Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?
Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?
In the book of Taking Sides, there are two points of view from the article “Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?” On the Yes side, Edmund S. Morgan makes the argument that the settlement of Jamestown was a fiasco more than a plan. The other side Karen Ordahl Kupperman think that the whole Jamestown settlement was an experiment of trial and error. Edmond Morgan argues that one reason for failure was a lack of organization and he doesn’t think that Jamestown has good leadership. The colonies government was made up of a council and a president. The president had virtually no authority, and the council spent most of its time arguing and not actually accomplishing any governing. The next problem that Morgan brings to attention is a combination of laziness and the makeup of the population. When the colonists first arrived to Jamestown they functioned as a socialist like community. The colonists farmed as a whole and everyone was given equal portions of the crop, so this was not boost to plant and farm as much as possible. “The work a man did bore no direct relation to his reward. The laggard would receive as large a share in the end as the man who worked hard” (Morgan p. 31). Governor Dale then caught on to this and changed their functioning to that of a capitalist like private enterprise. He gave each man three acres or twelve if he had a family, and each man or family could keep what they grew except for a tax of two and a half barrels of corn per year. This put the colony into a surplus, then they think that was good enough and a new aspect of laziness appeared. Out of a population of roughly three hundred, roughly one hundred were gentleman. “Gentleman, by definition, had no manual skill, nor could they be expected to work at ordinary labor.” (Morgan p. 32) In other words, the gentlemen were lazy, ignorant to the trade of labor, and thought too highly of themselves to
In the book of Taking Sides, there are two points of view from the article “Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?” On the Yes side, Edmund S. Morgan makes the argument that the settlement of Jamestown was a fiasco more than a plan. The other side Karen Ordahl Kupperman think that the whole Jamestown settlement was an experiment of trial and error. Edmond Morgan argues that one reason for failure was a lack of organization and he doesn’t think that Jamestown has good leadership. The colonies government was made up of a council and a president. The president had virtually no authority, and the council spent most of its time arguing and not actually accomplishing any governing. The next problem that Morgan brings to attention is a combination of laziness and the makeup of the population. When the colonists first arrived to Jamestown they functioned as a socialist like community. The colonists farmed as a whole and everyone was given equal portions of the crop, so this was not boost to plant and farm as much as possible. “The work a man did bore no direct relation to his reward. The laggard would receive as large a share in the end as the man who worked hard” (Morgan p. 31). Governor Dale then caught on to this and changed their functioning to that of a capitalist like private enterprise. He gave each man three acres or twelve if he had a family, and each man or family could keep what they grew except for a tax of two and a half barrels of corn per year. This put the colony into a surplus, then they think that was good enough and a new aspect of laziness appeared. Out of a population of roughly three hundred, roughly one hundred were gentleman. “Gentleman, by definition, had no manual skill, nor could they be expected to work at ordinary labor.” (Morgan p. 32) In other words, the gentlemen were lazy, ignorant to the trade of labor, and thought too highly of themselves to