Episode 14 The First British Colony in America
April 9, 2025
In our last episode, we discussed how Britain founded the Virginia Company in order to explore North America. The company was later split into Virginia Company of London and Virginia Company of Plymouth. Then on May 13, 1607, persuaded by Virginia Company of London, over 100 British immigrants settled in an area in Virginia, North America.
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This was Britain’s first true colony in North America. The settlers named a nearby river the James River and their settlement James Town, in honor of their great king James I. Everyone was hopeful about starting a brand-new life there.
Sadly, within just six months, half of the settlers had died, and the rest were plotting to run away. The promised gold mine turned out to have nothing but pyrite. The land, far from being fertile, was nothing but swamp. Diseases like malaria spread quickly, and the endless forest didn’t seem like a path that could lead to India.
Well, if the settlement had dissolved then, we wouldn’t be mentioning it in our story. At that time, far too many small colonies had succumbed to nature, disease or wild animals and quietly disappeared.
Typically, History only favors the winners and pays little attention to the losers. Jamestown survived and eventually became a success, thanks to two heroes—both named John—who came to the rescue at just the right time.
The first John, John Smith, was among the first group of immigrants settled in Jamestown. When the colony was at its most desperate, he adopted a strategy of living in peace with the Native Americans. In other words, he decided to treat the Natives, who were considered barbarians by many Europeans, as equals. This approach succeeded, and he was able to secure food from them.
Of course, things didn’t go so smoothly at the beginning, and he was even captured by the Natives. But he was lucky, as he was rescued by the beautiful Indian princess Pocahontas. We will revisit her story in more detail a bit later。
Naturally he became the leader of Jamestown. It was said that he was very ill-tempered and a total dictator. But whether it was dictatorship or democracy mattered little when it came to securing food for survival. This John also documented a lot of information about Jamestown. Much of what we know about the early settlers comes from his personal diary and books.
Of course, today, these early immigrants are seen as symbols of courage and justice. No one would notice the grim stories recorded by John Smith. For example, you won’t find in history books in schools today how settlers in Jamestown resorted to cutting up their wives, preserving their bodies as meat, and eating them piece by piece during the winter due to food shortages.
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Another John was John Rolfe. If Smith was considered the key contributor to the survival of James town, Rolfe was the economist who facilitated its growth and expansion. He was one of the founders of the Virginal Company of London. As a wealthy man, he shared a common interest with many other rich people: a love of adventure. He came to Jamestown in 1610
At that time, the colony was struggling. The Virginia Company of London resorted to abducting orphans and street children in London, sending them off to Jamestown to maintain the population level. However, this could not be a long-term solution. A colony relying on influx of immigrants for its population growth wouldn’t last, it had to grow through reproduction within the settlers themselves.
Well, having food in one’s belly and living in a warm house are prerequisites for people to have an interest in bearing children. People starving in cold winter can’t possibly think about have children.
To lift the settlers out of poverty, John Rolfe came up with the idea of planting tobaccos, which was already very popular in Europe then.
Europeans were dumbfounded, and their curiosity got the better of them—they couldn’t help but try it. Soon, they became addicted to it. Almost every adult had a “tobacco” in their possession. The Indian word “tobacco’ thus was adopted by many languages, including English, and it came to refer to the tobacco plant.
Europe at that time was full of quack doctors who claimed tobacco could cure any sickness. According to them, all one had to do was boil the leaves in hot water for several hours, drink the water and the patient would be cured. This explains why, in European doctors’ dictionaries, tobacco was also called the “Indian magic herb”. It is true that tobacco does have some effectiveness in preventing and curing malaria, but curing other disease? That was pure nonsense.
The real estate business quickly boomed, so did the service industry—both of which required a large labor force. Shiploads of African slaves, indentured servants from Britain, immigrants, and adventurers flooded into Virginia.
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By 1614, the British had finally established a successful colony in North America. It was also in this year that Johan Rolfe got married, and his bride was a very special person. She was the Indian princess Pocahontas—the same princess who had saved the first John, John Smith.
Well, how did Pocahontas end up marrying John Rolfe? This young woman led quite a legendary life. After she saved John Smith, she went to live in Jamestown, for reasons that remain unclear to us.
Most Native Americans today believe she was captured and taken there. They also believe she was later forced or brainwashed into learning English, converting to Christianity, and marrying John.
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Of course, the story passed down by the British settlers is completely different. They claimed she ran to Jamestown to escape an arranged marriage and voluntarily learned English and converted to Christianity.
Whatever the reason, she ended up marrying the tobacco businessman John Rolfe. They were married in the church of Jamestown.。
The movie ends with Pocahontas staying with her tribe, watching her lover sail away. In reality, however, John Rolfe brought his wife back to London where she was treated like a rare jewel by the nobility, mostly driven by their curiosity about a princess from distant America.
A year later, in 1617, she died of a lung disease at the age of only 21, likely due to a lack of immunity towards tuberculosis,
In the movie Pocahontas, Disney depicted a smart, brave and extraordinary women who advocated for building a long lasting friendship between the British and the Native Americans , while the leading character, John, was of course portrayed as a great promoter of human civilization and world peace.
This is hardly surprising. Many similar Hollywood movies tell stories of a Caucasian man and a woman of a different race. The storyline typically goes as follows: they meet and fall in love due to an act of her kindness, together, they fight against the evils of her homeland, sometimes even an evil power from America itself. In the end, despite having absolute power, his magnanimity unites them in harmony and peace.
You can see for yourself the secret behind cultural propaganda here: It is not about what really happened in the history, what matters most is what I want you to believe and accept as having happened.
Back then, the Native Americans protested strongly against the movie Pocahontas but their protests were completely ignored by Disney.
The reason was simple: How many people in the world would, or could listen to what the few Native Americans— as rare as pandas—had to say?
To be continued.