How Did John Smith Influence The Development Of The American Dream

John Smith’s A Description of New England heavily promotes expansion in the New World as Smith believes the New World holds countless opportunities for success, regardless of peoples’ European socioeconomic backgrounds. However, firsthand accounts contained in letters sent from America, mostly throughout the 1620s, paint a picture of the New World that depict terrible living conditions, as numerous aspects severely plague the colonists’ lives. These conditions were overcome through a belief in self-made prosperity. This belief arose as a result of John Smith’s influence and ultimately laid the foundations for the American Dream, which would later serve as the idealistic foundation of the United States of America. Although life in the New World may have initially appeared unbearable, the early colonists’ persistence during hardships such as hunger and disease, as well as conflict with Native Americans, played a very significant role in the shaping of the American Dream.

The colonists did not have the natives’ full trust, which ultimately led to painful experiences taking place in a multitude of painful experiences. In one instance, “three weare killed with the Indians going to worke in the wood” (Baldwin 126). Such an act was not unheard of as the natives, rightfully so, were unsure about the idea of colonialism throughout the lands they inhabited. Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler make the popular Native American belief clear by writing that “the natives viewed these developments with concern and distrust, seeing the English encroachment on their lands as a threat” (238). The “English encroachment” was exactly that and did not only cause trouble for the Native Americans but also presented another difficulty that had to be overcome in order to call the English colonization effort in the New World a true