The Real Jamestown Colony

Joie Chen Visits The Site Of The First Permanent English Settlement In The Americas

(CBS)  To get the real story about our nation's earliest days, you need to look well beneath the surface in Virginia along the James River.

"Under that, you go back over 250 years and you get to the 1607 level," says archeologist William Kelso, as he leads CBS News correspondent Joie Chen on a walk over dirt from that time.

Kelso has pulled from the sandy soil one million pieces of evidence from the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

Make no mistake, this was not Disney's version of Jamestown with its singing Pocahontas and tow-headed John Smith.

---

Before you go to Jamestown…

See our Quick Guide To Virginia 2007

Get the scoop on Royal Visit Activities

Find Jamestown Events & Resources Online

Learn more about Virginia Getaways & Attractions

---

There was a Pocahontas — daughter of the great Chief Powhatan — and there certainly was a John Smith. But that story we learned as kids about how she begged her father to spare the dashing English captain, his gratitude blossoming into Colin Farrell's steamy big-screen moment in "The New World," is hogwash, according to historian James Horn.

"It's wrong," Horn says. "And there's no other way of putting it ... it's a popular story that people would like to believe — that they fell in love. They were both powerful, headstrong characters."

The real story is that John Smith's headstrong, arrogant, take-charge personality perfectly fit the huge and perilous mission to the New World.

Captain Eric Speth commands replicas of the three ships that sailed from England. He describes a brutal voyage.

"It could be described like being in a dark closet," Speth says. "Being tossed about and being subject to seasickness."

104 men and boys made the crossing. They had come for gold and other riches, but the New World was hardly the Promised Land. Starvation, disease and skirmishes with the Indians left more than half the group dead.

"By the end of the year, there were less than 40 — about 38 settlers still surviving here," Horn says.

What saved those survivors was a measure of luck — and the audacious John Smith. Despite his youth (he was just 27), Smith bullied the settlers to keep them going. "Work," he warned. "Or don't eat."

And here's where the real Pocahontas comes in. Scholars think John Smith learned the Indian language from her, which helped make him powerful enough to barter with them.

"And he really becomes the indispensable man," Horn says. "He's the one that goes off and trades with the Indians to get corn ... he's the one who develops a relationship with the great chief of the Powhatans, so more food can be delivered to the colony."

Of course, Pocahontas' tribe had ideas of their own. Instead of killing off the settlers, they, too, wanted to barter — for weapons.

"They're both trying to figure out the best way of exploiting each other," Horn says. "And that explains why the Indians kept the English alive for as long as they did."

And despite some fierce battles, archeological evidence shows the Indians were, to some degree, a part of daily life in the Jamestown settlement.

The settlement not only survived, it ultimately thrived, complete with a fledgling representative government. But dig deeper, and you'll find a darker legacy.

"We found they were making tobacco pipes," Kelso says. "And then we found the tobacco seed — intact tobacco seeds — down in the bottom of a well."

Tobacco was a cash crop, and while it would be the settlement's economic salvation, it also sowed the seeds of slavery. The first Africans arrived — against their will — in Jamestown in 1619.

And as the colony grew and prospered, the region's Indian tribes were decimated. Ultimately, the 15,000 Powhatans dwindled to just a couple thousand.

"This is a story, warts and all," Horn says. "There are heroics — there are epic stories here — but there's also stories of greed and hostility, racism."

It's that complex history — the messy story of what really happened at Jamestown — that's finally getting its due and challenging us to consider what might or might not have been had those 104 souls not braved the challenge of coming to America.

"Without Jamestown, there might not have been Plymouth — without Jamestown, there might not have been an English America in North America," Horn says. "Without Jamestown, we cannot be certain that modern America as we know it would have developed at all."

