October 6, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Smith’s legacy stretches beyond legend. As a soldier of fortune and later as a leader in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, he helped struggling colonists survive. His accounts provide a rare look into the realities of early exploration, from hunger to tense negotiations with Native communities. Juliana Brennan Rodgers, author of Captain John Smith: American Hero, shares the story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
In sixteen oh six, one hundred and five British colonists
sailed to America seeking gold and a trade route to
(00:33):
the Pacific. Only the leadership of Captain John Smith averted
doom with the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
Many people know John Smith as the man who was
saved by Pocahontas.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But what you may not know is that he had
led a life full of adventure.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Here to tell the story is Julianna Rodgers, author of
Captain John Smith, American Hero.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
John Smith is known in history as being really important
part of the Jamestown settlement, becoming the first permanent English
settlement in America. So you would think his qualifications might be,
you know, he was from a wealthy family, he was
very well connected. He's tall, dark, handsome, charming, well spoken,
(01:24):
very diplomatic, and he's just about the opposite. You know,
he really was not those things. So John Smith was
born in fifteen eighty in England. He was the son
of a farmer and his father's name was George and
his mom's name was Alice, and he had a younger
brother and a younger sister, so they weren't wealthy, but
(01:47):
they weren't poor either. His father owned some land and
was the farmer on that land, but then also leased
some land from a local Lord Willoughby. And Lord Willoughby
was very fond of John's father. They had a good,
really relationship, so he allowed John to go to school
with his sons. And this was a you know, very
kind thing of Lord Willoughby to do. And John he
(02:09):
was a fine student, but I think he often daydreamed
of adventurer. And he also was treated poorly by the
other students who were the sons of gentlemen. And in
that time in England, you know, it was a pretty
strict class society where if you are born into an
upper class family, you know you are often the son
(02:31):
of a gentleman or a lord. And John was the
son of a farmer and they treated him poorly. They
treated him as such. Also at that time, Francis Drake
had returned to England and he was a hero. He
had circumnavigated the globe and brought back a lot of
gold for Queen Elizabeth the Firs, and she united him,
so he became Sir Francis Drake, and John saw this
(02:55):
as an example. Sir Francis Drake was also the son
of a farmer, and so John saw this as this
person became a knight. He became Sir Francis Drake and
very famous and loved through his actions, not because he
was born into the right family. So once he was
finished with school, he actually had the opportunity to continue
(03:17):
with school, but he longed for adventure, so he became
a soldier and he went and fought in the Netherlands,
and he writes of that time in his journals. He
writes that he felt like he was fighting against men
with very similar beliefs to his own, and so he
just his heart wasn't in it. So he returned home
(03:38):
to England and he's kind of lost, and he's only
about sixteen or seventeen at this point, but he doesn't
know what to do next. So it's around this time
that he meets a man named Theodore Paleologue, and Theodore
was a direct descendant of Constantine the eleventh, who was
the last Greek emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. And
Theodore told him about these battles happening in Eastern Europe
(04:00):
called the Crusades, and he explained that the Turks were
trying to spread their Muslim religion across Europe. And John
was an English Protestant, so he felt like this was
a fight he could believe in. This is a fight
he could get behind and drive out the Turks from
spreading their religion across Europe. So he was captivated by
(04:23):
these stories and he was in this is what he
wanted to do next. He was going to go fight
in the Crusades and make a name for himself. He
didn't just rush off. He really took time to prepare
and he did that by studying with Theodore Paleologue and
learning horsemanship, things like riding your horse at full speed
(04:44):
while using various weapons very important obviously. During that time,
also he prepared by reading books like the Art of War.
He learned battle techniques and strategies. He wasn't just rushing
off this time. He took a full year to prepare
before he was ready to go and fight in the Crusades,
so he catches a ship to northern France, and on
(05:07):
the journey he meets four gentlemen who are really nice
and they get along very well as they're making the
trip to northern France, and they lock John in his
room and take all of his belongings. So these were
not kind, friendly gentlemen. These were thieves and by the
time John got out of his room, they were long
gone with all of his belongings. And he has a
(05:28):
choice to make. He can head back home and try again,
or he can keep going. So he decides he's going
to walk across France. So John begins walking to southern France.
One day he meets a man and he's telling him
about where he's come from and where he's going, and
they hit it off. They become friends, and this man
is the Count of Plower, and he's very impressed with
(05:49):
what John is trying to do, so he gives him
enough money for the rest of his journey. So now
John has enough funds. He makes it to the south
of France. He boards a ship that's headed for home,
and almost immediately after they set sail, a storm hits
and the boat is being tossed and turned, and it's
quite scary for everyone on board. Well, everyone else on
(06:12):
board are Roman Catholics except for John, who's an English Protestant,
and they think that God is punishing them because they
allow John on board the ship. So they take him
and throw him overboard, and eventually he's able to find
a small piece of land and he drags himself up
(06:33):
and eventually a ship comes and he flags him down
and he boards the ship, only to quickly realize this
is a pirate ship and he's got to talk himself
out of this situation. So he tells them again, this
is where I came from, this is where I'm going.
Some guys stole all my stuff, but the Count of
Plow gave me enough funds to get me where I
(06:54):
need to go. And the pirate captain stops him and says,
Count of Plower, that's my friend too. Any friends as
a friend of mine, we will take you where you
need to go. So they take John, but they also
plundered a few ships along the way, and John must
have helped because they gave him his share of the
booty when they dropped him off in Italy, and they
(07:14):
gave him five hundred gold coins.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And you're listening to Juliana Rodgers tell the story of
Captain John Smith. More of the remarkable American heroes, story
and journey here on our American.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Stories, Lee h.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Habib Here, as we approach our nation's two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the
history stories you hear on this show brought to you
by the great folks at Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't
just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend,
but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to find out about their terrific free online courses. Their
(07:50):
series on Communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again,
go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their
free and terrific online courses. And we continue with our
(08:10):
American Stories and the story of Captain John Smith. Let's
return to Juliana Rogers with more of the story.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
John finally reaches the Crusades and he is about twenty
one years old now it's the summer of sixteen oh one.
It doesn't take long before he makes a name for himself.
So in this battle they're outside of Wald City, and
at that time their guns were called matchlock muskets, and
the matchlock musket always had a small fuse that stayedlt
(08:41):
so at dark you could see a little glowing ember.
So John went to the leader of the regiment and said,
I have this idea. How about after dark we light
a bunch of tiny matches, and that way, when our
enemy looks over the wall, they will see thousands of
tiny glowing numbers and think that each one represents a
(09:01):
gun and that they are completely outnumbered. So it worked perfectly,
just like John said. Their enemy licked out, thought they
were completely outnumbered, and panicked and they were easily overtaken.
And John was given credit for that victory, and he
was promoted to captain, and he was very proud of
that title, and he went by Captain John Smith for
(09:23):
the rest of his life. Later, it's the spring of
sixteen oh two and John's twenty two years old, and
they again are outside of Wald City preparing to attack.
