Reimagining Jamestown

By Krystal Kaai

[1] In the years leading up to the quadricentennial anniversary of Jamestown, many Americans were forced to re-evaluate their patriotic understanding of Jamestown’s history as they began to reflect upon the settlement’s darker legacies. As previously silenced voices from the Native American and African American communities were brought to light, modern Americans were forced to acknowledge the stories of people whose displacement, colonization, and slavery had long been ignored in the celebratory decadence that marked Jamestown’s previous anniversaries. Not only did the growing controversy surrounding Jamestown’s history encourage the Jamestown Commemoration Committee to incorporate the perspectives of Virginia Indians and African Americans into the 400th anniversary commemoration ceremony, but it also compelled Americans to reassess and reconstruct their understanding of Jamestown’s controversial legacy. Given the differing opinions regarding the settlement’s history, films like Terrence Malick’s The New World (2005) bear important insight into the way in which Americans attempted to reconstruct their understanding of Jamestown during this time. This essay will examine how Malick attempted to reconcile the controversy surrounding Jamestown’s initial founding by reintroducing the mythic love story of Pocahontas and John Smith. I will argue that by presenting us with a less idealized, though still romanticized, portrayal of the relationship between Pocahontas and Smith, Malick provides a framework through which modern viewers can reimagine Jamestown’s founding, not as a clash between two cultures, but as a merger of two worlds.

Controversial Legacies

[2] In order to understand why Malick would want to portray the Pocahontas and Smith love story as a possibility for harmony between two very different worlds, one must first examine the political and social climate in the years leading up to the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. During this time, Native Americans were highly opposed against “celebrating” their people’s dispossession, colonization, and displacement. Instead, they asked that their unique history and stories be told from their perspective and that their people be remembered for more than just “the highly idealized story of Pocahontas” (Schulte). Likewise, African Americans during this time were opposed to “celebrating” Jamestown’s history because of its legacy of racism and slavery. Courtland Milloy, elucidates Jamestown’s dark history, stating that, despite Jamestown’s prestige as “the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States, . . . it was also the first to achieve what historian Paul Johnson called ‘self-sufficiency through the sweat and pain of an enslaved race.’”

[3] As these voices from previously underrepresented and misrepresented groups began to surface, Americans could no longer cling to the myth of a noble settlement established by heroic and valorous men; instead, they were forced to grapple with a different understanding of Jamestown’s legacy. An article in the New York Times illustrates the changing perceptions toward Jamestown in the months leading up to the settlement’s 400th anniversary:

Now, two months before the 400th anniversary festivities begin, the monumental hardly matters anymore, and neither, it seems, does John Smith. Other kinds of commemoration have been prepared. It isn’t that Jamestown is being treated as less important. . . . But a different understanding is made explicit here in the two historical museums and outdoor facilities devoted to the Jamestown theme. (Rothstein)

The two historical museums and outdoor facilities to which Rothstein refers include “new exhibition galleries that tell the story of the cultures that converged at Jamestown in the 17th century, an expanded outdoor living-history program, and a special exhibition showcasing the world in 1607, the year Jamestown was founded” (Jamestown Settlement). These exhibitions reveal the cultural contributions of previously ignored peoples -- the Powhatan Indians as well as African slaves--that were among the cultures that converged at Jamestown in the 17th century. Their stories add a different perspective to our understanding of Jamestown. As Rothstein states, “throughout this introductory exhibition Jamestown is not the beleaguered settlement cheered on against all odds, but is a hothouse laboratory for conflict, oppression and perhaps accommodation.” Another article published just days before Jamestown’s 400th anniversary reveals a similar sentiment about the controversial history of Jamestown: “the story of Jamestown recalls too vividly the unsavory elements of the English-speaking conquest of North America” (“The Story of Jamestown”).

[4] In response to the changing sentiment regarding Jamestown’s controversial history and legacy, Jamestown’s 400th Commemoration Commission developed a strategic plan to incorporate the voices of previously ignored people into the 400th anniversary commemoration. Because one of the statutory purposes in creating the commission was to assist “in ensuring that anniversary observances are inclusive and appropriately recognize the experiences of all people present in 17th century Jamestown,” the commission outlines the importance of allowing all of the people present in 17th century to be remembered in the 400th anniversary commemoration:

For the quadricentenial commemoration to be a truly inclusive event, the story of Jamestown needs to reflect a palpable geographic demographic diversity. Offering communities who are part of the Jamestown saga an opportunity to tell their stories in their voices will enrich the commemoration and add immeasurably to its historical record and legacies. (Jamestown 400th Commemoration)

These efforts to include Virginia Indians and African Americans in the planning and development of Jamestown’s 400th commemoration reflected both the government’s awareness of and response to the differing perspectives surrounding Jamestown’s founding.

