Money Talks

“But in truth, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them.” - Christopher Columbus

When I looked at a list of city foundation dates, I was surprised to see that Albany, NY predated the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth. Yet who studies the founding of Albany in American History?

The reason we are taught about Plymouth but not Albany is the different motive behind the settlements. The Pilgrims represent religious freedom (wrongly as described yesterday). Albany represents the commercial side of America; it was built as a key location for the fur trade. (The state mammal of NY is the Beaver.) While America was a land of religious freedom for some, for many more it was the land of opportunity, an “unexplored” continent of boundless natural resources.

For St. John’s, Newfoundland the resource was Cod and other fish found in abundance in the Grand Banks. The settlers of Jamestown did not find gold ore but they did “discover” gold in a new cash crop, tobacco. The first English tobacco farmer was John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas. In New England the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire (1623) had good fishing and furs but it also had huge tracts of old growth forests which were perfect for shipbuilding. One of my colonial ancestors owned a lumber mill near Dover, New Hampshire.

The exception amongst early American cities is St Augustine, Florida; it was built for military purposes. Explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles was commanded to destroy the French settlement of Fort Caroline, Florida, which he did, and establish a base of operations and control the region for Spain. After the destruction and massacre of Fort Caroline in 1565, the French never again tried to settle the US Atlantic coast. Instead they avoided the superior sea power of Spain and England by settling Canada, following the fur trade into the American interior, and taking possession of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans.

Bottom Line

In modern times, the media and community organizers like to disparage capitalism and wealth and the earning of money. In ancient China, merchants were considered the lowest of the low, parasites that lived off of honest artists and craftsmen. Napoleon famously insulted England by calling it a “Nation of Shopkeepers”. We tend to forget the importance of commerce in history and in the founding of North America.

It was taxation on commerce that led to the creation of the United States. The state of Massachusetts, which I put down yesterday for its early puritanical religious intolerance, had by the 1700s cast off its Pilgrim shackles and became “the” colony of merchants. Boston led the way to independence as discussed in my posts on Samuel Adams and Taxation without Representation.

Me First

"Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." - President John F. Kennedy

Most of the early America settlers had one of two motives: religious freedom or profit. I’ll talk more about profits tomorrow. Today let’s look at religion in the colonies. It is quite ironic that every school child is taught the story of the Pilgrims as the shining example of a people traveling to America for religious freedom. Yes, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation fled oppression and tyranny in the Old Country; but they brought new tyranny with them to the New World. Most every settlement created a charter of rules and regulations and selected or had appointed a strong leader and line of authority. This is not necessarily bad – in fact it was needed for survival. Because of the many “gentlemen” and servants at Jamestown, VA, who had never experienced harsh manual labor (and didn’t want to either), the leader John Smith had to be harsh and proclaimed the rule, if you don’t work, you don’t get fed.

But the tyranny I’m thinking of is not the leaders; it’s a closed minded people and a culture of intolerance - the hypocrisy of Pilgrims refusing to tolerate any religion but their own. They excommunicated independent thinkers and killed anyone who dared to worship differently, like Quakers or Salem “witches”. After being exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his views in 1644, Roger Williams moved next door and founded the “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations", a settlement for religious freedom and neutrality with all (including the Indians). The free people of Rhode Island represent the best of America and were the first to declare Independence from England and the last of the 13 colonies to sign the constitution (holding out until the Bill of Rights was promised.)

Another American pioneer of freedom for everyone was William Penn. (Recall he and his wife are 2 of only 6 persons granted Honorary American Citizenship.) He established the Colony of Pennsylvania (named by the King after William’s father, the elder Penn.) and drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement creating a political utopia guaranteeing trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections. Penn vowed that he would not exploit either the native Indians or the immigrants. He established a legal framework for an ethical society where power was derived from the people, from “open discourse”, in much the same way a Quaker Meeting was run. The new colonial government would safeguard the rights of private property and free enterprise, and impose taxes fairly. The death penalty was limited to two crimes, treason and murder, rather than the two hundred crimes under English law. But not everything was tolerated, even in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. The laws of behavior were rather Puritanical: swearing, lying, and drunkenness were forbidden as well as “idle amusements” such as stage plays, gambling, revels, masques, cock-fighting, and bear-baiting.

Bottom Line

I suppose it is a common human failing to think “freedom for me but not for thee”. I often think back to a portion of Pier Anthony’s series, “Incarnations of Immortality”. The character, Father Time, is forced to go through a series of trials to visit Mother Nature. As a walker he’s pissed that he’s nearly run over by a bicycle and car. As a biker and driver he’s annoyed at a pedestrian who gets in his way. Mother Nature later points out that he was the walker, biker and driver interacting with himself from three different viewpoints. He wanted the right-of-way in each instance and refused to be tolerant of others.

I’m reminded of this when I am cut off by another car or get angry with someone else on the road. Should “me first” apply only to me? Can I fault another when they act just like I want to?

It’s sad that much of American history, early and modern, is driven by the “me first” or “I’m always right” attitude instead of respecting the value and worth of others like Native Americas, women, or persons of a different national origin or different skin tone. It’s incredible that the Land of Religious Freedom has oppressed Quakers, Catholics, Mormons and others for their beliefs. Have "we the people" learned from our country's past mistakes? I don't think so. Just look at the intolerance now between the liberals and the conservatives and attempts by each side to silence debate, vilify individuals, and condemn opponents. No sign of respect for different points of view.

