1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

by Charles C. Mann

  7 Tobacco exports: For export figures, see below. Size of barrels: author’s visit, Jamestown archaeological site.

  8 Ballast: Given that ship ballast is now viewed as a prime source of biological introductions (e.g., Bright 1988:167), it is surprisingly little studied. According to one nineteenth-century nautical textbook, ballast usually consisted of “iron, stone, or gravel, or some similar material,” though “in some Colonial and other ports sand only is to be had” (Stevens 1894:75–76).

  9 Earthworms as engineers: Darwin 1881 (“organized creatures,” 313); Edwards 2004:4 (mass of worms, turnover rate).

  10 Ice Age and worms: James 1995. The Ice Age didn’t kill all northern American worms. But all common earthworms in North America today are imports, mostly from Europe and Japan.

  11 Ecological impacts of introduced earthworms: Author’s interview, Hale; Frelich et al. 2006:1239 (see fig. 1), 1236, 1238 (soil density), 1237 (impact on nutrients), 1241 (litter), 1241 (understory plants); Bohlen et al. 2004a:8 (nutrients); Bohlen et al. 2004b:432 (clears understory); Migge-Kleian et al. 2006 (declines in invertebrates, mammals, birds, lizards). Specific impact of L. terrestris: Proulx 2003:18; Tiunov et al. 2006. Impact of L. rubellus: Bohlen et al. 2004b:432; Tiunov et al. 2006:1226. Earthworms may promote invasions by exotic species (Heneghan et al. 2007).

  12 Goal of colony: Horn 2005:41–42, 55–56, 80–81; Price 2005:21–22, 75–76. The colonists’ instructions commanded them to hunt for “any minerals” and to set up camp on a river flowing from the northwest, “for that way you shall soonest find the other sea.” (Haile ed. 1998:19–22). The company charter (McDonald ed. 1899:1–11) concerns itself with only three things beyond survival and defense: converting the natives (¶II); obtaining “Gold, Silver, and Copper” (¶IX); and trading with “any other Foreign Country” (¶XVI). In part the English believed there was gold and silver because of the claims of a previous English visitor to North America (Ingram 1883; DeCosta 1883).

  13 First representative body, first slaves: See below.

  14 Jamestown landing: Bernhard 1992:600–01; Billings 1991:5; Kelso 2006:14. The number of colonists is disputed. Bernhard and Kelso, agreeing with George Percy (Haile ed. 1998:98), argue for 104 (105 sailed, 1 died en route). But Kelso and Straube (2004:18) and Kupperman (2007:217) use 108; Price (2005:15) calls it at “105 or so.”

  15 Jamestown settlers: Visitors to the Jamestown archaeological site find lists of “Jamestown settlers.” The same language turns up in Wikipedia and newsmagazine headlines (Lord 2007).

  16 Tsenacomoco: Variant spellings include Tsenacomacah, Tsenacommacah, and Tsenacommacoh. I use “empire” following Fausz 1977:68–70.

  17 Began with six villages: Strachey 1612:615. For accounts of Powhatan’s empire building, see Rountree 2005:chap. 4 and Fausz 1977:56–68.

  18 Powhatan domain boundaries: Hatfield 2003:247; Rountree 2005:40; Turner 1993:77.

  19 Tsenacomoco’s size and population in 1607: Subject to scholarly debate since Thomas Jefferson (1993:220) made the first population estimate (8,000 mi2, 8,000 people). Recent estimates include Feest 1973 (14,300–22,300 people); Turner 1973 (18,550 km2 [7,160 mi2], 10,400 people); Fausz 1977:60 (“in the neighborhood of twelve thousand”); Turner 1982 (16,400 km2 [6,332 mi2], 12,940 people); Rountree 1990:15 (16,500 km2 [6,370 mi2], 13,000–14,300 people); Rountree and Turner 1994:359 (“slightly less than 6,500 square miles”; “some 13,000 persons”); McCord 2001 (“sparse” population); Hatfield 2003:fig. 1 (about 6,200 mi2); Turner 2004 (13,000–15,000 people); Horn 2005:16 (“perhaps 15,000 people”); and Rountree 2005:13 (“about 15,000”), 40. I follow Rountree and Horn.