When the leader inside the Wald city issues a challenge
to any English officer. Well, all of the English officers
(09:43):
want to be chosen, so they draw lots, and John
was chosen, and he's very excited because it's a jousting match,
and he of course has trained well with Theodore Paleo
log and he knows that the weakest part on a
suit of armor is the visor. And John describes in
his journals what almost sounds like a scene out of
(10:04):
a movie because he describes how his opponent came out.
So there's John sitting atop his horse, he has his
one squire holding his lance, and here comes his opponent.
And as he appears in this bejeweled suit of armor
which actually has like a set of wings on it
for decoration, he has multiple attendants. The horns blare as
(10:25):
he comes out of the crowd and everyone cheers. And
it couldn't be more opposite than John sitting atop his
horse with his squire next to him. Well, as they
begin to ride toward each other, at the last moment,
John lifts his lance, it slams into the man's visor
and kills him. The man's friend is so angry and
(10:47):
upset that he challenges John as well. So the first
pass they go toward each other with lances, and the
lances slam into each other and shatter. So the next
pass they use pistols and As they ride toward each other,
John is hit, but his suit of armor protects him.
John's bullet hits the man's arm, he loses control of
(11:09):
his horse and falls to the ground, and as John
wrote in his journals later, the man lost his head
as his friend did before. So now John's feeling pretty good,
so he issues a challenge of his own. Hey, if
there's anyone who's likely worthy of battling me, you know,
let him step forth. And a man named Bonnie Mulborough
accepts that challenge. So the first passes pistols and they
(11:33):
miss each other, and the next passes battle axes. So
they are riding toward each other with these massive battle axes,
and as they swing, the two battle axes hit and
John's is thrown to the ground, and the rules state
that he has to pass again without his battle axe.
The only weapon he has is a small sword called
(11:54):
a fushion. So as they're riding toward each other, what
John does is he holds tight to the reins and
he leans out as far as he can, and the
battle axe just misses him. But then he turns quickly
and uses that small sword and stabs it in between
the shoulder blades on the suit of armor. So it's
(12:15):
this amazing victory. He is awarded by the leader of
the regiment, Prince Digmond, a coat of arms, a portrait
in gold, and a generous reward. So, according to English tradition,
if you have a coat of arms, you are considered
a gentleman. So John, through acts of his own, has
(12:38):
now been elevated and he is considered a gentleman according
to English society. So it wasn't long after that that
his luck runs out. There's a massive battle. They were
completely outnumbered and many many of the soldiers died and
many more were taken prisoner, and John was taken prisoner,
(12:58):
and he was sold as a slave to a man
named Bosha, and he was forced to walk five hundred
miles to Constantinople, where Basha gave John as a gift
to a woman that he liked, and her name was Turitska.
But as you can imagine, John and his broken Italian
telling her tales of his adventures, of his battles and
(13:19):
his victories and how he's a hero. And she knows
if her parents find out that she's falling for this Englishman,
they are going to send him away. Forever. So she
sends him away to her brother's farm out in the
country and tells her brother keep this slave, I will
call for him in a couple of years. Well, her
brother figures out. He puts two and two together and
(13:41):
figures out that his sister likes this englishman, and so
he treats John like the slave to the slaves, and
he shaves his head ball, puts a thick metal band
around his neck, and forces him to work in the
fields along with all the other slaves. One day, John's
(14:02):
out working in the wheat fields and the brother comes
up on horseback and he begins to beat John, and
John knows something's different this time. He's going to kill him.
So he takes his wheat threshing bat and he swings
it and knocks the brother off the horse and continues
to beat him until he's dead, shouts him under a
pile of wheat, takes his clothes, takes his horse, and
(14:24):
rides north. Now he is in the middle of enemy territory.
He is so far from any allies. He is very
easily identified as a slave. He has a thick metal
band around his neck. He's a white man. So he
rides for sixteen days straight until he reaches Russia, where
he finds friendly troops and tells them his story and
(14:47):
they released the metal ring from his neck and he
is free now. John kept journals and oftentimes he explained
in great detail about conversations or what the place was like,
or often there was so much information, But this is
not one of those times.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
When he got back to England, it was a very
different England than the one he had left. When he left,
Queen Elizabeth the First was the ruler. While he was
fighting in the Crusades, she died and her cousin, King
James was now in charge. Where Queen Elizabeth was very
focused on strengthening England itself, King James was very focused
(15:32):
on strengthening England by growing beyond its borders. Bartholomew Gosnald
had just recently returned from a trip to Virginia and
he believed that this land of Virginia would be a
great place for England to establish a settlement, to establish
a colony. So he was promoting it, gathering people to
(15:55):
take the journey, trying to raise funds to support the journey,
and when he met John, he thought, oh, this person
is perfect well. As you can imagine, it takes a
bit of time to prepare for such a journey, and
it took over two years for Bartholomew Gosnold to raise
the funds, get the crew together, get enough passengers, get
(16:16):
approval from King James, and everything that goes along with that.
And as you can imagine, John's not great at waiting
around and just idly sitting by, so he used the
time really really wisely. He studied map making because he
knew that they were among the first English to travel
to this area, and so they would need maps for
(16:37):
those that came after them. He studied algonquin so that
he would be able to communicate with the local American Indians.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And what a story you're hearing about Captain John Smith.
Anyone who's read his writing his own journals, you can't
put it down. It's like Grant's writing Ulysses as Grance memoirs.
This is some of the best reading here early you
can have to get your hands around. Winston Churchill too,
writing about his own life story and particularly all.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The battles he fought in his life.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Smith's story very much like Churchill's, except for one difference.
Churchill grew up in a palace and fought to earn respect,
and Captain John Smith grew up on a farm and
fought to earn his respect. But both men earned the
respect and accolades of their peers. And by the way,
you're listening to Julianna Rodgers, author of Captain John Smith
(17:33):
American Hero. You can go to Amazon dot com and
get the book. You won't put it down when we
come back what happens next with Captain John Smith? Here
on our American stories, and we returned to our American
(18:10):
stories and the story of Captain JOHNES Smith. Let's return
to Julianna Rogers.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So they're funded by a company called the Virginia Company
of London. They have three goals for the group that's
heading to Virginia. Number one, find gold. Number two, find
the Northwest Passage. So during that time they believed there
was a waterway that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific
that they would be able to navigate and make it
(18:40):
to the Orient. And the third goal was to find
any survivors from the Lost Colony. Several years earlier, another
English expedition went to Roanoke, Virginia, and the English were
never seen or heard from again. Captain Christopher Newport is
in charge of the three ships heading across the Atlantic.
(19:00):
Everyone admired Captain Christopher Newport. He was this tall, one
armed sea captain who actually fought alongside Sir Francis Drake.
So on December twentieth they set sail, and if you
go to Jamestown you can see actual replicas of these ships,
and it's stunning to see how small they are. So
(19:21):
the Susan Constant had seventy one people, the Godspeed had
fifty two people, and the Discovery had twenty one people.
