The Puritans

Imagine that you are a Puritan who has just returned from a visit to Jamestown. In a journal entry describe the southern planters, their approach to life, their physical appearance, and the interest, contrasting them with members of your puritan society.

I have just returned from the colony of Jamestown. It was a very marshy and mosquito invested colony. There was a good amount of illness and disease. They seem to be able to keep going as they are readily supplied by the Virginia Company with supplies and settlers of all kinds. I met a lot of interesting people that call themselves planters, or as the locals call it, Cavaliers. One of their strongest leaders was a guy named James Smith. He evidently was able to talk in native tongue with a young native called Mosco. Even though I heard they were friends many attacks have happened with the natives and many lives were lost. Unfortunately, John was recently injured in an explosion and had to return to England for treatment. Between the native American Indian attacks and diseases, over half the colony died in less than a year. I heard there were two or three times in the past they were ready to abandon the colony but supplies arrived just in time. They differ from us Puritans in many ways. They are governed by people of some means and finances. They were told by the company who would run things. They came here looking for gold and riches not to practice religious beliefs without persecution as we did. We know that the bible is the source of all good things and should direct all others to its saving graces. In time we hope to convert all that we come into contact with. The warm climate made the land very fertile, which allowed large amounts of crops to be produced. Most people lived on plantations and used slave labor for production. One thing that I noticed was the people there had good machinery and large farms, often 50 to 500 acres. As a result of the fertile land that is easier to till their fields are large and productive. Because of the great crops that they produced led them to making great amounts of money. I dream of my colony having these luxuries. While I was there I also noticed that there approach and outlook on life was different than ours. They liked to party and socialize, and all they seem to care about is there families and seeing the world as a place to conquer, so I made sure that I didn't tell them too much about Plymouth. The one thing that I did not like about