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| Philosophy of Evil Socialism In America By Jerry McDaniel Chapter 2, Continued The London Company |
E-mail address
jfm@illinoisconservative.com
jfm@illinoisconservative.com
| Philosophy of Evil Socialism in America "The struggle of History is not between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; it is between government and the governed." Jerry McDaniel |
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The London Company (Jamestown Colony)
By definition, the early American settlers were of an independent spirit with a low tolerance for tyranny. Often finding
themselves at odds with the prevailing culture, the prospect of starting a new life in a new land was appealing to many.
Although most of the earliest settlers died during the first few years in their new home, they continued to arrive in large
numbers. While their fellow countrymen in Europe were developing the arts of warfare, the settlers in America were
developing new ideas in government and community life.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English Colonies, from Chesapeake Bay to the Canadian Border became
laboratories of self-government and religious tolerance. Many of the lessons learned became the foundation of our eventual
system of government and our founding documents, finding their way into the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights.
In 1607, the first group of colonists established a settlement near Chesapeake Bay along the James River naming it
Jamestown after King James I. The colony’s charter called for a council of thirteen persons appointed by the Crown who
were responsible for “the superior managing and direction, only of and for all matters that shall or may concern the
government.” The members of the council were not required to travel to the colony, but only to look out for the King’s
interest. The King’s interest at the time was limited primarily to anticipated discoveries of precious metals. The council was
authorized,
The first group of settlers to arrive at Chesapeake Bay consisted of twelve laborers, several carpenters, a blacksmith, a
barber, a tailor and more than fifty “gentlemen” unaccustomed to hard work. After days of exploring up and down the James
River, they chose perhaps, the worst location available to start a new colony. The land was marshy and without enough
cleared land for planting crops. To add to their plight they arrived too late in the season to plant crops anyway. Their idea of
trading with the Indians for food while searching for gold turned out not to be a good plan. There was no gold and the
Indians proved to be unfriendly.
After dropping off the settlers, Captain Newport returned to England for additional supplies, promising to return as soon as
possible. With no crops of their own and unable to trade for needed provisions, the men were soon out of decent food. The
daily ration for each man was a pint of moldy and insect infested barley and wheat made into pottage. When Captain
Newport returned in 1608 with an additional 120 colonists and the badly needed supplies only 38 of the original group were
still alive.
America has a long history of experiments with socialism, dating back to the first settlement at Jamestown. The outcomes of
these experiments are always the same. They fail miserably. Both the Jamestown colony and the later Plymouth colony
experimented with socialism as their initial economic system. Of course, the word “socialism” would not be in use for
another 200 years or so, however, both colonies practiced the two core principles of socialism in their government and
economic systems.
The Jamestown colony was founded as a commercial enterprise. Almost half of the settlers were “gentlemen” who were
accustomed to having others do the actual work. For most of them their objective was to “strike it rich” by discovering gold
or other precious metals and returning to England wealthy. All property in the settlement was communal, as was work.
There was no private ownership of land, and other possessions were held in a common storehouse by the colony to be
distributed to each according to his individual needs. Everyone would share in the necessary labor, and everyone would share
in the produce of the community. Man will always prefer to live off the labors of others when possible; therefore, the
tendency among the settlers was to do as little labor as possible. The result was continuous bickering and a chronic shortage
of food and supplies.
One would think after the first winter, when more than half of the settlers died of hunger and disease, they would have
learned that when winter comes, the ground is frozen, animals are in hibernation, and it is too late to think of planting crops
for food. However, it seems this group did not learn. When a new Governor and a new Marshall, Sir Thomas Dale, arrived
three years later, crops still had not been planted and the colony was in even worse condition than it had been during that first
winter. One survivor of the famine known as the “starving time” later describes his fellow settlers this way:
1608 was a year of growth for the new colony. Other settlers arrived in addition to the 120 brought by Captain Newport.
