John Smith (explorer): Difference between revisions
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{{Other persons|John Smith}} |
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[[File:John Smith after Simon De Passe.jpg|thumb|upright|right|250px|Captain John Smith, after an early portrait by [[Van de Passe family|Simon de Passe]], 18th century]] |
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Captain '''John Smith''' (c. January 1580 – 21 June 1631) Admiral of New England was an [[Kingdom of England|English]] soldier, [[explorer]], and author. He was [[knight]]ed for his services to [[Sigismund Bathory]], Prince of [[Transylvania]] and friend [[Mózes Székely]]. He is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent [[English colonial empire|English settlement]] in North America at [[Jamestown, Virginia]], and his brief association with the [[Virginia Indian]]<ref>A Guide to Writing About Virginia Indians and Virginia Indian History. http://vipnet.org/resources/writersGuide.pdf</ref> girl [[Pocahontas]] during an altercation with the [[Powhatan Confederacy]] and her father, [[Chief Powhatan]]. He was a leader of the [[Virginia Colony]] (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. |
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Smith's books and maps may have been as important as his deeds, as they encouraged more Englishmen and women to follow the trail he had blazed and to colonise the [[New World]]. He gave the name [[New England]] to that region and encouraged people to migrate with the comment, "Here every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land...If he have nothing but his hands, he may...by industrie quickly grow rich." |
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==Early adventures== |
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[[File:CaptJohnSmith.jpg|thumb|right|Statue at [[Historic Jamestowne]]]] |
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John Smith was baptised on 6 January 1580 at [[Willoughby, Lincolnshire|Willoughby]]<ref>{{citation |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=of86AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22John+Smith%22+was+baptized+%22January+1580%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 |title=The Historye of the Bermudaes Or Summer Islands |last=Lefroy |first=John Henry |year=1882 |publisher=Hakluyt Society |page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=of86AAAAIAAJ&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=%22John+Smith%22+was+baptized+%22January+1580%22&source=web&ots=afh1n3wG6F&sig=ZbEGxX39F_Vha-_-tWRwhGF1p2Y&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result iv] |accessdate=21 September 2008 |
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}}</ref> near [[Alford, Lincolnshire]], where his parents rented a farm from [[Peregrine, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby|Lord Willoughby]]. He claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of [[Cuerdley]]<ref>Churton, Ralph, ''The lives of William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton'' (1800), p. 5</ref> Lancashire and was educated at [[King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth]], from 1592–1595.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kevigs.lincs.sch.uk/?sid=440&pgid=466&spgid=&page=1 |title=History of the School |publisher=King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth |accessdate=21 June 2008 |
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}}</ref> After his father died, Smith left home at the age of sixteen and set off to sea. He served as a mercenary in the army of [[Henry IV of France]] against the Spaniards, fought for [[Dutch revolt|Dutch independence]] from the Spanish King [[Philip II of Spain|Phillip II]], then set off for the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. There he engaged in both trade and [[piracy]], and later fought against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]] in the [[Long War (Ottoman wars)|Long War]]. Smith was promoted to captain while fighting for the Austrian [[Habsburg]]s in [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]], in the campaign of [[Michael the Brave]] in 1600 and 1601. After the death of Michael the Brave, he fought for Radu Şerban in [[Wallachia]] against the Ottoman vassal [[Ieremia Movilă]]. |
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Smith is reputed to have defeated, killed and beheaded Turkish commanders in three [[duel]]s, for which he was [[knight]]ed by the Transylvanian Prince [[Sigismund Báthory]] and given a horse and [[coat of Arms]] showing three Turks' heads.<ref>[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070121/29smith.htm Not Just Another John Smith], usnews.com, 21 January 2007</ref> However, in 1602 he was wounded in a skirmish with the [[Crimean Khanate|Tatars]], captured and sold as a [[slavery|slave]]. As Smith describes it: "we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market."<ref>[http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2007-01/John_Smith.htm Soldier of Fortune: John Smith before Jamestown]</ref> Smith claimed his master, a [[Turkish people|Turkish]] nobleman, sent him as a gift to his Greek mistress in [[Constantinople]], who fell in love with Smith. He then was taken to the [[Crimea]], from where he escaped from the Ottoman lands into [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]] then on to the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]], before travelling through Europe and Northern Africa, returning to England in 1604. |
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==Virginia Colony== |
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In 1606 Smith became involved with plans to colonise [[Virginia Colony|Virginia]] for profit by the [[Virginia Company of London]], which had been granted a [[charter]] by [[James I of England|King James]]. The expedition set sail in three small ships, the ''Discovery'', the ''Susan Constant'' and the ''Godspeed'', on 20 December 1606. His [[page (servant)|page]] was a 12-year-old boy named Samuel Collier. |
