There are no known descendants of John Smith, the leader of early Jamestown. According to documents, Smith never married or fathered any children. However, Smith did claim to have “children”—England’s New World colonies. He wrote, “I may call [the colonies] my children for they have bin my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice and in total my best content.” Smith wanted the colonies to succeed for England, but also because he had invested so much of himself in them.

Smith was well-qualified for the challenges of leadership in a new settlement. Having studied warfare in England, his early travels took him to Europe, where he and other Englishmen fought with the Dutch against the Spanish.

In 1600, he joined the Austrian forces fighting against the “infidel” Turks in Hungary and Transylvania. He beheaded three Turkish officers, was captured, and subsequently sold as a slave. He somehow escaped, making his way through Russia, Poland, and Morocco before returning to England in 1604-05.

When the Virginia Company recruited settlers in 1606, Smith volunteered. He was among the youngest chosen to lead the new colony, but also was the most traveled and experienced in adversities relevant to leading a colony in the wilds of North America.

Events on the sea voyage to Virginia intensified circumstances among the settlers. At odds with some of the gentlemen, Smith was charged with attempting to organize a mutiny and was restrained for most of the voyage.

On arrival at Cape Henry in late April 1607, the names of the seven-member council were read. One of them was Smith, still in restraints. Released in early June, Smith took his place on the council. Within a few months he was named Cape Merchant and placed in charge of procuring goods and supplies from the local environment and the indigenous people.

During the autumn of 1607, problems developed between members of the council. President Edward Maria Wingfield was accused of hoarding supplies for himself and was deposed and placed in restraint on the Discovery, anchored in the James River. Captain Bartholomew Gosnold died from illness. Captain George Kendall was executed on charges of mutiny. The remaining council members made attempts at replacing these men, but within little more than a year, Smith was the sole remaining councilor and de facto colony leader.

Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay area twice, recording his observations in written descriptions and on a detailed map. He sharpened his skills as a trader and diplomat through encounters with Powhatan tribes and survived capture by Powhatan’s warriors in December 1607.

The English had a desperate need for food and Smith met numerous times with Virginia Indian leaders to entice them to trade with him. He became president of the colony in the autumn of 1608 and with this authority, he strengthened defenses, enforced discipline, and continued to seek food from the Virginia Indians.

Smith forced men to work if they wanted to be fed, ordering that: “He that will not worke, shall not eat.” Smith trained the colonists in military skills and dealt effectively with the Virginia Indians in trade and political negotiations.

Eventually, his strongarm tactics angered local tribes, as well as his own countrymen. When former colonists—and antagonists—Gabriel Archer and John Ratcliffe returned to Virginia in late summer 1609, they plotted to take Smith’s life. They sent an assassin to shoot Smith who had recently been badly burned in a gunpowder explosion, but the gunman could not go through with it and Smith returned to England for treatment.

At home in England, Smith kept faith in the Virginia colony. He also supported a new colony to the north, New England. In 1614, he successfully explored there, recording his observations in descriptions and on a map. His hopes for establishing a colony in New England were dashed when he was captured by French pirates in 1615.

Escaping the pirates, Smith returned to England, where he wrote about his exploits and adventures. Smith never returned to sea. He died in London in 1631, almost penniless, but still promoting his “children” in the New World. One contemporary wrote that he was “Brasse without, but Gold within.”

Smith may have a reputation of being assertive and self-serving, but his writings about the Powhatan Indians and descriptions of the land of Virginia have been invaluable sources for historians and ethnographers. His map of Virginia was used by settlers to Chesapeake Bay for half a century.

Other Sources

• Barbour, Philip. Three Worlds of Captain John Smith. Boston, 1964.
• Smith, John. Complete Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Philip Barbour. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
• Vaughan, Alden. American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia. Boston, 1975.

Historical background materials made possible by Archibald Andrews Marks.