Smith, Bradford, & Bradstreet

John Smith was among the first to truly promote the “American dream.” In “A Description of New England” he reached out the middle class of English society of men who were willing to work hard for a piece of their own land. The Virginia Company’s primary goal for Jamestown was purely profit, trying to adopt Spain’s style of colonization. The colonists were mainly of noble background, being non-inheriting sons, and were looking to make a quick buck and go on back home to England. Those colonists did not settle in to make Jamestown their home. Being up the upper echelon, these men did not know hard work, and Smith’s directive of ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’ did not go over well with them. Smith’s writing seems rather long-winded and boasting, and while he constantly dealt with the Native Americans, he did not truly respect them as equals. He thought well of them, for an inferior race/group, but he and England’s rules and firepower were far more superior. While he mentioned religion, “above all things,” as a reason to go to the colonies in “A Description of New England” it did not show through much in his tactics to intimidate Powhatan and his people.

William Bradford lived in similar conditions as Smith, with harsh winters and epidemic disease that whipped out over half of his people. However, they came to Plymouth for religious freedom, being English Separatists. Also, they came to the new world to build themselves new lives, to settle, and both women and men immigrated there. His interaction with the Native American’s was very different than Smith’s. Bradford befriended them, and amazingly enough several of them spoke English well