  20 “of western Europe”: Williams 1989:33.

  21 Powhatan as man and domain: Rountree 1990:7; Rountree 2005:33. Allen (2003:64–67) explains the derivation of the name. His subjects addressed him by his common name, Wahunsenacawh (Strachey 1612:614).

  22 Powhatan’s capital, residence, appearance: Author’s visit, archaeological site; Gallivan et al. 2006 (geography, fig. 3.1); Gallivan 2007 (town map, fig. 2); Smith 2007a:17, 22 (“expresse”), 53–54; Smith 2007b:270 (“a vault”), 296–97 (pearls, divan); Strachey 1612:614–19 (“king’s house” 615); Rountree 2005:29–35.

  23 Lack of domesticated animals: Strachey 1612:637; Crosby 1986:172–94; Diamond 1999:160–75. The Powhatan, like other Indians in eastern North America, had only dogs and hawks, the latter of which were not domesticated so much as tamed (Anderson 2004:34–37).

  24 Criteria for domestication, tally of domesticated animals: E. O. Price 2002; Mason ed. 1984. The number of birds is disputed, one issue being whether caged birds like parakeets and canaries are domesticated.

  25 English landscapes: Anderson 2004:84–90.

  26 Native agriculture methods: Smith 2007b:279; Strachey 1612:676–77; Spelman 1609:492.

  27 Indian maize field size: Maxwell 1910:73; Smith 2007b:284 (“their fields or gardens [are] some 20 acres, some 40. some 100. some 200”). Strachey (1612:626) noted that “so much ground [in one town] is there cleared and open” that with “little labor” the colonists could plant corn “or make vineyards of two or three thousand acres.” Edward Williams argued (1650:13) that colonists need not fear the labor of opening up the forest, because of the “immense quantity of Indian fields cleared already to our hand.” Scholarly summaries include Rountree et al. 2007:34–35, 41–42, 153. Citing another figure by Strachey (1612:636), Rountree (1990:280, note 22) argues that most fields were one to two hundred feet on a side. Strachey also reported that plants were separated from each other by “4 or 5 foot” and “commonly” bore two small ears, which would indicate that a 150’ x 150’ household field would yield about three thousand ears—food for a month or two for the “six to twenty” residents of each house (1612:636, 676). (Native maize ears were less than half the size of typical modern ears.) In anthropological annals one rarely encounters people who take the trouble to clear land for cereals but not enough to use them as staples, as Strachey’s second, smaller estimate suggests.

  28 Palisades, absence of fencing: Rountree 2005:42; Rountree and Turner 1998:279; Rountree et al. 2007:38.

  29 Meaning of fences, domestic animals in England: Anderson 2004:78–90.

  30 Use of “abandoned” fields and plants on them: Rountree, Clarke, and Mountford 2007:42; Rountree 2005:9, 56; Rountree 1993a:173–74.

  31 Impact of beaver: Hemenway 2002; Naiman et al. 1988. There is a European beaver, but it had been hunted to extinction in Britain.

  32 Tuckahoe: Author’s visits, Jamestown; Smith 2007b:276, 391; Rountree et al. 2007:43–44, 124; Rountree 2005:12, 1990:52–53; Strachey 1625:679.

  33 Smoke and fire observable from sea: De Vries 1993:22 (“it is seen”); Bigges 1589:38 (“great fire[s]…are very ordinarie all alongst this coast,” 132).

  34 Indian hunting by fire: Smith 2007a:14 (“over the wood”); Mann 2005:248–52; Williams 1989:32–49; Krech 1999:104–06; Byrd 1841:80–81.

