John Smith

1580-1631

Life

Identity

• soldier
• sailor
• explorer
• settler

Homes

• England
• Virginia

Chronology

• 1580: born in Lincolnshire, England
• 1595: works as an apprentice to a merchant, but finds the work dull
• c.1596: fights for Protestant Dutch against Spain
• c. 1599-1606: Fighting for the Austrian army against the Turks, Smith is captured, but later escapes and travels through Russia, Europe and northern Africa.
• 1607: Smith sails for America, where he helps to settle Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the modern-day United States. The Virginia Company, a corporation of English investors, has underestimated the difficulty of settling America and have sent noblemen and tradespeople to set up industries, instead of experienced, practical people equipped to carve a settlement out of the wilderness. As a result, these settlers struggle through deprivation and despair until Smith takes control, leading the men to plant 30 or 40 acres and to make tar, soap, a well, houses, nets for fishing, and a blockhouse.
• 1608: A True Relation of Such Occurences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Hapned in Virginia
• 1609: The Virginia Company reorganizes the settlement and sends a new government. After being injured in an explosion, Smith has to return to England, never to return to Virginia.
• 1610-1620: explores a northern region, which he calls "New England," and creates a map of it. Impressed by the area's natural resources, Smith writes a book promoting it as a source of wealth for England.
• 1612: A Map of Virginia
• 1612: The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia since Their First Beginning from England in the Yeare of Our Lord 1606
• 1616: A Description of New England
• 1620: New Englands Trials
• 1624: The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles
• 1626: An Accidence or the Path-way to Experience
• 1627: A Sea Grammar...
• 1630: The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America, from Anno Domini 1593. to 1629
• 1631: Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Any Where. Or, the Path-way to Experience to Erect a Plantation

---

Issues and themes

John Smith, an English soldier and explorer, is famous for his role in the founding and settling of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. Along with 100 or so other men hired by the Virginia Company, a corporation of English investors who hoped to profit from industries set up in America, John Smith arrived at the mouth of the James River in 1607. When food shortages, heat, poor leadership, and inadequate preparation threatened to destroy the settlement, Smith came to the rescue by delegating responsibility and motivating his fellow settlers to work. His relationship with Pocahontas, the adolescent daughter of the Native American chief Powhatan, has been celebrated in his own work, later books and plays, and the recent Disney movie Pocahontas. Pocahontas married John Rolfe, however, not Smith, and Smith's accounts leave no reason to think that their relationship was romantic. After being injured in an explosion, Smith left Jamestown in 1609, but later explored New England, whose name he coined.

Smith wrote many accounts of his experience in Virginia and New England, including The General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles. In these works, Smith provided early examples of the tall tale and was among the first English-American writers to explore the important American themes of self-creation, practicality, industry, self-reliance, and cultural contact. In many ways, he is a precursor to Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain.

---

Work

A Description of New England

• Publication: 1616
• What does Smith say about work? Why is this theme especially relevant to the early English settlers of America?
• What seems to be Smith's purpose in writing? How does he seek to achieve his objective? Would you accept his invitation? Why or why not?

The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles

• Publication: 1624
• Other Jamestown settlers, including Edward Wingfield, wrote accounts of their experience in Virginia. Why do you suppose Smith's narratives have become the most famous and are the only ones still widely read as "literature"?
• Characterize Smith's style of narration. Would you call him objective, subjective, passionate, deadpan, ironic, humorous, serious? Cite examples to support your assessment.
• A popular form of narrative in 19th-century America was the "tall tale," an action-packed story set in the wild and filled with exaggeration, humor, and the boasts of a colorful protagonist. In what ways does Smith's account resemble a tall tale?
• At least one literary scholar has pointed out that self-creation is a common theme in American literature. Indeed, the individual's ability to mold his or her self fascinated Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, and many other American writers. In what ways is Captain John Smith a self-creator?
• Practicality and labor have been important parts of the American ethos from the settlement of Jamestown to the modern day. Does Smith's narrative celebrate these principles? Defend your answer.
• One of the most famous stories in American history is that of Pocahontas's rescue of Smith. As Smith tells it, several of his Indian captors "layd hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his brains, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death...". Some later readers have questioned the truthfulness of this account, however. It has been noted, for example, that Smith did not even mention the incident in his first narrative, and the writer James Branch Cabell has suggested that Smith borrowed the story from a book the English writer Richard Hakluyt published in 1609 or from any one of many similar stories that are found around the world (Cabell 52). Citing details from Smith's writing or his life, argue that the story is totally true, partially true, or totally false.

Bibliography

• Billings, Warren B. Jamestown and the Founding of the Nation. Gettysburg, Penn.: Thomas Publications.
• Cabell, James Branch. Let Me Lie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1947.
• "John Smith." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 57-59.
• Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988..
• Smith, John. A Description of New England. Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 69-72.
• ---. The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles. Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 60-69.

Quoting any of the phrases or paraphrasing any of the ideas on this site without citing this site is plagiarism, a serious form of academic misconduct that can result in failure of a course, dismissal from a university, or both.

If you use the citation style suggested by Janice R. Walker, co-author of the Columbia Guide to Online Style and author of "MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources" on the World Wide Web, a reference to this site on a "Works Cited" page would appear as follows:

Canada, Mark, ed. "Eugene O'Neill." Canada's America. 1997. http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/oneill.htm (*).

*Inside the parentheses, type the date on which you are viewing this site.