How The Influence Of John Smith's Hand-Written Maps

Although Europeans were beginning to spread their influence throughout the entire globe, not one country’s expansion has been so written about and debated over more frequently than North America, more specifically, the future United States. Every individual’s trip across the ocean, from one coast to another, would be either directly or indirectly influenced by maps that John Smith (and other explorers of that epoch) drew (and had commissioned in different parts of the world.) It is now well known that John Smith’s map of Virginia was one of the main driving forces behind the first group of people packing up and heading west. In today’s society, knowing exactly where you are going and how to get there is a luxury taken advantage of far too often.
It is nearly impossible to realize the significance maps have on societies and culture without first disconnecting from the technologically driven reality we face today, and placing ourselves 400 years back in time…on that dark and dangerous ship in which John Smith was a passenger of. This paper will discuss not only the importance that Smith’s hand-written maps previously had and still currently possess, but also analyze their structural changes over time and how these changes correlate with the birth of a new nation in progress. Beyond the assimilation of key qualitative features of the sources, it is my hope to show that the maps contain much more information than the location of physical landmarks and city
One year after making landfall, Smith set out to explore his surroundings. When analyzing this source, I had to remember that Smith was drawing the map for an audience of potential investors. His ultimate goal was to make Virginia appear worthy of their money and time. This map unignorably mentions numerous Indian tribes, and more importantly, Powhatan’s tribe. The upper left corner of the map shows an ornate drawing of Powhatan himself, showing him sitting above numerous other Indians and in a position of power. The word “Powhatan” is written across the length of the map, with each letter woven throughout trees and other landmarks; this is an obvious indication that Powhatan and his tribe ruled the land in which Smith and his crew mates explored . The map does not show the entirety of the land that would one-day compromise Virginia, just a small portion. Other Indian tribe names essentially form a “fence” around the map. Different tribes most likely prevented Smith and his men, being connected with Powhatan and Pocahontas, to venture out any further than the territory that they possessed. Going past tribal lines would have inevitably led to war between the neighboring tribes and been detrimental to Smith’s experience. Small crosses dot the page in a sporadic way; the legend indicates that a cross represents places he himself had been to, and all other locations