Jamestown Virtual Colony

Corporate Failure

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Objectives: The student should be able to:

  1. List the reasons for the failure of the London Company
  2. List suggestions that the company might have used in order to stay afloat.
  3. List differences between different accounts of the events.
  4. Tell why different sources recount different details.

Relevance: The London Company failed for a number of reasons, yet left a lasting legacy in the new world. Students should become familiar with the process by which this occurred.

Involvement of the Learner: Ask the students if they can recall incidents when they witnessed the same event an another person. Do your recollections of the event always match those of others? Why not? Do people have reasons for recounting different versions of events or is it merely coincidence?

Explanation: The teacher will lecture on the factors that led to the demise of the London Company, including:

Economic Problems Management Problems Environmental Problems
Inferior tobacco, little profit Unpopular Sir Edwin Sandys in control of company Famine and disease
Overplanting of tobacco, lack of food crops Martial Law declared Indian Massacre -1623
Failure of lottery to attract settlers Factional strife Lack of cooperation among settlers
  Appointment of Jones Commission to investigate mismanagement  
Outline of content

Activity: Students will read accounts of the demise of the London company from sources other than textbooks. They should also read any account presented in their textbooks. They will note differences, and similarities, if possible.

Closure – Questions to ask:

  1. What were some of the reasons for the failure of the company?
  2. Were these reasons presented in all sources? If not, why not?
  3. Are some of these reasons more important than others?
  4. Does emphasizing a particular event reveal anything about the text or source?

 

Assignment: The students will write one to two pages on the failure of the London Company, listing the reasons why the Company didn't work. To conclude they will offer suggestions as to how the problems might have been addressed in order to have the Company succeed.

 

Materials: Chalkboard, Annotated Bibliography

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