Jamestown

On May 14, 1607, after a rough and scary 5-month journey, 104 men started the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. To get people to join this daring adventure, they were told that part of its mission was to tell people in the New World about Jesus. Even the charter (the paper from the king that said they could start a colony) said they were to tell the Native Americans about Jesus; 104 men signed up! The problem was only one of them, Robert Hunt, was a minister, and he was the only one who regularly tried to tell others about Jesus. The rest of the colonists did not care about that. All they wanted to do was discover gold.

In fact, they never spent any time planting or tending crops or digging wells for water. By the end of the first year, they had humbled themselves to not just buying, but begging and stealing corn from the natives. And the only thing they ever found was pyrite – fool’s gold!

To help fix things, on September 10, 1608, John Smith was named the president of the colony’s council. He immediately demanded discipline and work by ALL the colonists. He had a well dug, crops planted, and declared that 2 Thessalonians 3:10 was to be strictly enforced, “…that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

Captain Smith also tried to work with the Native Americans. Back in December of 1607, he was captured while out looking for food and brought to chief Powhatan. Smith feared for his life, but wrote that he was saved when the 11-year-old Pocahontas threw herself across him “at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown.”

The encounter allowed John Smith to build good relations with the Natives, often relying upon them for food supplies to save the colony. Many, though, did not like the new working conditions, even though things had started to turn around. They even had a corn harvest! But then in the fall of 1609, a mysterious gunpowder explosion in the canoe in which Smith was sleeping left him badly injured. He sailed for England that October, never to return to Jamestown.

With the mosquitoes, malaria, tainted water, misplaced priorities, self-serving relations with the natives, and no work ethic, 2/3 of the settlers died. This would be the continuing story of Jamestown for many years as they regularly did not obey God and served only themselves.

The Pilgrims

At the same time Jamestown was beginning in 1607, back in England the government had begun raiding homes in the town of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, imprisoning those who would not adhere to the Church of England. A group of separatists led by William Brewster and other religious men were gathering to worship God according to their understanding of the Bible and not by the demands of King James.

It was illegal to leave the country, yet the separatists attempted to do so in the spring of 1608, bound for Holland. They decided to split up to draw less attention to themselves. The women and children journeyed down river to the coast; the men went overland. They would board a Dutch ship when they all arrived. The women and children arrived early, saw no one was there, got seasick, and went back up the river so not to draw attention at the port. But then the tide went out and their boats got stuck in the mud!

The men arrived the next morning, also saw no one was there, but went ahead and started preparing for their trip. All of a sudden, a great company of officials arrived to arrest them. The Dutch captain weighed anchor and began to take off! The men who were still on land ran and hid. The men on the ship begged the captain to go back because they did not know where their families were!

The captain finally decided to turn around when, just as he did, a fearful storm rose up against them. The ship was driven off course to the coast of Norway. For 14 days the storm raged! They often could see neither sun, moon, nor stars. The captain believed God was punishing him for not returning the men to their families. However, if the storm had not suddenly risen against them and kept them from returning, there may not have been an America as we know it today.

When the authorities arrived and found only the women and children who had made it to the coast, they felt awkward about arresting them. After some questioning, they were allowed to go freely. The families eventually found another ship and joined the men in Holland. If the storm had not stopped the men and they had returned, they very well may have been arrested and perhaps kept from ever leaving – the pilgrims may have never made it to America.

They all finally made it safely to the Netherlands (between France and Germany on the North Sea coast; the area they lived in was called Holland). However, King James eventually sent out an international manhunt for them! After several years, they would decide to take a great risk and move to the New World to establish a colony where they could worship and live in freedom.