When John Smith an explorer, adventurer, and one of the original settlers, returned to England in 1609, he reported that there
were five hundred colonists in the Jamestown community when he left.
In the first charter of 1606, the rights of “Englishmen” were guaranteed to the people but they were given no voice in their
government. The local council was subject to the ruling council located in England and both were answerable to the King. In
response to the near failure of the colony during its first year, a more liberal charter was granted by James in 1609, giving the
Company the right to fill vacancies on the council and the ability to name the governor by a vote of the stockholders.
A local council made up of settlers was abolished and replaced by a Governor, Lord de La Warr, also known as Lord
Delaware. Soon after his appointment, Lord Delaware embarked from England with nine ships carrying five hundred men
and women bound for Jamestown. In route, the convoy encountered a major storm off the Island of Bermuda. One of the
ships ran aground and had to lay over in Bermuda while repairs were made. It was not made seaworthy and able to continue
its voyage until the spring of 1610.
Among the passengers stranded on Bermuda through the winter was a cooper named John Rolfe. While in Bermuda, Rolf
acquired some tobacco seed which he took with him when the voyage resumed in the spring. Tobacco from the Spanish
Caribbean had become a favorite in Europe and England. The tobacco Rolf brought with him to Virginia from Bermuda
proved to be suited to the Virginia soil and climate and it quickly became the colony’s chief export.
The winter of 1609-1610 is known as the “starving time”. Unable to trade with the now hostile Indians for food and
prevented by them from leaving the village to hunt, more than two-thirds of the colonists died from hunger and disease.
When the Convoy of Lord Delaware arrived in the spring of 1610, he found only sixty of the 500 settlers, reported by Smith
the previous year, still alive. Delaware was successful in getting the colony on its feet and returned to England the next year
naming Sir Thomas Dale as deputy-governor in his stead.
Dale, a military man, immediately set out to organize the settlement. When he assumed charge in 1611, his first order of
business as acting governor was to abolish the socialistic economic system. He made each person responsible for his or her
own welfare, and gave each settler three acres of land as his own. Future settlers would receive one acre. This simple,
common-sense change in policy solved the problem of food shortages for the colony. There would continue to be a high rate
of deaths from disease and warfare with the Indians, but at least they would die with full bellies.
The area where the Jamestown colony was located was also claimed by a tribe of the Algonquin confederation. The supreme
chief of the confederation was known as Powhatan. In one of the many battles between the settlers and the Indians,
Powhatan’s young daughter, Pocahontas, was taken captive. While living with the settlers, Pocahontas was converted to
Christianity and in 1614, she and John Rolf were married. After the marriage, peace was established with Powhatan, ending
the first Anglo-Powhatan war and giving the settlers a brief respite from their sporadic battles with the Indians.
In 1616, Rolfe made a trip to England, taking his wife Pocahontas, then known by her Christian name, Rebecca, and their
infant son with them. Rebecca became an instant celebrity and the toast of London. The Rolfes had been in London for about
seven months, when Rebecca fell ill and died. A broken-hearted Rolfe left their son in the care of a guardian and returned to
America. The son, Thomas was educated in England and returned to America as an adult to claim the estate of his father and
the lands given to Pocahontas by her father, Powhatan. There are many legends concerning famous descendents of John and
Rebecca Rolfe, however it is difficult to separate the facts from the myths concerning the “legend of Pocahontas”.
Under the leadership of Deputy-Governor Dale, as the colony prospered other settlements were established along the James
River. In 1612 a third charter was issued to the London Company. With each new charter the colony became a little more
independent in its government. The charter of 1612 transferred all government power to the stockholders of the Company,
including the making of their own laws and the appointment of all officials. The colonists, however, had to wait for a few
more years until a more liberal element led by Sir Edwin Sandys gained control of the London Company, before they were
given a voice in their own government. In order to attract more settlers and to correct some of the abuses by resident
governors. Sandys’ management team instructed the governor to call an assembly of the settlers and give them a say in the
government of the colony. This assembly became the House of Burgesses, the first representative government body in
America.
Disappointed by the absence of gold and other precious metals in Virginia the stockholders of the London Company lost
interest in the colony and its control over the settlement became more lax. In 1624 King James, disenchanted by the amount
of autonomy allowed to the colony by the London Company, revoked its charter, making its shares worthless and
bankrupting the Company. Converting the Virginia colony from a corporate charter to a royal colony had little effect on its
government, however. During the final year of James’ life, he was too ill to pay much attention to the affairs of the colony
and his successor, Charles I was too preoccupied with problems at home to worry about conditions in Virginia.
Virginia remained a Royal Colony until it declared its independence from the Crown in 1776. The first House of Burgesses
met on July 30, 1619 at the church in Jamestown and was made up of 22 members, including the Governor. The Governor
was appointed by officials of the Virginia Company in London. He, in turn, appointed 6 members of the House and the
remaining 15 were elected by landowners seventeen years of age or older. This remained the structure of Virginia
government until the Revolution. The degree of self-government allowed the colony waxed and waned during this time period
according to the nature and amount of power wielded by the Governor.
America’s first English colony was purchased at a tremendous price in lives. In 1619 there were about 1,000 settlers in
Jamestown. Ten ships delivered another 1051 colonists to Jamestown in 1620. From 1620 to 1623 another 4,000 settlers
migrated to the colony. In February 1624 when the colony was converted from a corporate charter to a Royal Colony, only
1,277 remained alive. A Royal council was impaneled in 1624 to find out what happened to the 5,000 missing “subjects” of
the King. It was determined they had either died from disease or been killed in the Indian massacre of 1622.
By definition, the early American settlers were of an independent spirit with a low tolerance for tyranny. Often finding
themselves at odds with the prevailing culture, the prospect of starting a new life in a new land was appealing to many.
Although most of the earliest settlers died during the first few years in their new home, they continued to arrive in large
numbers. While their fellow countrymen in Europe were developing the arts of warfare, the settlers in America were
developing new ideas in government and community life.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English Colonies, from Chesapeake Bay to the Canadian Border became
laboratories of self-government and religious tolerance. Many of the lessons learned became the foundation of our eventual
system of government and our founding documents, finding their way into the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights.
In 1607, the first group of colonists established a settlement near Chesapeake Bay along the James River naming it
Jamestown after King James I. The colony’s charter called for a council of thirteen persons appointed by the Crown who
were responsible for “the superior managing and direction, only of and for all matters that shall or may concern the
government.” The members of the council were not required to travel to the colony, but only to look out for the King’s
interest. The King’s interest at the time was limited primarily to anticipated discoveries of precious metals. The council was
authorized,
- “Without any interruption of us (the King)…to dig, mine and search for all manner of mines of gold, silver and
copper…and to have and enjoy the gold, silver and copper, to be gotten thereof, to the use and behoof of the same
colonies…” “…Yielding therefore to us, our heirs and successor, the fifth part only of all the same gold and silver,
and the fifteenth part of all the same copper, to be gotten or had, as is aforesaid, without any other manner of profit
or account, to be yielded to us.”
The first group of settlers to arrive at Chesapeake Bay consisted of twelve laborers, several carpenters, a blacksmith, a
barber, a tailor and more than fifty “gentlemen” unaccustomed to hard work. After days of exploring up and down the James
River, they chose perhaps, the worst location available to start a new colony. The land was marshy and without enough
cleared land for planting crops. To add to their plight they arrived too late in the season to plant crops anyway. Their idea of
trading with the Indians for food while searching for gold turned out not to be a good plan. There was no gold and the
Indians proved to be unfriendly.
