Lindsey Graham (4:46)
From Noiser and Airship I'm Lindsey Graham and this is History. Daily. History is made every day on this podcast. Every day we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is September 10, 1608. John Smith saves Jamestown It's April 26, 1607 on the shores of Virginia, a year and a half before John Smith becomes President of Jamestown. Stumbling onto land after five harrowing Months at sea, John and a hundred other colonists have finally arrived in North America. All the men are tired and hungry after their long voyage from England. But John is in a worse state than anyone else. He spent weeks imprisoned in the hold of their ship. He's now starving and stinking, and the skin of his wrists have been scraped raw by the crude wooden handcuffs placed on him. Any joy John feels about having finally reached the New World is tempered by dread, because some of his shipmates want him publicly executed. During the voyage across the Atlantic, John openly challenged the captain's decisions. He tried to convince his shipmates he would make a better leader. And fearing a mutiny, the ship's captain placed John under arrest and he spent the rest of the voyage in the brig. Now everyone safely on dry land, John is facing the possibility of death by hanging. But when the colonists unseal their official orders from the colony's sponsor, the Virginia Company, back in England, they find a surprise. The rich businessmen who are paying for the trip have chosen John Smith to sit on the town council. The colonists don't want to anger their sponsors, so they spare John's life and set him free. But they don't allow him a seat on the town council. They're still too wary of his ambitions. John, though, is just relieved to be alive. And now he has a whole continent to explore and plunder. John and his other colonists are not fleeing religious persecution in England like the pilgrims that will come later. They're here to make money, hoping that their colony will find gold, or perhaps even the theorized passage to the Pacific Ocean and China that Christopher Columbus searched for more than a hundred years prior. John Smith has experience surviving in unfamiliar territory, so he is one of the men who leads the expeditions, mapping the area and searching for treasure. Meanwhile, other colonists get to work building their new home. They choose a site on a marshy peninsula by the river, which they think will be easy to defend. They name the settlement Jamestown, after the King of England, James I. Then they cut down trees for lumber to make shelter. They gather berries, hunt foxes and beavers, make nets to fish in the river, and till the soil to plant corn. But over the next few months, the colonists food supply begins to dwindle and by the fall of 1607, the men of Jamestown are facing the prospect of a long hard winter on rations of just a handful of raw grain a day. John Smith, however, isn't going to accept death by starvation. They've already encountered local Native Americans, so John knows people can survive here. He just has to find a way to get his hands on food. John decides a show of strength is the best approach. He leads his men on a raid on a nearby Kecoughtan village. The colonists shoot their muskets and smash religious idols, terrifying the inhabitants enough that they agree to trade with the Englishmen. They hand over huge piles of corn, turkey and venison in return for some pieces of copper hatchets and beads from the colonists nests. John then returns to hungry Jamestown a hero. More trading expeditions follow over the months to come, keeping the colonists alive amid the deepening chill of winter. But then, in December 1607, John makes a mistake. He stumbles into the wrong tribe's territory and is captured. He's brought before paramount Chief Powhatan, who rules over an empire of thirty tribes in the region. The confrontation is a tense one. Powhatan is wary of the newcomers in his lands, but he's heard all about the deadly weapons they carry and wants some for his warriors. For his part, John hopes Powhatan can supply them with desperately needed food. But he has no intention of handing over their weapons. And he doesn't want Powhatan realizing how weak the English settlers truly are. It's a subtle game of bluffs and John thinks the meeting is going well until Powhatan shouts a sudden order to his warriors. The men grab John and force his head onto a stone slab. The warriors then begin singing and dancing, wielding their war clubs. It's a ritual John doesn't understand, but he fears he knows how it will end with his brain smashed out on the rock. But just when the ceremony seems to be reaching a deadly crescendo, a girl appears. It's Powhatan's favorite daughter, 11 year old Pocahontas. She interrupts the ceremony and seemingly saves John's life. Soon afterwards, paramount Chief Powhatan declares that he will be the protector of the Englishmen in these lands, but for a price. He offers to free John in exchange for two of the Englishmen's cannons. John quickly agrees to the deal and is escorted back to Jamestown by a dozen of Powhatan's men. There, with a smile, he tells the warriors they are free to take the cannons if they can lift them. But the 12 men aren't strong enough to carry a thousand pound cannon away with them. Now that John is back in Jamestown, the Native American warriors are outnumbered. So instead of the cannons he promised, he sends the men back to Powhatan with a few worthless trinkets and a lesson. John Smith is not a man to be underestimated and not one to be trusted either. John's encounter with paramount Chief Powhatan will help cement his image in the colony as a shrewd negotiator with local tribes. Soon the time will come for Jamestown to choose a new leader and John Smith will step forward. No longer will he be just a pirate or a soldier or even an explorer. Next, he will become president. History Daily is sponsored by Indeed. Back in 1999, I remember reading Bill Gates book Business at the speed of thought. 