Introduction
The first stop in examining the Biblical roots of America is at Jamestown, one of the first colonies in the New World. Theirs was a Christianity based strongly in Anglican English tradition, and it showed in their approach to life and the impact they made on the South in the years leading up to the Civil War and following it.
Unfortunately, bad philosophy and its far reach can result in devastating impacts for generations to come. In Jamestown, this is certainly the case. The difference in Christian philosophies in the early colonies led to what is seen in America and her Founding as well as significant events later in her history. Today is just the beginning of the journey, but to properly understand how Christianity impacted the country’s history and Founding, we must start with the colonies that would grow into the thirteen colonies that produced the men who founded the country.
The Prevailing Philosophies
Economic Philosophy in Jamestown
One thing many people today do not know it that most of the early colonies started out socialist. This was in keeping with English economic philosophy and policy at the time. The king owned all of the land and dispensed it as he saw fit to the rest of the collective with the help of the House of Lords and House of Commons. So in the sense that few truly owned their own property but instead received it on loan from a noble or the king, the economic environment was very much collectivist, and the colonists took this economic model over to the New World.
Unfortunately, as has been the case all throughout history, socialist and collectivist philosophy had devastating effects, and the colonies would eventually abandon it to varying degrees and with different measures of haste.
Jamestown was one of the colonies that took the longest to abandon it, and even after they did officially abandon it, the system was still much more socialist and collectivist than other surrounding areas, and the impacts reached far. This refusal to fully give up a socialist system that had failed can largely be attributed to the types of people the colonists themselves were.
In commenting on the Jamestown situation, acclaimed economist Richard Maybury states in an article for Mises that “Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites” (Mises Library). The London Company, who funded the venture and took all of the profits made from the land where the colonists settled, stated of its initial group of settlers that they were “unruly gallants, criminals, and loafers.”
Bad Character Breeds Bad Policy
Unfortunately, no matter the economic policy or system, bad men make for bad government. As William Penn, founder of the Pennsylvania colony said so eloquently, “Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them….Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. I know some say, ‘Let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them.’ But let them consider that though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want good men and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones” (Thomas Clarkson, Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn).
Bad economic policies are often the results of bad character in those enforcing them. Jamestown is a prime example of this. While other colonies quickly abandoned the system of collectivism with great support from the majority of their colonists, not just their governing bodies, Jamestown experienced no such thing. Anyone who tried to force the men of Jamestown to work garnered nothing but resentment.
John Smith
John Smith was the first to try to enforce discipline. He was able to get the colonists working only by mandating that they would not eat if they did not work. The colonists resented him for these edicts, and despite having united the colony, he was not wanted. According to Historynet.com in an article entitled “How Collectivism Nearly Sunk Early Colonies”, “A suspicious explosion badly injured the former mercenary [John Smith], and in October, Smith departed aboard a supply ship for England, replaced as colony president by George Percy” (HistoryNet).
After Smith departed, the colony fell back to its old ways and experienced severe food shortage in addition to Indian raids, prompted by the colonists’ increasingly demanding behavior. By the time that the Venture arrived carrying Gates, who was meant to be their new governor, HistoryNet states that “…Gates found Jamestown down to 100 souls, the town palisades in disrepair, the church in ruins, the houses empty, ‘rent up and burnt'” (HistoryNet). Gates abandoned the colony upon seeing the levels they had sunk to and returned to England.
Sir Thomas Dale
Thomas Dale was the second man to attempt to instill some measure of work ethic and discipline in the colonists. He issued prescriptive edicts, which became known as Dale’s Code: Lawes, Divine, Morall, and Martial. Among the laws was the death penalty for desertion, embezzlement, and stealing from the public stores. George Percy, whom Dale replaced, said that Dale named parties “to be hanged, some burned, some to be broken upon wheeles, others to be staked, and some to be shot to deathe, all this extreme and cruewel [cruel] torture he used and inflicted upon them to terrify the rest from attempteinge [attempting] the lyke [like].”
Of course, while these rules and regulations did set Jamestown on more solid footing, bully tactics and terror reduced productivity and fostered ill will and a desire to rebel. Dale turned to giving each adult male their own parcel of land to work and found that this approach of allowing private property brought prosperity at last. The struggle to get to this point, however, was long and difficult, and the mindsets that the colonists had changed only to the point that necessity required it.
Settling Philosophy in Jamestown
The economic philosophy of the colony may have changed, but their philosophy regarding private property and treatment of those who lived on the land before them did not, though it morphed into another form.
As historians David Barton and Tim Barton put it in their book The American Story, ” …When the first colonists came to America from England, it never crossed their minds that the British king did not actually own the land; he said he did and that ended the question. There was no need to approach the natives to ask permission to live there” (The American Story, 74).
