British North America & Port Royal Flashcards
(41 cards)
Why was Ralph Lane’s 1585 expedition unsuccessful? (3)
- lack of supplies
- delayed shipment
- poor relations with Secotan
What was the purpose of John White’s 1587 expedition? (4)
- investigated previous colony
- moved 50 miles upriver
- went back to England for supplies
- could only return to abandoned colony in 1590
Who founded Jamestown, and when?
founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company
What was Jamestown?
England’s first permanent settlement in America
Why did Jamestown struggle in the beginning? (3)
- Powhatan
- disease
- famine
How many of the 1700 colonists to arrive between 1607-1617 were left in 1617?
351
What allowed the settlement to flourish in 1617?
tobacco farming
How did John Smith come to Jamestown?
accused of mutiny, arrived a prisoner
How did John Smith improve the Jamestown settlement? (2)
- successful at trade with Powhatans
- helped the fort grow
What was John Smith’s motto as president of the colony council?
“he who does not work, neither shall he eat”
How did John Smith’s departure affect Jamestown?
left colony with fractured leadership
What led to the ‘starving time’ in Jamestown from 1609-10?
- John Smith’s departure
- lack of supplies
- bad relations with Powhatan
What did the colonists resort to eating during the ‘starving time’? (2)
- anything from shoe leather to butchered horses
- cannibalism
How did archaeologists confirm reports of cannibalism at Jamestown in 2012?
portions of the butchered skull and shinbone of a 14-year-old girl from England, dubbed “Jane” by researchers, were unearthed
What did John Rolfe bring to Jamestown in 1610?
Nicotiana tabacum seeds
What tobacco grew naturally in North America?
Nicotiana rustica, grown for a millenia in North America, was too bitter for European tastes
Who had the monopoly on Nicotiana tabacum at the time?
Spain
Who was Pocahontas? (5)
- daughter of Wahunsenacaw, chief of Powhatans
- kidnapped, converted to Christianity
- married English tobacco grower John Rolfe
- took English name Rebecca, “mother of two peoples”
- died in England, 1617 as “civilized savage”
When and how did the first Africans arrive in North America? (2)
- arrived in 1619
- result of the transatlantic slave trade
How was archaeology at Jamestown initiated? (3)
- 1994-present
- once believed to be lost (underwater)
- Dr. William Kelos and Dr. Ivor Noel Hume convinced it was just undiscovered
How was Port Royal established? (8)
- December 1664: Oliver Cromwell, Protector of England, launches an attack on Hispaniola to seize it from the Spanish
- the attack fails, and what is left of the English fleet heads south to Jamaica and seizes the island instead
- a sandbar extended from Kingston which allowed the English to set up a fort and defend the island
- around the fort, Kingston develops as a city of seafarers and merchants, developing a strong reputation for prostitution
- Port Royal became the most economically important port to England, especially since England legalized privateering in the 1660s
- this ‘Buccaneer Period’ was supposed to end in the 1670s, but it was so profitable that the English turned a blind eye
- Port Royal became the mercantile center of the English in the Caribbean, but became notoriously known as the ‘wickedest city in the world’
- Port Royal was the largest English city in the New World by 1692, visited by 226 ships in 1688
How was the Port Royal site formed? (3)
- some sites such as the sunken town of Port Royal are so well-known they are never lost; there is an abundance of historic documents and maps
- of course, the significant thing about Port Royal is that much of it sunk into Kingston Harbor during an earthquake on June 7, 1692, ca. 11:40 A.M.
- 2,000 people were killed immediately, while 3,000 died due to subsequent injuries and disease
What artifact suggests the exact time that the Port Royal disaster occurred?
the frozen hands of a recovered watch reveal details of everyday life in Port Royal in the 17th century
Who excavated Port Royal for 10 years?
the Institute of Nautical Archaeology
