How Did Jamestown Culture Influence Early American Culture

The American South is a region with a unique culture and history. This region became home to many cultures in the early colonial period. Before the colonial period, the first settlers were the Native Americans. For hundreds of years the tribes of the American South made this region their home. They spread their culture throughout and made an influence on the first European settlers. The first permanent English colony in the American South was the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. Jamestown was the result of the royal charter granted to the Virginia Company (Boles 19). Conditions in Jamestown were rough to say the least. The James River, on which Jamestown was built, was a tidal river. During the winter and spring months Jamestown had an abundant …show more content…
At first communities where built on the need to survive, but as the population and life stabilized, plantations became a way of life and the people of the American South began to spread out in search of land they could call their own. An increase in the number of people entering the colonies also forced people to move farther and farther west, creating even more rural communities. One of the examples of this rural, or backcountry, way of life can be found in Reverend Charles Woodmason’s the “Wild Peoples.” Woodmason was a missionary to the backcountry who wrote about these rural communities’ way of life. Being an educated man, Woodmason saw the people of the backcountry as “in a Bunch like the Indians- being hardly one degree removed from them” (Escott 124). The people of the backcountry were seen as savage by their more sophisticated neighbors due to the poor conditions of the area and the poverty they lived in. Another effect of the agrarian society on rural communities was the lack of education. Woodmason also sheds some light on this subject: “Very few can read - fewer write - Out of 5000 that attend Sermon this last Month, I have not got 50 to sign a Petition to the Assembly” (Escott 122). The lack of education was due to the lack of time the people of these rural communities had. Due to the fact that the ability to read and write was not common in this rural agrarian communities, news had to be shared in public places and aloud. This is where the rural taverns came into play. More than just a place to drink, they were also places to rest your head when traveling and catch up on the news of your communities (Thorp 661). The sharing of drinks and ideas were the mainstay of the tavern in these small rural