The viewpoint taken on Jamestown in Light and the Glory is interesting, and contributes to how we talk about the myth that is America.  Why do some stories get prioritized over others?

“Gosnold formed the Virginia Company to raise money for the new colony.  This Company told everyone that the colony was a missionary outreach.  King James and the clergy supported the cause.  Money to finance the venture started coming in.

…Two weeks after sailing, bad weather forced the ships to return to port.  More winter storms delayed them for months.  It appeared that God was not blessing their voyage.

Was this truly a missionary outreach?  Were these the people God had chosen to build His new Israel in America?  No, they were not.  These were not missionaries.  They were not even Christian families.  They were adventures with one thing on their minds: to find gold.” – L&G

This is a loaded section.  There’s an interpretation of weather, judgments on motivation, and of course the idea of America as Israel.

With this story, these storms somehow mean God is not blessing the trip at all.  And yet with Columbus these authors decided the storms were meant to convict.  How was their desire for gold different than Columbus’?  It is interesting that people can look back 400 years and determine how God was using the weather to punish or chasten people.  Is there an option for weather being weather, affecting every explorer and ocean traveler?

“Many hostile Indians lived in the New World….Yet, God directed these first English settlers to an area with a peaceful tribe!” – L&G

Why might the Indians have been hostile?  And why is this suddenly God at work?  Wasn’t he against this mission?

And look at the wording.  ‘Hostile Indians’ versus ‘kind natives’ as in the Columbus section.  The words we choose to use to describe people, and our view of history matters.  Which sounds nicer?  Which story is given the better interpretation?

“The summer heat was terrible, and the swamp gave them diseases.  And during their second year, nine out of every ten men died.  Why did they stay?  The answer is that they did not seek the Lord’s direction.  They did not turn to Him for help.  And they certainly did not evangelize the natives.  These settlers were not men of God.  They chose their own way, and they suffered for it.” – L&G

Why is suffering for being explorers an indictment on their souls?  And why them, and not on Columbus or the Pilgrims?  Don’t all explorers suffer?  It seems dangerous to assign theological explanations to human events.  This of course is central to the myth of America, but if the human events happen to be negative, then doesn’t that implicate God?

“Then, something delightful happened which showed God at last might be bestowing grace on the Virginia Company.  It began when Pocahontas was kidnapped by the settlers and held for ransom.”  -L&G

Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, which is presumably the delightful thing.  But by framing kidnapping as delightful because a happy event happens – it makes the ends justify the means.  And that is a dangerous practice, especially when it comes to settler colonialism.

“Then a miracle occurred – the first of several interventions that would rescue Jamestown from impending doom.  ‘It pleased God,’ Percy wrote, ‘to send those people who were our mortall enemies to releeve us with victuals, as Bread, Corne, Fish, and Flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men; otherwise wee had all perished.’” – L&S

 “The people who settled Jamestown considered themselves good Christians.  Yet they tried to settle the colony without God.  They did not seek His guidance.  They did not ask His forgiveness.  And they did not receive His blessings.” –L&G

Why, when they consider themselves good Christians, is it not believed?  By people 400 years later?  They give God credit for food and survival.  How is that different from the Pilgrims?  When we tell the story of America, what are we emphasizing?  How are we interpreting?  Why do we choose one story over another?

I mean, ok, yes, so there was some cannibalism and a man murdered his pregnant wife to eat her and I understand that story doesn’t go well with turkey and cranberry sauce.  But why is the worst of our shared humanity not up for discussion?  What do we lose by pretending that we are not that bad? What is at risk when we only choose to put shiny stories on display?

 “Eager to anoint Plymouth as the birthplace of America, they cast the country’s English beginnings as a regional morality play.  Pilgrims, in frigid Massachusetts, scraped through by dint of pious, shared labor.  Virginians, their degenerate Southern twins, were greedy, godless, class-ridden, and indolent, playing bowls in the streets as their settlement rotted around them.” – L&S

“Archaeology also contradicted much of the conventional wisdom about early Virginia.”  In an interview with a Jamestown archaeologist: “’It’s easy to find failure here,’ he said, ‘but that’s not the whole story.  There were capable, hardworking people and good decisions made…The bottom line is that Jamestown endured,’ Kelso said, returning to his work.  ‘That’s success, even if it wasn’t pretty.  And given what the people here had to overcome, it’s a miracle any of them survived.’” –L&S

We should be careful how we view our history and other people.  So often our decisions and assumptions are proven wrong.

Books/Resources

A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America(L&S)
The Light and the Glory for Children : Discovering God’s Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington(L&G)
A People’s History of the United States(Zinn)

The Powhatan: A Confederacy of Native American Tribes (American Indian Nations)
The Jamestown Colony (American Moments Set II)
James Towne: Struggle for Survival
Life of the Powhatan (Native Nations of North America)

 
Part 1 – The First Thanksgiving and the Myth of America
Part 2 – The Myth of America – Columbus, Christ-Bearer
Part 3 – The Myth of America – Jamestown – The Wrong Story To Tell
Part 4 – Pilgrims – God’s Provision at the Expense of Other People
Part 5 – Myth of America – Biased History Lesson
Part 6 – The Mayflower Compact – for God and King and White America
Part 7 – The First Thanksgiving – for a Massacre
Part 8 – The First Thanksgiving – Fears, Power, and Privilege
Part 9 – Colonialism – A History Lesson with Skittles
Part 10 – Myth of the First Thanksgiving – Other Festivals and Thanksgiving
Part 11 – Myth of America – The Clash of Spiritualities
Part 12 – The First Thanksgiving – A Day of Mourning
Part 13 – Resources

This series is available as a 40 page pdf, giving an introductory look at settler colonialism as it relates to the founding of America.  Discusses Columbus, Jamestown, Pilgrims and Native Americans and includes 4 lessons to teach the topics to kids.
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