Love and Hate in JamestownEssay title: Love and Hate in JamestownThe leadership strengths and weaknesses of John Smith evoked a profound effect on the Jamestown colony. The fact that Smith actually arrived in the colony as a common prisoner and was able to achieve the leadership role that he gained is amazing. His creativity and knowledge in certain areas actually saved the colonists from attack and starvation in the early days. Some of the rules he enforced as a leader were actually instrumental in saving the colony. His skill in dealing with the natives allowed him to gain their support and continue trade that resulted in the survival of the colony.
Christopher Newport, the admiral that transported John Smith and many of the colonists from England, left the Jamestown colony in the fall of 1607. Immediately all work in the settlement ceased to exist. The colonists had decided to wait on Newport to return with new workers. The plan was for the natives to provide food for them while they waited. When the natives never came with food, Ratcliffe, the current president of the colony, ordered John Smith to visit the neighboring natives and trade tools and metals for corn. The natives had noticed how the English were unable to feed themselves by planting their own crops. The natives refused to trade more than a few handfuls of corn and bread for the hatchets and iron that were offered. Smith realized the reason why the Kecoughtans were not trading more than just those small amounts and created a way to solve the problem. To prove to the natives that the English were not poor, Smith gave free beads and trinkets to the children. This was to show the Kecoughtans that the English were economically strong and possessed more valuable items. Smith used the mentality of “weakness in appearance…was weakness in reality” (Price 57) to justify his travels from village to village, collecting a large of amount of corn, bread, and other foods for the Jamestown colonists. Smith thought the natives would trade more food if they did not realize what a small amount of food stores that the English had actually acquired. If the natives had known what large quantities of food Smith had actually traded for, they would have realized how desperate the state of the colonists. Smith performed his trading sessions this way “’least they should perceive my too great want.’” (Price 57) In this manner, John Smith saved the entire colony from starvation, and it would not be the only time.
In early 1609, Smith attempted a raid for food on Powhatan’s capital, Werowocomoco. The colonists were desperate for food because it was the middle of winter. The raid failed because early German settlers that eventually joined the natives, warned them in advance about the attack. After the failed raid, Smith returned to the fort to find the food storage infested with rats and worms. By this time, Ratcliffe had been put under arrest and John Smith had become the president. As president, he then created a rule to make all of the colonists work, or pay the consequences. Smith called an assembly and stated, “He that will not work shall not eat.” (Price 108) The law means if a man does not do any work, he will not get any food. By implementing this law, Smith ensured that most, if not all, of the colonists would do their own share of the work that needed to be done. With the new work effort of the colonists, twenty houses were built, a well was dug, and thirty to forty acres of crops were planted. All of that was accomplished in three months. Once again, John Smith had saved the Jamestown settlement.
Shortly after Smith introduced his “He that will not work shall not eat” law, the colony’s new stock of food again became infested with rats. Smith had studied different tactics for years while he lived alone in his cabin. He developed a plan for how to handle this situation. Smith “took a divide-and-survive approach when their food ran low by dispersing into small groups.” (Price 109) He called this the Dispersal Policy. John Smith sent one group downriver to live off of the oysters found in a certain area. A second group was sent to a place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to fish. Smith sent a third, and final group to live with the friendly tribes in exchange for copper. The dispersal method proved effective,
The Colony
Smith was a naturalist. His main research interest was fish. Smith †is often quoted in his history as a first-hand account of the settlement of the Americas. Smith was a pioneer of marine conservation, and his ideas about how to work with marine ecosystems also led him to the formation of a movement called the Permian Conservation Group (PCG). He organized fishing operations for local communities, and they helped him protect fish from the wilds and encourage a healthier lifestyle. Smith was also a professor at Stanford and also taught courses on biology, physiology, evolution, ecology, and other areas. The PCG spent most of its time in Oregon and northern Washington, but continued to spread to Louisiana and Alaska.
Despite a reputation for being a harsh, harsh and violent man, Smith proved to be more than just a naturalist. He proved to be a proponent of both scientific and human-caused environmental change. Smith studied the ocean to learn about the relationship between pollution, climate change, climate change, human intervention, and the environment. In both his studies and research with the Permians, he studied climate change as a public-policy issue, and he was particularly interested in animal agriculture. He was also a supporter for hunting and fishing rights. In addition, Smith was also critical of environmental regulations and was not always sure what policies he and his colleagues should have.
On November 19, 1832, Smith was appointed administrator of the Maryland Coastal Commission by the state of Maryland. In the meantime, as part of a new government led by a governor, the legislature decided to require that the public be allowed to vote on marine environmental legislation when no such measure was on the books. This regulation came about on March 17, 1832 (Smith’s birthday). This was an important step in increasing the participation of the English class in the Massachusetts system in the development of laws regulating marine issues, and the colonists soon began to notice that it looked like all kinds of things. The bill prohibiting the sale of all seafood was passed by the legislature at a conference call of representatives from Massachusetts (which Smith presided over). The bill required that the state’s population be estimated at 1,000—in other words, 1,300 new members of the English class. The Massachusetts senator John Locke, who then led the Massachusetts Democratic Party led the English resistance in an effort to stop this measure. The passage of the bill increased the number of English-speaking legislators in the legislature. These new English-speaking legislators included both the legislators from the Massachusetts and Massachusetts cities. While the bill gave the legislature a monopoly on the sale of seafood, it also allowed the port commissioners to ban the sale of any fish caught in