Life in the colonies was full of hardships, and the writings of those who had spent time in the colonies such John Smith, Christopher Saur, Patrick Talifer, and William Penn helped showed this. One major aspect of life in the colonies involved attempting to keep the peace between the different colonists as establishing new settlements often began with intragroup conflict. Another key element of the life of colonists was working hard to make do with what they had, as it was difficult to get things from Europe. Additionally, colonists had to deal with natives already on the lands, and depending on the colony there were a variety of approaches. With all of the hardships the daily lives of colonists had, successful colonists had tended to have
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One characteristic of a good colonist was a readiness to work as starting up and maintaining a settlement in the colonies was difficult work. It was the laziness of some individuals in the Jamestown colony that almost caused it to collapse which made John Smith ask that those that come be “worthy industrious spirits” (Smith 176), as he felt life could be prosperous but, “these things may be had by labour and diligence” (Smith176). Another important trait for colonists to have was a willingness to work together as infighting could spell disaster for a colony, and by helping one another the colony as a whole could prosper in trying times when supplies were scarce. As both supplies from Europe and skilled labor was hard to come by cooperation was essential and promoted through stories like those spread through Christopher Saur’s paper to help encourage that quality in others. In one of his short stories a settler encourages a newcomer to “love your neighbor as yourself for God’s sake” (Saur 740), as doing so would allow the newcomer to prosper as a colonist and a Christian. Another aspect that would make a successful colonist would be those that were open-minded with regards to the natives and would not rush to attack them over land disputes. By maintaining peace there could be less violence, and the colonists could learn more about the land from those that had been living there and understood it much
One characteristic of a good colonist was a readiness to work as starting up and maintaining a settlement in the colonies was difficult work. It was the laziness of some individuals in the Jamestown colony that almost caused it to collapse which made John Smith ask that those that come be “worthy industrious spirits” (Smith 176), as he felt life could be prosperous but, “these things may be had by labour and diligence” (Smith176). Another important trait for colonists to have was a willingness to work together as infighting could spell disaster for a colony, and by helping one another the colony as a whole could prosper in trying times when supplies were scarce. As both supplies from Europe and skilled labor was hard to come by cooperation was essential and promoted through stories like those spread through Christopher Saur’s paper to help encourage that quality in others. In one of his short stories a settler encourages a newcomer to “love your neighbor as yourself for God’s sake” (Saur 740), as doing so would allow the newcomer to prosper as a colonist and a Christian. Another aspect that would make a successful colonist would be those that were open-minded with regards to the natives and would not rush to attack them over land disputes. By maintaining peace there could be less violence, and the colonists could learn more about the land from those that had been living there and understood it much