Visit our companion site,
American Passages. Produced in conjunction with Oregon Public Broadcasting, this rich site includes an archive featuring over 3,000 images, audio clips, presentation software, and more.
Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.
Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.
Authors
John Smith (1580-1631)
« back to list of Authors
Raised on a farm in Lincolnshire, England, John Smith relinquished a shopkeeping apprenticeship to seek adventure: he fought for the Dutch in the Netherlands' war for independence, helped capture a Venetian galley in the Mediterranean, served in the Austrian army in its battle against Turkey, and escaped imprisonment and subsequent enslavement by killing his Turkish master. Upon his return to England, he set sail once again, for the fledgling colony of Jamestown, Virginia, where his far-reaching explorations and knowledge of the new land led to his election as president of the colony council. While in Virginia, Smith was captured by Powhatan's Chesapeake Bay Indians and later claimed that he was rescued by Pocahontas, Powhatan's beautiful, young daughter. His publications include a letter that was not intended for the public's eyes, A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia (1608), A Description of New England (1616), New England's Trials (1620 and 1622), and General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624).
Questions for Discussion and Writing
Even by Americans who have never read his words, Smith is remembered as a soldier, an adventurer, an action hero. Unlike Champlain, Smith did not write his account from meticulous and extensive notes and journals, but years after from his recollections, and perhaps also from his sense of theater. Compared to that of Harriot, Smith's literary style is lush, self-conscious, even florid at times.
1. What kind of audience does The General History of Virginia (1624) seem intended for? What social standing and literary tastes would this account appeal to? In The General History, why does Smith write of himself in the third person? Do you know of any classical authors, especially adventurers and military figures, who used a similar strategy? What is the effect?
2. When Smith writes glowingly of "New England" (1616), what kind of England does he imagine as possible on the American continent? What are its pleasures going to be? What values will it have? Contrast this dream with the aspirations of William Bradford, John Winthrop, and the Massachusetts Bay colonists.
