Humanities Homework Help
Humanities Homework Help. web assignment
1st collaborative web-based assignment instructions & questions
1. Description
Jamestown, Virginia, became the first successful English colony in the Americas, but only after many years of hardship and suffering. The Virginia Company of London was granted a charter by king James I to establish a colonial outpost, and after long planning sent a detachment of ships with a group of prospective colonists aboard, finally establishing the settlement in May, 1607. The original settlement, mostly a fort built on the James River, near Chesapeake Bay, contained only around 100 colonists (the numbers fluctuated up and down over the next years), and proved very difficult to keep going. Historians, who base their work primarily on primary source documents, have noted many obstacles in the way of the Jamestown’s settlement’s survival. First, they located themselves near swamps and at the estuary of the James River, both of which brought numerous diseases and illnesses down on the Jamestown settlers. Second, without knowing it ahead of time the fort was situated in an area dominated by a powerful Native American “paramount chiefdom” under a leader, Powhatan, who proved to be a formidable potential barrier to English goals. Third, their appears to have been many squabbles among the colonists, both between the leaders themselves, between the leaders and those who worked for them, and between the leaders on the ground in Jamestown and what amounted to a board of directors back in London. Fourth, the written records and many books based on them have generally concluded that one of the biggest problems that early Jamestown faced was having too many colonists that were either gentlemen or vagrants, who had one thing in common: they were not used to working. Lastly, it appears that their original goals were to find precious metals and a water route to Asia, which obviously meant they had little initial understanding of the geography and environment of their chosen section of the New World, and were aiming for what proved to be unrealistic goals.
2.Directions
Explore the website “Jamestown Rediscovery” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as a wh (Links to an external site.)ole, but with specific attention as the core of the assignment, to the “Interactive Map of Dig Site” and “Collections/Selected Artifacts/The People”. Use the map and the artifacts examined to answer the five questions below in writing (each question answer should be at least a full paragraph in length). There are two parts to the assignment. Part 1) There is a group discussion board (you have already been divided into groups of about 5), and through the course of each three week assignment you are to make posts and comments on group members posts for your group to all see. The overall goal, is to share knowledge and ideas about the materials you are learning about on the assigned historical website, to demonstrate to me that you are working collaboratively and helping each other to better understand the subject matter. You should think about communicating in a way that demonstrates that all of your understanding of the subject is deepened and refined as you go along. Each member of the group must make at least 5 posts (a full paragraph in length each), and there must be at least one post in each of the three weeks of the assignment (so you cannot make all 5 posts the first or the last week only). You must also make at least 2 comments (a paragraph in length each) on group members’ posts (again, there must be at least 1 during the first week and 1 during the second/third week). Also, you cannot post anything in the 2 days before the due date for the written portion of the assignment. Keep in mind this is a minimum number of posts and the more you go above the minimum the more likely you are to get the full points possible. But it is not just quantity but quality that we are looking for, so your posts/comments should aim to be informed, substantive, accurate, insightful, and displaying critical thinking, reasoning skills. And to do this, it will be imperative that you constantly use the 5 questions provided by me every step of the way through this assignment to guide your thinking in the desired direction.
-Part 2) By the final due date (or due dates, since there are two separate web-based assignments) you are to submit written answers to the 5 questions you will have in advance. The questions are my way of focusing your attention, comments, and writing on what you should be looking for as far as content in the assignment. Each question requires a full paragraph answer, and should NOT be in essay form, but written 1,2,3, etc. Of course I am looking for signs of thinking here as well. So those that get better scores will be informed, substantive, accurate, insightful, and displaying critical thinking skills. Though this part of the assignment is to be your individual written answers (so this part is graded individually), it is necessary to display in your answers what you learned not only from the website, but also what you learned from collaborating with group members. A simple way to do this would be something like as follows: “In our group Bob pointed out that blah blah blah, and though I hadn’t thought of it before, it got me to go back and look, and not only did I see what I had missed but also noticed blah blah blah.” Demonstrate in a couple places in your answers that you didn’t do it all yourself, that ideas going back and forth in your group help you along.
Questions1. From the “Interactive Map” and the artifacts under the heading “The People”, what can be gleaned about the obstacles and hardships the colonists in early Jamestown faced? (In answering this and the following questions, please make specific references to designated sections of the map as well as to specific artifacts. You may also go to other artifact sections on the website to add to your answers, but this is not required)
2. From the same sections of the website what did you learn that is different from, or an addition to what historians have traditionally understood about Jamestown? (this primarily means comparing your findings with the textbook, so feel free to contradict the author, and myself for that matter).
3. What did you find that is consistent with what you are learning in class from other sources (text, film clips, lectures,)?
