England's Economic State and Motivation in the 16th Century
[ Economic Matters Main Page ] [ Teaching About Jamestown Main Page ] [ Jamestown Virtual Colony Main Page ]

Set:

Objectives

1. The student will orally describe England's economic state in terms of inflation, population, and poverty.>
2. The student will cite unemployment, social unrest and other factors as motivations for colonizing the New World.
3. The student will recite Richard Hakluyt's dream of the colonies, and what purposes they could hope to serve.
4. The student will create a profile of one traveler who journeyed to the New World around 1625.

Materials

• John Smith: The General Historie of Virginia
• A.E. Smith: Colonists in Bondage
• Richard Hakluyt's document on the mission to the Americas
• poster for each of the groups of four; markers
• The Charters of Virginia
• Background Information for Economic Matters and the teacher information outline

Relevance

This lesson introduces students to the origins of our country at Jamestown, and the economic motivations that fueled Englishmens' decision to begin a new existence in the New World. In addition, it teaches students about causal relatioships - why England was the country to settle North America? The purpose in studying history is to find commonality between people of the past and people today. This lesson, and the whole lesson from Jamestown in general is to understand the origins of Virginia, and this country. From these stepping stones, we can build on our understanding of history and the present.

Involvement of the Learners

The teacher will begin class with an open-ended question asking why people would leave something behind as precious as a homeland in order to risk their lives in a foreign country.

Explanation/Activity

The teacher will give the students time to think about the question and write some answers from the brainstorm on the board/overhead.

With these ideas in mind, the teacher will then give a lecture, with time for intermittent student question on the subject of England's economy. The background information at the top of the page could give possilbilities for the content of the lesson and lecture. The teacher needs to be sure to address inflation, the unemployment of 849,000 families, as well as the three priciples of Hakluyt's plan: simplified to God, glory and gold.

At the end of the lecture and in preparation of the next activity, the teacher will ask what could be some possible motivation for the emigration to Virginia?

For the culmination of the lesson, the students will be divided into groups of four. They will recieve a posterboard and a marker. The teacher will explain that they will create a profile of a traveler to the New World in 1625. Please focus on:

• Name, age and sex
• city/town
• Marital status
• why are they leaving?
• Occupation
• Are they paying for the voyage themselves? If not, who is financing them?
• What has convinced them to leave England for uncertainty?

Closure

To close the activity, the teacher will ask the students to share their profile with the rest of the class. The students will compare their profile to the idealism of Richard Hakluyt's plan for the New World. The teacher should ask the following questions to assess the learning of the students: Use this link for ideas : http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/garden/hakluyt.html

1. Cite three features of English society that contributed to the colonization of North America
2. How is the English push to the New World similar to Manifest Destiny in our own country ?
3. What do you think would be a motivation for coming to America and based on your created profiles, why?

This page was last updated on and is maintained by the UVA's Program in Social Studies Education.
URL for this page: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu.