.

The Plymouth colony was America's first permanent Puritan settlement and was established in December of 1620 by English Separatist Puritans. The name Puritans was given to the extreme Protestants in the Church of England, who wanted to purify their national church by removing all Catholic influence it had. Many Puritans moved to the New World to find a commonwealth in New England in the 17th century. Among these people were the Pilgrims who founded the Plymouth colony in 1620. During the colonial period, Puritanism had much direct impact on religious thought as well as cultural patterns in America. It's influence in the 19th century did not have a direct effect, although can still be seen in the importance of education in religious leadership and religious motivations. This Puritan colony left England to find religious freedom and a better life with it as well. The settlers began to build shelters for the harsh winter, although by the end of the winter half of the colonists had died. The Puritan colony did not depend upon their trade and wanted to have independence and a stable lifestyle for themselves. Although they did trade with the Natives, they were not dependent only on them. The Puritans came to North America for a very different reason than that of the Jamestown settlers. They came to America because of their separatist religion. This, along with their religion, therefore affected how they interacted with the Natives. Which also meant that they did not need to be involved at all with the Natives for survival. Although, Squanto taught the colonists to plant corn, gather fruits, and to catch fish. The Puritans also got to meet the Indian Samoset, who then introduced them to Massasoit (chief of the Wampanoag Indians) with whom they signed a peace treaty.

The Powhatan Uprising was a fight between the Powhatan Indians and the people of the Jamestown colony. It came about because of some of their recent conflicts and tradings of the Jamestown settlers. The result was an attack on the Jamestown colony by the Indians in which killed almost three-hundred and fifty colonists. The uprising was very short and did not extend beyond this. After the death of Massasoit, the Wampanoag tried to get rid of the English settlers resulting in the King Philip's war. It was named after Philip, who was the son of Massasoit. The war lasted from 1675 to 1676, and happens to be the most destructive Indian war in New England's history. Fighting started at the frontier settlement of Swansea in June of 1675, which then resulted in conflict between Indians and the English across parts of New England, including colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Eventually other colonial parties forced even greater destruction onto the Indians, until they were defeated and did not resist and fight back again.

The two colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth both came to America for different reason and therefore had different interactions with the Natives and different reason to interact with them as well. The Puritan colony settled in North America because they wanted to practice their religion and live with no other influences on it as well as their culture. When there were common disputes between the Puritans and the Natives, the colony wanted to settle everything for the purpose of their religion and way of life. This can be seen in the length of the Powhatan Uprising. The Jamestown colony differed from this because their reason for coming to America was for trade and exports. This also meant that they did not get along and interact with the Indians as well as the Puritan settlers. For this reason, they almost always had some conflict with the Natives. The different reasons for these colonies to settle in North America meant that they also had a different purpose for interaction with the Native Americans.