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John Smith was reported to be a troublemaker on the voyage, and Captain [[Christopher Newport]] (in charge of the three ships) had planned to execute him upon arrival in Virginia. However, upon first landing at what is now [[Cape Henry]] on 26 April 1607, sealed orders from the Virginia Company were opened. They designated Smith to be one of the leaders of the new colony, forcing Newport to spare him. |
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===Site=== |
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The search for a suitable site ended on 14 May 1607, when [[Edward Maria Wingfield|Captain Edward Maria Wingfield]], president of the council, chose the [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] site as the location for the colony. |
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[[File:John Smith 1624 map of Bermuda with Forts 01.jpg|thumb|right|Captain John Smith's 1624 map of the Somers Isles ([[Bermuda]]), showing [[St. George's, Bermuda|St. George's Town]] and related fortifications, including the [[Castle Islands Fortifications, Bermuda|Castle Islands Fortifications]]]] |
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[[File:Smith Pamunkey.jpg|thumb|John Smith taking the King of Pamunkey prisoner {1624 history}]] |
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[[File:Pocahontas-saves-Smith-NE-Chromo-1870.jpeg|thumb|Pocahontas throws herself over Smith to save his life, 1870 depiction]] |
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[[File:Generall Historie of Virginia.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles]]'', by Capt. John Smith]] Harsh weather, lack of water, living in a swampy wilderness and attacks from the Powhatan nation almost destroyed the colony. |
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===Encounter with Pocahontas' tribe=== |
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In December 1607, while seeking food along the [[Chickahominy River]], Smith was captured and taken to meet the [[Chief Powhatan|chief of the Powhatans]] at [[Werowocomoco]], the main village of the [[Powhatan Confederacy]]. The village was on the north shore of the [[York River (Virginia)|York River]] about 15 miles due north of Jamestown and 25 miles downstream from where the river forms from the [[Pamunkey River]] and the [[Mattaponi River]] at [[West Point, Virginia]]. Although he feared for his life, Smith was eventually released without harm and later attributed this in part to the chief's daughter, [[Pocahontas]], who according to Smith, threw herself across his body<ref>Smith, ''Generall Historie''</ref>: "at the minute of my execution, she hazarded [''i.e.'' risked] the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown".<ref name="Letter to Queen Anne">Smith. [http://members.aol.com/mayflo1620/pocahontas.html Letter to Queen Anne.]</ref> |
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In 1860 Boston businessman and historian Charles Deane was the first scholar to question specific details of Smith's writings. Smith's version of events is the only source and scepticism has increasingly been expressed about its veracity. One reason for such doubt is that, despite having published two earlier books about Virginia, Smith's earliest-surviving account of his rescue by Pocahontas dates from 1616, nearly 10 years later, in a letter entreating [[Anne of Denmark|Queen Anne]] to treat Pocahontas with dignity.<ref name="Letter to Queen Anne"/> The time gap in publishing his story raises the possibility that Smith may have exaggerated or invented the event to enhance Pocahontas's image. However, in a recent book, Professor J. A. Leo Lemay of the University of Delaware points out that Smith's earlier writing was primarily geographical and ethnographic in nature and did not dwell on his personal experiences; hence there was no reason for him to write down the story until this point.<ref>Lemay. ''Did Pocahontas'', p. 25. Lemay's other arguments in favour of Smith are summarized in Birchfield, [http://vision.stanford.edu/~birch/pocahontas.html 'Did Pocahontas'].</ref> |
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[[Henry Brooks Adams]], the pre-eminent Harvard historian of the second half of the 19th century, attempted to debunk Smith’s claims of heroism. He said that Smith’s recounting of the story of Pocahontas had been progressively embellished, made up of “falsehoods of an effrontery seldom equalled in modern times.” Although there is consensus among historians that Smith tended to exaggerate, his account does seem to be consistent with the basic facts of his life. Adams' attack on Smith, an attempt to deface one of the icons of Southern history, was motivated by political considerations in the wake of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Adams had been influenced to write his fusillade against Smith by [[John G. Palfrey]] who was promoting New England colonisation, as opposed to southern settlement, as the founding of America. The accuracy of Smith’s accounts has continued to be a subject of debate over the centuries.<ref>Lepore, Jill, "The New Yorker", Ap. 2, 2007, p. 40-45</ref> |
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Some experts have suggested that although Smith believed he had been rescued, he had in fact been involved in a ritual intended to symbolise his death and rebirth as a member of the tribe.<ref>Gleach, ''Powhatan's World'', pp. 118–21.; Kupperman, ''Indians and English'', pp. 114, 174.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | author=Horwitz, Tony | title=A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World | publisher=Henry Holt and Co. | isbn=0-8050-7603-4 | pages=336}} |
