Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Advice on Supplies
In 1624, Captain John Smith published his General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, and included a list "of such necessaries as either private families, or single persons, shall have cause to provide to goe to Virginia, whereby greater numbers may in part conceive the better how to provide for themselves." In 1630, a similar list of "Provisions needfull for such as intend to plant themselves in New England, for one whole yeare," was published by the Massachusetts Bay "Adventurers" (that is to say, those who had bought into the joint-stock Mass Bay Co.) "with the advice of the Planters."
For EXTRA CREDIT, comment on which of the items on the list made sense to you, and which left you scratching your head (you're encouraged to do some sleuthing to figure out what unfamiliar terms are). Also, explain how two items (one from each list) help describe the differences or similarities between settlement goals in each colony.
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On the two lists of "necessities" that made the most sense to me were the inclusions of both tools and arms--so that the settlers could first build shelters and then protect them (or supplement their diets with meat or hunt furs for trade). What surprised me, however, was that it was the Virginia Company's list that required detailed "houshold [sic] implements" such as skillets and kettles--items I would have associated more with the New Englanders having more women on board. It was also unexpected to see the details of locks being included on the New England list--however, with further thought, the emphasis on security makes sense.
Two items listed that reveal the different goals of each colony are 1) the detailed listing of fishing gear on the New England list (compared to a sort of footnote on the Virginia list) which emphasized the importance of their fishing industry, and 2) the emphasis on fitting the equipment "for men" reveals the early male-dominated demographics of the Virginia colony.
Nice job delving into those documents, Brooke!
Both the Virginia Company and the New England Company had many necessities. The weapons listed on both lists of the Virginia Colony and the New England Colony were used to protect themselves against any foreign intruders and used to hunt and fish for food. The articles of clothing for the desired climate such as mammoth caps and boots kept the settlers warm during the harsh winters. The Virginia Company carved wood eating utensils while the New England Company made different tools such as swords, hooks for fishing, and axes. There were some items on the two lists that didn’t make that much sense. I thought that the New England settlers weren’t this advanced. I wouldn’t think that they were enough technologically advanced to have locks in their doors, but once again, it was used for security purposes and wanted to stay safe from any intruders. The list for the Virginia settlers contains a lot of food and spices. I thought that would be wasteful to own that much food. The two items that described the differences and similarities between settlement goals in each of the colonies were (1) The detailed list of the New England Colony showed that they had things under control and were more organized. The Colony had tension all around them and they needed protection. (2) The Virginia Colony items were mostly directed to a hunter-gatherer colony since they made so many tools for acquiring food.
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