Teaching American History: Leadership in Early Florida, Virginia,

and Massachusetts BayDr. Sean Condon

June 20 & 29, 2009

Themes for the day

• Atlantic Context: Protestant Reformation & Spanish colonization

• Early colonization efforts are extremely difficult and dangerous

• Importance and complexity of motivation• The goals of colonization always crash into the

realities• In these situations, leadership is a lot about

responding to a new environment

Leaders we will focus on:

• Florida: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés & Francisco Pareja

• Virginia: Powhatan & John Smith• Massachusetts Bay: John Winthrop & Anne

Hutchinson

Themes for Florida

• For the Spanish, Florida was of marginal interest

• The experience of Cortes in Mesoamerica shaped many of the decisions

• The fragility of the settlements• Mission system made effort to Hispanicize &

pacify native groups in the Southeast

Florida timeline1513: Ponce de Leon’s travels1519-21: Cortes conquers the Mexica (Aztec) 1528-36: Cabeza de Vaca’s travels1539-43: De Soto in Southeast1564: French establish Ft. Caroline1565-71: Pedro Menendez de Aviles establishes St.

Augustine & seven other forts1574: death of Menendez de Aviles and movement

toward mission system1595: Franciscan priest Francisco Pareja arrives in Florida1675: mission system reaches its height

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1528-36)

Pedro Menéndez de Avilésnamed adelantado in 1565

St. Augustine

Virginia Timeline

• 1585-87 Roanoke Colony• 1607: Founding of Jamestown• 1609-10: “Starving time”• 1616: First tobacco shipment sent to London• 1622: Opechancanough’s Uprising

Themes for Virginia

• Powhatan’s challenges and opportunities• Virginia dreams vs. realities• The European context for the Virginia colony• English short term failure vs. long term

success

Powhatan’s Confederacy in 1607

Hakluyt’s Document

• Why should the English colonize North America?

• How would you describe the author?• Who would go to colonize?• What part of his vision seems Realistic?

Unrealistic?

Jamestown

Pocohontas in England

Chesapeake from 1650 to 1700

Opechankanough

Powhatan’s brotherTakes over confederacy in late 1610sLeads uprising in 1622 & again in 1644

THE Chesapeake in 1640

Chesapeake from 1650 to 1700

Massachusetts Bay timeline

1517: Martin Luther sparks Protestant Reformation

1534: Henry VIII establishes Church of England1620: Pilgrim Separatists found Plymouth

Colony1625-49: Reign of Charles I1630: Puritans found Mass Bay Colony

John Winthrop

Mass Bay themes

• Role of Gods’ Providence• Sense of mission• Importance of community• Notion of a “calling”• The Puritan paradox

• This court being informed that John Littehale of Haverhill, liveth in a house by himself contrary to the law of the country whereby hee is subject to much sin which is the consequence of a solitary life…[within six weeks he must] settle himself in some orderly family…and be subject to the orderly rules of family government” [Hampton Court, 1672]