“The General History”

John Smith (1579/1580-1631)

Problems with the Jamestown Colony – according to Smith

• Lack of Provisions• Inadequate shelter• Extreme heat• Continual labor• Poor leadership

Characteristics of the Other Colonists

Undesirable• Foolish• Small-minded• Treacherous

Desirable (Smith becomes the example)

• Intelligent• Judicious• Selfless• Industrious

Smith Imposes Order on the Colony

• Quickly took charge – how?– Building Trust– Standing for what he says and brings forth– Persuasion

• Eventually sent the more treacherous colonists to England as prisoners

The Colony Profits from Smith’s Relationship with the Indians

• By the Native Americans’ provision of food to the colonists– Saves many from starvation– Why?• God sent the Native Americans to save the colonists.

Four Forms of Discourse used by Smith

• Description• Narration• Exposition• Persuasion

Smith and Description

• The intention is to make the reader as vividly aware as possible of what the writer has perceived through his senses (or in imagination), to give the reader the "feel" of things described, the quality of a direct experience.

• The thing described may be anything that we can grasp through the senses, a city street, the face of a person, the sound of a voice, the odor of an attic, a piece of music.

• Example:

Smith and Narration• Concerned with action, with events in time, with life in

motion.• It answers the question "What happened?”• It tells a story. As we use the word here, a story is a sequence

of events historically true or false -- so -- fictional or non-fictional -- presented that the imagination grasps the action.

• The intention is to present an event to the reader-what happened and how it happened.

• The event itself may be grand or trivial, a battle or a ball game; but whatever it is, the intention is to give the impression of movement in time, to give the sense of witnessing an action.

• Example:

Smith and Exposition

• The intention is to explain something: for instance, to make some idea clear to the reader, to analyze a situation, to define a term, to give directions. The intention, in short, is to inform.

• Example:

Smith and Persuasion

• Persuasion represents power.• You persuade somebody to join your political cause,

that is to accept your body of opinion.• You persuade somebody to lend you five dollars until

Saturday night-that is, however reluctantly in the beginning, to perform an act.

• We must realize that a change of opinion or attitude implies a change, potentially at least, in action.

• Thus persuasion is always targeted toward action - i.e., power.

• Example:

Paraphrasing to Understand Complicated Ideas More Easily

• “Now in Jamestown they were all in combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with pinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with saker falcon and musket shot, Smith forced now the third to stay or sink” (Smith 20).

• Pinnace – a small sailing ship.• Saker falcon – a light cannon.

Paraphrasing to Understand Complicated Ideas More Easily

• Should include clarification of pinnace as a sailing ship and saker falcon as a light cannon.– Still residing in Jamestown, the colonists found

their tempers at a peak. The most aggressive colonists had threatened to run away with the pinnace, a small sailing ship. Armed with a musket shot and a light cannon, Smith challenged the colonists for a third time – stay or sink (Smith 20).