The purpose of this assignment is for students to use primary source evidence about the Native American, European, and African settlement of Virginia in the seventeenth century to answer a question about how Chesapeake society developed.
Program Learning Outcomes
1. Students will be able to create an argument through the use of historical evidence.
2. Students will be able to analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources.
3. Students will be able to analyze the effect of historical, social, political, economic, cultural and global forces on this period.
4. Students will be able to understand the importance of chronology and how earlier ideas and events shaped later events.
1. European travelers and settlers often wrote about their observations of Native American societies. Although we recognize
this work suffers from the bias of ethnocentrism, many of these narratives provide us with detailed descriptions of Native American life at the time of contact. And each author varies in his attitudes about Native American cultures. Using the Firsthand Accounts at "Virtual Jamestown" analyze a selected narrative or multiple narratives as a source on one or more of the following issues:
a. material culture (food, clothing, housing, farming, hunting, tools, etc)
b. political and /or religious beliefs and authorities
c. gender and /or class distinctions
d. uses of the environment
2. British travelers were often more interested in the land and its resources than they were in the Native Americans, who occupied it. Select one or more early British traveler's account of Virginia (or more broadly the east coast) and analyze how the author viewed the potential economic assets of the land.
3. Although the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, the exact rules defining the institution of slavery evolved in the early seventeenth century. What do Virginia records tell us about the changing status of enslaved Africans and free people of color in the Colony between 1619 and 1720? (Hint: Be sure to consider their status in comparison with British or other European indentured servants)
4. Artifacts found at Jamestown tell us about the material conditions of the early British settlers including how they acquired food, what kinds of tools and domestic furniture they used, the ailments they suffered and how they were treated, even what they did for recreation. Drawing upon census materials, correspondence and the laws, as well as, archeological evidence, what can you say about the occupations, activities, and living standards of the British at Jamestown.
5. Although we tend to think about the Puritans of Massachusetts as the colonists with all of the rules, the Virginia colonists had many statutes related to moral conduct, respect for authority, trade, and relations with the Native Americans to "guide" them. What do these laws tell us about the concerns and priorities of early Virginia government and society? (Be sure to consider how punishments may reflect the gravity of a violation).