Latest / New Discoveries at Jamestown / 06 - New Discoveries at Jamestown by John L. Cotter, J. Paul Hudson

Transcript

06 - New Discoveries at Jamestown by John L. Cotter, J. Paul Hudson · New Discoveries at Jamestown

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Section six of New Discoveries at Jamestown. This is a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: New Discoveries at Jamestown by John Ilconnor and J. Paul Hudson.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Section six Farming. The first settlers brought seeds from England
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: and planted wheat two weeks after landing at Jamestown. The
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: early Virginians successfully grew many kinds of crops grain wheat,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Indian corn, barley, oats and rye. Vegetables peas, beans, turnips, parsley, onions, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: lettuce and others, and fruits apples, peaches, apricots, quints, figs, grapes,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and melons. The colonists planted Indian corn as early as
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: sixteen o nine and cultivated many other Indian foods, including pumpkins, beans,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and squash. They cultivated tobacco and Indian plant as early
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: as sixteen twelve, and during the remainder of the century
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: it was the most profitable crop grown for many years.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: It was the economic salvation of the struggling colony. Attempts
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: were made by the early colonists to grow other crops, which,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: for various reasons, did not thrive at Jamestown. Some plants,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: like bananas, pineapple, citrus fruits, and pomegranates could not withstand
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the cold Virginia winters. Other plants, including rice, cotton, indigo,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: sugar cane, flax, hamp and olives, did not grow vigorously
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for one reason or another, and repeated efforts to cultivate
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: them usually resulted in failure. Mulberry trees grew well at Jamestown.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: The leaves were used to feed silkworms, but attempts to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: make silk were not successful. Commercially. Illustration caption tools used
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in the cultivation of tobacco over three hundred years ago.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: These tools, hoe, bill hook, and cutting knives were excavated
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: at Jamestown. End of caption. Illustration caption cultivating a small
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: garden in Virginia conjectural sketch by Sydney E. King. End
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of caption. Illustration caption a few farm tools used by
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: an early settler for cultivating his newly cleared land. End
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: of caption illustration caption. Fishing provided food as well as
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: recreation for the colonists. Conjectural sketch by Sydney E. King.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: End of caption. Illustration caption a few of the many
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: artifacts relating to fishing unearthed at Jamestown fish hooks, fish
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: gigs and lets netweights. End of caption. Hand tools used
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: by the Jamestown farmers during the seventeenth century have been
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: found in abundance. These include axes, picks, bill hooks, pitchforks, spades, rakes, mattocks, sickles, scythes,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: broad hose, narrow hose, and shovels. Only a few parts
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: belonging to heavy farming equipments have been unearthed, including a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: few plowshares and small metal fragments from wagons, carts, and harrows. Fishing.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: When the first settlers planted their small colony at Jamestown,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the Tidewater rivers and bays and the Atlantic Ocean bordering
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the Virginia Coast teemed with many kinds of fish and shellfish,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: which were both edible and palatable. Varieties which the colonists
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: soon learned to eat included sheepshead, shad, sturgeon, herring, sol
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: white salmon, bass, flounder, pike, brim perch, rock and drum,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: as well as oysters, crabs, and mussels. Seafood was an
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: important source of food for the colonists, and at times,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: especially during the early years of the settlement, it was
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the main source. Those in England who planned to go
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to Virginia were always advised to provide themselves, among other items,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: with nets, fish hooks, and lines. During archaeological explorations, fish hooks,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: lead netweights, fish gigs, and small anchors were uncovered. These
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: are reminders of a day when fish and shellfish were
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: abundant in every tide water Virginia Creek, River and bay.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Health Keeping well and healthy, even managing to stay alive
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: in the unfamiliar Virginia wilderness during the first two decades
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of the Jamestown settlement was no easy matter. In the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: group of one hundred and five original settlers, sixty died
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: during the first eight months. During the hard winter of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: sixteen o nine to sixteen ten, known as the Starving Time,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the population dwindled from five hundred to about sixty as
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: a result of sickness, Indian attacks, and famine. One of
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the members of the first colony was a surgeon, William
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Wilkinson by name. As the colony grew, other surgeons, physicians,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and apothecaries emigrated to Virginia. Their lot was not easy,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: for it appears that they were seldom idol in an
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: island community having more than its share of cruel diseases, swellings, flixes,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: burning fevers, wars, and mere famine. During archaeological explorations, drug jars,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: ointment pots, bleeding bowls, mortars and pestles, small bottles and vials,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and parts of surgical instruments were recovered. These undoubtedly were
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: used countless times again Jamestown by unknown Cherugians, doctors of
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: physics and apothecaries, men who tried to keep the colonists
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: well with their limited medical equipment and scant supply of drugs,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: amusements and pastimes. The difficult and time consuming job of
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: conquering the Virginia wilderness, clearing the land, building homes, planning
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and harvesting crops, and warding off Indian attacks left few
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: hours for leisure and amusements. There were times, however, especially
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: after the first few hard years had passed, when a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: colonist could enjoy himself by smoking his pipe, playing a game,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: practicing archery, bowling, playing a musical instrument, singing a ballad,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: or taking part in a lively dance. Excavated artifacts revealed
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that the settlers enjoyed at least these few amusements in pastimes.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Illustration caption a physician and bleeding a patient. Conjectural sketch
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: by Sydney E. King. End of caption. Illustration caption a
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: few items on earth Jamestown which were used by doctors
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and apothecaries included our drug jars, ointment pot, bleeding bowl,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: mortar and pestle fragments, glass vials, and portions of surgical instruments.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: End of caption. Illustration caption enjoying a smoke in a
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: tavern about sixteen twenty five. Conjectural sketch by Sydney E. King.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: End of caption. Illustration caption a few of thousands of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: clay pipe fragments on earthed at Jamestown. The ones shown
