History Of Captain John Smith

History Of Captain John Smith

Section 1. Topic Description

Captain John Smith was born in January 1580. He was an Admiral of New England after having been an English soldier. Before his death in 1631 he had become an author and wrote many of his life memoirs that have become a significant part of Virginian and New England historical records. In the state of Virginia, John Smith is regarded as a hero in so many ways. He is specifically recognized for his efforts in the founding of civilization in Jamestown through firm leadership, encouraging the use of timber in constructing buildings, and more specifically planting of a variety of crops that helped many colonial residents of the town avoid starvation. John Smith was Jamestown governing council’s president and as an influential leader he is still regarded as an important figure in the development of Jamestown from its earliest days. It is an undisputed fact that John Smith was a qualified leader in new settlement management. He was also widely experienced in warfare.

He was born an adventurous yeoman and travelled widely in Europe fighting besides other Englishmen and the Dutch against the Spanish. He studied warfare in England before joining up with the Austrian forces in late 1600 to fight against the Turkish “infidels” in Hungary and Transylvania. He claims to have beheaded three Turkish military officers before being captured and sold as a slave. In his autobiography, John Smith describes how he escaped and returned to England some time between 1604 and 1605 passing through countries like Russia, Morocco, and Poland. He later states to have voluntarily joined settlers recruited by Virginia Company and was the youngest among those who led the new colony (Smith, 1986). He was, however, the most travelled and highly experienced in the training relevant to colony leadership in the wild and hostile North American colonies.

Much that is known about his life is recorded in his autobiographical writings which have been verified by modern scholars. His literary works on Virginia and New England have been of great historical merit over time and continue to shed more light about life in the colonial days (Vaughan, 1975).

This paper is an examination of his life primarily through his writings in effort to separate myth from reality and to discover the real John Smith. I will explore the history of his early days, his exploits as recorded in his autobiographical works, and his contributions to the history of Virginia, New England and the United States as a whole through evidence complied from his writing complemented by other secondary sources. Notably, the paper will examine his famous claim of having been once saved from death by Pocahontas, an eleven year old Native American girl who later became a legend in today’s entertainment industry. John Smith’s claim of having been saved by the young girl became a major controversial topic that continues to be disputed in many academic circles today.

The validity of the story of how Pocahontas saved Captain Smith had never been doubted for two and a half centuries. Smith was highly regarded as a hero but there were some scholars who expressed doubts about his romantic adventures. In the year 1860, Charles Deane, a Boston historian stated in a “Discourse of Virginia” article that Smith was never saved by Pocahontas. Deane was among the first scholars to publicly question the validity of Smith’s claim by giving reasons for his disbelief. His argument prompted other scholars with similar ideas to wage a full scale attack on in the January edition of The North American Review in 1867 (Lemay, 1991). However, John Smith’s famous claim survived the criticism through the support of essayists like William Wirt Henry in 1875 but smith was still being considered a liar by many late nineteenth century scholars.

His dedication to the colonies is also an important factor about his life for he is quoted as having stated that the colonies were his “children for they have bin my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice and in total my best content” (Smith, 1986, p. 27). This claim can be said to carry some validity for as much as many have claimed to have descended from the brassy leader of Jamestown in its early days, John Smith neither married nor had any known children. He dedicated his life to the development of England’s New World colonies. He always strived to see that the colonies were a success probably due to the heavy investments in resources and efforts he had put in them.

An important question in this examination of his life would be: Who exactly was John Smith as a person besides being a legend? Born in Willoughby, England, John Smith was an apprentice at an early age. His father died in 1596 and this sad event brought about drastic changes in his life. He quit apprenticeship and became a traveler and an adventurer. His adventures took him to different places in Europe. He fought alongside the Dutch in their war against Spain and later with Austrians against the Turks. He was wounded while fighting against the Turks in Transylvania and when he was captured by the Turks he was sold to slavery. He murdered his captors and found his way back to England (Smith, 1986). His written accounts of these adventurous exploits have been disputed by many scholars and authorities as flamboyant self-promotion but some like Leo Lemay have shown corroborative evidence in the narratives that give credibility to the stories.

John Smith later joined a New World investment venture and volunteered to be recruited in the London Company in 1604 to explore and lead in colonial settlement in North America. He set sail for North America in 1606 with Captain Christopher Newport and arrived in Chesapeake Bay in April 1607. He explored the area and set up the Jamestown colony in the area surrounding the James River. He explored many of the surrounding rivers and is known for having drawn many remarkably accurate maps. He was the colonists contact with the neighboring Algonkian tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy.

His historical records claim that in a conflict with the Algonkian tribe, John Smith was abducted but was later rescued from execution by the chief’s daughter called Pocahontas. His critics claim that Smith simply did not understand an Indian adoption ritual and mistook it for Pocahontas’ rescue efforts. Nevertheless, Smith returned to Jamestown after having been in captivity for a month. His flamboyant ways of life and a prickly personality did not go down well with his fellow colonists. He was later imprisoned and sentenced to death on a conspiracy hatched by some of his opponents but his life was saved by the arrival of Christopher Newport and a boatload of settlers from England.

With the full support of Newport, John Smith took over the leadership of Jamestown where he brought great development through the fortification of the town, military training, and promotion of crop planting. An accident involving the explosion of his gunpowder pouch in 1609 that left him badly injured took him back to England in search of medical attention. His absence and agricultural expertise was dearly missed by Jamestown colonists between the years 1609 and 1610 for this was a period of great starvation due to food shortage (Smith, 1986).

