Essay Questions for Thinking through Sources 2

Compare and Contrast: Based on the information available in these sources, compare and contrast the processes of English settlement in Virginia and in Massachusetts Bay between 1608 and the 1630s. How did the motivations and goals of the promoters and leaders of the two colonies differ, and what did they have in common, if anything? How did the visions for each region affect the experiences of the English people who settled there and the Native Americans who were confronted by them? Overall, do you see these two colonies as more similar or more different from one another?

Examine Change over Time: These documents date from 1608 to 1631, with the earlier sources providing information about Virginia, which was founded in 1607, and the later sources providing information about the Puritans’ settlement of Massachusetts Bay, which began in 1630. What do the sources suggest about how Europeans’ processes and experiences of colonization in North America changed over these two decades? What, if anything, might the Puritan migrants to Massachusetts Bay have learned from the history of the Virginia settlers, and how might those lessons have shaped their approaches to the Native Americans and the creation of their new society?

Compare Ideal and Reality: Both John Smith’s “The Commodities of Virginia” and John Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity” can be viewed as documents that reveal each man’s ideal vision for the colony he was promoting and organizing in North America. Write an essay explaining each man’s ideal vision for his colony and, using the firsthand experiences illustrated by Powhatan’s perspective and the letters home from Virginia and Massachusetts, discuss the extent to which each vision was actually realized (or not) in the experiences of the people who lived in the new societies.

Evaluate Sources: Each one of these five documents is an important source of information about the colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay as they developed between 1607 and 1631, but not all historical sources are created equal. Smith’s “Commodities of Virginia” was promotional, Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity” was prescriptive, and the two letters home are firsthand accounts of colonists’ lives in the new colonies. Powhatan’s perspective is allegedly a firsthand account reported by the colonial leader John Smith. Which of these documents do you see as the most valuable for understanding early English colonization of North America, and which do you see as less valuable and why? How, in particular, do you assess Powhatan’s narrative, which was filtered through the mind and hand of John Smith?