Plymouth and Jamestown: A Comparison
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SET

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

1. interpret historical tables to draw conclusions about trends of colonization

2. identify the initial goals and problems of the Jamestown and Plymouth colonists

3. identify three main factors that led to the success of the two colonies

RELEVANCE

This lesson will compare and contrast Plymouth and Jamestown, the first two English colonies in America. Jamestown and Plymouth, while both English colonies, were very different in terms of goals, people, and beliefs. Understanding the characteristics and development of these two colonies is crucial in understanding the divergent paths taken by the North and the South in United States history.

INVOLVEMENT OF LEARNERS

Ask the students several questions to get them thinking about how English settlers felt about coming to America.

1. Have you ever moved before?

2. How did you choose your new home?

3. How was it similar or different from your previous home?

EXPLANATION

Have students call out names, places, or dates they associate with Jamestown or Plymouth and describe the significance of their answer. Write these terms on the board and emphasize them as they are touched upon in the lecture. This works best as an introduction to Jamestown and Plymouth.

Warm-up Activity:

2. Teacher will divide students into four groups of equal size. Teacher will give each group a copy of the Jamestown and the Mayflower Passenger lists.

3. Teacher will write questions on the board or hand them out. Students will discuss each question in their groups and write down possible answers. Each student should be assigned a role within the groups. Assign a leader, scribe, spokesperson, and a question reader.

4. Students will reassemble as a class. Teacher will lead discussion of questions.

Group Questions:

1. What differences do you notice between the two groups?
2. If more ships had not arrived from England, which colony do you think would have been more successful? Why?
3. Which group of passengers planned on staying longer in America?

Organization:

Teacher will give a lecture on the founding of Plymouth and Jamestown based on lecture notes while students take notes. Teacher will then hold a class discussion using the following questions and involving conclusions from the warm-up activity.

Discussion Questions:

1. After several disasterous years, Jamestown settlers put down roots and the colony eventually expanded. Had Jamestown been an initial economic success, do you think the colony would have become permanent?
2. The Mayflower was originally headed for Virginia before it landed in Plymouth. Why might the Pilgrims have chosen not to settle near the Jamestown colonists?
3. Do you think previous explorers contributed to the motivations of one group of colonizers more than another? Which one?
4. It has been said that without the Jamestown settlement there would have been no settlement at Plymouth. Do you think that is true? What reasons could you give for arguing that statement?

EVALUATION

CLOSURE

Ask students to give one factor in common that led to the success of both colonies and one example of opposite factors in each colony that contributed to success.

ASSESSMENT

Have students write an essay comparing economic and cultural characteristics of Jamestown and Plymouth that focuses on how some of these characteristics might be evident today.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

• Jamestown Passenger List (http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/~pha4b/jtpassengers.html)
• Mayflower Passenger List (http://members.aol.com/calebj/passenger.html)
  

For further reading
Brown, Richard. Massachusetts: A Bicentennial History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.

Gill, Crispin. Mayflower Remembered. New York: Taplinger, 1970.

Williams, David A. History HS-21, colonial Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. : Division of Extension and General Studies, University of Virginia, 1960.

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URL for this page: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu.