The Tale of Two Colonies
Communities, cultures, and nations are shaped, for better or worse, by the fundamental reason for which they exist. The colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth reveal this truth in stark detail.
We trace our annual Thanksgiving Day holiday back to the Plymouth Colony’s three-day Thanksgiving celebration in 1621, which included the surviving 50 Pilgrims and 90 American Indians to thank God for the abundant harvest and their friendship with the tribal people. However, another Colony preceded Plymouth by 13 years and had a very different story — the Jamestown Colony.
So, we could also call this “The Tale of Two Cultures” and note the role faith in God had in how the cultures of these two colonies developed.
A few similarities are that they both began with just over one hundred settlers and lost significant numbers during their first winters (almost two-thirds in Jamestown and half in Plymouth). Furthermore, they both settled on unoccupied land (that may surprise some, but this is true).* However, as time progressed, two very different cultures developed in the North and the South that tie directly to the purpose for which the settlers came to this New World.
Briefly, the colony at Jamestown was the product of a group of investors that formed the “Virginia Company,” authorized by King James I. Their purpose was to find gold and silver and new trade routes to the Orient — they came as investors looking to get rich. When the first slave traders arrived on the shores of the Jamestown colony in August of 1619, they purchased about 20 of the 50 slaves to achieve the goal of finding riches.
In the South, Jamestown had more conflicts and sometimes war with the Native American tribes of the region than those in the North. Their obsession with searching for gold caused conflict among the members of their colony because they failed to prioritize those things that would prepare the colonists to survive the winter (i.e., preparing crops, securing wells, and other resources).
However, the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony were very different in purpose and outcome.
The same year the first settlers landed at Jamestown, the Pilgrims were chased out of England by King James I for not aligning with the Church of England, of which he was the head. Anyone choosing to practice their faith outside of the King’s official State Church was harassed, persecuted, and even put in prison. Therefore, due to such an oppressive climate, they immigrated to Leiden, Holland, to pursue religious freedom.
However, even in Holland, the King of England was able to pressure them. Moreover, after 12 years, the leaders became concerned that the wickedness of the culture was seducing their young people, so after much prayer, they determined to sail for America. They had hoped for more than one ship, but these did not materialize, and their departure was delayed. Finally, only one ship was available, the Mayflower, on which just over 100 Pilgrims set off for the New World.
Once they arrived, but before disembarking the ship, they created a governing document for their new colony called “The Mayflower Compact.” It begins like this: “In the Name of God,” followed by their reason for seeking a place in this new land:
“For the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Christian Faith.”
Unlike in Jamestown, these Pilgrims came for religious freedom and with hopes of sharing their Christian faith with the land’s inhabitants, not for financial gain or to enslave any people (contrary to the erroneous “history” taught in Nikole Hannah-Jones’ “1619 Project”). The drastic difference between the Plymouth Colony and Jamestown created two starkly different cultures and outcomes.
For example, guided by biblical values, the Plymouth Pilgrims’ conduct and dealings with the native tribes produced much better relationships between the two groups than in the southern colony. Furthermore, the work ethic taught in Scripture moved them to prioritize their efforts appropriately. Prayer was often offered, and they saw God answer them in marvelous ways.
One example of God’s providential hand directing the Pilgrims was when they intended to go to Jamestown, but the winds pushed them off course, and they ended up in what we know as Plymouth — in December 1620. To their great joy and relief, they found an abandoned settlement with corn stored up as if someone (or, some One) knew they were coming. Sometime later, they would meet Squanto, who spoke perfect English and knew their customs because he had been trained in their country for several years before returning the year before they arrived.
Furthermore, as Divine Providence (i.e., God) would have it, the Pilgrims landed in the area Squanto’s tribe had occupied. Sadly, while he was in Europe, the rest of his tribe died from sickness, and when he returned, he realized that he was the only one left. Therefore, the land was vacated and available for the next arrivals, the Pilgrims. It is important to clarify that they did not steal land from the region’s natives, as some have tried to claim.