After dropping off the settlers, Captain Newport returned to England for additional supplies, promising to return as soon as
possible. With no crops of their own and unable to trade for needed provisions, the men were soon out of decent food. The
daily ration for each man was a pint of moldy and insect infested barley and wheat made into pottage. When Captain
Newport returned in 1608 with an additional 120 colonists and the badly needed supplies only 38 of the original group were
still alive.
America has a long history of experiments with socialism, dating back to the first settlement at Jamestown. The outcomes of
these experiments are always the same. They fail miserably. Both the Jamestown colony and the later Plymouth colony
experimented with socialism as their initial economic system. Of course, the word “socialism” would not be in use for
another 200 years or so, however, both colonies practiced the two core principles of socialism in their government and
economic systems.
The Jamestown colony was founded as a commercial enterprise. Almost half of the settlers were “gentlemen” who were
accustomed to having others do the actual work. For most of them their objective was to “strike it rich” by discovering gold
or other precious metals and returning to England wealthy. All property in the settlement was communal, as was work.
There was no private ownership of land, and other possessions were held in a common storehouse by the colony to be
distributed to each according to his individual needs. Everyone would share in the necessary labor, and everyone would share
in the produce of the community. Man will always prefer to live off the labors of others when possible; therefore, the
tendency among the settlers was to do as little labor as possible. The result was continuous bickering and a chronic shortage
of food and supplies.
One would think after the first winter, when more than half of the settlers died of hunger and disease, they would have
learned that when winter comes, the ground is frozen, animals are in hibernation, and it is too late to think of planting crops
for food. However, it seems this group did not learn. When a new Governor and a new Marshall, Sir Thomas Dale, arrived
three years later, crops still had not been planted and the colony was in even worse condition than it had been during that first
winter. One survivor of the famine known as the “starving time” later describes his fellow settlers this way:
- "... the Englishmen who first went to the colony were an unskilled, improvident, and lazy lot who, 'no more sensible
than beasts, would rather starve in idleness ... than feast in labor.' Like the grasshoppers in Aesop's fable, they took
little if any thought for the future, and as a result, many of them perished, not only during the 'starving time' but also
for years to come because of their failure to plant crops."
1608 was a year of growth for the new colony. Other settlers arrived in addition to the 120 brought by Captain Newport.
When John Smith an explorer, adventurer, and one of the original settlers, returned to England in 1609, he reported that there
were five hundred colonists in the Jamestown community when he left.
In the first charter of 1606, the rights of “Englishmen” were guaranteed to the people but they were given no voice in their
government. The local council was subject to the ruling council located in England and both were answerable to the King. In
response to the near failure of the colony during its first year, a more liberal charter was granted by James in 1609, giving the
Company the right to fill vacancies on the council and the ability to name the governor by a vote of the stockholders.
A local council made up of settlers was abolished and replaced by a Governor, Lord de La Warr, also known as Lord
Delaware. Soon after his appointment, Lord Delaware embarked from England with nine ships carrying five hundred men
and women bound for Jamestown. In route, the convoy encountered a major storm off the Island of Bermuda. One of the
ships ran aground and had to lay over in Bermuda while repairs were made. It was not made seaworthy and able to continue
its voyage until the spring of 1610.
Among the passengers stranded on Bermuda through the winter was a cooper named John Rolfe. While in Bermuda, Rolf
acquired some tobacco seed which he took with him when the voyage resumed in the spring. Tobacco from the Spanish
Caribbean had become a favorite in Europe and England. The tobacco Rolf brought with him to Virginia from Bermuda
proved to be suited to the Virginia soil and climate and it quickly became the colony’s chief export.
The winter of 1609-1610 is known as the “starving time”. Unable to trade with the now hostile Indians for food and
prevented by them from leaving the village to hunt, more than two-thirds of the colonists died from hunger and disease.
When the Convoy of Lord Delaware arrived in the spring of 1610, he found only sixty of the 500 settlers, reported by Smith
the previous year, still alive. Delaware was successful in getting the colony on its feet and returned to England the next year
naming Sir Thomas Dale as deputy-governor in his stead.