4. In your exploration of the archaeological site at Jamestown, what did you find that either surprised you, or was at least odd to you?
5. Overall, what does the archaeological evidence indicate about life in early Jamestown?
3. Resources Dig into the website Jamestown Rediscovery: Historic Jamestowne, specifically the “Interactive Map of Dig Site” and the artifacts in the “Collections/Selected Artifacts/The People” (https://historicjamestowne.org/support/jamestown-rediscovery-foundation/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)).
*Group assignment
There is a group discussion board (you have already been divided into groups of about 10), and through the course of each three week assignment you are to make posts and comments on group members posts for your group to all see. The overall goal, is to share knowledge and ideas about the materials you are learning about on the assigned historical website, to demonstrate to me that you are working collaboratively and helping each other to better understand the subject matter. You should think about communicating in a way that demonstrates that all of your understanding of the subject is deepened and refined as you go along. Each member of the group must make at least 5 posts (a full paragraph in length each), and there must be at least one post in each of the three weeks of the assignment (so you cannot make all 5 posts the first or the last week only). You must also make at least 2 comments (a paragraph in length each) on group members’ posts (again, there must be at least 1 during the first week and 1 during the second/third week). Also, you cannot post anything in the 2 days before the due date for the written portion of the assignment. Keep in mind this is a minimum number of posts and the more you go above the minimum the more likely you are to get the full points possible. But it is not just quantity but quality that we are looking for, so your posts/comments should aim to be informed, substantive, accurate, insightful, and displaying critical thinking, reasoning skills. And to do this, it may be useful to use the 5 questions provided to guide your thinking in the desired direction. You don’t need to use or answer the questions directly in the discussion groups however. The discussion board should be about exploring and sharing what you have found on the website in a rough way. The 5 questions are primarily for your final individual written answers that take that rough material and tie it all together in an organized fashion.
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Collapse SubdiscussionSalwa Ibrahim Salwa Ibrahim
Good evening Professor and Classmates,On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease, and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. The settlers began to get sick and have diseases, the settlers also faced conflict with the local people, bad leadership in their own community. The Virginia Company planned to search for gold and silver deposits in the New World, as well as a river route to the Pacific Ocean that would allow them to establish trade with the Orient. Within days of landing, the colonists were attacked by Powhatan Indians Disease, famine, and sporadic attacks from the neighboring Powhatan Indians took a tremendous toll on the early population of James Fort, but there were also times when trade with the Powhatan revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron tools. Captain John Smith was particularly good at this trade. But his strict leadership also made enemies, and a mysterious gunpowder explosion badly injured him and sent him back to England in October 1609. What followed was Jamestown’s darkest hour, the “starving time” winter of 1609-10. About 300 settlers crowded into James Fort when the Indians set up a siege, and only 60 settlers survived to the next spring. Some years of peace and prosperity followed the 1614 wedding of Pocahontas, the favored daughter of Chief Powhatan, to tobacco grower John Rolfe. But her uncle led a surprise attack in 1622 that killed a third of the colonists and caused the king to take full control of the colony.Salwa Ibrahim
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Faraz Farahvash Faraz Farahvash
Hey Salwa, its a very descriptive summary type thing you got going on. After reading this I couldn’t think of what to write to add to the board that you didn’t already mention. When you were talking about Captain John Smith and how he was a strict leader, I couldn’t help bu think that the mysterious cannon accident that lead to his return to England was an intentional act to kill the Captain. Maybe from someone within the camp because it was reported that one of struggles the first settlers had was with each other and following command. And the way you worded makes me think you follow a similar train of thought when it comes this matter. It also makes we wonder what other possible sabotages made the settlers lives a lot harder than they should’ve been. Maybe someone went looking for a new Peru or Mexico and unintentionally insulted the Virginia Indians which lead to their issues with the settlers.