25 years later and well, the speed of business has only increased. And that includes hiring. You can't sit around waiting for paper resumes filter in. You need to find quality candidates right now because opportunity waits for no one. Which is why when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Their sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. They get your post to jump to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster and it makes a huge difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com onthis day, just go to Indeed.com onthisday right now and support the show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com onthis day terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need this season. Let your shoes do the talking. Designer Shoe Warehouse is packed with fresh styles that speak to your whole vibe without saying a word. From cool sneakers that look good with everything to easy sandals you'll want to wear on repeat, DSW has you covered. Find a shoe for every heel from the brands you love, like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, New Balance and more. Head to your DSW store or visit dsw.com today. It's late September 1608 in Jamestown, nine months after Pocahontas saved John Smith's life. John Smith, the new president of the colony, takes a stroll through the struggling settlement that is now his responsibility to rule. With dismay, he notices the dilapidated church, the leaky storehouse that has ruined their supplies, and the settlers who have done little to fix any of it. John's frustrated with his fellow colonists. Many come from respected families back in England and seem to think themselves too good for hard work. As John himself puts it, the labors of 30 or 40 industrious and honest men should not be consumed to maintain 150 idle loiterers. So John decides to do something about it. One of his first official edicts is that those who do not work do not eat. Many of the colonists are unhappy with John's harsh new law. They thought coming to the New World would make them rich, but instead all they've found is sickness and starvation. Now they're being forced to become farmers. Still, John is able to convince most of them that there's no other option. It's either help out or die out. Despite John's best efforts, though, as winter progresses, the colony remains desperately short on food. Again. Again and again, the English settlers looked to the local tribes for help. Paramount Chief Powhatan hasn't forgotten the trick John played on him with the cannons, though. So now he hopes to exploit the Englishman's hunger to play a trick of his own. In January 1609, John and about 15 of his men travel up the frozen river to Powhatan territory in order to trade for much needed food. But this time they're walking into a trap. Paramount Chief Powhatan plans to drag out the negotiations and then kill the Englishmen in their sleep. Then he'll be able to take their powerful muskets for himself. John Smith is saved once again, however, by the intervention of the young Pocahontas. She risks her life to warn him of the ambush. And with the Englishmen on guard and their powerful weapons ready, Powhatan doesn't dare move against them. Reluctantly, he agrees to a deal to supply the English colony with with more food. So John Smith returns to Jamestown once again with boats laden with baskets of corn. But it still won't be enough to last the winter. To avoid starvation, John is forced to barter for supplies again. And increasingly he has to use strong arm tactics to get his way. But he knows that threatening the local population is a short term solution at best. Every time he does it, John may keep starvation away for another another week or two. But he also makes the locals less willing to trade with him. In the future. If Jamestown is to survive, it will need to stand on its own two feet. So as winter turns to spring, John begins to feel more hopeful. Perhaps now the worst is behind them and under his leadership. In 1609, the settlement's walls are extended and its defenses improved. Twenty new homes are built and the church is repaired. A new well is dug to provide fresh drinking water. And 40 acres of surrounding land are cleared for farming. John is still not popular among the citizens of Jamestown, but his controversial edict of those who do not work do not eat seems to be having the desired effect. That progress is soon put in jeopardy, though from an unlikely source. Too many colonists. In August 1609, John Smith is surprised to see more than a half dozen English ships appear on the horizon. It's a resupply fleet from the Virginia Company, and at first John is delighted. The ships must carry vast quantities of desperately needed supplies, but they're also carrying 300 new colonists direct from London. All at once, Jamestown's population has almost tripled, and John is furious. He has no idea how he's supposed to feed or house all these newcomers, and he soon discovers that the fresh colonists are not used to the sheer amount of hard work it takes just to survive out here. John hopes he can make these city folk into hardy colonists before winter comes round again. But unfortunately, his tenure as president will soon be cut short, and the English colony clinging to the edge of the New World will spiral into the darkest chapter of its history. So.