When Squanto discovered that the Pilgrims had settled on his tribal land, he chose the high road and befriended them. He invested much time and energy teaching the surviving Pilgrims how to farm the land and fish the sea, enabling them to provide for themselves and thrive in this new land. Then, at their first harvest in 1621, they were filled with deep gratitude towards their native neighbors and a thankful heart toward God for their abundant crops. And we all know what happened next - they organized a 3-day festival of Thanksgiving to God that included more “Indians” than Pilgrims (90 and 50, respectively).
Another departure from Jamestown’s choices (shaped by their culture) was witnessed when the first slave traders arrived on their shores in 1646. The people of the colony arrested the slave traders and set the prisoners free. David Barton comments that although the following years were far from perfect, it was in New England, and Massachusetts especially, where slavery was first outlawed in 1783 — a full 50 years before England.**
How did these two colonies develop so differently? I would say the answer lies in the overriding reason for their establishment. You could say it was what they worshiped - one came in pursuit of religious freedom and to share God’s message with the natives of the land, while the other settlers came in pursuit of great personal wealth. The former colony existed for God and the latter for themselves.
Jesus spoke about the inability of these two pursuits to share the stage in the individual life and society in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24 (NIV84)
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the harmful consequences of a life or society that pursues wealth above all else in 1 Tim. 6:10:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
These two colonies were destined to be drastically different in culture, morality, and longevity because of the who or what they chose to serve. One chose God, and the other chose Money.
The Plymouth Colony illustrates the promise in Psalms 33:12, which declares, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” America’s true history reveals that our nation was founded upon biblical principles and faith in the biblical God. As a result, this nation flourished and has prospered like no other nation before or since.
Sadly, today, our nation is deeply divided on many levels and plagued “with many griefs.” Many, if not most, of our major cities are plagued with rising crime, broken families, fatherless homes, and increasing drug and alcohol abuse, even reaching our young ones. America’s mental illness crisis is evident in the growing rates of suicide, anxiety disorders, and deep depression, which negatively impact our communities, too.
Today’s sad realities should not surprise us when we learn that with each passing generation, we have seen a steady decline in Church attendance and belief in God - with - speaking very generally - the youngest generation less likely to attend a Christian Church than all generations preceding them (somewhere under 10%). This subject is multifaceted, and there are some encouraging statistics among some groups, but that will be for another post. The point is - in my opinion - that our national culture has shifted away from a biblical worldview to something more secular and humanistic in nature.
Since the Johnson Amendment in the 1950s that threatened loss of tax-exempt status for non-profits (Churches) for supporting political candidates, and the 1962 and ’63 decisions by the Supreme Court that took prayer and then Bible reading from our schools, respectively, on the premise of Jefferson’s words to the Danbury Baptists, “a wall of separation between Church and State,” Christians and Pastors have been told not to mix politics with religion — well, how has that been working for us?
History and Scripture reveal how America became the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world, and it also points to why we have seen the moral and societal decline today. The remedy is before us if we will pay attention. It begins by embracing our nation’s motto, “In God We Trust.” As King Solomon wrote in Psalms 127:1a, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”
Jesus did not say His followers are the Light of the Church and the Salt of the Sanctuary. Instead, He declared that we are the “Light of the World” and the “Salt of the Earth.” He prayed for us in John 17:15, saying, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8, 2:4) so we would be empowered to engage our world and then “…having done all, to stand” Eph. 6:13.
Let us pray, work, and live so that this nation will return to faith in God and experience “a new birth of freedom” in our day and for the next generations as we seek to “Make America Godly Again.” The best place to start is in your local Bible-believing, Jesus-following, and God-glorifying Church. You will not find a perfect congregation or pastor; therefore, you should feel entirely comfortable joining in fellowship with people just like you.
* Online Encyclopedia Britannica; **Wall Builders (and for more American History), see their website: www.wallbuilders.com
[This post was originally published in the November 2024 edition of the Stevens County Times, LLC, P.O. Box 12, Loon Lake, WA 99148, in my monthly column, “Pastor’s Perspective” - reprinted here with permission - mine included ;-) ]