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</ref> In ''Love and Hate in Jamestown'', David A. Price notes that this is only guesswork, since little is known of Powhatan rituals, and there is no evidence for any similar rituals among other [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes in North America.<ref>p. 243-44</ref> |
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In ''True Travels'' (1630), Smith told a similar story of having been rescued by the intervention of a young girl after having been captured in 1602 by [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] in Hungary. [[Karen Kupperman]] suggests that he "presented those remembered events from decades earlier" when telling the story of Pocahontas.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=RJ9s-cvaLBUC&dq=The+Jamestown+Project&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=WGSySqWTFIO6NbuxoMkL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false Karen Ordahl Kupperman, ''The Jamestown Project''], Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007, 51–60, 125–6</ref> |
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Whatever really happened, the encounter initiated a friendly relationship between the natives and Smith and the colonists at [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]]. As the colonists expanded further, some of the tribes felt that their lands were threatened, and conflicts arose again. |
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In 1608, Pocahontas is said to have saved Smith a second time. Smith and some other colonists were invited to Werowocomoco by Chief Powhatan on friendly terms, but Pocahontas came to the hut where the English were staying and warned them that Powhatan was planning to kill them. Due to this warning, the English stayed on their guard and the attack never came.<ref>Symonds, ''Proceedings'', pp. 251–2; Smith, ''Generall Historie'', pp. 198–9, 259.</ref> |
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Also in 1608, [[Poles|Polish]] craftsmen were brought to the colony to help it develop. Smith wrote that two Poles rescued him when he was attacked by a native American.<ref>http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/pas/65.2/pula.html</ref> |
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===Smith's leadership of Jamestown=== |
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Later, Smith left Jamestown to explore the [[Chesapeake Bay]] region and search for badly needed food, covering an estimated 3,000 miles.<ref>These explorations have been commemorated in the [[Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail]], established in 2006.</ref> In his absence, Smith left his friend [[Matthew Scrivener]], a young gentleman adventurer from Sibton, [[Suffolk]], who was related by marriage to the Wingfield family, as governor in his place. Scrivener<ref>Scrivener would later drown along with Bartholomew Gosnold's brother in an ill-fated voyage to Hog Island during a storm.</ref> was not to be a leader of the people. Smith was elected president of the local council in September 1608 and instituted a policy of discipline. He encouraged farming with an admonition taken from the New Testament (II Thessalonians 3:10): "He who does not work, will not eat."<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vBD2wNk5z6AC&pg=PA143&dq=bartholomew+gosnold+matthew+scrivener&lr=&ei=DIMCSYSeC5mctAOCvYXoDA#PPA86,M1 To Conquer is To Live: The Life of Captain John Smith of Jamestown, Kieran Doherty, Twenty-first Century Books, 2001]</ref> |
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The settlement grew under his leadership. During this period Smith took the chief of the neighbouring tribe hostage and, according to Smith, he did "take this murdering [[Opechancanough]]...by the long lock of his head; and with my pistol at his breast, I led him {out of his house} amongst his greatest forces, and before we parted made him [agree to] fill our bark with twenty tons of corn."{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} A year later, full-scale war broke out between the Powhatans and the Virginia colonists. Smith was seriously injured by a gunpowder burn after a rogue spark landed in his powder keg. He returned to England for treatment in October 1609. He never returned to Virginia. He was succeeded as governor by an aristocratic adventurer, [[George Percy]]. |
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==New England== |
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[[File:Descr.of.New England-Title page.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of ''A Description of New England'' (1616)]] |
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In 1614, Smith returned to the Americas in a voyage to the coasts of [[Maine]] and [[Massachusetts Bay]]. He named the region "[[New England]]".<ref>New England. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 20 June 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service: [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9055457]</ref> He made two attempts in 1614 and 1615 to return to the same coast. First a storm dismasted his ship. In the second attempt, he was captured by French pirates off the coast of the [[Azore Islands|Azores]]. Smith escaped after weeks of captivity and made his way back to England, where he published an account of his two voyages as [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/4/''A Description of New England'']. He never left England again. He died in the year 1631 in London at the age of 51. |
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He was buried in the church of [[St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate]], the largest Parish Church in the City of London, where there is a handsome window designed by [[Francis Skeat]] and installed in 1968.<ref>{{cite web|work=St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate|title=The John Smith Window|url=http://web.me.com/a.earis/stsepulchre.htm|accessdate=22 December 2010}}</ref> |