  35 Effects of native burning: Miller 2001:122; Wennersten 2000:chaps. 13–15; Pyne 1999 (“into metals,” 7), 1997a:301–08, 1997b, 1991 (“corridors of travel,” 504); Pyne et al. 1996:235–40; Rountree 1993b:33–38 (paths); Hammett 1992; Williams 1989:32–49; Byrd 1841:61 (“all before it”); White 1634:40 (“without molestation”). Like White, John Smith insisted that “a man may gallop a horse amongst these woods” (2007b:284), as did a seventeenth-century chronicler from Maryland (“The Woods for the most part are free from underwood, so that a man may travel on horsebacke, almost any-where” [Anon. 1635:79]). So commonly was the Virginia forest understood to be open that William Bullock, before his first visit there, explained (1649:3) that in Virginia people can see “above a mile and a half in the Wood, and the Trees stand at that distance, that you may drive Carts or Coaches between the thickest of them, being clear from boughs a great height.” (Bullock 1649:3). Among the first sights that greeted the Jamestown colonists was a big fire-created clearing (Percy 1625?:90–91).

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p; 36 Jumble of ecological zones: Rountree 1996:4–14.

  37 Smith tales in True Travels: Smith 2007c (early years, 689–94; “to Rome,” 693; “Stratagem,” 696; “such like,” 703; single combats, 704–06; slavery, 717–18; “his necke,” 720; “braines,” escape and flight, 730–33; African piracy, 741–43). See also, Kupperman ed. 1988:introduction.

  38 Skepticism, support of Smith: Adams 1871; Fuller 1860:vol. 1, 276 (“proclaim them”). Adams’s motives: Rule 1962 (“aristocracy,” 179). Refutations of skeptics: Striker 1958; Fishwick 1958; Striker and Smith 1962 (“Al Limbach,” 478); Barbour 1963; Kupperman ed. 1988:2–4. A popular satirical poem, The Legend of Captaine Jones, appeared in 1630, mocking Smith’s boastfulness.

  39 Smith irritates social betters: Like a modern populist, Smith mocked the milieu of “Parliaments, Plaies, Petitions, Admiralls, Recorders, Interpreters, Chronologers, Courts of Plea, [and] Justices of peace” (2007c:329) inhabited by politically connected gentlemen like the colony leaders. In return, they denounced him (Wingfield 1608?:199–200; Percy 1625?:502; Ratcliffe [in Haile ed. 1998:354]; and Archer [ibid.:352–53]). Attempts to pass new sumptuary laws are described in Kuchta 2002:37–39. Percy’s trunk is described in Nicholls ed. 2005:213–14.

  40 Smith’s version of capture: Smith 2007b:316–23 (“from death,” 321; “with hunger,” 323).

  41 Skepticism on Pocahontas story: The two varying accounts are from 1608 (Smith 2007a) and 1624 (Smith 2007b). Rountree (2005:76–82) argues, convincingly to my mind, that at most Pocahontas was playing a part in a ritual whereby Powhatan made Smith his vassal (Horn 2005:66–71; Kupperman 2007a:228; Allen 2003:46–51; Richter 2001:69–78). The lovelorn women who succored Smith are cataloged by Townsend (2004:52–54) and Smith himself (2007b:203–04). Films include The New World (2005), Pocahontas (1995), and Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953). Popular accounts are divided on accepting the story (Price 2005:59–69, 241–45; Horwitz 2008:334–37).

  42 Smith story obscures real story: Kupperman 2007a.

  43 English monarchy’s debts, forced loans: Homer and Sylla 2005:122; Croft 2003:71–82; Scott 1912:vol. 1, 16–27, 52–54, 133–40.

  44 “Slave of Wickedness”: Barlow 1681:2–6 (all quotes). This is the most common seventeenth-century translation of the encyclical Regnans in Excelsis (1570).