So in all there were one hundred and five passengers
and thirty nine crew. Here's a list of who they sent.
Fifty gentlemen, twelve laborers, four carpenters, four boys, two bricklayers,
(19:43):
a priest, a sail maker, a mason, a blacksmith, a surgeon,
a tailor, and a drummer. It took one hundred and
forty four days four and a half months. John would
pass the time by telling the crew and the boys
his stories of his and dragging and I'm sure exaggerating,
you know, these amazing stories. He's a hero and the
(20:06):
men and the boys are the crew and the boys
enjoyed it. I mean, it's a great way to pass
the time to hear these stories. But many people also
did not enjoy it. And those were those powerful gentlemen
that were on board the ship. In fact, probably the
most powerful from the most powerful family was on board
John's ship, and they very quickly became enemies. And his
(20:30):
name was Edward Wingfield. So Wingfield distrusted John. He was
jealous of John, and he went to Captain Newport and said,
John is trying to take over the ship. John Smith
is guilty of mutiny. We need to hang him. And
Captain Newport disagreed politely with Wingfield and said, don't worry
(20:52):
about it. And he went to John and said, hey,
stay away from Wingfield. You know, cool it. You know,
we have a long to go, so let's try to
get along here. When they arrived in the island of
Nevis to replenish food and water, Captain Newport's busy managing
those things. So Wingfield decides we're going to hang John
(21:15):
Smith now. So he quickly has a gallows erected and
he tells John he's going to be hanged, and John
just laughs him off and John's friends protect him, and
Wingfield is outraged that a man as powerful as him
is not being listened to. So Newport realizes he needs
to do something, so he tells John Smith will figure
this out when we get to Virginia, but for now,
you are confined to be low decks. He's actually a
(21:37):
prisoner in shackles. And here this man who would be
so important to the survival of Jamestown arrives in Virginia
as a prisoner in shackles. So why did Captain Newport
protect John Smith. It just doesn't make any sense if
you think about it. Wingfield's very powerful, He's very important.
(21:59):
You see, there a secret box that was sent along
with the journey, and while Captain Newport was in charge
during the journey, once they got to Virginia after a
few weeks, Captain Newport would leave, and so they needed
a governing body to be in charge when they were
in Virginia. So the Virginia Company sent along a sealed
box that they were only to open once they arrived
(22:21):
in Virginia, and it had the names of eight men
who would be on the governing council of Jamestown. Wingfield
is the very first name on the list. No one
is surprised. It's followed by several other gentlemen, and everyone
is shocked when they read the last name on the list,
Captain John Smith. So maybe Captain Newport knew this, and
(22:42):
that's why he protected John Smith. So once they arrived
at Virginia, they named it Jamestown after their king, King James.
After two months, Captain Newport left. He returned to go
back to England, and almost immediately after he left, a
sickness spread throughout Jamestown. Many men died. In fact, they
(23:04):
began the summer with one hundred and four and by
the end of summer only fifty were left. However, John
noticed that Wingfield and his friends seemed to be doing
better than the rest, and he realized that Wingfield was
keeping the freshest, healthiest food for himself and his friends.
So he was removed as president of the council and
(23:24):
John Radcliffe was put in charge. And John Radcliffe wasn't
a whole lot better than Wingfield, but at least he
recognized John Smith's drinks, and he put John in charge
of establishing relations with the local American Indians so that
they could trade for food. So John heads upriver on
a historic adventure. So John heads upriver. He takes a
(23:52):
few men and they actually have an Indian guide at
this point, while they are ambushed by over two hundred
Indians and the only survivors are John Smith and the
Indian guide, and John realizes, well, maybe they won't kill
one of their own, so he ties himself to the
Indian guide. And the Indian guide needs to survive, so
(24:13):
he tells the other Indians this is a where wants,
this is a leader, and so they know that only
another leader should determine the fate of this leader, John Smith,
and so they tell John to lay down his gun,
and John remembers that not long ago he was a
slave and he doesn't want to be a captive again.
(24:36):
So he continues to fight, and he's so outnumbered it's pointless,
but he continues to fight until he steps back into
this muddy bog and it's almost like quicksand it just
starts sucking him in and he realizes he's lost, so
he lays down his weapon. They pull him out of
the mud and they take him to the local chief.
(25:04):
So they take him to see Chief opicon Canoe opikon
Canoe is this enormous chief of the local tribe of
Powaton Indians, and John knows he needs to do something
to impress this leader very quickly, because his fate is
in his hands. So he takes out his compass and
(25:24):
opicon Canoe had never seen anything like this before. I
had the needle moving some way that he doesn't know
how it's moving. So he's impressed with this interesting item,
and so John thinks, phew, I think I've just saved
my life. And immediately opikan Canue gives a signal and
they take John tie him to a tree, and they
(25:44):
all draw their bows and arrows, but he doesn't bag
or cry or plead. He just stands there, bravely accepting
his fate. Opikon Canoe is impressed by this display of courage,
so he orders John to be untied, and what they
do is they take him. Opkoncanue takes him from try
to try to try, and eventually they make it to
(26:06):
wear a wocomoco, which is where the chief, the paramount
chief of all of the tribes of this area, and
Opiconcanu's brother lives.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And you're listening to one heck of a story about
Captain John Smith and his journey from rural farmer in
England across the globe and to the United States eventually
and to Jamestown.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
And you're listening to Julianna Rodgers tell the story.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
She's the author of Captain John Smith, American Hero, and
her book is available on Amazon dot com. And of
course Captain John Smith came to find gold, and to
find this mythical Northwest Passage, which of course would never
come to be, and of course to find survivors from
the last colony sent from England, the disappeared colony of Roanoke, Virginia.
(26:59):
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
Captain John Smith and how America came to be and
who the people were who made it happen. Here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(27:40):
and the story of Captain John Smith.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's return to Julianna Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
They take John into the biggest longhouse and it's estimated
to be about the size of half a football field.
And as they walk in, as John's eyes adjust to
the darkness, he realizes it's filled with all of the
leaders from all the different tribes. He had just visited
on his journey too. We're Awokamoko and all of the
(28:07):
leaders are painted red from the shoulders up, and when
he enters, they all give a loud whoop. And the
very first question Chief Powaton asks is why are you
here and when are you leaving? Meaning Jamestown. And John
immediately lies because he knows his fate is in this
man's hands. And if he says I went from a
(28:28):
country called England and we're going to build a colony
here and spread across the land, you know, Chief Powaton
is going to have him killed. So he lies and says,
a Spanish ship chased us here. We are here until
Captain Newport comes back, and then he will take us
back to England. So Chief Powaton seems satisfied with that answer,
(28:51):
and John thinks it's going pretty well, when suddenly Chief
Powatin gives an order. Two of his men take John.