Jamestown

Their houses are all built in the shape of tents, with very high chimneys.- Christopher Columbus speaking of the Indians

After the failures of the Virginia Colony at Roanoke, King James of England granted proprietary land charters in 1606 to two competing branches of the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company (New England) and the London Company (Virginia), in the hopes of establishing a permanent settlement. Immediately, the the Plymouth Company sent the ship, Richard, to the New World but it was captured by the Spanish near Florida. In 1607 the Plymouth Company tried again with two ships and 120 colonists. Called the Popham Colony, they settled the area of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River. They lasted one year before sailing back to England.

In 1607 the London Company founded Jamestown, the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. It comprised three ships after a particularly long voyage of five months duration across the Atlantic. Many in the group were gentlemen unused to work, or their manservants, equally unaccustomed to the hard labor demanded for establishing a viable colony. Two-thirds of the settlers died before ships brought supplies and experts in 1608. In the "starving time" of 1609 - 1610, only 60 of the 500 colonists survived.

Jamestown’s relationship with neighboring Indians was a strained coexistence. Initially the Indians were friendly and we get the story of Pocahontas, the introduction of crops like corn and the origin of the Thanksgiving dinner. But after 15 years of mistreatment the Powhatan Confederacy attempted to eliminate the English colony in the Indian Massacre of 1622. The attack killed over 300 settlers, about a third of the English-speaking population.

The true miracle of Jamestown is that is survived at all. Between St. John’s in 1583 and Jamestown in 1607 there were no fewer than eighteen failed attempts at European colonization.

Despite a terrible beginning, Jamestown did survive and eventually Virgina would become the largest and most prominent of the 13 colonies; home to leading men like Washington and Jefferson. It’s also interesting to note that the territory claimed by the Virginia Colony was huge. It consisted of not just the Commonwealth of Virginia but also the entire states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, most of Ohio as well as disputed claims to the lands of Michigan and Wisconsin.

Bottom Line

In modern times we take survival for granted. Family members won’t die if the crop fails. We are not sickened by drinking the local water or by mosquitoes. Infant mortality is low and Indian attacks are rare.

We also take our tools for granted. Hammers, ovens, sewing machines, etc. Imagine a Robinson Carouse existence on a desert island when you have to get by with only what you can make yourself.

It’s hard for me to say if the early settlers were brave or ignorant or a little of both. Certainly courage was needed to move to the New World and endure the trials of the sea voyage and hunger. But there was also a lot of false optimism and failure to adequately plan and failure to anticipate the difficulties of building a settlement from scratch. When the second supply ship arrived in Jamestown, the company representives expressed anger that the colonists had not found gold or other means to pay for their supplies. The leader John Smith wrote back to the London Company,

"When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of such awe have [gentlemen speculators]: for except wee be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything."

It was the worst of times, but after Jamestown colonizers appear to have found the secret of successful colonization through trial and error.

1607 Jamestown, Virginia
1607 Sante Fe, New Mexico
1608 Quebec City, Canada
1610 Hampton, Virginia
1610 Kecoughtan, Virginia
1610 Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada
1614 Albany, New York
1620 Plymouth, Massachusetts
1623 Portsmouth, New Hampshire
and so on with dozens more settlements in the early 1600’s.

Columbus Day & The New World

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination. - Christopher Columbus

My latest commuting book on CD is called, The Intellectual Devotional, American History. There are 365 “lessons” each about 5 minutes long. It’s a bit like having someone read a history text book aloud. Though not exciting, it overlapped nicely with a graphic novel I reread last night, Marvel’s 1602, and got me thinking about the colonization of America. Despite this being Columbus Day, I'll skip the early years and look at actual attempts to settle the New World.

The first successful English settlement of America was St. John's, Newfoundland. Tradition declares that the site earned its name when explorer John Cabot became the first European to sail into the harbour, on June 24, 1497 - the feast day of Saint John the Baptist. The location became a popular harbor with many nations for fishing the Grand Banks. It appears as São João on a Portuguese map in 1519. When the English mariner John Rut visited St. John's in 1527 he found Norman, Breton and Portuguese ships in the harbour. On August 5, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed the area as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I. When he arrived, he found 16 English fishing ships and 20 French and Portuguese vessels already there with a small (seasonal?) settlement on the north side of the harbour. The resident population grew slowly in the 17th century.

Another early attempt at English settlement was the Virginia Colony. It began with an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 to Roanoke Island, NC. But the settlement ran out of supplies and the entire population returned to England when Sir Francis Drake dropped by after attacking the Spanish at St. Augustine. In 1587 the English tried to resettle Roanoke with families. At Roanoke, Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the New World. The colony ship was sent back for supplies but became impounded in an English war with Spain. When the supply ship was allowed to return in 1590, it found that every resident had vanished and Roanoke become know as the "Lost Colony".

Bottom Line

Tomorrow I’ll continue the story of the Virginia Colony.

I should also note that other nations (particularly Spain) were also trying to colonize the New World.
1498 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1510 Nombre de Dios & 1519 Panama City, Panama
1511-1515 Baracoa, Santiago, and Havana in Cuba
1519 Veracruz, 1526 Acámbaro, 1531 Culiacán, 1532 Oaxaca, & others, Mexico
1521 San Juan, Puerto Rico
1524 Granada, Nicaragua
1536 San Pedro, Honduras
1541 St. John's, Canada
1558 Mérida, Venezuela
1563 Cartago, Costa Rica
1565 Saint Augustine, Florida (the oldest continuously occupied European city in the United States)

Personal Note

Columbus Day has a special, though unintended meaning for me. I'm a big fan of the number 12 and so to make the Anniversary Day easier to remember, we chose October 12 to be married. Neither my wife nor I realized that we had picked Columbus Day until:
1. My sister gave us a large book on Columbus as a wedding gift
2. Our honeymoon inn wanted to charge us more more when we arrived because it was a holiday weekend.