[djjs1]

The politically-incorrect truth is that Jamestown survived because Powhaton, who had earlier slain a Spanish Jesuit mission and an earlier British colony on the site, had to let the Brits survive because his wars of conquest left him with a shortage of warriors.
And that Pocahontas (who apparently did have a teenage crush on John Smith) gladly left her father's religion of ritual torture to appease the gods for the Anglicanism of the Metaphysical Poets.

[zoltaric]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. White devils. Been there done that

[ralan40]

We live in a society that isn't perfect. Yet even the most impoverished, today, have advantages over the wealthiest of the 1600s. Of what mankind has had to overcome in the past, of all the lives...we here, today won the "existence lottery". We have conquered disease and famine to a level that we can devote our energies bickering about religion or politics, and not have to worry were our next meal comes from. We have the freedom to denegrate and dislike things about this country and yet do nothing positive to try to make things right.
and proudly proclaim such to the world on posting sites such as these.
In spite of our problems, or because of them, we all manage to exist, together.

[joanpz]

May 2007 issue NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has a very fair, true story of the Native Americans who greeted the 3 ships in Jamestown - unlike Roanoke Colony's Native Americans shooting arrows at NEWCOMERS - Powhatan's tribe came in "sausages" (canoes) with arrows in their mouths, helped the First colonists - but WE DIDN'T SEND A BUNCH OF FARMERS, just, get this - PEOPLE WHO WERE SEEKING GOLD & RICHES - sound familiar - Please read this Nat'l Geographic account, IT IS THE TRUTH!
Another book, 1491, can't remember author - but IT PORTRAYS A DIFFERENT, ALMOST MAYAN CIVILIZATION that Columbus destroyed thru greed, SMALLPOX & SYPHYLLIS!
Glad to live in this CRAZY 21ST Century!

[toolmangler-2009]

Ever since I learned about the real "Little Big Horn" battle from a great uncle who was there, I have questioned the 'standard view ' of history one of the things I learned is that in most ways America is neither "as good nor as bad" as it has been made out to be. For 'all' of its faults The "United States of America" is still far and away the best place to live on this planet.

[l8c6]

alouishes--what is it with people not wanting truth? That is absolutely bizarre that you would be upset with a story like this if it is a tale of truth. It certainly is more plausible than the biblesque stories that intellectual honesty would refute. Jesus said the truth will set you free. This country is full of rude, obnoxious ignorance that sqawks around voicing, "my rights, my rights" while at the same time not having the intellectual foresight to see the factors that are leading this nation in a direction of steadily losing representation of all of its citizens. It's a type of bizarre denial of truth that is pushing the country closer to the abyss. I'm thinking CBS might hire people like yourself to make moronic comments to evoke commentary on here.

[alouishes]

Congratulations CBS! You've managed to turn a celebration of our national heritage into a story about slavery and genocide. Thousands of Virginia volunteers will take comfort in the hope that the Queen sees our efforts with a much less cynical eye.

[barbaraf4]

"The dumbing down of America. How often does anyone pick up a BOOK???"

Posted by fascistusa at 12:35 PM : Apr 29, 2007

I have never put down a book since receiving my first library card when I was seven years old. Today, I am retired and I have the time to read to my heart's content.

When anthropologists look back at 21st century America, they will place the blame for its demise on children being given: cellphones, video games, personal computers, too much disposable cash, too little parenting, too little supervision, and too much freedon.

[sharncedar]

The Indians were no picnic either, they were arrogant and bloodthirsty idiots.

You have to look at the cup as half full, rather than half empty. People are pretty ignorant, and our civilization seems worthless, but there are little moments of enlightenment or joy even for animals like our people, the stupidity of our culture just gives us a nice background to advocate a better way and demonstrate it with our own lives.

[fascistusa]

Hell. I wish Modern America NEVER happened at ALL.

McDonaldism. Corporatism. Globalization. Materialism. Television. Brainwashing. Greed. Sloth.

The rule of The American Elite.

The dumbing down of America. How often does anyone pick up a BOOK???