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Collapse SubdiscussionEnrique Noguez Navarrete Enrique Noguez Navarrete
The “History of JamesTown” May 14th 1607 being the first day of a coming hell for the colony, unaware of the dark and sinister events to take place. The fighting with Powhatan Indians within the first few days of landing might have given some strategy plans for the fort being built. The “Map of Discoveries” map view of the fort, a triangle shape, two fronts facing inland, one facing coast, one main cannon platform facing inland known as “North Bulwark” with “palisades” or log walls described as a full scale fortification. Even with their back to the sea and James fort walls, it did little to nothing. Challenges of “Starving Time” of 1609 to 1610, having to eat whatever the colony can find, dogs, cats, snakes, rats and their horses which might have been an unintended consequence because of the huge amount of usage from them, for building structures, traveling, farming and trading them. Hunger was overbearing and so desperate to survive, “Jane”, a young 14 year old teenage girl that came from a large fleet from Plymouth in England, survived sailing through a hurricane that took 32 people in the sea toward the colony. Found in the cellar of James fort where the “First well” is located, among the leftovers of the “Starving Time” suggests cannibalism was decided, from the evidence of markings on her skull by a meat cleaver or sword with the location of her bones, Jane history in James fort had very little simply because she was a women. Showing weakness, the “1607 Burials” reinforced the fear the colonists had, watching their own neighbor perhaps family members pass away from disease or combat with the Powhatan tribe, Then burying their dead within the fort walls so the natives were somewhat unknown of their manpower. I would compare this to trench warfare, both sides watching each other but one side knows their own situation but not the other. If one side knew that the enemy was either strongly fortified with greater numbers or far outnumbered and struggling the conclusion of the stand off would’ve made a rapid approach.
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Christian Jardine Christian Jardine
Well, it may be just the two of you, but keep it up, your initial posts are well done!
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Salwa Ibrahim Salwa Ibrahim
Hello Enrique, It was interesting to read your post about our topic this, I like reading your post. I agree with you on the first day of a coming hell for the colony, I felt sad about “Jane”, a young 14-year-old teenage girl that came from a large fleet from Plymouth in England, the settlers soon confronted invisible dangers: disease and starvation. Saltwater and freshwater mixed in the swampy marshland surrounding Jamestown increased their misery by bickering among themselves. They began to bring corn to the colony for barter. Colonists arrived in 1610, they found only 60 of the 500 previous settlers still alive. Virginia Company sent hundreds of new settlers to Jamestown each year, each of them eager to find the paradise promised by the company, But most settlers went instead to early graves.Salwa Ibrahim
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Isaac Melendez Isaac Melendez
Hi EnriqueJust for an extra tidbit, I’d like to add some reasoning to the fort description. Its described as a triangle layout. When we usually think of forts, we think of square fortifications. The practice of making irregular walls began in the late Middle Ages. What with gunpowder and cannons, castles were becoming irrelevant. Triangular or even star shaped fortifications gained short-lived popularity, as it was harder for a cannon to get a direct hit. The ball might crack a few stones or logs, but usually it would deflect off because of the angular impact. This is completely irrelevant, but I thought it was interesting.Isaac Melendez
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Collapse SubdiscussionIsaac Melendez Isaac Melendez
On May 14, 1607, settlers from England decided to build a permanent colony some sixty miles from Chesapeake Bay. They quickly and wisely erected fortifications, in case of Indian attacks or Spanish bombardment. They had a hot/cold relationship with the local Indians, sometimes trading food for common items like glass beads or iron tools, and other times straight-up fighting, assuming hiding in a fort being shot at counts as fighting. Between the new diseases, lack of food, and fairly inhospitable neighbors, the colony began to waiver. Their leadership, Captain John Smith, was competent, but also unpopular. After being injured in a totally unforeseen explosion, the Captain was sent back to England. The Virginia Company sent plenty of new colonists, but, like a truly disastrous potluck, nobody brought food or equivalent. After a winter of starvation, loss of their chief barterer, and besieged by the locals, the colonists were ready to give up. Thankfully for America of today, a new hope arrived, Governor De La Ware. His leadership swiftly set the town to rights. For some time, peace and prosperity came to Jamestown, partially from marriage of a local princess to a drug dealer. However, once the current Indian Chief died, his successor decided to spoil things. Between the bloody surprise attack and moronic management of the settlement, the King finally decided to simply seize the colony and fire the Virginia company.
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Enrique Noguez Navarrete Enrique Noguez Navarrete
Hi IsaacYour post is very well informative of the colony struggles from the point of their landing to when they were given a new owner being the king. I truly liked the description of the two people who temporarily stopped the war between the colonists and the indians. Pocahontas being the “princess” and Rolfe the “drug dealer”, I find their situation somewhat similar to a Romeo & Juliet and a Disney movie. They both came from different sides of a conflict that didn’t seem to settle any time soon. Lion King, the evil uncle who didn’t have the power until his brother (Chief Powhatan) was gone, to then take control and do what he always wanted, attacking the colonist in 1622.