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: range and date from sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred. During
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: this one hundred year period, of pipes developed from small
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: bowls to fairly large ones. End of caption Smoking the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: first colonists were quite familiar with the use of tobacco,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and it is believed that many of them smoked clay pipes. Evidently,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: there was some demand for tobacco pipes by the early planters,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: as one of the men, Robert Cotton, who reached Jamestown
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in January sixteen o eight, was a tobacco pipe maker.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: In sixteen eleven to sixteen twelve, John Rolfe had experimented
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: with tobacco plants in Virginia. He used Virginia plants as
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: well as varieties from the West Indies and South America,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and was successful in developing a sweet scented leaf. It
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: became popular overnight and for many years was the staple
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: crop of the infant colony. There was a prompt demand
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: for the new leaf in England, and its introduction there
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: was an important factor in popularizing the use of clay pipes.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: After sixteen twenty, the manufacturer of white clay pipes in
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: England increased by leaps and bounds. His estimated that there
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: are over fifty thousand clay pipe bowls and stem fragments
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: in the Jamestown collection, perhaps the largest assemblage of its kind.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Extant pipe bowls and stem fragments were found wherever excavations
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: were made, indicating that the smoking of clay pipes was
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: an extremely popular custom at Jamestown during the sixteen o
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: seven to seventeen hundred period. Pipe bowls developed in size
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: from small to fairly large. In most examples that have
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: been found, the early pipes have larger stem holes than
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: pipes made during the latter years of the century. Although
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the majority of pipes found at Jamestown were imported from England,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: some were made in Holland. Some of the colonists made
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: their pipes in Virginia from local clay, either by pipe
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: making machines or by hand molding. The English and Dutch
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: pipes were white in color, whereas the local product was brown,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: as they were fragile. Not a single complete pipe has
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: been unearthed to Jamestown. Illustration caption harvesting tobacco at Jamestown
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: about sixteen fifty, painting by Sydney E. King. End of caption.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Illustration caption Children's games depicted on Dutch delftware. Fireplace tiles
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: are very similar to the game's children play today. The
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: tiles were made in Holland almost three hundred years ago.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: End of caption. Games. A few ivory. Fragments that had
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: been excavated appeared to be parts of dice and chessmen.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Chess was popular during the seventeenth century, and many dice games,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: including even an odd hazard, passage, Mum, chance, and novem
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: were played. Other games, which undoubtedly were played in many
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Jamestown homes were tic, tac backgammon, irish and cards. Card
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: games were popular, especially Primero, Trump, Piquet, Saint, and d
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Many seventeenth century fireplace tiles in the Jamestown collection are
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: decorated with charming little pictures depicting children's games. Activities portrayed
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: include skating, bowling, spinning tops, fishing, rolling hoops, using a
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: yo yo, swinging, wrestlings, skipping, rope shooting, playing skittles, riding
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a hobby horse, sledding, boxing, and playing musical instruments. These
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: pictures remind us that games played by boys and girls
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: today are very similar to those enjoyed by children three
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: centuries ago. Illustration caption. Archaeological explorations revealed that the columnist
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: enjoyed archery. The iron lever shown known as a goat's foot,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was to used for setting the string of a light
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: hunting crossbow. It was found four miles from Jamestown. Illustrations
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: showing the use of a goat's foot from weapons a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: pictoik Royal History by Edwin Tunis end of caption Archery
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and Hunting. One interesting item relating to archery has been
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: found four miles from Jamestown. Known as a goat's foot,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it is an iron lever which was used for pulling
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: back and setting the string of a light hunting crossbow.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Contemporary records indicate that hunting game, birds and animals was
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a popular New World diversion. Such sports served a twofold
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: purpose as it offered recreation to the settler and helped
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: provide food for his table. Parts of early fowling pieces
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and numerous lead bird shot called goose or swan shot
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: during the early years of the seventeenth century have been recovered.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Music and dancing, a large assortment of iron and brass
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: jews harps also known as jews trumps, have been found.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: This small instrument is lyre shaped and when placed by
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: between the teeth, gives tones from a bent metal tongue.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: When struck by the finger. Modulation of tone is produced
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: by changing the size and shape of the mouth cavity.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: As there is no record of spinnets or virginals having
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: been used at Jamestown, we have no way of knowing
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: whether such wire stringed keyboard instruments were used in the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: homes of the more prosperous planters, together with other musical
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: instruments of the period. It is quite certain, however, that
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the Jamestown settlers knew the songs and ballads which were
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: sung in Great Britain in those days. They were also
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: familiar with English, Irish, Welsh and Scotch dances. A few
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: contemporary accounts reveal that the Virginia colonists enjoyed merry tunes
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and ditties as well as lively dances. Although living in
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a wilderness, there were times when they could enjoy a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: few leisure hour activities and amusements, including singing and dancing.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Illustration came playing a jews harp enjoying a little music
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: in the Virginia wilderness. Conjectural sketch by Sydney E. King.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: End of caption illustration caption an assortment of jews harps
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: unearthed at Jamestown. End of caption illustration caption a few
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: items recovered at Jamestown which were once used on seventeenth
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: century boats, reminders of a day when travel in Virginia
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was largely by water. End of caption, end of section six.