They force him to kneel down and lay his head
across a huge boulder in the center of the room,
and they raised their clubs about to lower them and
smash his head. There's nothing John can do again, certain death,
so he closes his eyes and prepares for the strike,
(29:14):
and that's when he hears a small voice speaking quickly
in Algonquin and he realizes it's the chief's daughter, Pocahontas,
and she's asking her father to spare John Smith's life,
and Chief Powerton says no, but she keeps talking quickly,
and she's afraid she's not going to convince him by
the time he gives the order to have John killed.
(29:35):
So she rushes over and lays her head on top
of his, knowing full well that they will not hurt her.
Now Disney has transformed this into a romance, but we
know that that was not true. Pocahontas was probably ten
or eleven years old. More than likely they were similar.
They were both brave and bold and strong and stood
(29:59):
up for what they'd leaved in. There probably was a
mutual respect as the time went on, but at this
time it was unlikely. So was He arrived back at Jamestown.
There were a few men that were not happy to
see him, Wingfield being one of them. Wingfield and some
of his friends were tired of being at Jamestown. They
wanted to go home. They were tired of these brutal conditions.
(30:22):
But they knew John would never let them abandon Jamestown,
so they decided they needed to get rid of John.
So they said, the men that were with you on
the expedition were your responsibility, and they were killed. So
that's on you. You need to be punished, and the
punishment is death. So the very next morning they walked
(30:43):
John up to be hanged at the gallows. As they're
about to put the noose around his neck, someone yells
ship on the horizon and it's Captain Newport. He had
returned again and to save John Smith's life yet again.
So during the summer of sixteen oh eight, John let
an expedition of the Chesapeake Bay. So he's exploring its tributaries.
(31:03):
He's looking for that northwest passage, going up every tributary,
hoping it will go through. Along the way, he made
a map, a map so detailed of the Chesapeake Bay
that it was used for over three hundred years. John
was a very skilled map maker. In fact, he might
have been known throughout history for his maps had he
not done all of these other things. One thing that
(31:25):
I never understood. They never seem to have fishing gear
with them. So as they're exploring up these tributaries. They
are hungry and tired, and they noticed there's a school
of fish below them, and they don't have any fishing
gear with them, but John takes his sword and stabs
it down into the water, and as he lifts his sword,
there's a fish. So they all take their swords and
(31:46):
start stabbing the water. When John feels a sharp pain
in his arm and he realizes that one of the
fish he had caught on his sword is a stingray
and it just lashed its tail out and stung on
the arm, and his arm is now red and swollen,
and in the poisonous traveling up his arm toward his shoulder,
becoming more red and swollen, and he realizes it's eventually
(32:08):
going to travel all the way to his heart and
kill him. So, still in charge, he orders the men
to dig his grave, and as they are digging his grave,
the doctor on board puts some medicine on his arm
and it heals it. So John survived and ate the
stigray for dinner. So he gets back to Jamestown and
(32:28):
it's a little bit different this time because the men
that were with him on this journey had grown to
trust him so much that he John Smith was now
voted president of Jamestown. So during this time, it kind
of looked like a campground up until this point, and
John wanted it to look more like a settlement. So
(32:48):
all of those gentlemen in Jamestown didn't do any hard labor.
So at this point there were about thirty men who
were commoners, and they worked to support and feed over
two hundred men at Jamestown. So John made a rule
that said he who will not work shall not eat,
And as you can imagine, the gentlemen were furious. They
(33:11):
never had to do hard physical labor. But John worked
right alongside them and said, hey, we all need to
pitch in if this is going to work. So it's
really taking shape under John's leadership. So in September sixteen
oh nine, spark from a flipmock gun fell onto his
gunpowder pouch and exploded, and he was in so much pain.
(33:33):
He was in bad shape. There was actually a ship
leaving within a day or two, and so he asked
the captain if he could go on board, and so
just a few days later, on October fourth, sixteen oh nine,
John Smith left Virginia. He would spend the rest of
his life dreaming of this place, riding about this place
and trying to get back. So John will return to England,
(33:55):
and he took him a few months, but he got
better the next several years, writing books about Virginia about
his experience. He was quite obsessed with it and he
really wanted to return. But in sixteen fourteen he was
hired to go in a fishing expedition off the coast
of Massachusetts and Maine, and he made a detailed map
(34:16):
of the area and he referred to the area as
New England, which we still refer to it as New
England today. Well, John decided he didn't need the Virginia Company.
He would arrange his own trip and he would go
to New England and establish a settlement there. So he
worked hard to organize it. He raised the funds, he
got supporters and crew and colonists and money. He had
(34:37):
everything he needed and they finally set sale in sixteen fifteen.
But it wasn't loone before four French pirate ships chase them.
They try to outrun them, it doesn't work, so Captain
Smith goes on board their ship. He's going to talk
his way out of this situation yet again. His crew.
(34:57):
They're done with this, so they take off with out
him and they leave him on the pirate ship. So
he's on that pirate ship for several weeks. And during
that time what does he do. He writes a book.
He writes a book about New England, and he escapes
during a storm. He gets on a small boat and
the pirate ship actually sinks, but he escapes by quickly
(35:20):
bailing the water out of this small boat. He finds
a small bit of land. Some hunters find him and
they bring him to safety, and he published that book.
It was called a Description of New England. It's actually
the book that the pilgrims used to go to Plymouth.
He left Virginia in sixteen oh nine and he spent
(35:42):
the next twenty two years trying to get back and
also writing about it, promoting it to others, encouraging them
to go. Shortly after that, he died in sixteen thirty
one at the age of fifty one. John Smith wrote
a book called The Description of New England, and in
it he wrote and argued and believed that English Americans
(36:06):
had a unique opportunity to create their own destiny, unlike
the workers in England who were bound by the rigid
class system. Here's what John wrote here. Every man may
be master and owner of his own labor and land.
If he have nothing but his hands. He may set
up this trade and by industry, quickly grow rich. If
(36:27):
he have but the taste of virtue and ambition. What
to such a mind can be more pleasant than planting
and building a foundation for his prosperity by God's blessing
and his own industry, without prejudice to any And that's
just what America became. A place where every person determines
his or her own future, where their American dream is
(36:49):
a reality.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
And a terrific job on the production, the editing, and
the storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and a special
thanks to Julianne Rogers.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
He's the author of.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Captain John Smith American Hero and you can get the
book at Amazon dot com. And my goodness, the number
of times this man escapes certain death early in his life,
sold as a slave, almost dies in battle, almost dies, jousting,
almost dies well, almost dies at the hand of his
(37:22):
fellow sailors, and in the end almost dies at the
hands of Indians.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
And of course that stingray too.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And in the end dies well the way the rest
of us do in the end of natural causes. But
John Smith's life, well, it started the American life in
many ways. By the way, if you ever get a chance,
go to Jamestown and visit it, and start there, and
then head west, and from there go to Williamsburg and
visit William and Mary and the colonial Williamsburg. From there,
(37:53):
go to Charlottesville and visit Monticello, then to Madison and
Montpellier and Montpellier and eight up an hour and a
half north to Washington's home and Mount Vernon very close
to Washington, d C. There's something special about the state
of Virginia in American history, the story of Captain John Smith.
Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
In sixteen oh six, one hundred and five British colonists
sailed to America seeking gold and a trade route to
(00:33):
the Pacific. Only the leadership of Captain John Smith averted
doom with the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
Many people know John Smith as the man who was
saved by Pocahontas.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But what you may not know is that he had
led a life full of adventure.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Here to tell the story is Julianna Rodgers, author of
Captain John Smith, American Hero.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
John Smith is known in history as being really important
part of the Jamestown settlement, becoming the first permanent English
settlement in America. So you would think his qualifications might be,
you know, he was from a wealthy family, he was
very well connected. He's tall, dark, handsome, charming, well spoken,
(01:24):
very diplomatic, and he's just about the opposite. You know,
he really was not those things. So John Smith was
born in fifteen eighty in England. He was the son
of a farmer and his father's name was George and
his mom's name was Alice, and he had a younger
brother and a younger sister, so they weren't wealthy, but
(01:47):
they weren't poor either. His father owned some land and
was the farmer on that land, but then also leased
some land from a local Lord Willoughby. And Lord Willoughby
was very fond of John's father. They had a good,
really relationship, so he allowed John to go to school
with his sons. And this was a you know, very
kind thing of Lord Willoughby to do. And John he
(02:09):
was a fine student, but I think he often daydreamed
of adventurer. And he also was treated poorly by the
other students who were the sons of gentlemen. And in
that time in England, you know, it was a pretty
strict class society where if you are born into an
upper class family, you know you are often the son
(02:31):
of a gentleman or a lord. And John was the
son of a farmer and they treated him poorly. They
treated him as such. Also at that time, Francis Drake
had returned to England and he was a hero. He
had circumnavigated the globe and brought back a lot of
gold for Queen Elizabeth the Firs, and she united him,
so he became Sir Francis Drake, and John saw this
(02:55):
as an example. Sir Francis Drake was also the son
of a farmer, and so John saw this as this
person became a knight. He became Sir Francis Drake and
very famous and loved through his actions, not because he
was born into the right family. So once he was
finished with school, he actually had the opportunity to continue
(03:17):
with school, but he longed for adventure, so he became
a soldier and he went and fought in the Netherlands,
and he writes of that time in his journals. He
writes that he felt like he was fighting against men
with very similar beliefs to his own, and so he
just his heart wasn't in it. So he returned home
(03:38):
to England and he's kind of lost, and he's only
about sixteen or seventeen at this point, but he doesn't
know what to do next. So it's around this time
that he meets a man named Theodore Paleologue, and Theodore
was a direct descendant of Constantine the eleventh, who was
the last Greek emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. And
Theodore told him about these battles happening in Eastern Europe
(04:00):
called the Crusades, and he explained that the Turks were
trying to spread their Muslim religion across Europe. And John
was an English Protestant, so he felt like this was
a fight he could believe in. This is a fight
he could get behind and drive out the Turks from
spreading their religion across Europe. So he was captivated by
(04:23):
these stories and he was in this is what he
wanted to do next. He was going to go fight
in the Crusades and make a name for himself. He
didn't just rush off. He really took time to prepare
and he did that by studying with Theodore Paleologue and
learning horsemanship, things like riding your horse at full speed
(04:44):
while using various weapons very important obviously. During that time,
also he prepared by reading books like the Art of War.
He learned battle techniques and strategies. He wasn't just rushing
off this time. He took a full year to prepare
before he was ready to go and fight in the Crusades,
so he catches a ship to northern France, and on
(05:07):
the journey he meets four gentlemen who are really nice
and they get along very well as they're making the
trip to northern France, and they lock John in his
room and take all of his belongings. So these were
not kind, friendly gentlemen. These were thieves and by the
time John got out of his room, they were long
gone with all of his belongings. And he has a
(05:28):
choice to make. He can head back home and try again,
or he can keep going. So he decides he's going
to walk across France. So John begins walking to southern France.
One day he meets a man and he's telling him
about where he's come from and where he's going, and
they hit it off. They become friends, and this man
is the Count of Plower, and he's very impressed with
(05:49):
what John is trying to do, so he gives him
enough money for the rest of his journey. So now
John has enough funds. He makes it to the south
of France. He boards a ship that's headed for home,
and almost immediately after they set sail, a storm hits
and the boat is being tossed and turned, and it's
quite scary for everyone on board. Well, everyone else on
(06:12):
board are Roman Catholics except for John, who's an English Protestant,
and they think that God is punishing them because they
allow John on board the ship. So they take him
and throw him overboard, and eventually he's able to find
a small piece of land and he drags himself up
(06:33):
and eventually a ship comes and he flags him down
and he boards the ship, only to quickly realize this
is a pirate ship and he's got to talk himself
out of this situation. So he tells them again, this
is where I came from, this is where I'm going.
Some guys stole all my stuff, but the Count of
Plow gave me enough funds to get me where I
(06:54):
need to go. And the pirate captain stops him and says,
Count of Plower, that's my friend too. Any friends as
a friend of mine, we will take you where you
need to go. So they take John, but they also
plundered a few ships along the way, and John must
have helped because they gave him his share of the
booty when they dropped him off in Italy, and they
(07:14):
gave him five hundred gold coins.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And you're listening to Juliana Rodgers tell the story of
Captain John Smith. More of the remarkable American heroes, story
and journey here on our American.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Stories, Lee h.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Habib Here, as we approach our nation's two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the
history stories you hear on this show brought to you
by the great folks at Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't
just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend,
but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to find out about their terrific free online courses. Their
(07:50):
series on Communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again,
go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their
free and terrific online courses. And we continue with our
(08:10):
American Stories and the story of Captain John Smith. Let's
return to Juliana Rogers with more of the story.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
John finally reaches the Crusades and he is about twenty
one years old now it's the summer of sixteen oh one.
It doesn't take long before he makes a name for himself.
So in this battle they're outside of Wald City, and
at that time their guns were called matchlock muskets, and
the matchlock musket always had a small fuse that stayedlt
(08:41):
so at dark you could see a little glowing ember.
So John went to the leader of the regiment and said,
I have this idea. How about after dark we light
a bunch of tiny matches, and that way, when our
enemy looks over the wall, they will see thousands of
tiny glowing numbers and think that each one represents a
(09:01):
gun and that they are completely outnumbered. So it worked perfectly,
just like John said. Their enemy licked out, thought they
were completely outnumbered, and panicked and they were easily overtaken.
And John was given credit for that victory, and he
was promoted to captain, and he was very proud of
that title, and he went by Captain John Smith for
(09:23):
the rest of his life. Later, it's the spring of
sixteen oh two and John's twenty two years old, and
they again are outside of Wald City preparing to attack.
