The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
Posted on 11/18/2011 11:39:32 AM PST by Pharmboy
Researchers at Jamestown, Va., may have found the site where the first Protestant church in North America was built.
Dr. William Kelso, head of the research team at Jamestown, which was founded as a settlement established by the Virginia Company of London in the 17th century, explained in an interview with The Christian Post that the group began excavating at the site where they may have found the church in the summer of 2010.
Kelso, an American archaeologist specializing in Virginia’s colonial period, believes the ruins found are the church because of a “Record of construction in Spring of 1608, burials in the east or chancel end” and that it “matches dimensions recorded in 1610.”
He discovered the site along with three field supervisors: archeologists Danny Schmidt, Dave Givens and Jamie May.
In addition to being the site of the oldest known Protestant church in the United States, the building would have also likely been the location for the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, a marriage that temporarily brought peace between settlers and Native Americans.
The church, which was 64 feet by 24 feet, also runs contrary to the common narrative on religion linked to Jamestown colony.
“[The] standard story is that Jamestown was all about secular pursuits and making money with the spread of religion far down the priority list,” said Kelso.
“The sheer size and early construction makes a dramatic statement that the establishment of the Church of England in the ‘new world’ was far more in the forefront of the colonists thinking than has previously been recognized by many historians.”
Historians at Virginia universities echo the sentiment of Kelso regarding the accuracy of the popular narrative of Jamestown.
Crandall Shifflet, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, told CP that he believed the church ruins “could be an opportunity to re-examine the role of religion at Jamestown in particular and in seventeenth-century Virginia in general.”
“British colonists considered the spread of Christianity a central part of their mission,” said Shifflet, who oversees an online learning project called “Virtual Jamestown.”
“Popular culture tends to stereotype Jamestown as a group of adventure capitalists motivated by greed and materialistic gain without regard to the souls of colonists or Indians.”
Early American historian Dr. Jane Merritt of Old Dominion University said that the find was valuable for understanding life in the English colonies.
“The church will certainly help historians better map out the community spaces of the early settlement,” said Merritt.
“Archaeological work at Jamestown has been underway for decades and has uncovered wonderful evidence of the material life and culture of early colonists.”
Merritt explained that many misconceptions about life in Jamestown exist in modern society, noting that although often considered “a seedbed for democracy” Jamestown was a strictly structured and hierarchical society.
“Religion was an important part of this equation,” said Merritt, who added that “colonists were required to go to church (at times daily services) by threat of punishment.”
Merritt also noted the strong misconception commonly found with English settlers arriving to North America is that they were there for “religious freedom.”
“While religion was central to many of the settlements … the religious freedom they sought rarely included religious tolerance,” said Merritt.
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
When I lived over in Williamsburg, Jamestown was 5 minutes from my home. It`s a fascinating place at which new finds are occurring all the time. Those planning trips to SE wound enjoy Jamestown Island and nearby Jamestown Settlement.
Always somebody complaining. TO THE STOCKS!!!!
I always enjoy info on the old homestead.
You made me laugh sitting in my office...
have they ever found the ruins of the more first Protestant church in Fort Caroline on the St Johns River in Florida ???
a refugee settlement for Huguenots fleeing from France in the 1560s ???
and then there was a fort built by the Huguenots called Charlesfort in South Carolina about the same time..
again there would have been a Protestant church there..
Both wiped out by the Spanish..
Not terribly far from me and worth a trip across the HRBT to visit. I can take my family tree and see if those names on it really were settlers there.
....Kelso, an American archaeologist specializing in Virginia’s colonial period, believes the ruins found are the church because of a “Record of construction in Spring of 1608, burials in the east or chancel end” and that it “matches dimensions recorded in 1610”....In addition to being the site of the oldest known Protestant church in the United States, the building would have also likely been the location for the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, a marriage that temporarily brought peace between settlers and Native Americans.
Ping for later
-——the religious freedom they sought rarely included religious tolerance-——
Sort of like you know where....... I go there every day
The reporter may have mangled Merritt's statement, so I'll give him the benefit of a doubt.
The religious freedom motive varied dramatically from colony to colony. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and to some extent Maryland were settled by people seeking religious freedom. Jamestown was not. The settlers were there to make money, at first with gold and later with tobacco, but that is not to say they didn't practice the Christian faith. The settlers initially were adherents to the Church of England, which in the early seventeenth century was not about religious freedom, but religious conformity. The established religion in Jamestown was C of E. Eventually, adherents to other religions arrived in Virginia and in the eighteenth century there would be a movement to disestablish the C of E, long after Jamestown's heyday.
Just wow! I didn’t know that such a portrait existed.
The next time we have the FReeper lunch we’ll talk Ft Caroline!!
I have a fantastic book written in 1564 that tells all about it. Additionally, my favorite book growing up was “The Flamingo Feather” a fictional account written in 1854 of a French boy who was marooned there after the Spanish massacre.
We were in Jacksonville and heading for the beach and got lost.As I studied the map....... there it was Fort Caroline National Historic Park!!! a French settlement!! I have been down there many many times and studied maps over and over to locate the places. My work preceded the park which is quite recent.
One of mine later on joined the colony but they noted he’d been there since 1598.
Several reasons for that ~ 1. Nobody came to get them, 2. It was the only church around, 3. The English were making beer and you were not likely to find beer anywhere else North of Florida in those days.
It's always best to go along to get along when in dire straits.
When my husband was in the US Coast Guard, we lived in Yorktown for 2 years around 1960. That part of the country is fabulous, I haven’t been back to visit since and that is a shame.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.