Reimagining The “New World” Four Centuries Later

[5] It is against this growing sensitivity to Jamestown’s legacy of oppression and racism that Terrence Malick’s film The New World was released in 2005, just two years before Jamestown’s 400th anniversary. Although the film in no way purports to be an accurate depiction of actual events, Malick’s interpretation of the Pocahontas story comes to bear important insight into the changing perceptions of Jamestown in the years leading up to its 400th anniversary. Given the growing sensitivity to Native American conquest and displacement that are as much a legacy of Jamestown’s founding as the introduction of representative government and other Western ideals, it makes sense that Malick would portray Jamestown in a less idealized manner than past films and stories that glorify Jamestown as a utopian, proto-American colony. For instance, the first half of the film depicts the Jamestown settlement as a filthy, chaotic, and destitute breeding ground for starvation, disease, and mutiny. At one point, the starving settlers are shown boiling and eating their belts. Moreover, the film even goes so far as to refer to isolated instances of cannibalism in the settlement. Although the so-called “starving winter” depicted in the film did not occur until 1609, Malick portrays this starving time as the settlers’ first winter in Jamestown in order to create the impression of the extremely harsh conditions the original settlers faced. Far from representing a self-sufficient, highly ordered, and “civilized” society, Malick goes through lengths to depict the origins of Jamestown as mired in chaos and disaster, thus successfully dispelling the idealized perception of Jamestown that most Americans uphold.

[6] Despite dispelling myths of Jamestown’s glory, however, the majority of the film does not ground itself in historical accuracies; instead, against the dark and at times nightmarish portrayal of Jamestown, it reifies the myth of the Pocahontas and John Smith love story. Although the film does not center itself solely around Pocahontas’s fictional relationship with Smith since it does eventually depict her actual relationship with John Rolfe, Rolfe appears to be merely an afterthought, something to prolong the story after Smith has left. One wonders, then, why Malick did not just completely write Smith out of the story and focus on the actual relationship that occurred between Pocahontas and Rolfe. If he could dispel the idealized notions surrounding Jamestown’s initial founding, why couldn’t he do the same with the Pocahontas and Smith love story?

[7] Perhaps the answer to this question lies in the growing awareness of Jamestown’s controversial legacy during the years leading up to its 400th anniversary. To dispel notions of an antagonistic first encounter between European settlers and Native Americans, Malick thus recreates the Pocahontas love story as an example of peaceful coexistence and mutual love between the leader of the first permanent English settlement in America and the daughter of the most powerful Indian chief in that region. Additionally, the issue of Jamestown’s history of slavery is left completely unaddressed because of the limited time period over which the film purports to take place. For this reason, the Jamestown portrayed in Malick’s film, though far from idealized, represents a place of cultural connection rather than cultural clash. It is a place where the starving Englishmen are helped by the generous Powhatan Indians and a place where Pocahontas first comes to embrace the English culture, religion, and language.

[8] Although the potential for cultural clash lingers in the film’s background, the only two major scenes in which a potentially violent cultural clash is depicted--John Smith’s initial encounter with the Powhatan Indians and the Powhatan attack on the English settlement--are portrayed as both pre-empted by the Powhatan Indians and physically outside of Jamestown’s borders. Therefore, the English settlers are absolved of any guilt or blame, and history once again points its fingers to the savage Indians and their propensity for war. The only way to ameliorate this notion of cultural clash, then, is by offering a framework through which the two cultures can connect, which is exactly what Malick does with the Pocahontas and Smith story. By using his film as a means through which he perpetuates the fictional love story, Malick, like others before him, attempts to reimagine the beginnings of American history, not as a clash between two vastly different cultures, but as an idealized relationship in which both cultures were able to coexist peacefully. Although Malick alters the Pocahontas myth and restores some of its historical veracity, it seems that he cannot completely break away from portraying the founding of Jamestown as anything but a beautiful conglomeration of the old world and the new -- the idealized beginnings of American society.

Sources:

Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission Strategic Plan, May 12, 2004
http://www.jamestown2007.org/pdfdocs/Federal%20Commission%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

Jamestown Settlement. New Buildings, Exhibitions, Programs Planned for Jamestown Settlement by 2007.
http://www.historyisfun.org/New-Buildings-Exhibitions.htm

Milloy, Courtland. “Legacy of Slavery Echoes Beyond Jamestown Founding.” Washington Post 6 September 2006.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501288.html

Rothstein, Edward. “Captain Smith, the Tides are Shifting on the James.” New York Times 2 March 2007.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/arts/design/02jame.html?pagewanted=1&sq=Jamestown%202007&st=cse&scp=1

Schulte, Brigid, “Out of Jamestown’s Shadows.” Washington Post 29 April 2007.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042801083.html

“The Story of Jamestown, Four Centuries Later.” New York Times 2 May 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/opinion/02iht-edjames.1.5531714.html