Session 2
Session 2
Print version of "Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Bay": PDF • Word
Conduct this session in the classroom.
- Explain to students the concept of using primary and secondary source documents to learn about historic events. Ask students to provide examples of each.
- Provide each student with a copy of the handout An Excerpt from John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles PDF • Word. Explain that the excerpt is an example of a primary source document. Read the excerpt aloud to the class. Teachers of advanced students may choose to have the students read the excerpt.
- Ask students what they notice about the excerpt. Discuss the spellings that today's reader finds odd, the dated use of language and phrasing, and the presence of humor. Ask students to identify some challenges facing a researcher who uses a primary source document. Point out that a reader will often face author biases when reading a primary source. Ask students if they can find an example of racial bias in the Smith excerpt. (Native people are referred to as "salvages" [savages].)
- Ask students to speculate about Smith's reasons for writing this history.
- Would he have done it just for the income a published book might bring?
- Or did he write it to benefit others?
- Who might it benefit? Other explorers? Europeans considering a move to the New World?
- Would he have done it just for the income a published book might bring?
- Finally, have students write a paragraph or two to describe the differences between the Bay in the early 17th century and the Bay as it exists today. Direct them to consult the list composed during Session 1. Also direct them to use the John Smith excerpt to note any differences not listed on the board. Encourage advanced students to support their claims when possible with quotes from Smith's writing.
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