When the leader inside the Wald city issues a challenge
to any English officer. Well, all of the English officers
(09:43):
want to be chosen, so they draw lots, and John
was chosen, and he's very excited because it's a jousting match,
and he of course has trained well with Theodore Paleo
log and he knows that the weakest part on a
suit of armor is the visor. And John describes in
his journals what almost sounds like a scene out of
(10:04):
a movie because he describes how his opponent came out.
So there's John sitting atop his horse, he has his
one squire holding his lance, and here comes his opponent.
And as he appears in this bejeweled suit of armor
which actually has like a set of wings on it
for decoration, he has multiple attendants. The horns blare as
(10:25):
he comes out of the crowd and everyone cheers. And
it couldn't be more opposite than John sitting atop his
horse with his squire next to him. Well, as they
begin to ride toward each other, at the last moment,
John lifts his lance, it slams into the man's visor
and kills him. The man's friend is so angry and
(10:47):
upset that he challenges John as well. So the first
pass they go toward each other with lances, and the
lances slam into each other and shatter. So the next
pass they use pistols and As they ride toward each other,
John is hit, but his suit of armor protects him.
John's bullet hits the man's arm, he loses control of
(11:09):
his horse and falls to the ground, and as John
wrote in his journals later, the man lost his head
as his friend did before. So now John's feeling pretty good,
so he issues a challenge of his own. Hey, if
there's anyone who's likely worthy of battling me, you know,
let him step forth. And a man named Bonnie Mulborough
accepts that challenge. So the first passes pistols and they
(11:33):
miss each other, and the next passes battle axes. So
they are riding toward each other with these massive battle axes,
and as they swing, the two battle axes hit and
John's is thrown to the ground, and the rules state
that he has to pass again without his battle axe.
The only weapon he has is a small sword called
(11:54):
a fushion. So as they're riding toward each other, what
John does is he holds tight to the reins and
he leans out as far as he can, and the
battle axe just misses him. But then he turns quickly
and uses that small sword and stabs it in between
the shoulder blades on the suit of armor. So it's
(12:15):
this amazing victory. He is awarded by the leader of
the regiment, Prince Digmond, a coat of arms, a portrait
in gold, and a generous reward. So, according to English tradition,
if you have a coat of arms, you are considered
a gentleman. So John, through acts of his own, has
(12:38):
now been elevated and he is considered a gentleman according
to English society. So it wasn't long after that that
his luck runs out. There's a massive battle. They were
completely outnumbered and many many of the soldiers died and
many more were taken prisoner, and John was taken prisoner,
(12:58):
and he was sold as a slave to a man
named Bosha, and he was forced to walk five hundred
miles to Constantinople, where Basha gave John as a gift
to a woman that he liked, and her name was Turitska.
But as you can imagine, John and his broken Italian
telling her tales of his adventures, of his battles and
(13:19):
his victories and how he's a hero. And she knows
if her parents find out that she's falling for this Englishman,
they are going to send him away. Forever. So she
sends him away to her brother's farm out in the
country and tells her brother keep this slave, I will
call for him in a couple of years. Well, her
brother figures out. He puts two and two together and
(13:41):
figures out that his sister likes this englishman, and so
he treats John like the slave to the slaves, and
he shaves his head ball, puts a thick metal band
around his neck, and forces him to work in the
fields along with all the other slaves. One day, John's
(14:02):
out working in the wheat fields and the brother comes
up on horseback and he begins to beat John, and
John knows something's different this time. He's going to kill him.
So he takes his wheat threshing bat and he swings
it and knocks the brother off the horse and continues
to beat him until he's dead, shouts him under a
pile of wheat, takes his clothes, takes his horse, and
(14:24):
rides north. Now he is in the middle of enemy territory.
He is so far from any allies. He is very
easily identified as a slave. He has a thick metal
band around his neck. He's a white man. So he
rides for sixteen days straight until he reaches Russia, where
he finds friendly troops and tells them his story and
(14:47):
they released the metal ring from his neck and he
is free now. John kept journals and oftentimes he explained
in great detail about conversations or what the place was like,
or often there was so much information, But this is
not one of those times.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
When he got back to England, it was a very
different England than the one he had left. When he left,
Queen Elizabeth the First was the ruler. While he was
fighting in the Crusades, she died and her cousin, King
James was now in charge. Where Queen Elizabeth was very
focused on strengthening England itself, King James was very focused
(15:32):
on strengthening England by growing beyond its borders. Bartholomew Gosnald
had just recently returned from a trip to Virginia and
he believed that this land of Virginia would be a
great place for England to establish a settlement, to establish
a colony. So he was promoting it, gathering people to
(15:55):
take the journey, trying to raise funds to support the journey,
and when he met John, he thought, oh, this person
is perfect well. As you can imagine, it takes a
bit of time to prepare for such a journey, and
it took over two years for Bartholomew Gosnold to raise
the funds, get the crew together, get enough passengers, get
(16:16):
approval from King James, and everything that goes along with that.
And as you can imagine, John's not great at waiting
around and just idly sitting by, so he used the
time really really wisely. He studied map making because he
knew that they were among the first English to travel
to this area, and so they would need maps for
(16:37):
those that came after them. He studied algonquin so that
he would be able to communicate with the local American Indians.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And what a story you're hearing about Captain John Smith.
Anyone who's read his writing his own journals, you can't
put it down. It's like Grant's writing Ulysses as Grance memoirs.
This is some of the best reading here early you
can have to get your hands around. Winston Churchill too,
writing about his own life story and particularly all.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The battles he fought in his life.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Smith's story very much like Churchill's, except for one difference.
Churchill grew up in a palace and fought to earn respect,
and Captain John Smith grew up on a farm and
fought to earn his respect. But both men earned the
respect and accolades of their peers. And by the way,
you're listening to Julianna Rodgers, author of Captain John Smith
(17:33):
American Hero. You can go to Amazon dot com and
get the book. You won't put it down when we
come back what happens next with Captain John Smith? Here
on our American stories, and we returned to our American
(18:10):
stories and the story of Captain JOHNES Smith. Let's return
to Julianna Rogers.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So they're funded by a company called the Virginia Company
of London. They have three goals for the group that's
heading to Virginia. Number one, find gold. Number two, find
the Northwest Passage. So during that time they believed there
was a waterway that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific
that they would be able to navigate and make it
(18:40):
to the Orient. And the third goal was to find
any survivors from the Lost Colony. Several years earlier, another
English expedition went to Roanoke, Virginia, and the English were
never seen or heard from again. Captain Christopher Newport is
in charge of the three ships heading across the Atlantic.
(19:00):
Everyone admired Captain Christopher Newport. He was this tall, one
armed sea captain who actually fought alongside Sir Francis Drake.
So on December twentieth they set sail, and if you
go to Jamestown you can see actual replicas of these ships,
and it's stunning to see how small they are. So
(19:21):
the Susan Constant had seventy one people, the Godspeed had
fifty two people, and the Discovery had twenty one people.
So in all there were one hundred and five passengers
and thirty nine crew. Here's a list of who they sent.
