WGR - New Perspectives on Jamestown

400 years ago, the English established their first permanent settlement in the New World at Jamestown. The resulting clash of cultures changed the world forever…

This five part radio series examines the myths, mysteries and leagcies of the Jamestown Settlement.

Jamestown: What Pocahontas Saw

The story of Jamestown begins before the arrival of Europeans, when up to 25,000 Indians lived on the coastal plains of what is now Mid-Atlantic America. These diverse tribes flourished by working the land for food and trade. Four hundred years later, their rich history has been popularly reduced to a myth about Pochahontas' love for--and rescue of--Captain John Smith. In a special feature, Virginia Indians reflect on Jamestown in their own words. Then, national experts Helen Rountree and Camilla Townsend unravel the Pocahontas myth by taking listeners back to the sources--Indian oral histories and the writings of Jamestown settlers to reveal what the world of 1607 was really like.

Jamestown : Pirates, Silver, and Imperial Ambition

Sixteenth-century Europe faces a trade imbalance with the Far East , much like the West today. Discovery of silver in the New World unleashes a race of imperial ambition, since silver offers Europe a valuable trade resource that China and India cannot produce for themselves. Spain --the superpower of the day--leads the resulting competition for control of lands promising this precious metal, also seeking to stamp out anti-Catholic "heresy." In this cutthroat climate, the English settlement at Jamestown is poorly defended and struggling for survival. The Spanish could easily wipe it out, but they don't--they assume the English simply can't and won't survive! Douglas Foard, Sir John Elliott, James Horn and Henry Kamen tell of tiny Jamestown 's place in Spain 's massive but vulnerable empire, and of how the fragile settlement survives against all odds.

Jamestown and the African Experience

Roots of the contemporary racial divide in America are found as early as the Jamestown settlement. Few English women live at the fledgling colony, so Englishmen seek sexual relations with African women. When mixed race children are inevitably born, Virginia lawmakers scramble to pass laws blocking these children from inheriting their English fathers' property. Joseph Miller, Jennifer Morgan, and Stephanie Smallwood assert that these laws, designed to protect the colony's business interests, set a foundation for the institution of slavery in the New World.

Jamestown: A Primer for the Pilgrims?

Early reports from Jamestown tell of hunger, death, disorder and disappointment -- partly due to the accusatory style of its competing settlers and partly a result of regional American politics. Plagued though it was, the Jamestown experiment offered lessons in colonization that contributed to the success of other colonies, including Plymouth. Edward Winslow, a leader of the Plymouth colony, is known to have read John Smith's writings on colonization that drew heavily from his experience at Jamestown. So why does Plymouth get all the ink in history textbooks? Karen Kupperman, Crandall Shiffett and James Whittenburg say thatJamestown's disorderly "Animal House" reputation, whether right or wrong, led to a loss of status in our national story.

Global Jamestown and the Poles

Captain John Smith and other English adventurers who settle Jamestown are already "worldly" men, some of whom have traveled to the ends of the earth. In the context of the time, Jamestown could be described as a dot on the map in a global pattern of movement, including Baltic, Mediterranean , and Far Eastern trade routes. Thus, when skilled labor is needed to develop the colony's economic potential, the English recruit accomplished tradesmen from wherever they can find the best: Germans to mine, French to establish wineries, and Poles to create pitch and potash. Patrick Griffin, James Horn, and John Radzilowski show how the Polish contribution and experience in Jamestown highlights the settlement's significance not only as the "Birthplace of America," but as a symbol of the era's emerging, complex global world.