He returned to North America in 1614 where he explored the present day coasts of Maine and Massachusetts and is claimed to have been the one who named this region “New England” before returning back to England. He was not as lucky as before in his subsequent return to North America. He was captured by pirates and spent several months held as their captive. He managed to escape but his attempts to return to the New World were prevented by adverse winds and bad weather for months. He never returned to North America again but devoted the rest of his life to writing his memoirs and historical records of his time. Some of his famous published works include New England and the Summer Isles published in 1625, True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captaine John Smith published in 1630, A Description of New England published in 1625, and The General Historie of Virginia among others (Vaughan, 1975).

Relevance of the John Smith to the History of America

John Smith is one of the notable figures in the history of North America and its development from the colonial days. His life and adventurous exploits form a basic part of the colonization of America and how this arduous task was accomplished against harsh realities in the form of unconquerable wilderness and hostilities from the natives. He is significantly remembered as the one who gave the name New England to the region around Maine and Massachusetts coasts. He is also responsible for having brought organization and development to the colonial settlement in Jamestown through his leadership. An examination of his early life and contributions to the founding of the early colonial settlements is therefore of great significance and importance in history.

As a valiant soldier and a prominent figure who would not bow to any adversity, John Smith is an inspiration to many people today. His exploits in European wars and his interaction with native Indians through conflicts and peaceful associations depict a leader who understood the value of maintaining relations at times of conflicts and wars. This fact can be attributed to the opposition he faced from his detractors in the Pocahontas issue. This issue is quite important and relevant because Smith’s reputation and integrity seems to have later relied on whether his claim was a truth or falsehood. As an important figure in history and an author of several acclaimed literary works, the Pocahontas affair appeared to be a test to his credibility.

The big question in this affair was whether John Smith, a man considered to be honest in his historical accounts and whose valiant tales about the time he spent in Eastern Europe and in early days’ Virginia have been found to be true and accurate, would lie on a simplistic issue like his life being saved by Pocahontas, the daughter of a Native Indian chief. If Smith has to be convicted of falsehood, it would be imperative to first find the strong motivation behind his attempt to act differently. This would involve searching for evidence that the story never happened or the lack of evidence that it ever did happen. It would also involve searching for reasons to show why for two hundred and fifty years nobody ever doubted the story. When all the aforementioned facts are considered, it emerges that John Smith was telling the truth and in fact he had nothing to gain by lying and would even have considered keeping the truth under wraps. The historical records about Smith’s captivity by Pocahontas’ father who was known as Powhatan are quite clear about this issue. It can therefore be accurately argued that John Smith was an honest, valiant soldier and a pragmatic leader whose contribution significantly led to the success establishment of Jamestown as a colonial settlement.

Studying the life and times of John Smith is also important because he was one the leading developers of the New World. He was a man who never lost faith in the Virginia colony even after he had relocated back to England. His support for the New England colony while in England included using his observations and records to drawing an accurate map for region before his death in 1631. He kept his belief in the colonies as his children to his death. He might have been described by many of his contemporaries as assertive and self-serving but the legacy he left behind along with his writings about his interactions with, and knowledge of, the Powhatan Indians have become invaluable sources of information for current ethnographers and historians. The map he drew on Virginia and surrounding areas continued to be used by Chesapeake Bay settlers for half a century later.

Sources Review

Smith, John. (1986). Complete works of Captain John Smith Philip Barbour (Ed.). Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press.

I used this book as my primary source which is a collection of works by John Smith and edited by Philip Barbour, a former journalist and intelligence officer. Barbour does a successful reconstruction of John Smith’s life and times from his exploits in Eastern Europe to his time in Virginia. I found this source quite informative because it used information as it was recorded by Smith himself and therefore a reliable source. It also included concrete information about Smith’s relationship with the Powhatan natives and gives an objective explanation about the Pocahontas issue. In comparable to other sources like Wikipedia I found this source more reliable because it contained first hand information about Smith while Wikipedia was simply a collection of information from many authors.

Vaughan, Alden. (1975). American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia.Boston: Little Brown.

In this book, Vaughan describes the reasons that have made Captain John Smith a hero in American history. He shows how Smith became a legendary figure from the myths he created. The book mainly deals with the ways Smith took the Virginia Company’s interests to a higher level in North America through his contributions in leadership and warfare. The author asserts that Smith’s boisterous leadership was very influential in that it helped lure even more adventurers to North America. I used this book as a secondary source because it covered Smith’s descriptions of early Jamestown and his interactions with the Native Indians in great detail. It offered more detailed information about James town than other sources like Wikipedia.

Lemay, J.A. Leo. (1991). The American Dream of Captain John Smith. Charlottesville:University Press of Virginia.

Lemay provides an adoring perception of John Smith as an all time American hero. He goes even further to offer evidence on Smith’s honesty and integrity in the Pocahontas matter. I used this book as a secondary source in examining the validity of Smith’s claim in the Pocahontas issue.

References

Lemay, J.A. Leo. (1991). The American Dream of Captain John Smith. Charlottesville:University Press of Virginia.

Smith, John. (1986). Complete works of Captain John Smith Philip Barbour (Ed.). Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press.

Vaughan, Alden. (1975). American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia.Boston: Little Brown.