Fifty gentlemen, twelve laborers, four carpenters, four boys, two bricklayers,
(19:43):
a priest, a sail maker, a mason, a blacksmith, a surgeon,
a tailor, and a drummer. It took one hundred and
forty four days four and a half months. John would
pass the time by telling the crew and the boys
his stories of his and dragging and I'm sure exaggerating,
you know, these amazing stories. He's a hero and the
(20:06):
men and the boys are the crew and the boys
enjoyed it. I mean, it's a great way to pass
the time to hear these stories. But many people also
did not enjoy it. And those were those powerful gentlemen
that were on board the ship. In fact, probably the
most powerful from the most powerful family was on board
John's ship, and they very quickly became enemies. And his
(20:30):
name was Edward Wingfield. So Wingfield distrusted John. He was
jealous of John, and he went to Captain Newport and said,
John is trying to take over the ship. John Smith
is guilty of mutiny. We need to hang him. And
Captain Newport disagreed politely with Wingfield and said, don't worry
(20:52):
about it. And he went to John and said, hey,
stay away from Wingfield. You know, cool it. You know,
we have a long to go, so let's try to
get along here. When they arrived in the island of
Nevis to replenish food and water, Captain Newport's busy managing
those things. So Wingfield decides we're going to hang John
(21:15):
Smith now. So he quickly has a gallows erected and
he tells John he's going to be hanged, and John
just laughs him off and John's friends protect him, and
Wingfield is outraged that a man as powerful as him
is not being listened to. So Newport realizes he needs
to do something, so he tells John Smith will figure
this out when we get to Virginia, but for now,
you are confined to be low decks. He's actually a
(21:37):
prisoner in shackles. And here this man who would be
so important to the survival of Jamestown arrives in Virginia
as a prisoner in shackles. So why did Captain Newport
protect John Smith. It just doesn't make any sense if
you think about it. Wingfield's very powerful, He's very important.
(21:59):
You see, there a secret box that was sent along
with the journey, and while Captain Newport was in charge
during the journey, once they got to Virginia after a
few weeks, Captain Newport would leave, and so they needed
a governing body to be in charge when they were
in Virginia. So the Virginia Company sent along a sealed
box that they were only to open once they arrived
(22:21):
in Virginia, and it had the names of eight men
who would be on the governing council of Jamestown. Wingfield
is the very first name on the list. No one
is surprised. It's followed by several other gentlemen, and everyone
is shocked when they read the last name on the list,
Captain John Smith. So maybe Captain Newport knew this, and
(22:42):
that's why he protected John Smith. So once they arrived
at Virginia, they named it Jamestown after their king, King James.
After two months, Captain Newport left. He returned to go
back to England, and almost immediately after he left, a
sickness spread throughout Jamestown. Many men died. In fact, they
(23:04):
began the summer with one hundred and four and by
the end of summer only fifty were left. However, John
noticed that Wingfield and his friends seemed to be doing
better than the rest, and he realized that Wingfield was
keeping the freshest, healthiest food for himself and his friends.
So he was removed as president of the council and
(23:24):
John Radcliffe was put in charge. And John Radcliffe wasn't
a whole lot better than Wingfield, but at least he
recognized John Smith's drinks, and he put John in charge
of establishing relations with the local American Indians so that
they could trade for food. So John heads upriver on
a historic adventure. So John heads upriver. He takes a
(23:52):
few men and they actually have an Indian guide at
this point, while they are ambushed by over two hundred
Indians and the only survivors are John Smith and the
Indian guide, and John realizes, well, maybe they won't kill
one of their own, so he ties himself to the
Indian guide. And the Indian guide needs to survive, so
(24:13):
he tells the other Indians this is a where wants,
this is a leader, and so they know that only
another leader should determine the fate of this leader, John Smith,
and so they tell John to lay down his gun,
and John remembers that not long ago he was a
slave and he doesn't want to be a captive again.
(24:36):
So he continues to fight, and he's so outnumbered it's pointless,
but he continues to fight until he steps back into
this muddy bog and it's almost like quicksand it just
starts sucking him in and he realizes he's lost, so
he lays down his weapon. They pull him out of
the mud and they take him to the local chief.
(25:04):
So they take him to see Chief opicon Canoe opikon
Canoe is this enormous chief of the local tribe of
Powaton Indians, and John knows he needs to do something
to impress this leader very quickly, because his fate is
in his hands. So he takes out his compass and
(25:24):
opicon Canoe had never seen anything like this before. I
had the needle moving some way that he doesn't know
how it's moving. So he's impressed with this interesting item,
and so John thinks, phew, I think I've just saved
my life. And immediately opikan Canue gives a signal and
they take John tie him to a tree, and they
(25:44):
all draw their bows and arrows, but he doesn't bag
or cry or plead. He just stands there, bravely accepting
his fate. Opikon Canoe is impressed by this display of courage,
so he orders John to be untied, and what they
do is they take him. Opkoncanue takes him from try
to try to try, and eventually they make it to
(26:06):
wear a wocomoco, which is where the chief, the paramount
chief of all of the tribes of this area, and
Opiconcanu's brother lives.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And you're listening to one heck of a story about
Captain John Smith and his journey from rural farmer in
England across the globe and to the United States eventually
and to Jamestown.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
And you're listening to Julianna Rodgers tell the story.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
She's the author of Captain John Smith, American Hero, and
her book is available on Amazon dot com. And of
course Captain John Smith came to find gold, and to
find this mythical Northwest Passage, which of course would never
come to be, and of course to find survivors from
the last colony sent from England, the disappeared colony of Roanoke, Virginia.
(26:59):
When we come back more of the remarkable story of
Captain John Smith and how America came to be and
who the people were who made it happen. Here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(27:40):
and the story of Captain John Smith.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's return to Julianna Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
They take John into the biggest longhouse and it's estimated
to be about the size of half a football field.
And as they walk in, as John's eyes adjust to
the darkness, he realizes it's filled with all of the
leaders from all the different tribes. He had just visited
on his journey too. We're Awokamoko and all of the
(28:07):
leaders are painted red from the shoulders up, and when
he enters, they all give a loud whoop. And the
very first question Chief Powaton asks is why are you
here and when are you leaving? Meaning Jamestown. And John
immediately lies because he knows his fate is in this
man's hands. And if he says I went from a
(28:28):
country called England and we're going to build a colony
here and spread across the land, you know, Chief Powaton
is going to have him killed. So he lies and says,
a Spanish ship chased us here. We are here until
Captain Newport comes back, and then he will take us
back to England. So Chief Powaton seems satisfied with that answer,
(28:51):
and John thinks it's going pretty well, when suddenly Chief
Powatin gives an order. Two of his men take John.
They force him to kneel down and lay his head
across a huge boulder in the center of the room,
and they raised their clubs about to lower them and
smash his head. There's nothing John can do again, certain death,
so he closes his eyes and prepares for the strike,
(29:14):
and that's when he hears a small voice speaking quickly
in Algonquin and he realizes it's the chief's daughter, Pocahontas,
and she's asking her father to spare John Smith's life,
and Chief Powerton says no, but she keeps talking quickly,
and she's afraid she's not going to convince him by
the time he gives the order to have John killed.
