Unit 1:

John Smith.

Literatura Norteamericana I: siglos XVII-XIX.

Grado de Estudios Ingleses. Segundo curso.

Manuel Casas Guijarro. 2019/2020. UNED. Centro Asociado de Sevilla.

 Historical context: monarchy in England. Parliamentary conflicts
1. and Civil War.

✓ King James I: from 1603 to 1625 (absolutist, puritan, gunpowder

plot)
✓ King Charles I: from 1625 to 1649 (absolutist, English Civil War,
beheaded)
✓ Oliver Cromwell: Commonwealth of England (Strict Puritanism,
1653-1658)
✓ King Charles II: from 1660 to 1685 (Restoration, the Great Fire in
London 1666, Libertinism, reopening of theaters, Sir C. Wren)

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2. Personal background: who was Captain John Smith?

✓ Son of farmers. His parents died

when he was 13th years old.
✓ 1596 – 1604: serves as a soldier
for different armies: French,
Dutch, Austrian. Wounded in
battle, sold as a slave. Escaped.
✓ 1606: Became involved with the
Virginia Company, and sails to
America as one of the seven
councilors who were to govern
the Virginia Colony.
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2. Personal background: who was Captain John Smith?
✓ 1608 - Elected governor of the colony. The General Assembly as the
seed of a modern parliament, a democratic institution, even though
there was a government appointed by the king, it was merely
representative.
✓ 1609 – Returns to England after being injured in a gunpowder
explosion.
✓ 1614 – Travels again to America to explore the region of New
England.
✓ 1615 – Denied other opportunities to return to the colonies, goes
back to England and devotes himself to write his experiences.
✓ 1620 – Plymouth founded (by Puritans), using Smith’s maps and
reports.
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2. Personal background: who was Captain John Smith?
✓ Described as “an ambitious, unworthy and vanaglorious fellow” by
his successor in Jamestown.
✓ Writer, geographer and ruthless administrator of Jamestown.
✓ Most widely known as the hero of a love tale with Pocahontas, the
daughter of the Powhatan Indian tribe chief, who saved him while he
was held captive by the Indians. The veracity of the story is still in
dispute, as Smith’s accounts often mixed fact and fiction.
✓ John Smith published eight volumes during his life, describing his
adventures as an explorer.

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3. The foundation of Virginia
- Virginia and Jamestown:
✓ During this era, “Virginia” was the English name for the entire East
Coast of North America north of Florida. Called Virginia to honour
Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, also known as the Virgin Queen,
as she died childless (1553-1603).
✓ Jamestown was the first solid British colony (after the failure of
Roanoke 1585-1587), founded on May 14, 1607 as a small
settlement. It was named after the British King. The 1606-1607
voyage was completed by the Godspeed, the Susan Constant and the
Discovery.

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3. The foundation of Virginia.
- Geographical setting:
- Jamestown was placed in
the south eastern coast of
North America
- in the northeast bank of the
James (Powhatan) River, 60
miles from the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay, the largest
estuary of the US.

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3. The foundation of Virginia.

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3. The foundation of Virginia.

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3. The foundation of Virginia

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3. The foundation of Virginia

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3. The foundation of Virginia
- Which was the goal of the colony?
✓Jamestown was founded by the London Company (also called the
Virginia Company of London), an English joint-stock company
established by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial
settlements in North America.
✓The main goal was essentially commercial: the discovery of gold and
copper, but quickly became a very wealthy place thanks to the
cultivation of tobacco. From 1619 black people were transported to
Virginia to labour in tobacco plantations for low wages. This is the seed
of slavery.

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3. The foundation of Virginia
- Which was the goal of the colony?

Fragment from:

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
Published in 1624, part of the material
was new, part was inspired or
plagiarised from his previous accounts
of the New World (something common
at the time). Considered the first
colonial text, accounts for the origin of
the colony of Virginia.

Main theme: account of John Smith

exploration of the New World after
founding Jamestown, and his encounter
with Native Americans.
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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
- Point of view: it cannot be considered a historic account as the
narrator places much emphasis on stories, personal adventures, and
anecdotes. The text is not articulated with the accuracy of a modern
historian, but a story told by an adventurer and a proud, self-made
man of action.
- Narrative voice: John Smith always refers to himself in third person,
he presented himself enthusiastically in the role of hero, focusing
attention on his exploits and asserting his bravery to face all kinds of
dangerous situations. Hence, he is not objective or reliable, but aims
to present himself as an objective hero.
.
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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
- Main intentions:
- he wrote with political intention, to encourage (and justify)
colonization.
- his work constitutes a major resource for understanding the
concept of “manifest destiny”: the notion that America made
manifest the destined expansion of European civilization and,
therefore, that Europeans had the right to take possessions of
the whole continent.

