History of Jamestown Questions

History of Jamestown Questions

After reading the assigned readings for this week, please click HERE (http://historicjamestowne.org/history/history-of-jamestown/) to take a Virtual Field Trip to Jamestown in order to see the latest excavations, the artifacts, and to learn more about the first English colony in North America. Note the tabs at the top of this webpage. Click on them and explore the site: it is full of treasures.

The link will take you to the Jamestown Rediscovered website.

What should you do?

First, read the text on the history of Jamestown by clicking on the ‘History’ tab at the top of the homepage of the Jamestown Rediscovery website: it relates a short history of Jamestown. Here’s a shortcut: Jamestown Rediscovery — the History.

Explore the links just below the title of this page. The links (“Archeology, Collection, History, and so on.) will show you artifacts, the Discovery Area, and James Fort. Take all of this in while bearing in mind what Foner says about the colony. Thoroughly explore the site.

As you browse the site, keep an open and critical (i.e. questioning) mind about what you’re learning. What evidence is presented? Who is speaking?

After you’ve examined this part of the site and any other that catches your fancy (the site is large, so stroll about), please post the following answers in our forum to these questions:

1. List 3 important things about Jamestown that you didn’t know before you visited this site.
2. Why are these these 3 things important? Discuss each point separately.
3. The founders of Jamestown were not religious dissidents, pilgrims, or utopian socialists. How would you characterize the founders of Jamestown, the first permanent English community in North America?
4. In what way does this website add to, flesh out, or even contradict what you learned in Foner? List 3 ways and expand on these links. Quote from Foner and the site to back your claims.