  45 Spanish colonies: Pre-Jamestown Spanish incursions included San Miguel de Gualdape (founded in 1525, probably in South Carolina [see Chap. 8]), Santa Rosa Island (1559, off the Florida panhandle), San Agustín (1565, now the city of St. Augustine, Florida), Guatari (1566, in South Carolina), San Antonio (1567, in southwestern Florida), Tequesta (1567, in southeastern Florida), Ajacán (1570, near Jamestown), San Pedro de Mocama (1587, on an island near the present Georgia-Florida border), Santa Catalina de Guale (early 1590s, on another Georgia island), Tolomato (1595, on the Georgia coast), Santa Clara de Tipiqui (1595, on the same coast), Talapo (1595, on the same coast), Santo Domingo de Asao (1595, on the same coast), San Pedro y San Pablo de Puturiba (1595, on the same island as San Pedro de Mocama), San Buenaventura de Guadalquini (1605, on another Georgia island), and San Joseph de Sapala (1605, on yet another). This list is not complete; in some cases sources differ on the proper spelling and exact date of founding. For details on Ajacán, see Lewis and Loomie 1953. Many more were founded after Jamestown, among them Santa Fe.

  46 Colonies in New France: Charlesbourg-Royal (founded 1542, on the St. Lawrence River), Charlesfort (1562), Fort Caroline (1564), Sable Island (1598), and Port-Royal (1605). Quebec was founded in 1608, a year after Jamestown.

  47 Hakluyt: Hakluyt 1584:chap. 4 (“daily piracies”), chap. 1 (all other quotes).

  48 Closeness of Americas and China: See below.

  49 Joint-stock companies: A standard history is Scott 1912. Succinct explanations of the companies’ origins as a means for spreading risk include Kohn forthcoming:chap. 14; Brouwer 2005. Importantly, joint-stock companies let investors negotiate with the crown as a group when seeking the necessary royal permission for foreign trade. As individuals, single investors had little leverage; banded together, they were less vulnerable to royal whim. I thank Mark Plummer for many useful conversations.

  50 Landes and North: Landes 1999 (“patience, tenacity,” 523); North and Thomas 1973 (arrangements, “phenomenon,” 1). Other works in this sometimes polemical tradition include Gress 1998, Lal 1998, and Jones 2003.

  51 Ten joint-stock companies before Jamestown: The count is the companies discussed in Scott 1912:vol. 2. I do not include mining partnerships but do include Ralegh’s colonial ventures (see below). Most large-scale European trade then was controlled by merchant families and royal monopolies; an example is the Merchant Guild, the state-affiliated association of Seville merchant families that long dominated Spain’s America trade. A partial exception was the Dutch East India Company, a consortium of six merchant firms supervised by a board of overseers chosen by the governments of the Netherlands’ five provinces. For brief accounts of the Merchant Guild and the rivalrous English and Dutch East India Companies see, respectively, Smith 1940:chap. 6 and Bernstein 2008:chap. 9.

  52 Four previous colonies: Humphrey Gilbert’s venture (canceled by Gilbert’s ship sinking during a reconnaissance mission in 1583); the Popham colony in Maine (1607–08); and the two efforts at Roanoke (1586–1587; 1587–?). For Roanoke, Ralegh did not create a joint-stock company but raised the money through an informal but similar arrangement (Trevelyan 2004:54, 81, 114, 138). The Popham colony began soon after Jamestown, but I include it as its prime mover was also an organizer of the Virginia Company.

  53 Roanoke colony: Horn 2010; Kupperman 2007b; Oberg 2008; Donegan 2002:chap. 1; Fausz 1985:231–35; Quinn and Quinn eds. 1982. Quinn 1985 remains the history on which all others are built. Popular accounts include the enjoyable Horwitz 2008:chap. 11.

  54 Roanoke introduces tobacco to England (footnote): Laufer 1924b:9–11 (“smoak,” 10).

  55 Virginia Company view of Spain, Tsenacomoco: Billings ed. 1975:19–22 (quotes, 19–20).

  56 Tassantassas: Rountree 2005:6. See its usage in, e.g., Hamor 1615:811.

  57 Jamestown peninsula, problems with site: Author’s visit; author’s interviews, William Kelso, Greg Garman; Smith 2007b:389 (well); Barlow 2003:22–25 (crater) Rountree 1996:18–29 (Indians occupied best land); Earle 1979:98–103 (“salt poisoning,” 99); Strachey 1625:430–31; Percy, G. 1607(?). Observations Gathered out of a Discourse of the Plantation of the Southern Colony in Virginia by the English, 1606. In Haile ed. 1998:85–100 (“filth,” 100). The reputation for picking the best land lasted. “Wherever we meet an Indian old field or place where they have lived,” the clergyman Hugh Jones wrote of Virginia in 1724, “we are sure of the best ground” (quoted in Maxwell 1910:81).

