John Smith's Struggle In Jamestown

The first migrants into America faced multiple challenges including conquering the land, battling natives tribes in a bid to secure settlements, while at the same time trying to stay true to their religious, entrepreneurial, and socio-ethical roots acquired in their former lands back in Europe. Through their writings, the soldier, administrator and adventurer John Smith, Poet Anne Bradstreet and Governor William Bradford depict an America whose lands were initially hard to subdue and inhabited by a people wary of the settlers who kept coming in droves by ship. Disease, hunger, and natural calamities wiped out many of the pioneer settlers. Infighting and unclear leadership structures weakened the collective economic and entrepreneurial exploits …show more content…
A dogged determination to succeed in the new territories drove the settlers to defy great odds and create the early colonies and settlements. After a high mortality rate among the setters at Jamestown, John Smith, as the designated leader of the settler group realized, that imposition of strict lifestyle rules was the only way to ensure the survival of the emerging colony. Accordingly, all settlers in Jamestown were required to work, and those who did not till the land run the risk of being denied food rations (Garcia-Martinez 83). Such disciplined lifestyles ensured the colony survived. Anne Bradstreet epitomizes the disciplined, self-sacrificial lifestyles of the early settlers. Initially a reluctant immigrant, Anne Bradstreet managed to raise her large family in the new land and even aid in the founding of three settlement towns (Bartlett 295). A hardworking wife, mother of eight, poet and budding historian, Bradstreet was able to thrive in all her roles due to an austere lifestyle and dogged determination to succeed. In the poem “In Reference to Her Children” by Bradstreet, the persona expresses her satisfaction at having raised her children well, and the hope that they would similarly succeed in their endeavors (Bartlett 296). The settlement at Plymouth Bay for the pilgrims in 1620 was characterized by a harsh winter that led to the deaths of many settlers, forcing the pilgrims to adopt the farming techniques of the Indians in order to ensure bountiful harvests during the next harvest season. William Bradford forged an alliance with the Indian tribe that ensured that the pilgrims adopted best farming practices suited for the new land (Burnham