(29:35):
So she rushes over and lays her head on top
of his, knowing full well that they will not hurt her.
Now Disney has transformed this into a romance, but we
know that that was not true. Pocahontas was probably ten
or eleven years old. More than likely they were similar.
They were both brave and bold and strong and stood
(29:59):
up for what they'd leaved in. There probably was a
mutual respect as the time went on, but at this
time it was unlikely. So was He arrived back at Jamestown.
There were a few men that were not happy to
see him, Wingfield being one of them. Wingfield and some
of his friends were tired of being at Jamestown. They
wanted to go home. They were tired of these brutal conditions.
(30:22):
But they knew John would never let them abandon Jamestown,
so they decided they needed to get rid of John.
So they said, the men that were with you on
the expedition were your responsibility, and they were killed. So
that's on you. You need to be punished, and the
punishment is death. So the very next morning they walked
(30:43):
John up to be hanged at the gallows. As they're
about to put the noose around his neck, someone yells
ship on the horizon and it's Captain Newport. He had
returned again and to save John Smith's life yet again.
So during the summer of sixteen oh eight, John let
an expedition of the Chesapeake Bay. So he's exploring its tributaries.
(31:03):
He's looking for that northwest passage, going up every tributary,
hoping it will go through. Along the way, he made
a map, a map so detailed of the Chesapeake Bay
that it was used for over three hundred years. John
was a very skilled map maker. In fact, he might
have been known throughout history for his maps had he
not done all of these other things. One thing that
(31:25):
I never understood. They never seem to have fishing gear
with them. So as they're exploring up these tributaries. They
are hungry and tired, and they noticed there's a school
of fish below them, and they don't have any fishing
gear with them, but John takes his sword and stabs
it down into the water, and as he lifts his sword,
there's a fish. So they all take their swords and
(31:46):
start stabbing the water. When John feels a sharp pain
in his arm and he realizes that one of the
fish he had caught on his sword is a stingray
and it just lashed its tail out and stung on
the arm, and his arm is now red and swollen,
and in the poisonous traveling up his arm toward his shoulder,
becoming more red and swollen, and he realizes it's eventually
(32:08):
going to travel all the way to his heart and
kill him. So, still in charge, he orders the men
to dig his grave, and as they are digging his grave,
the doctor on board puts some medicine on his arm
and it heals it. So John survived and ate the
stigray for dinner. So he gets back to Jamestown and
(32:28):
it's a little bit different this time because the men
that were with him on this journey had grown to
trust him so much that he John Smith was now
voted president of Jamestown. So during this time, it kind
of looked like a campground up until this point, and
John wanted it to look more like a settlement. So
(32:48):
all of those gentlemen in Jamestown didn't do any hard labor.
So at this point there were about thirty men who
were commoners, and they worked to support and feed over
two hundred men at Jamestown. So John made a rule
that said he who will not work shall not eat,
And as you can imagine, the gentlemen were furious. They
(33:11):
never had to do hard physical labor. But John worked
right alongside them and said, hey, we all need to
pitch in if this is going to work. So it's
really taking shape under John's leadership. So in September sixteen
oh nine, spark from a flipmock gun fell onto his
gunpowder pouch and exploded, and he was in so much pain.
(33:33):
He was in bad shape. There was actually a ship
leaving within a day or two, and so he asked
the captain if he could go on board, and so
just a few days later, on October fourth, sixteen oh nine,
John Smith left Virginia. He would spend the rest of
his life dreaming of this place, riding about this place
and trying to get back. So John will return to England,
(33:55):
and he took him a few months, but he got
better the next several years, writing books about Virginia about
his experience. He was quite obsessed with it and he
really wanted to return. But in sixteen fourteen he was
hired to go in a fishing expedition off the coast
of Massachusetts and Maine, and he made a detailed map
(34:16):
of the area and he referred to the area as
New England, which we still refer to it as New
England today. Well, John decided he didn't need the Virginia Company.
He would arrange his own trip and he would go
to New England and establish a settlement there. So he
worked hard to organize it. He raised the funds, he
got supporters and crew and colonists and money. He had
(34:37):
everything he needed and they finally set sale in sixteen fifteen.
But it wasn't loone before four French pirate ships chase them.
They try to outrun them, it doesn't work, so Captain
Smith goes on board their ship. He's going to talk
his way out of this situation yet again. His crew.
(34:57):
They're done with this, so they take off with out
him and they leave him on the pirate ship. So
he's on that pirate ship for several weeks. And during
that time what does he do. He writes a book.
He writes a book about New England, and he escapes
during a storm. He gets on a small boat and
the pirate ship actually sinks, but he escapes by quickly
(35:20):
bailing the water out of this small boat. He finds
a small bit of land. Some hunters find him and
they bring him to safety, and he published that book.
It was called a Description of New England. It's actually
the book that the pilgrims used to go to Plymouth.
He left Virginia in sixteen oh nine and he spent
(35:42):
the next twenty two years trying to get back and
also writing about it, promoting it to others, encouraging them
to go. Shortly after that, he died in sixteen thirty
one at the age of fifty one. John Smith wrote
a book called The Description of New England, and in
it he wrote and argued and believed that English Americans
(36:06):
had a unique opportunity to create their own destiny, unlike
the workers in England who were bound by the rigid
class system. Here's what John wrote here. Every man may
be master and owner of his own labor and land.
If he have nothing but his hands. He may set
up this trade and by industry, quickly grow rich. If
(36:27):
he have but the taste of virtue and ambition. What
to such a mind can be more pleasant than planting
and building a foundation for his prosperity by God's blessing
and his own industry, without prejudice to any And that's
just what America became. A place where every person determines
his or her own future, where their American dream is
(36:49):
a reality.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
And a terrific job on the production, the editing, and
the storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and a special
thanks to Julianne Rogers.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
He's the author of.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Captain John Smith American Hero and you can get the
book at Amazon dot com. And my goodness, the number
of times this man escapes certain death early in his life,
sold as a slave, almost dies in battle, almost dies, jousting,
almost dies well, almost dies at the hand of his
(37:22):
fellow sailors, and in the end almost dies at the
hands of Indians.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
And of course that stingray too.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And in the end dies well the way the rest
of us do in the end of natural causes. But
John Smith's life, well, it started the American life in
many ways. By the way, if you ever get a chance,
go to Jamestown and visit it, and start there, and
then head west, and from there go to Williamsburg and
visit William and Mary and the colonial Williamsburg. From there,
(37:53):
go to Charlottesville and visit Monticello, then to Madison and
Montpellier and Montpellier and eight up an hour and a
half north to Washington's home and Mount Vernon very close
to Washington, d C. There's something special about the state
of Virginia in American history, the story of Captain John Smith.
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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