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== Authorship == |
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===Credibility as an author=== |
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Many critics judge Captain John Smith’s character and credibility as an author based on a single event, the infamous scene where Pocahontas saved his life from the hand of Powhatan. Additional and probably more accurate judgments should rest upon his relationship with both the Indians and colonists of Jamestown. Smith earned his status as an American hero through his strong work ethic and compromise with the Indians, themes that reappear in his writings such as ''The Generall Historie of Virginia'' and ''The True Travels…of Captain John Smith''. Most of the critical scepticism of Smith’s credibility is a result of the differences between his narratives. His earliest text is ''A True Relation of Virginia'', which was submitted for publication in 1608, the year after Smith’s experiences in Jamestown. The second, ''The Generall Historie'', was published in 1624, sixteen years later. Compared to ''The Generall Historie'', many events, including the Pocahontas scene, are either left out or changed; this is probably to due to the fact that ''The Generall Historie'' was composed so much later, and Smith’s memories of the colony, the Indians, and their relations were faded. Accordingly, the publishing of letters, journals, and pamphlets from the colonists were regulated by the companies that sponsored the voyage in that they must go “directly to the company,” because no one was to “write any letter of anything that may discourage others.” Smith is now known to have violated this regulation by first publishing ''A True Relation'' as an unknown author.<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p. 40</ref> Furthermore, the editor of ''The Generall Historie'' probably “cut out…references to the Indians’ hostility, to bickering among the leaders of Virginia Company, and to the early supposed mutiny of…Smith on the voyage to Virginia.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.41</ref> |
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The Pocahontas episode is subject to the most scrutiny by literary critics, for it does not even appear in ''A True Relation'', but does so in ''The Generall Historie''. According to Lemay, it is probable that “Smith was being ritualistically killed. Reborn, he was adopted into the tribe, with Pocahontas as his sponsor. But Smith, of course, did not realise the nature of the initiation ceremony.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p. 52</ref> Also important evidence to Smith’s credibility regarding the story is the fact that “no one in Smith’s day ever expressed doubt in [it], and many persons who must have known the truth…including [[John Rolfe]] [and] Pocahontas…were in London in 1616 when Smith publicised the story in a letter to the queen.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. The American Dream of Captain John Smith. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.51</ref> |
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Smith focuses heavily on American Indians in all of his works concerning the New World. Smith’s relationship with the Powhatan Indians is the sole factor that saved the Jamestown colony from sharing the fate of the Roanoke colony. His relations with the Indians were very wise in that: |
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<blockquote>He was friendly toward them, but never let them forget the might of English weapons… Realizing that the very existence of the colony depended on peace, he never thought of trying to exterminate the natives. Only after his departure were there bitter wars and massacres, the natural results of a more hostile policy. In his writings, Smith reveals the attitudes behind his actions.<ref>Randel, William. "Captain John Smith's Attitudes toward the Indians." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (1939): 218–229. p.219</ref></blockquote> |
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However, in ''The Generall Historie'', Smith implies that the Virginia colonists resented the Indians and the two peoples had mostly hostile feelings towards each other. He compares Chief Powhatan to the devil, and refers to the Indians as “barbarians.”<ref>Smith, John. "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles." ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature''. Ed. Paul Lauter. 6th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009 [1624]. 276–281. p.277</ref> Numerous times, he mentions sending spies to discover the Chief’s intent and declining Powhatan’s request to relinquish their arms. He also stresses the many experiences where the Indians threatened and attempted to kill him. However, Lemay contests Smith’s depiction of the relations between colonists and Indians: “[He] was not only fair, he was surprisingly kind and humanitarian. He treated the Indians as he treated whites…tortured [none], executed none, and saved Indians when others wanted to slay them.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.116</ref> Smith’s own past as a commoner allowed him to sympathise with the Indians, and he believed that the Indians were not inferior to the whites but just “at a different stage of civilisation.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.224</ref> The respect between Smith and the Powhatan earned him the title of a werowance, “a chieftain among the whites.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. The American Dream of Captain John Smith. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.116</ref> The relationship between Smith and Chief Powhatan is further evidence of the understanding between these two cultures. In ''The Generall Historie'', Smith addresses a number of letters exchanged between him and Powhatan that reflect the respect that existed between them: “Half a dozen years after Smith had left Virginia—and after the whites had repeatedly assured Powhatan that Smith was dead—[the] leader instructed his advisor… [and] Pocahontas to look for Smith in England;”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.146</ref> judging from his directions, the Chief seems to have been deeply affected by the Smith’s rumoured death. This is another indication of the positive relationship held between colonists and Indians: if their associations were as Smith depicted them in ''The Generall Historie'', Powhatan would not have been much concerned about his absence or death. |
