Posted on 11/26/2015 6:43:03 AM PST by cotton1706
Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate gave thanks after crossing into what is now Texas in 1598, 23 years before the Pilgrims’ feast.
You are correct that Jamestown was indeed the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent. And my posting of The Mayflower Compact in no way takes away from that fact. Jamestown had a much harder slog, and while the Pilgrims of Plymouth organized themselves into a government before they even got off the ship, it took Jamestown twelve years to set up a functioning government, based upon that of England.
But they nevertheless got it done, setting up the first legislature in the Americas, in 1619, a full year before the Pilgrims made their first landfall.
“The most convenient place we could find to sit in was the choir of the church, where Sir George Yeardley, the governor, being set down in his accustomed place, those of the Council of Estate sat next to him on both [sides], except only the secretary, then appointed speaker, who sat right before him … all the burgesses took their places in the choir, till a prayer was said … prayer being ended … all the burgesses were entreated to retire themselves into the body of the church; which being done, before they were fully admitted, they were called in order and by name, and so every man took the oath of supremacy, and then entered the Assembly.”
A government with a governor, a council of few, and an assembly of many, a structure familiar to this day!
Within a year of each other, these first two colonies would found the origins of republican government in America.
The lost colony was Roanoke, VA. It is now thought that the remaining settlers were absorbed by the Indians.
Yes, but permanent is what counts.
I was so annoyed about a Thanksgiving program that played in the Milwaukee area this week that I turned it off and deleted both halfs. Obviously it was produced by MA folks and they dismissed Jamestowne as a “failed” colony even though that was the original destination of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. They put into shore at Plymouth rock only because they ran out of beer.
That was probably a good choice because Jamestowne was beset with mosquitoes and malaria which hindered their development until they moved inland to the Williamsburg area.
Even though the French kicked the English out of France by taking Calais, England's last toehold, in 1558, the rulers of England maintained its claim to the French throne, and the fleur-de-lys, the symbol of French royalty, was retained in the coat of arms of the British monarchy. This claim was finally dropped in 1802, when Britain recognized France's republican government. The fleur-de-lys was then removed from the British monarchy's coat of arms.
I seem to recall that an expedition was sent to locate the colony, and all they found was overgrowth at the site, and the word “CROATOAN” carved into a tree.
Thank you for adding another dimension to the old argument.
Indeed!
Ditto, being of maternal Jamestown descent.
My understanding from an Emory University history professor is that this was a post War Between the States propaganda campaign to erase Virginia’s (and the South in general) claim of being the home of the first permanent European settlement (aka the birthplace of the US).
The “pilgrims” prior to the War Between the States were then known as “separatists”, not piligrims.
Re-writing history is as old as man’s 6,000 years of recorded history.
Well, see now, I learned something today.
:)
Thanks
Yeah, but the south is better for planting. New England is beset with rocks. Lots of fun farming around there.
This has developed into a most interesting thread. I’m thinking that those pilgrim hats should be replaced by the metal helmets of the conquistadors, or at least the brown friars’ robes and staff with a cross!
Or, at least, the helmets and breastplates brought to Jamestowne by the earliest pioneers, several examples which have been found at the bottom of garbage pits because they were found to be so unweildy and useless for frontier use.
Indeed, what I suspect. Always trying to emphasize yankees.
I am trying to remember the name of that early settlement on top of that Mesa in NM. It is the oldest continuously occupied town in the country.
Is that what you are referring to?
I am descended from these folks on my father’s side. I don’t know how they survived, and the generations were certainly compacted in those days with most dying in their 20s.
My first visit to Jamestowne was about 20 years ago in July. I’d gone to VA to welcome a new grandson and took a break from baby duties for a little touring on a hot, July day. It was so miserable out there that I literally couldn’t breather.
As we walked through the reconstructed village and fort I really couldn’t imagine how those early folks could farm and thrive in the heat and humidity and mosquitoes. For the first time the thought crossed my mind that surviving the summer was as much a problem as surviving the winters.
The colony really didn’t thrive until they moved inland to the Williamsburg area.
I learned this week that the “First Supply” was really a first flotilla of 6 ships sent with settlers and supplies. But 3 of the ships were lost, or turned back, in the Azores. The remaining ships arrived with most of the food ruined — so it turned out to be a non-supply. The settlers wer pcking up and ready to leave when the 2nd Supply arrived which saved them after the Starving Time.
My earliest ancestor was on either the 1st, or the 2nd supply, but he died in a few years. His youg daughter came over from England to take possession of his inheritance, married and died in childbirth. Somehow, we’ve hung on ever since. LOL.
We are all so spoiled with air conditioning, cell phones, dishwashers and vehicles, it is hard to imagine how our ancestors made it.
I am so thankful to have been born when I was. Today is the day to say it!
Re re-writing history, Hatshepsut was the first female pharaoh of Egypt ca 1500 BC. Her stepson Tuthmoses III totally erased all of her history and claimed her works as his own. He did such a good job that she remained unknown until the early 1800s!
Indeed! I lived in TX for 10 years in the 1970s. Lokks of books a pamphles were published in celebration of t e Bi-Centenniel and I lapped up every one of them. After one true account of early TX history where the poor woman was abandoned by her ne’er do well husband to face childbirth in a cabin by herself with only her child by an earlier marriage to help her deliver her baby and panther’s prowling outside her door. I remember squinting my eyes and staring at the undeveloped land around our subdivision and wondering how the earliest Texans made it and why they even tried.
I was born in CA which was a far more hospitable land. It was quite an experience to move to TX. I always said that it would never have become a powerhouse without AC!
I thought this was an excellent, excellent movie.
Check it out if you’ve not seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zMIgxbmnA
BTW - My historical father (surname Beaufort) was born in the same year, the same town where Pocahontas died - Gravesend, Kent, England. He came to America in 1635 on the ship Elizabeth and settled in Lancaster County, VA. His (Jamestown) father-in-law gave him and his new bride a 1,000 acre spread on the rappahannock river. Daddy-in-law must have been very well connected with the powers that be back in England.
One of my great-grandfathers (14th) on my father’s side was Stephen Hopkins who sailed both to Jamestown and eventually to Plymouth. He was one of the strangers who was shipwrecked in the Barbados on the way to Jamestown and was sentenced to hang for mutiny when he got to Jamestown. He talked his way out, from what I can gather by pleading that it was not mutiny because they were shipwrecked on land and not at sea. He later made his way back to England and eventually took his family onto the Mayflower with the original intent to settle allotted ground near Jamestown. They had problems at sea and decided to land at Cape Cod and eventually founded Plymouth. He was one who pushed against the socialist setup and eventually opened a inn and tavern. He was frequently in trouble for selling liquor on the Sabbath.
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