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Faraz Farahvash Faraz Farahvash
Arriving at America in May on 1607, the first English settlers landed in Jamestown Virginia. There to find a new way to get involved with the East Indies trade or find a new Peru or Mexico, the first settlers were faced with a impossible task. The situation into which they landed in certainly made things a lot worse. The Powhatan chiefdom were the Indian tribe the settlers dealt with. The two shared a relationship where they traded and learned things from one another to be able to live on the land and better their living experience as seen in the “exchange” section. But one thing lead to another and eventually the tribe wanted to siege the fort that the settlers had erected. Being forced to stay inside the fort, the winter of 1609 proved to be deadly killing nearly 200 of the settlers. This event is know as the starving time and during this horrid time the settlers had to resort to eating anything and everything they could in order to survive even if it meant eating one or more of their own. I wonder whether if it was the greed of the natives or of the settlers that brought the two to blows and lead to the Starving Times. It could very well be the greed of both that lead to the downfall of their relationship at the time but had that event not occurred, would the future relationship with the Virginia Indians have been any different or would they still be slaughtered and forced off their land for the settlers to build more homes?
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Salwa Ibrahim Salwa Ibrahim
Good afternoon Faraz,I enjoyed it very much while reading what I published, the company’s investors “risked their capital because they fervently hoped to reap quick profits from the new colony. Captain John Smith (c.1580-1631)“Smith must have enjoyed being in charge… Death, disease, or disgrace had seen off his rivals on the council; and at the same time, his own knack for survival and undoubted achievements gave substance to his role as a leader. An untold number of the English fed on the meat of their dead fellows. After one native was killed in an attack and buried, a group of colonists dug him up several days later and ate him, When a new group arrived in 1610 they found only 60 of 500 settlers still alive, The Virginia Company was intended to be a moneymaking enterprise, and after two disastrous years, there was not a whiff of profit. The directors of the company decided that they needed a new model of governance, replacing the ruling council with a single governor. The multiple difficulties of geographic location, near swampland, Located at an estuary. the Indians refused to trade their corn to the settlers, evidently hoping to starve them out. The five reasons Virginia was turned into a thriving colony, The successful harvesting of tobacco, The Headright System, The House of Burgesses, Finding a labor force, Tapping into the “Atlantic System”Salwa Ibrahim
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Collapse SubdiscussionChristian Jardine Christian Jardine
Keep going folks! This is good!
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Salwa Ibrahim Salwa Ibrahim
Good afternoon Professor and Classmates, Dear Colleagues, I read the book and information notes in Chapter Two and would like to see it, Preconditions for turning fantasy into reality developed in fifteenth-century Europe. In the mid-fourteenth century, a catastrophic epidemic of bubonic plague (or the Black Death, as it was called) killed at least a third of the European population. This devastating pestilence had major long-term consequences. By drastically reducing the population, it made Europe’s limited supply of food more plentiful for survivors. Many survivors inherited property from plague victims, giving them new chances for advancement. The Black Death of the 14th century is well known. When historians discuss “the plague” they are usually referring to this epidemic of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In his book, “The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History” (Boydell Press, 2018), Ole Jørgen Benedictow estimates that 50-60% of the population of Europe died during the Black Death, an even higher proportion than the often-cited “one-third” of Europeans lost to the disease. Scientific and technological advances also helped set the stage for exploration. The invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450 in Germany made printing easier and cheaper, stimulating the diffusion of information, including news of discoveries, among literate Europeans such as Isabella and Columbus. By 1400, crucial navigational aids employed by maritime explorers like Columbus were already available: compasses; hourglasses; and the astrolabe and quadrant, which were devices for determining latitude. Although many people throughout fifteenth-century Europe knew about such technological advances, the Portuguese were the first to use them in a campaign to sail beyond the limits of the world. While England’s rulers eyed the huge North American hinterland of New Spain, they realized that it lacked the two main attractions of Mexico and Peru: incredible material wealth and large populations of Indians to use as workers. In the absence of gold and silver booty and plentiful native labor in North AmericaSalwa Ibrahim
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Collapse SubdiscussionEnrique Noguez Navarrete Enrique Noguez Navarrete
In addition, on the website I didn’t notice that the Powhatans made a move of some mercy for the starving colonists, (even though the Indians wanted to trade for something) at the time, september 1607, by bringing corn for the colonists to barter. I find it funny that in the textbook it says from the colonist point of view that eating corn was “of the barbarous Indians which know no better . . . a more convenient food for swine than man”(pg 51). A little after that, John Smith says commenting the hunger the colonists had for the food for swine “they would have sold their souls”, I guess you couldn’t be a choosening beggar back then either. The indian and colonist relationship, coming back to the corn issue, now that the colonists couldn’t get enough of the stuff, stealing/pillaging or the best trade of all for the english people, corn grown by the indians (that potentially saved some colonists from starving to death), for christianity (one way ticket to heaven). Seeing that silver and gold weren’t in the economy of America at that time, but farm foods were, corn could have been worth more than either metal, given what the textbook informs. If Indians couldn’t beat the intruders (english people), then join them, continuing the trading, iron tools, knives, axes, pots etc. For corn.
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