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Concerning his relationship with the colonists, Smith is considered by historical and literary critics to be an arrogant braggart. On numerous accounts, he outwardly expressed the colonists were worthless; most of them were gentlemen who felt no need to do physical labour. As a method of survival, Smith blatantly rejected the social order that existed in England, which obviously angered the gentlemen of the colony. Smith became regularly frustrated with the amount of delegation{{Clarify|date=July 2010}} that the colonists went through before a decision could be made. Smith’s disgust with the “gentlemen” of Jamestown was clear: he makes several references to them as “useless parasites,” for their ignorance in the laborious tasks that are required for beginning a colony.<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith.'' Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.170</ref> His frustration with them did not end at their inability to work, but also extended to the social order that they believe they were entitled to. The colonists, accustomed to the social order of England, rejected the social construct that Smith created in Jamestown. They perceived Smith’s establishment of this new structure as a challenge to their “deserved” respect. Smith mentions several times in his works that having actual workers would have been better than what the Virginia Company sent over: “twentie good workmen had been better than all them all.”<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.173">Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.173</ref> In Smith’s hopes to better colonise the Americas, he urges to the Massachusetts Bay Company not to make the same mistake that the Virginia Company made: “…nor such multitude of Officers, neither masters, gentlemen, gentlewomen and children as you have men to work, which idle chares you will fine very troublesome, and the effects dangerous, and one hundred good labourers better than a thousand such Gallants as we were sent me that could do nothing.”<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.173"/> |
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In reality, Smith was discontent with only a few colonists who acted this way: he “claimed the early colonists were heroes. His primary purpose in writing The ''Generall Historie''…was to eternalise ‘the memory of those that effected’ the settlement of Virginia.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.26</ref> In Smith’s publication, ''A Description of New England'' (1616), he goes so far as to compare the colonists to Adam and Eve; just as Adam and Eve spread productivity throughout the world, the colonists created life in the Virginia colony. Smith essentially sympathised with gentlemen; he knew it was not their fault they were useless and that this trait was merely a product of the imposed standards of English society. He recognised that “they were imprisoned by their own self-imposed limitations. What they could and could not do was decided by their awareness of traditional roles and by the shame that they would feel if others saw them engaged in physical work.”<ref>Lemay, J. A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.27</ref> Lemay speculates that as a result of Smith’s strict rules and the emigration to America, these men could shed these roles and create new lives for themselves in which they could celebrate the products of their labours and not feel humiliated. |
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===Promoter of American colonisation=== |
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[[File:Capt John Smith's map of Virginia 1624.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Smith's map of Virginia from ''[[The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles]]'', 1624]] |
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One of John Smith’s main incentives in writing about his New World experiences and observances was to promote the colonisation of The New World by England. Many promotional writers sugar-coated their depictions of America in order to heighten its appeal, but Smith was not one to exaggerate the facts. He was very straightforward with his readers about both the dangers and the possibilities of colonisation: instead of proclaiming that there was an abundance of gold in the New World—as many writers did—Smith illustrated that what was truly abundant within America was monetary opportunity in the form of industry.<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.80">Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.80</ref> Smith was realistic about his proposition for colonisation and the benefits that it could yield. He recognised that no “other motive [besides] wealth…would draw [potential colonists] from their ease and humours at home.”<ref>Smith, John. "A Description of New England." ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature''. Ed. Paul Lauter. 6th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009 [1616]. p. 282</ref> Therefore, he presented in his writings actual industries that could yield significant capital within the New World: fishing, farming, shipbuilding, and fur trading.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.91</ref> In ''A Description of New England'', Smith illustrates America as an ideal environment for such trades and enumerates the monetary benefits that they would bring. Rather than making false promises of abounding gold to his readers, Smith attempted to attract interest for colonisation by depicting the opportunities that fertile soil and abundant resources would bring. He insists, however, that only hard workers will be able to reap such benefits. Just as Smith did not exaggerate the possibilities for wealth within America, he did not understate the dangers and toil associated with colonisation. He declared that only those with a strong work ethic would be able to “live and succeed in America” in the face of such dangers.<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.81</ref> Colonists would have to risk their lives in order to benefit from the “phenomenal possibilities” that the New World offered.<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.80"/> As a promoter of American colonisation, Smith did not placate his readers: he wished for potential colonists to be aware of the dangers that they faced, the work that colonisation would require, and the benefits that they stood to gain. |
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===Additional Works=== |
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''A Map of Virginia'' is focused centrally on the observations that Smith made about the Indians, particularly regarding their religion and government. This specific focus would have been Smith’s way of adapting to the new world by assimilating the best parts of their culture and incorporating them into the colony. ''A Map of Virginia'' was not just a pamphlet discussing the observations that Smith made, but also a map which Smith had drawn himself, to help make the Americas seem more domestic. As Lemay remarks, “maps tamed the unknown, reduced it to civilisation and harnessed it for Western consciousness,” promoting Smith’s central theme of encouraging the settlement of America.<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.42</ref> Many “naysayers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century” have made the argument that Smith’s maps weren’t reliable because he “lacked a formal education in cartography.”<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.43">Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.43</ref> That allegation, however, was proved false by the fact that Smith was a “master in his chosen fields of experience.”<ref name="Lemay, J.A. Leo 1991. p.43"/> |
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''The Proceedings of English Colonie In Virginia'' was a compilation of other writings; it narrates the colony’s history from Dec. 1609 to summer 1610, and Smith left the colony in Oct. 1609 due to a gun-powder accident. The writing style of ''The Proceedings'' is better constructed than ''A Map of Virginia''. It is well organised and more focused, and this could’ve been a result of Smith’s ever conscious self promotion by allocating it to a wider reader base: “Books stood a better change…if they had been Testimonial.”<ref>Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''The American Dream of Captain John Smith''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. p.48</ref> |
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==Publications== |
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* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/J1007.html ''A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Happened in Virginia''] (1608) |
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* ''A Map of Virginia'' (1612) |
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* ''The Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia'' (1612) |
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* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/4/ ''A Description of New England'' (1616)] |
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* ''New England's Trials'' (1620, 1622) |
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* ''[[The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles]]'' (1624) |
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* ''An Accidence, or the Pathway to Experience Necessary for all Young Seamen'' (1626) |
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* ''A Sea Grammar'' (1627) – the first sailors' word book in English |
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* ''The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith'' (1630) |
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* ''Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere (1631) |
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==John Smith Monument, New Hampshire== |
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[[File:Capt. John Smith's Monument, Star Island, Isles of Shoals.jpg|thumb|left|Capt. John Smith Monument, as it appeared c. 1914, Isles of Shoals]] |
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The Captain John Smith Monument currently lies in disrepair off the coast of [[New Hampshire]] on [[Star Island]], part of the [[Isles of Shoals]]. Built in 1864 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of John Smith's visit to what he named Smith's Isles, the original monument was a tall pillar set on a triangular base atop a series of steps surrounded by granite supports and a sturdy iron railing. At the top of the original [[obelisk]] were three carved faces, representing the severed heads of three [[Turkish people|Turks]] that Smith lopped off while in combat during his stint as a soldier in [[Transylvania]].<ref>J. Dennis Robinson [http://seacoastnh.com/Famous_People/Captain_John_Smith/The_Ugliest_Monument_in_New_England/ The Ugliest Monument in New England]</ref> |