Dale, a military man, immediately set out to organize the settlement. When he assumed charge in 1611, his first order of
business as acting governor was to abolish the socialistic economic system. He made each person responsible for his or her
own welfare, and gave each settler three acres of land as his own. Future settlers would receive one acre. This simple,
common-sense change in policy solved the problem of food shortages for the colony. There would continue to be a high rate
of deaths from disease and warfare with the Indians, but at least they would die with full bellies.
The area where the Jamestown colony was located was also claimed by a tribe of the Algonquin confederation. The supreme
chief of the confederation was known as Powhatan. In one of the many battles between the settlers and the Indians,
Powhatan’s young daughter, Pocahontas, was taken captive. While living with the settlers, Pocahontas was converted to
Christianity and in 1614, she and John Rolf were married. After the marriage, peace was established with Powhatan, ending
the first Anglo-Powhatan war and giving the settlers a brief respite from their sporadic battles with the Indians.
In 1616, Rolfe made a trip to England, taking his wife Pocahontas, then known by her Christian name, Rebecca, and their
infant son with them. Rebecca became an instant celebrity and the toast of London. The Rolfes had been in London for about
seven months, when Rebecca fell ill and died. A broken-hearted Rolfe left their son in the care of a guardian and returned to
America. The son, Thomas was educated in England and returned to America as an adult to claim the estate of his father and
the lands given to Pocahontas by her father, Powhatan. There are many legends concerning famous descendents of John and
Rebecca Rolfe, however it is difficult to separate the facts from the myths concerning the “legend of Pocahontas”.
Under the leadership of Deputy-Governor Dale, as the colony prospered other settlements were established along the James
River. In 1612 a third charter was issued to the London Company. With each new charter the colony became a little more
independent in its government. The charter of 1612 transferred all government power to the stockholders of the Company,
including the making of their own laws and the appointment of all officials. The colonists, however, had to wait for a few
more years until a more liberal element led by Sir Edwin Sandys gained control of the London Company, before they were
given a voice in their own government. In order to attract more settlers and to correct some of the abuses by resident
governors. Sandys’ management team instructed the governor to call an assembly of the settlers and give them a say in the
government of the colony. This assembly became the House of Burgesses, the first representative government body in
America.
Disappointed by the absence of gold and other precious metals in Virginia the stockholders of the London Company lost
interest in the colony and its control over the settlement became more lax. In 1624 King James, disenchanted by the amount
of autonomy allowed to the colony by the London Company, revoked its charter, making its shares worthless and
bankrupting the Company. Converting the Virginia colony from a corporate charter to a royal colony had little effect on its
government, however. During the final year of James’ life, he was too ill to pay much attention to the affairs of the colony
and his successor, Charles I was too preoccupied with problems at home to worry about conditions in Virginia.
Virginia remained a Royal Colony until it declared its independence from the Crown in 1776. The first House of Burgesses
met on July 30, 1619 at the church in Jamestown and was made up of 22 members, including the Governor. The Governor
was appointed by officials of the Virginia Company in London. He, in turn, appointed 6 members of the House and the
remaining 15 were elected by landowners seventeen years of age or older. This remained the structure of Virginia
government until the Revolution. The degree of self-government allowed the colony waxed and waned during this time period
according to the nature and amount of power wielded by the Governor.
America’s first English colony was purchased at a tremendous price in lives. In 1619 there were about 1,000 settlers in
Jamestown. Ten ships delivered another 1051 colonists to Jamestown in 1620. From 1620 to 1623 another 4,000 settlers
migrated to the colony. In February 1624 when the colony was converted from a corporate charter to a Royal Colony, only
1,277 remained alive. A Royal council was impaneled in 1624 to find out what happened to the 5,000 missing “subjects” of
the King. It was determined they had either died from disease or been killed in the Indian massacre of 1622.
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