Before The First Thanksgiving

Monrovians - Unite!  Know your History and Traditions.  Before the First Thanksgiving there was Captain John Smith.

Before the first Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in 1620, the Virginia Company of London sent out an expedition in 1606 of three ships, with 104 men, and settled in Jamestown.  During the early years, the majority of the settlers died of starvation, various diseases, or hostile action by Indians.

The colony was kept from collapse by the ruthless and dynamic leadership of John Smith.  The story of the first two years was told by Captain John Smith in writings to a friend of his in England, in 1608, called "The True Relation," which can be downloaded from American Journeys, here.

John Smith's life was filled with adventure.  The introduction to "The True Relation" summarizes it as follows::

He was the son of George and Alice Smith, tenants of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, and was baptized at Willoughby, January 9, 1580. At fifteen years of age he was apprenticed to a merchant, but the love of excitement was strong in him, and the next nine years were passed on the continent of Europe in constant travel and adventure. He served in the French, Dutch, and Transylvanian armies, and encountered many dangers. He was robbed and beaten by outlaws, was thrown into the sea for a heretic, and was a slave to a Turkish pasha. He had many hairbreadth escapes, but the most notable incident of his early career was his three combats before the city of Regau with the three Turkish champions, whose heads he cut off one after another. As a reward he received from Sigismund Bathori, a prince of Transylvania, a coat of arms with three Turks' heads in a shield.

Smith returned to England in 1604, and immediately became interested in the movement to establish a colony in Virginia. His reputation had preceded him, and he was picked out as one of the council to direct affairs in Virginia. He remained in this service till October, 1609, having been from September 20, 1608, to September 20, 1609, president of the colony.

His wonderful talent for hairbreadth escapes did not desert him. He was charged on the way over with conspiracy and kept under arrest till three weeks after the settlers landed at Jamestown.

In December, 1607, he was captured by the Indians and was saved from death by Pocahontas.

He returned to Jamestown only to run into a new danger. He was arrested by the council and condemned to death and escaped hanging by the timely return of Captain Christopher Newport, who interfered and saved his life.

Captain Smith left the colony at the end of his presidency, and for several years he was in the employment of the Plymouth Company, giving the name to New England and making a valuable chart of the country.

From 1615 to his death in 1631 he lived quietly in England, where he was known as a prolific writer. In 1612 he published his Map of Virginia, in 1624 The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles, and in 1630 The True Travels.

The absence of any reference in the True Relation to his rescue by Pocahontas has led some to doubt the truth of his assertions; but it appears that Smith omitted any particular mention of several other prominent incidents since his departure from London, affecting him personally. He has nothing to say of his arrest in the West Indies for mutiny, or the sentence of death imposed at Jamestown after his return from captivity. The timely arrival of Newport was in fact even more surprising than the kindly intervention of Pocahontas. Nor does he say in the True Relation anything of the fine of £200 imposed at Jamestown upon Wingfield for Smith's arrest in the West Indies.

It is not to be forgotten that the editor of the True Relation expressly states that the published account does not include the entire manuscript as it came from Smith. Smith was often inaccurate in his estimates as to time and place and often very prejudiced in his judgments of others, but that is far from saying that he could mistake plain objects of sense or deliberately concoct a story having no foundation. The narrative, in its essential features, is strongly supported by other contemporaneous documents, though for the reasons stated not much weight is to be attached to his opinions of the motives of Wingfield and the rest.

The True Relation was reprinted in 1866 at Boston, in a small edition, with an introduction and notes by Dr. Charles Deane.

The Pilgrims, who gave thanks to God and on whom we have based our Thanksgiving tradition when the Holiday was established by George Washington, came from England  for religious reasons, in 1620.  In 1629, other Pilgrims obtained the Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter.

Captain John Smith helped establish the Jamestown colony.  It is important to remember that he, like all historical figures but One, had serious flaws, and yet still contributed mightily to our history.