GIVE ME LIBERTY The Struggle for Self-Government in Virginia
Thomas J. Wertenbaker
Chapter 1: The Cornerstone of Liberty
Three little vessels - the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery-left England in December, 1606, under the command of Captain Christopher
Newport, to found a colony on the distant shores of Virginia. Two decades earlier Sir Walter Raleigh had sent out a group of settlers to what is now North
Carolina, and they had disappeared mysteriously. What had happened to them? men asked. Had they been killed by the Indians? Had they fallen victims to
disease? Had they starved? Those who shared in this new venture must have wondered if a like fate awaited them in this strange new land,
But their spirits rose when they entered Chesapeake Bay. Landing parties were delighted with the "fair meddowes ... full of flowers of divers kinds and
colors," the "goodly tall trees," and the streams of fresh water. It was a smiling country which seemed to bid them welcome. But when they entered the
mouth of a broad river, which they called the James in honor of their King, and made their way up into the country, new doubts must have assailed them.
They knew that savages lived in the dense forests which lined both banks; might not strange wild beasts live there also? Might there not be fatal diseases
unknown in Europe?
What of the following best summarizes the main point of including information about the earlier colony of Sir Walter Raleigh?
To introduce one source of the settlers' fears
To imply the new settlers would succeed
To suggest causes of the earlier failures
To create conflict for the new colonists