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
Depiction of the Native Americans:
- With this work started a tradition of literary texts where Native
Americans are represented in a negative way, which will be a constant
till the 18th century.
- The relationship between Native Americans and the settlers is
of mutual distrust. Smith expects the Indians to be treacherous and evil
savages, while he keeps his men fully armed in order to show power and
scare them.

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
- The narrative is paradoxical and contradictory, unable to depict Native
Americans from a realistic perspective. For instance, when Indians are
aggressive, they are to blame, but when they show mercy, Smith thanks
God, not them. However, even though Smith’s depiction of Native
Americans is negatively biased, it appears to be more tolerant than other
texts written at the time..

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
4. Summer Isles.
- The portrait of Native Americans and their culture can be defined as
ethnocentric, understood as the tendency to view/judge alien groups or
cultures from the perspective of one's own. It also shows the belief in the
inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture. Smith often
describes their culture in terms of what they are not (in comparison to
western European culture), building a negative identity of the other.
Pocahontas: presented as the Indian princess who gains importance as
saves Smith’s life by offering her own. This figure becomes a “leit motif”, as
we find many Native Americans willing to lose their lives in order to save
whites, as the racist image of the good Indian that understands that the
white’s life is superior.
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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
5. Summer Isles. Book III, Chapter 2.

Analysis of the text in American Literature to 1900. Teresa Gisbert.

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
5. Summer Isles. Book III, Chapter 2.
- Line 1 ‘the savages’: offensive term to refer to Native Americans.

- Line 5 ‘full of arrows and slew’: the violent reaction of N.A., fully armed and
killing British people.

- Line 6: Smith uses the NA as a shield, showing no remorse. NA’s lifes are of no
values compared to those of white people.

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
5. Summer Isles. Book III, Chapter 2.
-- Lines 14-15: John Smith gave them an ivory compass. The N.A. ‘marveled’
and as a reaction after that, they tied Smith to a tree, ‘prepared to shoot’
(line 19). Finally, ‘they laid down their bows’ (line 20). In line 43 he
acknowledges that he was well treated (brought him loads of food). Hence,
Smith constantly portrays contradictions in NA’s behavior. From a narrative
point of view this shows either:
- an inconsistent narration
- the idea that NA are moody, whimpsical and unpredictable savage
creatures, capable of killing people due to -supposedly- no reason.

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 The General History of Virginia, New England, and the
5. Summer Isles. Book III, Chapter 2.
- Line 33 ‘yelling out such hellish notes…strangely painted’: example of
ethnocentrism. Smith cannot understand their rituals, trying to judge them
with European codes of behaviour.
- Lines 49-50: another reference to hell, quoting a classical reference as
Seneca to depict NAs as devils. In the same way, line 52 ‘grim courtiers’.
- Line 63 ‘brought him a bunch of feathers instead of a towel’: ethnocentrism.
- Line 64 ‘barbarous manners’: NA behaviour is described as brutal and
vicious.
- Pocahontas: as the “noble savage”. A noble savage is a literary stock character
who embodies the concept of the indigene, outsider, wild human, an "other" who has
not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate
goodness. She acknowledges the barbarity of Nas and submits to civilization.
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6. Exploratory Questions. Unit 1.

In American Literature to 1900. Teresa Gisbert.

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6. Exploratory Questions. Unit 1.

- Question 12: Why third person narrator?

In order to get a fake sense of objectivism and reliability, so that the
narration becomes part of universal truths. Do not forget that Smith was
trying to convince people to go to America. Describing the NAs as savages,
he got the reasons to attack and deprive them of their territories.

- Question 14: Interesting. The episode with Pocahontas may be a part of a

rebirth ritual that Smith could not understand under his ethnocentric
attitude.

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6. Exploratory Questions. Unit 1.
- Question 20: Why Smith has been identified as the quintessential
American hero? The proud self-made man. The early seed of the
American dream and self-determination.

- Smith as the American individual of unlimited potential Go to forum

documents. Forum documents: 259632729-D
- “The role Smith played in the INVENTION of America may be far more
important than the part he played in its DISCOVERY” (Benet)
http://webs.anokaramsey.edu/stankey/Eng2230/Docs2230/Colonial/Smith1.htm

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6. Exploratory Questions. Unit 1.
- “In addition to perceiving Smith as vital to the existence of America’s first
colony, many historians in the 20th and 21st centuries associate Smith with the
ideals and self-perceptions currently held by Americans, among them being the
idea of a self-made man, America being a land of opportunity, and the
importance of and emphasis on the individual.”
From “Captain John Smith And American Identity: Evolutions Of Constructed
Narratives And Myths In The 20th And 21st Centuries”
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.es/&
httpsredir=1&article=3522&context=etd

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Next session we will:
✓ Summarise unit 2: William Bradford and Puritanism.
✓ Check the analysis Of Plymouth Plantation.
✓ Check “exploratory questions“ unit 2: compare Smith and
Bradford.

thanks!
mancasas@sevilla.uned.es

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