Their belief that the king owned everything and their habit of expecting others to provide them with everything led to great abuse of the natives. The Bartons state that “With the Jamestown colonists’ general aversion to working for themselves and their desire to have others work and provide for them, it is not surprising that the Virginia Colony is where chattel slaver first became legal in America. Chattel slavery is the complete and unlimited ownership of another person and their descendants. Other colonies formed in that region had a similar mindset, and in these southern colonies slavery grew fastest and deepest” (The American Story, 76).
Their philosophy regarding private ownership and settlement in the New World led directly to the southern propensity for slaves and the general reluctance of Southerners to serve in defense of America during her War for Independence because their slaves might escape. It also led to the mindset that allowed for the rapid growth of chattel slavery to the point that it was at by the time of the Civil War.
Religious Philosophy in Jamestown
As mentioned earlier, the Jamestown settlement came from the Anglican tradition of Christianity in England. This tradition relied heavily on the priests to tell the individual what to think. There was little room for personal conscience, nor was there much knowledge of the Scriptures. Theirs was a Christianity that held the general principles but had none of the deep knowledge of the Bible itself that we will find existed in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay later in this series. The Bartons note that “As a result, religious toleration was less a part of their spiritual DNA than it was in New England” (The American Story, 74).
This difference in religious philosophy from New England can be seen clearly in many aspects. Their constitutions and laws rarely cited the Biblical principles or passages they came form. The New England counterparts, however, frequently list the passages their laws came from and made a point to state that at any point in which the laws were unclear or insufficient, the Bible itself was to be the standard from which they drew their decisions and principles. The Jamestown colony relied instead on the priests and a class system. Even their laws regarding religion did not often state any actual Biblical passages to support the requirements made. (See Laws and Documents Relating to Religion in Early Virginia)
Their treatment of the Indians and their adoption of socialism itself clearly illustrated their lack of understanding of the Biblical principles of giving just recompense for that which you wish to have of others. It showed a lack of understanding of the Biblical principle that if you do not work, you should not eat. It also demonstrated a clear lack of understanding that the Bible outlawed any form of manstealing in Exodus 21:16 (the Biblical term for chattel slavery or taking someone from their home to put them in service as property of another human being). Had they adhered to this principle, they would have put to death anyone caught doing such a heinous act, which was Exodus 21:16 dictated was the punishment for such behavior.
These are just a few of the ways that their version of Christianity reared its head and demonstrated the results of religion instead of a strong faith rooted in Scripture and a personal relationship with Christ. The results, as illustrated by an 1888 wall map (which showed both the positive effects of Plymouth’s philosophy and the negative effects of Virginia’s), were rebellion, treason, the Mason-Dixson’s Line, secession, sedition, superstition, ignorance, lust, avarice, the 3/5ths’ compromise, the Compromise of 1850, fugitive slave laws, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the Dred Scott decision.
What Grew Out of Jamestown
In the end, many of the problems that would plague America throughout her history were the results of the Jamestown and Virginia philosophies. Sadly, though Jamestown’s legacy did turn out a few great men like George Washington, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and George Mason as well as the Reverends Samuel Davies and John Leland. Nonetheless, as the Bartons point out, “…Notwithstanding such outstanding contributions, Virginia also fomented the legalization and expansion of slavery, religious intolerance, and elitism” (The American Story, 78).
Sadly, the legacy that Jamestown left behind was one that followed in the footsteps of socialism and continued some of the worst traditions of elitist, socialist, and monarchical thinking. This is hardly a surprise given the roots of those who started the first colonies in the South, but it is a sad testament to the far-reaching impact that bad philosophy can have.
Conclusion
As shown in this article, bad men and bad philosophy lead to bad laws no matter what the situation. Jamestown was settled on some of the best land available to the settlers, a land of which John Smith wrote that “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.”
Had the colonists had the same Biblical philosophy that the Puritans in New England had, they might have fared much better and found abundance and peace with their neighbors. Instead, they took advantage of the Powhatan Indians and their generosity until the Powhatan had had enough and declared war on them. Instead, they chose to go looking for gold and other riches for the London Trading Company instead of doing what was necessary to allow them to survive.
Their own laziness, socialist philosophy, and poor behavior nearly resulted in their destruction and did result in the enslavement of over three million by the time of the Civil War. Hardly a legacy to be proud of, but it illustrates what can happen when the prevailing religious and economic philosophies are not rooted in the principles of the Bible. Next in this series, we will discuss the New England counterparts to the Jamestown colony. If you would like to read some of the original documents and accounts on Jamestown, you can find them below along with the links for the resources specifically quoted in this article.
Sources on Jamestown
1888 Map from Wikipedia Archives
The American Story by David and Tim Barton
Virtual Jamestown – Religious Laws
Virtual Jamestown – All Documents
How Collectivism Nearly Sunk Early Colonies by Historynet.com
The Great Thanksgiving Hoax by Richard Maybury on Mises.org
Socialism at Jamestown by David Boaz on Cato Institute
Manstealing Topical Study on BibleHub
