The History of the Americans #54 Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 1
In late December, 1606, in London’s River Thames, three small ships were anchored awaiting a voyage across the Atlantic. Those three ships were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, and they would take 105 men and boys to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to establish the Virginia Company’s southern colony. They would plunge into a complex geopolitical morass that would very nearly destroy the venture. This episode looks at the context for the expedition that would become Jamestown, including especially the rise of the powerful Powhatan confederacy that would be waiting there when the English arrived, and prepared by a long-ago confrontation with the Spanish to confront the newcomers .
Selected resources for this episode
Carl Bridenbaugh, Jamestown, 1544-1699
Charlotte M. Gradie, “Spanish Jesuits in Virginia: The Mission That Failed”
James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America
James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America
David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation