Bryan Stratton

Jon Hebertson, Ph.D.

April 23, y

Document Paper
When the Europeans immigrated from England to the Americas, no one knew the

hardships that they would undergo to create the country and commodities that we now enjoy.

These three documents had a couple different themes in common, but the most present themes

were the Native Americans, immigration, disease, famine, death, and God. All of these themes

interconnected in some way, for example; when the Europeans immigrated from England with

their God to guide them, they were brought to the Americas. However, when they landed they

not only found the Native Americans but they also found many hardships. And, along with them

they brought many hardships for the Native Americans. Some of these hardships included

disease, famine, and death.

On the first subject of the Native Americans, two of the documents agreed on how the

mass immigration to America affected them. Both of these documents wrote that when the

Europeans came to America that they brought unknown diseases, and stole from their natural

resources causing them to starve, fall sick, and/or die. When the mass immigration occurred,

near 6 million Native Americans died. However, the third document stated that it seemed more

Europeans were harmed from the immigration. As stated in the excerpt from John Smith, A True

Relation of such occurrences and accidents ofnoate as hath happened in Virginia since the first

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planting of that colony which is now resident in the south part thereof till the last return from

thence (London1608), in English colonial documents: American colonial documents to 1776,

through which disorder God (being angry with us) plagued us with such famine and sickness

that the living were scarce able to bury the dead; our want of sufficient and good victuals, with

continual watching four or five each night at three bulwarks, being the chief cause. This being

just a small piece of what the Europeans went through, but not even a fraction of what the Native

Americans went through.

Leading into the second common theme, God. Both of the people living in the Americas

at the time had some relationship with God. Though, for the Native Americans it was centered

around being fearsome rather than worshiping. They were persuaded that it was the work of

our God through our means, and that we by Him might kill and slay whom we would, without

weapons [or] com[ing] near them. This people believed that it was through the European

God that all of their people were dying. On the other hand, the immigrant Europeans, following

their forefathers belief in Christianity, throughly knew that God would never do something like

that. They tried to explain this wasnt Gods fault and the fact that they were dying and enduring

such hardships. Whose entreaties although we showed that they were ungodly, affirming that

our God would not subject Himself to any such prayers and requests of menthat indeed all

things have been and were to be done according to Hid good please as He had ordained As

stated in A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, this proves the thoughts of

the Christians.

As shown, these three excerpts all have many common themes, although they do not all

agree with each other, and in fact some contradict each other. Each author had a interesting

approach to his/her article. Two of the authors were very believable. However, it was evident

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through reading the two articles, A brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia and

John Smith, A True Relation of such occurrences and accidents ofnoate as hath happened in

Virginia since the first planting of that colony which is now resident in the south part thereof till

the last return from thence (London1608), in English colonial documents: American colonial

documents to 1776, that they had different approaches. The author the first stated article, here

above, stood on the side of the Native Americans, the hardships that they endured, and the blame

that they placed for an unknown killer. The second author, placed his historical information of

the side of the Europeans; showing their issues and the hunger that they faced, and similar to the

first author he didnt paint the opposite people as evil, but more as a threat to their existence and

their hard earned living.

These articles were written very well, however, there were some issues that were missed

in each of them. In the first article, John Smith, A True Relation of such occurrences and

accidents ofnoate as hath happened in Virginia since the first planting of that colony which is

now resident in the south part thereof till the last return from thence (London1608), in English

colonial documents: American colonial documents to 1776, is missing the account of the Native

Americans. It tells that the Native Americans are helping the European immigrants despite the

disease they are being plagued with but it never tells why. In the second article, A brief and True

Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, it has a similar issue. It doesnt give the settlers

account but it does give the account of what the Native Americans were thinking. Therefore, it

can be said, that these articles are two halves of a whole. Without both of these accounts, you

wouldnt be able to see the whole picture.

Overall, theses documents showed that history is interpreted and dictated by the people

who survived. History isnt going to be interpreted by people who have lost their lives, it will

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not remember the people who lost their great battles, you will only remember the number of

people who died. The great victories are what shape the future, and there are many ways that

people can mold words to seem like that isnt true but no matter what history paper you read, it

will lead to some sort of victory.

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