Essay On The Virginia Charters

Three Documents: The Virginia Charters

Introduction: The motivation for settlers to travel to the Americas was not the intranational and international rivalries revolving around choice of religion and all-around “we’re better than you” mentality, but instead the goal for each to increase their own personal wealth. The colonists were part of the Virginia Company, which was divided into two smaller companies: London Company and Plymouth Company. The founding of Virginia marked the beginning of a second round of colonization attempts from England, as the first round of attempts in the 1570s and 1580s failed miserably. Rather than grant conquistadors the permission to claim land for them, as well as give them large sums of money for funding, the English used jointstock companies to lead settlers to the New World with the hope of profiting from this arrangement.

Source One: The Charter of 1606, the first charter of Virginia, issued by the King James I of England to the Virginia Company. Purpose: The author, King James I of England, was the ruler of the English monarchy at the time the Charter was written. The Charter issued land rights to colonists that went to the Americas, called the Virginia Company, for the purpose of spreading Christianity, creating plantations, and mining for precious metals. The land rights were to the coastal region commonly called Virginia at the time, which is from modern day Canada to South Carolina. Argument: This is a formal, signed document in the form of a letter. The audience is the whole of the Virginia Company and the council members assigned to the London and Plymouth Companies. Presuppositions: During the 17th century, Europeans believed it to be normal behavior to take whatever land they came by,...

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...colonization effort. Argument: This is a formal, signed document in the form of a letter, from King James I. The audience is the whole of the Virginia Company and the council members assigned to the London and Plymouth Companies. Presuppositions: King James I assumed that the land the Native Americans possessed would be easily handed over, and given to a king they did not know or respect; and that, not only could they take this land, but they had every right to do that and enslave the natives on their plantations. Today, this would not have been allowed, and laws against trespassing, as well as state and nation border security, would prevent even an attempt at it. Epistemology: My knowledge of this document comes from reading this document. It also comes from reading the textbook assigned to my History class, as well as my professor’s lectures and class discussions.