Jamestown: The British and The Powhatan

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From suspicion, to siege, to collaboration, to all out war - in this episode we uncover the complex reality of the Jamestown colonists' relationship with the Indigenous peoples of the East Coast. What were their first impressions of one another? How did the Powhatan view their dynamic with the British settlers? And how crucial were figures like John Smith, Pocahontas, and John Rolfe to this story?

Don is joined once again by Mark Summers, Educational Director of Youth and Public Programmes for Jamestowne Rediscovery. They explore the shifting alliances, conflicts, and consequences that shaped early colonial America, with the help of discoveries made by archaeologists at Jamestown.

Produced and edited by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From its southern Cape looking northward, the Chesapeake Bay stretches endlessly to the horizon and beyond.
0:08.6	For the haggard cruise of three ships, the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed,
0:14.2	who just spent months at sea traveling from England, lush Chesapeake coastline with towering forests and dense shrublands offered
0:22.6	the dreamt for promise of safe harbor and stable settlement.
0:27.6	Days earlier they'd first made landfall to plant a cross on the Cape, then embarked inland,
0:33.6	exploring some 50 miles along a wide, welcoming tributary, one that offered a deep channel able to accommodate their vessels.
0:41.3	Searching for suitable anchorage, they opted for a small peninsula,
0:45.3	connected to the mainland, by a narrow land bridge.
0:48.3	Here, they figured, they could settle.
0:51.3	Here, they could expand and grow. Here, they could build a strong defense against enemy attack,
0:58.0	particularly from the Spanish to the south, but not to mention native peoples believed to inhabit this region,
1:05.0	whose hunting grounds the English are about to claim as their own.
1:25.7	Hello, welcome to American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman.
1:32.4	Last week, we heard about the historic journey to a land called Virginia in 1607, how some 100 men set sail from London to build a colony, their instructions sealed in an envelope only
1:38.7	to be opened upon their arrival. If you haven't listened to that episode, I invite you to do so. We'll be right here
1:45.8	after you caught up. As for today, we rejoin our hundred men on Jamestown Island, about 50
1:52.4	miles up from the Chesapeake on what is now called the James River, as they build upon their
1:57.4	new land, and a flaw in their grand plan becomes increasingly apparent.
2:02.3	These lands, they've been told, are already occupied.
2:06.0	So claiming this area won't be as simple as raising a cross or staking a flag.
2:11.1	It will lead to conflict, to blood, eventually to the destruction of a population, a nation that will never be the same again.
2:20.5	In this episode, I am joined once more by Mark Summers, educational director of youth and
	...

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