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In 1914, the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Wars partially restored and rededicated the monument for the 300th anniversary celebration of his historic visit.<ref>Robinson. [http://seacoastnh.com/Famous_People/Captain_John_Smith/John_Smith_Memorial_Photo_History/ John Smith Memorial Photo History]</ref> The monument had weathered so badly in the harsh coastal winters that the inscription in the granite had worn away. |
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==In popular culture== |
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*Captain Smith was portrayed by [[Anthony Dexter]] in the 1953 [[low-budget film]] ''[[Captain John Smith and Pocahontas]]''. |
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* John Smith is one of the main characters in Disney's 1995 film ''[[Pocahontas (1995 film)|Pocahontas]]'' and its 1998 straight-to-video sequel ''[[Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World]]''. He is voiced by [[Mel Gibson]] in the first movie and by his younger brother [[Donal Gibson]] in the sequel. |
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*Smith and [[Pocahontas]] are also central characters in the [[Terrence Malick]] film ''[[The New World (film)|The New World]]'', in which he was portrayed by [[Colin Farrell]]. |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist|2}} |
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==Further reading== |
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* Woolley, Benjamin. ''Savage Kingdom, The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America'', First Harper Perennial Edition Published 2008 |
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* Horn, James, ed. ''Captain John Smith, Writings, with Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the English Settlement of America'' ([[Library of America]], 2007) ISBN 978-1-59853-001-8. |
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* Philip L. Barbour, ''The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606–1609'', 2 vols., Publications of the Hakluyt Society, ser.2, 136–37 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969) |
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* A. Bryant Nichols Jr., ''Captain Christopher Newport: Admiral of Virginia'', Sea Venture, 2007 |
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* Philip L. Barbour, ''The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964) |
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* Gleach, Frederic W. ''Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia''. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. |
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* Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler, ''Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the Birth of the American Dream'' (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2006) |
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* Horn, James. ''A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America'' (New York: Basic Books, 2005) |
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* Jenks, Tudor. ''Captain John Smith'' (New York: Century Co., 1904) |
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* Kupperman, Karen Ordahl ed., ''John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988) |
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* Price, David A., ''Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation'' (New York: Knopf, 2003) |
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* Lemay, J.A. Leo. ''Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?'' Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1992, p. 25. |
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* Giles Milton, ''Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America'', Macmillan, New York, 2001 |
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* John Smith, ''The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580–1631) in Three Volumes'', edited by Philip L. Barbour, 3 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for The Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, 1986) |
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* Smith, John. ''The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles''. 1624. Repr. in ''Jamestown Narratives'', ed. Edward Wright Haile. Champlain, VA: Roundhouse, 1998. pp. 198–9, 259. |
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* Smith, John. Letter to Queen Anne. 1616. Repr. as [http://members.aol.com/mayflo1620/pocahontas.html 'John Smith's Letter to Queen Anne regarding Pocahontas'. ''Caleb Johnson's Mayflower Web Pages''.] 1997. Accessed 23 April 2006. |
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* Symonds, William. ''The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia''. 1612. Repr. in ''The Complete Works of Captain John Smith''. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. Vol. 1, pp. 251–2 |
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* [[Charles Dudley Warner|Warner, Charles Dudley]], ''Captain John Smith'', 1881. Repr. in [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3130 Captain John Smith] [[Project Gutenberg|Project Gutenberg Text]], accessed 4 July 2006 |
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==External links== |
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{{Commons category|Captain John Smith}} |
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* [http://www.nps.gov/cajo Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail Official Website] |
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* [http://www.friendsofthejohnsmithtrail.org/ Friends of the John Smith Trail] |
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* [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/chesapeake/ NGS Then and Now – John Smith] |
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* [http://cbf.typepad.com/johnsmith/ John Smith Water Trail Blog] |
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* [http://www.cbf.org/johnsmith/ The Captain John Smith Water Trail] |