  58 Droughts: Stahle et al. 1998. A team of archaeologists and dendrochronologists (scientists who study tree rings) examined long-lived Virginia cypress trees. Because rainy years create wider tree rings than do dry years, the scientists could show that the 1606–12 drought was the worst in centuries.

  59 Thirty-eight left alive: Smith 2007b:323, 406; Bernhard 1992:603; Earle 1979:96–97; Kupperman 1979:24.

  60 Powhatan’s attitude: Rountree 2005:143–47; Fausz 1985:235–54; Fausz 1990:12 (“ignorance”); Percy 1625?:505 (“fox”); Strachey 1625:419 (stragglers). Powhatan made the threat of withholding food explicit through an intermediate (Smith 2007b:388). The Council of Virginia clearly understood the peril (1609:363). See also, West et al. 1610:457.

  61 Smith takes charge: Smith 2007b:314–96 (“good hope,” 341); Horn 2005:59–100. As Smith (2007b:392) notes, only seven men died on his watch.

  62 Colony rose to two hundred: Two groups came in 1608, the “first supply” in January (100 or 120 people, Horn 2005:75; “neare a hundred men,” Smith 2007b:324); and the “second supply” in, depending on the source, September or October (seventy men, Horn 2005:104; a few more than seventy, Smith 2007b:358). The first supply brought the total t
o 138–58, but deaths that summer reduced the number to about 130; the second supply lifted it to about 200 (Bernhard 1992:603).

  63 Smith blows self up: Smith 2007b:402; Percy 1625?:502. Horn (2005:169–70) speculates that it was attempted murder, but this seems unlikely; Smith’s enemies depended on him. His lack of children is often linked to the severe powder burns on his groin.

  64 Arrival of convoy, Smith’s replacement: Glover and Smith 2008:chap. 4; Smith 2007c:chap. 12; Horn 2005:chap. 6; Archer, G. 1609. Letter to ——, 31 Aug. In Haile ed. 1998:350–53; Ratcliffe, J. 1609. Letter to R. Cecil, 4 Oct. In idem:354–55.

  65 First Indian War: Smith 2007c:chap. 12; Morgan 2003:79 (Smith’s views); Fausz 1990 (“first Indian war”); Percy 1625?:503–04 (all quotes).

  66 “starving time”: Glover and Smith 2008:chap. 7; Smith 2007b:411–12 (Powhatan stops providing food); Horn 2005:174–77; Price 2005:126–29 (ruffs, 127–28); Donegan 2002:144–75; Shirley 1942 (Percy’s clothing, 237–38); Percy 1625?:502–08 (all quotes, 505); “Ancient Planters” 1624:894–95. The term “starving time” comes from Smith (2007b:411). Winter 1609 death toll: Kelso 2006:90; Bernhard 1992:609–13; Kupperman 1979:24. The total number of colonists dropped from 245 to eighty or ninety. See also, Governor and Council in Virginia. 1610. Letter to Virginia Company, 7 Jul. In Haile ed. 1998:456–57.

  67 Chesapeake fish: Author’s interviews, Kelso (sturgeon bones); Wennersten 2000:5–7, 12–13 (underwater), 23–27; Pearson 1944.

  68 Gentlemen: Smith 2007b:404 (retainers); Morgan 2003:63, 83–87 (“in England,” 84).

  69 Rolfe’s voyage, attempted abandonment of Jamestown: Glover and Smith 2008:chaps. 3–8; Horn 2005:157–64, 177–80; Price 2005:130–39; Strachey 1625:383–427 (quotes from 384, 387); “Ancient Planters” 1624:895–97 (“not less than,” 897); Somers 1610; West, T. (Baron de la Warre). 1610. Letter to Earl of Salisbury, Jul. In Haile ed. 1998:465–67; West et al. 1610.