Jamestown The Basic Of American Dream Essay

, Research Paper

Raj Desai3-27-99Interdisciplinary projectJamestown: The basis of the American Dream One might wonder what the relevance of Jamestown would be to the American dream. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in America. This in and of itself is not part of the American dream. No object or city can be part of the American dream, because the American dream is not tangible, and it is different with each person. An object may represent the ideal of the American dream, but the American dream is in people not things. The people who lived at Jamestown did not live the American dream, as it is seems to most people. Jamestown was not a good place to live or a place to keep a family. Jamestown was dangerous, unpleasant and wild the people who lived there did not live in Luxury they had no opportunities, they did not even have religious freedom. Yet without those people in that town there would have been no land of opportunity. Those brave few paved the way for America to become the great country that it is today.While Jamestown was not a noble place, what it and it s people represented were the highest and most noble ideals of the American dream Fist to gain greater comprehension about Jamestown and it s relevance to the American dream, One must know the history of Jamestown. Jamestown was founded in 1606 by a group of London investors who obtained a charter from King James I to establish a colony. Jamestown’s reason for existence was greed. The purpose for the colony was for it to obtain gold or other valuable natural resources for export to Britain. Jamestown s early years were harsh and oppressive. Seven out of ten of the colonists died from various reasons, hunger, and disease or in battle with hostile natives (Heath).

The Jamestown colony seemed destined to be a failure yet the surviving thirty- percent of the colonist remained with the colony and found its source of salvation, tobacco. Tobacco and the manifold actions associated with it became popular pastimes in Europe and proved to be a good source of income for the fledgling colony. The colony soon became so profitable that the town s name sake, King James I took it over from the investment company in Sixteen twenty-four. Jamestown although started from lowly principles still has had great effects on our nation. The people of Jamestown may not have been perfect, but no one is. Their courage and determination in the face of their adversity are far more important than the reason for their habitation in the new land. Their American dream was money and they achieved it through Jamestown and many others followed their brave albeit unprincipled examples. Jamestown set the precedent for other colonies to follow and its success inspired other immigrants to seize the opportunity presented.The Far East has its Mecca, Palestine its Jerusalem, France its Lourdes, and Italy its Loretto, but America’s only shrines are her altars of patriotism – the first and most potent being Jamestown; the sire of Virginia, and Virginia the mother of this great Republic.