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* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/4/ A Description of New England (1616)] online text (PDF) |
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* [http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please120599.html The Ugliest Monument in New England] (seacoastnh.com) |
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* [http://seacoastnh.com/Famous_People/Captain_John_Smith/The_Ugliest_Monument_in_New_England/ The Ugliest Monument in New England II] |
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* [http://seacoastnh.com/Famous_People/Captain_John_Smith/John_Smith_Memorial_Photo_History/ John Smith Memorial Photo History] |
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* [http://www.baygateways.net Captain John Smith Chesapeake NHT is administered by the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network] |
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* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/lhbcbbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(lhbcb+0262a)) Complete text of the ''Generall Historie''] American Memory |
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* [http://www.folger.edu/html/folger_institute/jamestown-new/c_rose.htm ''Texts of Imagination & Empire'', by Emily Rose, Princeton University] Folger Shakespeare Library |
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* [http://www.archive.org/details/captainjohnsmith010539mbp Captain John Smith His Life and Legend] |
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{{S-start}} |
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{{s-gov}} |
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{{Succession box| |
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before= [[Matthew Scrivener]]| |
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title= [[List of colonial governors of Virginia|Colonial Governor of Virginia]] | |
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years= 1608–1609 | |
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after= [[George Percy]] |
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}} |
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{{S-end}} |
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{{VAColonialGov}} |
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{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. --> |
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| NAME = Smith, John |
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| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = |
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| DATE OF BIRTH = 1580 |
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| PLACE OF BIRTH = |
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| DATE OF DEATH = 1631 |
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| PLACE OF DEATH = |
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}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John}} |
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[[Category:1580 births]] |
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[[Category:1631 deaths]] |
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[[Category:English explorers]] |
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[[Category:17th-century explorers]] |
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[[Category:Ottoman slaves]] |
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[[Category:Colonial governors of Virginia]] |
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[[Category:Explorers of North America]] |
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[[Category:People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth]] |
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[[Category:Duellists]] |
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[[Category:People from Alford, Lincolnshire]] |
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[[Category:Authors of captivity narratives]] |
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[[Category:English soldiers]] |
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[[Category:English writers]] |
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[[Category:17th-century English people]] |
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[[Category:17th-century writers]] |
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[[Category:17th-century soldiers]] |
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[[da:John Smith (Jamestown)]] |
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[[de:John Smith (Jamestown)]] |
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[[es:John Smith (explorador)]] |
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[[eo:John Smith]] |
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[[fa:جان اسمیت]] |
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[[fr:John Smith de Jamestown]] |
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[[fy:John Smith (ûntdekkingsreizger)]] |
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[[ko:존 스미스 (탐험가)]] |
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[[id:John Smith (pengelana)]] |
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[[it:John Smith di Jamestown]] |
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[[nl:John Smith (ontdekkingsreiziger)]] |
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[[ja:ジョン・スミス (探検家)]] |
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[[no:John Smith av Jamestown]] |
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[[pl:John Smith (żołnierz)]] |
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[[pt:John Smith]] |
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[[ru:Смит, Джон (капитан)]] |
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[[simple:John Smith]] |
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[[sv:John Smith (kolonisatör)]] |
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