Freedom In Jamestown

From the very beginning of colonial settlement to the crafting of the Constitution, freedom was never a given, and was often used as a tool to increase economic output for those who selfishly held it. This essay will discuss how the theme of freedom, particularly the pursuit of acquiring it, was immensely important during the initial centuries of America and absolutely essential to its creation, growth and development.
In the difficult early years of Jamestown’s settlement, privileged and work averse English colonists relied heavily on the native Powhatan tribe for food. During these years, they lacked a profitable product to send back to England, and relations with the natives became more and more agitated. The Jamestown colony was quickly

beginning to look like a bad investment to the Virginia Company, and they desperately needed something to turn it profitable. When “John Rolfe, the settler who had married Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, experimented with tobacco plants until he located varieties that thrived in the Virginia environment,” the colonies finally found their product. Tobacco quickly became the flagship product of the colonies by 1620 and the base for its future economy.
The discovery of this profit-producing crop brought about the need for increased labor to produce and harvest it. The poor English settlers flocking to the colonies in search of a better life became the perfect source of labor, as many exchanged a few years of labor for passage to America. This indentured servant system and the trading of free status were the catalysts that helped to create the trend that later led to slavery. While they had a slim chance to be able to regain their freedom, many indentured servants never did. Their lives were often characterized by an endless cycle of debt and servitude.
Also during this time, African slaves began to arrive in Virginia. It is with these slaves that we see our first instance of Africans being able to purchase and gain freedom from their masters. This was because “the legal traditions under which Virginia operated did not initially clarify the legality of African slavery nor promise assistance to English masters attempting to control African workers for life.” A few African American slaves were able to use this unclear rule and live freely, becoming beneficial members of society and even owning land. This period of uncertainty is the first instance in which we see African Americans gaining their freedom back, however it is not the only type of freedom being sought in colonial America.
Around the same time that tobacco was becoming a popular colonial product, a different type of settler was on its way to Virginia.

Aboard a ship called the Mayflower came a host of Puritan passengers in search of religious freedom instead of profit. These people were under the belief that America might be a sort of perfect solitude in which they could worship God in the way that they wanted. This would not prove to be as easy and joyous as they had hoped, however. Upon arriving near Cape Cod, Indians almost immediately attacked them, and “far worse, disease ravaged the ranks of the colonists, killing more than half of them.” Despite these setbacks, the Puritans struggled on and managed to create Plymouth, which became one of the first symbols of freedom in the new

world.
While many settlers found a certain sense of freedom in America, those who had already inhabited its lands for hundreds of years found their freedom dwindling with every new colonist that set foot on its soil. The native tribes of America experienced a massive shift in their way of life during the period of colonial settlement. The constant pressure to either leave the areas they called home or conform to a religion other than their own, as well as the threat of being exported as slaves drove many tribes to extreme violence. One such instance was in 1670’s when Wampanoag chief Metacomet attacked after a string of violent events, “The resulting war devastated the New England economy and resulted in thousands of English and Indian deaths, before ending with the defeat of Metacomet’s confederation.“ As we can see, though America was viewed as a place of potential freedom and a new life for many, this was not so for everyone.
Moving forward more than a century to the 1770’s, the colonies are now a full fledged, thriving settlement.

However, after a string of discrepancies between the colonies and England, the English Parliament, who still ruled over the colonies, passed harsh laws mainly regarding commerce and taxes. Led predominately by the wealthy, elite white men, the colonies drafted a declaration of independence from England, citing a list of unacceptable acts committed by the king of England. One of the most iconic lines from the declaration reads, “all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness” This Declaration led to an all out revolutionary war in which the colonies banded together to obtain freedom from the perceived tyrannical government of England. This is the ultimate example of freedom being the most prominent factor in America’s

development.
As the colonies developed from the small, dangerous settlements of the early 1600’s to the large cities and towns of the late 1700’s, both freedom and its absence have been integral at every point. Early indentured servants and African slaves were able to purchase their freedom from masters. Puritans formed new colonies to practice freedom of religion. Native Americans were face with their freedom slowly slipping away. Finally, the entire colonies banded together in a quest for freedom with the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War. Freedom, whether good or bad, has absolutely shaped the growth of America during its earliest centuries and continues to do so to this day.