A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and Industries Part 1

A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and Industries.

by J. Paul Hudson.

INTRODUCTION

In the pages which follow only a few of many goods and commodities made, collected, or grown at or near Jamestown during the seventeenth century will be discussed. No pretense is made to do more than touch lightly on the ones mentioned most frequently by the early settlers. With the exception of tobacco, grape vines, and herbs, agricultural products are omitted.

Jamestown has never received proper recognition as the place where many American industries were born in the New World. Few people are aware that boatbuilding, timbering, gla.s.smaking, tobacco-cultivation, wine-making, iron-smelting, and the making of pitch, tar, potash and soap-ashes, were carried on in Virginia's colonial capital; nor is it generally known that there was production of pottery, bricks and tile, of considerable volume.

Besides the products mentioned in this booklet, attempts were made to grow or produce other items at or near "James Citty"--including cordage, silk-gra.s.s, dyes, salt, flax, hemp, alum, white earth, walnut-oil, minerals, sweet-gums, madder, sugar cane, cotton, citrus fruits, olives, bark, roots, and berries. A few brought profits to the planters while others, like indigo, cotton, sugar cane, and citrus fruits, resulted in failure. The tropical plants from the West Indies could not, of course, withstand the cold Virginia winters.

Attempts made by the early planters to find commodities and raw materials revealed to a large degree the industrial and agricultural resources of the new colony. The lessons learned at Jamestown--even information derived from the failures--were invaluable ones. For from the successful activities carried out in the small huts, in the fields, and in the woodland areas, would later develop industries and agricultural pursuits undreamed of by the early settlers.

The history of American commodities, like the history of the nation, is no longer a brief one. Three hundred and fifty years have now pa.s.sed since the first adventurous Englishman, with musket in hand and ears alerted to the sound of moccasined feet, searched the wilderness area up and down the James River for New World wealth. As time permitted, he worked in his small shop making utilitarian things out of clay, wood, sand, and metal--objects not entirely lacking in beauty. Busy as he was with these tasks, he still found time to tend his small vineyard and tobacco field. As he worked he may have dreamed of the day when his hogs-heads of sweet-scented tobacco and casks of red wine would reach England safely and be sold for a profit. Trying to better his condition in a new land, he never dreamed that the seeds of his incessant labors, which he was unconsciously planting, would some day flower into a great industrial and agricultural nation.

BOATBUILDING

On April 27, 1607, the day after the Jamestown colonists landed at Cape Henry, some of the settlers began to build or a.s.semble a small boat.

George Percy, one of the original colonists, reported that it was completed and launched on April 28.

It appears, therefore, that 350 years ago--on the sandy beach near Cape Henry--the Jamestown bound colonists made their first important commodity by hand in the New World.

Contemporary records reveal that many small boats were built at Jamestown from the earliest years of the settlement. They afforded the best means of transportation through the uncharted wilderness, and were used for fishing, trade, and exploration.

The conjectural ill.u.s.tration shows colonists building a small boat at Jamestown Island--near Back River--about 1650.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Research on painting by author. _Photo courtesy National Park Service._

Boatbuilding At Jamestown Over 300 Years Ago _Conjectural Painting_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._ Boatbuilding Tools Unearthed at Jamestown All tools in the picture were hand wrought during the seventeenth century. Some may have been forged at Jamestown.]

TIMBERING

Timbering was one of the first activities undertaken by the Jamestown colonists and was one of the first English industries in America. The day the settlers arrived they began cutting down trees, for timber was needed to build their fort and town as well as to export to the mother country. Thomas Studley, a member of the first colony, reported that clapboards were made for loading on the ships which were to return to England:

Now falleth every man to worke, the Councell contrive the fort, the rest cut downe trees to make place to pitch their tents; some provide clapboard to relade the ships, some make gardens, some nets, &c.

Captain Newport left Jamestown in June, 1607 and aboard his two ships were clapboards and other wooden products.

The virgin forests growing in the vicinity of Jamestown furnished planks, masts, clapboard, wainscoting, and other wooden products needed by the mother country. As England had run short of timber and was paying exorbitant prices to European countries for naval stores and timber products, the supply furnished by the Jamestown colony helped greatly to relieve the situation. The Virginians were also helped, for timber was one of the few products which brought profits to the struggling colony.

The conjectural painting shows settlers carrying out timbering activities at Jamestown. Some of the piled up lumber will be used in the colony, some will be shipped to England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Research on painting by author. Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Timbering At Jamestown Three Centuries Ago _Conjectural Painting_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._ Tools Used By The Early Jamestown Settlers For Timbering A few of many tools excavated at Jamestown which were used for timbering over 300 years ago: felling axes, a hewing axe, adze, hatchet, wedge, and saw fragment.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Carpenter. _Faber Lignarius._

We have seen Mens food and cloathing; now his dwelling followeth. At first they dwelt in Caves 1 then in Booths or Huts 2 and then again in Tents 3 at the last in Houses. The Woodmen felleth and heweth down Trees 5 with an Ax 4 the Boughs 6 remaining. He cleaveth Knotty wood with a Wedg 7 which he forceth in with a Beetle 8 and maketh Wood-stacks 9. The Carpenter squareth Timber with a Chip-Ax 10 whence Chips 11 fall, and saweth it with a Saw 12 where the Saw-dust 13 falleth down. Afterwards he lifteth the beam upon tressels 14 by the help of a Pulley 15 fasteneth it with Cramp-Irons 16 and marketh it out with a Line 17. Then he frameth the Walls together and fasteneth the great pieces with Pins 19.

Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.

Seventeenth Century Timbering and Building

The 1685 engraving shows activities relating to timbering and house building. Similar practices were carried out at Jamestown during the seventeenth century.

From _Orbis Sensualium Pictus_ by Johann Comenius (London, 1685).]

BARRELS AND CASKS

(COOPERING)

As early as 1607 barrel staves were made at Jamestown for exporting to England. Later, when tobacco and other crops were grown successfully--and a few commodities were produced in Virginia for export--barrels, casks, and other wooden containers were made by the cooper in large numbers.

John Lewes was the first cooper to reach Jamestown, arriving in January, 1608. Others followed him throughout the seventeenth century; and for almost a hundred years their craft was an important one in the "Capital Cittie."

The ill.u.s.tration shows a cooper and his helpers making barrels and casks at Jamestown, about the year 1625.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Research on painting by author. Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Making Barrels and Casks At Jamestown--About 1625 _Conjectural Painting_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Cooper.

The Cooper 1, having an Ap.r.o.n 2 tied about him, maketh Hoops Of Haslel-rods 3, upon a Cutting-block, 4 with a Spoke-shave, 5 and Lags 6 of Timber. He maketh Hogs-heads 7 and Pipes, 8 with two Heads, and Tubs 9, Soes 10, Flaskets 11, Buckets 12, with one Bottom of Lags.

Then he bindeth them with Hoops 13, which he tieth fast with small Twigs 15, by means of a Cramp-Iron 14, and he fitteth them on with a Mallet 16, and a Driver. 17.

Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.