t RETURN TO BIOGRAPHIES MENU

John Smith (1580-1631)

 

I.  A Life of Adventure and Danger

 

        A.  Comparable to Cortes and Columbus

 

                1.  A middle class man with great ambitions.

                2.  Discriminated against by English aristocrats

 

        B.  Three Part Life

 

                1.  Soldier against the Turks

                2.  Savior of Jamestown

                3.  Explorer of New England

 

II.  Solider of Fortune in war against the Turks

 

                A.  Fights with Army of Holy Roman Emperor as

                      a  mercenary

                B.  Moves to Hungarian Army (1601-1602)

                C.  Captured by Turks, enslaved

                D.  Escapes into Musovy and then back to

                      England in 1604

 

III.  Jamestown Settler:  1606-1609

 

        A.  Smith’s Difficult Career in America

 

                1.  Hired by Richard Hakluyt

                2.  Victim of Class conflict

                3.  Arrives in Virginia in Chains – May 1607

                4.  In 1608, “Gentlemen” turn to him in

                     desperation – elected President of the

                     Jamestown Council

 

          B.  Dealing with the Indians in Virginia

       

                1. Learned their language; respected their

                    Customs

                2.  Dec. 1607 – Saved by Pocahontas

                3.  Draws map of Chesapeake Bay area

                4.  Prototype of American Frontiersman:  Daniel

                     Boone, Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson

       

         C.  Returns to England Badly wounded (Sept. 1609)

 

IV.   Mapping of New England, 1614

 

        A.  Publishes his findings in Description of New

              England.

        B.  Hopes to find a rich sponsor for another

              colonization effort

        C.  Shipwrecked on second voyage to New England

              (1615)

 

V.  Writer of his own Story, True Travels (1630)

      Historians have verified much of his tale

 

POCAHONTAS  (1595/96-1617)

 

I.  The Great Powhaten’s favorite daughter

 

II.  Legend has it that she saved John Smith’s life

 

        A.  Remains loyal to Smith and the English

        B.  Saves the colony from Indian attack

 

II.  Taken captive by the Jamestown governor in 1614 and

      held hostage for return of English prisoners

 

IV.  Marries John Rolfe in April 1614

 

        A.  Converts to Christianity first

        B.  Rolfe is a widower and asks permission to marry

              a “foreigner” of a different race

        C.  They have a child, a boy named Thomas – many

              Americans today claim to be descendents of

              Pocahontas and John Rolfe

 

V.  Sent to England by the Virginia Company in 1616 (with

       Rolfe). 

 

        A.  Powhaten wanted a “census” of the English; sent

              Uttamatomakkin (Tomocomo) to London to

              count them

 

        B.  Pocahontas dies at Gravesend in 1617 as she is

              leaving to return to Virginia

 

        C.  Son Thomas remains in England and eventually     

              returns to Viriginia in 1635.  Marries, has a

             daughter, who marries Col. Richard Bolling in

             1675.  Have many children.