There are several sources for visual materials on pre-Columbian America. Films for the Humanities and Sciences offers a six-part series titled Spain in the New World. Each episode is thirteen minutes: The Discovery of America is based on Columbus's journals; The Civilizations of Mexico emphasizes the Aztecs and the Mayas; The Incas describes the empire of the Andes; The Conquest of Mexico and Peru tries to explain what happened when the Spanish invaded; End of a Culture shows the effects of conquest, disease, and forced labor; A New World Is Born reveals that assimilation was not complete. From PBS Video, The Indians Were There First deals with North America and emphasizes Iroquois social and political organization. PBS also has a sixty-minute videotape titled The Incas. Background on Africa is available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences: The Ashanti Kingdom (Ghana) and The Glories of Ancient Benin (both fifteen minutes) and the Bambara Kingdom of Segu (Mali) (nineteen minutes).

The American History Slide Collection offers in Section A, Explorers and Early America, a number of artists' renderings, some of them quite interesting, of explorers, Indians, and events of importance. The viewpoint of the artist often dominates the subject and thus presents an opportunity for explanation of pictorial interpretation. Two McGraw-Hill films of note are available. 1492 deals with the first encounter between the Navigator and the Indies. Cortez and the Legend deals with the conqueror of the Aztecs. The PBS video Consequences of Contact, thirty minutes, deals with the significance of trade and other contacts among Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans by taking a tour through present-day Mexico and New Mexico. PBS also offers When the White Man Came (thirteen minutes), which deals with some of the major tribes in North America.

PBS Video also has an extensive examination of Columbus and the consequences of his voyages. Columbus and the Age of Discovery consists of seven hour-long episodes starting with the world of the fifteenth century and ending with present-day ideas about the Navigator.

PBS offers a powerful dramatic presentation, Roanoke, in three one-hour segments. The videotaped production maintains interest and tension throughout and treats both the Native Americans and the settlers with a more than usual degree of sensitivity. Also available is English Colonization, a thirty-minute videotape from PBS, which deals with early Chesapeake settlement. Films for the Humanities and Sciences offers Pocahontas: Her True Story, a forty-eight-minute examination originally produced by the BBC. Consideration of the 1995 Walt Disney animated film Pocahontas should not be undertaken seriously in a history class.
Document Set 2-1

The Lost Colony: The 1590 RELIEF Relief Expedition and the Fate of the Roanoke Colony

1. John White's Relief Expedition, 1590
2. The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590The mystery of the "lost colony" offers students an exciting beginning to the study of English settlement in America. They can observe the drama through the eyes of John White, governor of the colony, when he returned to Roanoke in 1590 to find no one there. Students will of course want to know what happened to the Roanoke colonists. Discussion might focus on White's assumption (was he just rationalizing, or did he have hard evidence?) that the colonists had moved to a nearby island.The Roanoke story and the excerpt from White's account of the 1590 relief expedition may be used by instructors to explore with students the whole question of European expansion into the New World, as well as to trace the history of the initial English attempts to colonize in the 1580s. The White document does not deal directly with motives for colonization. Class discussion of this topic, however, based on the implications of the document and the textbook narrative, should provide opportunity for instructors to underscore the importance of the second half of the sixteenth century for American history. Among the subjects that might be considered are Portuguese and Spanish activities in the New World, growth of trade, the search for the Northwest Passage, economic and religious conflict with Spain, Queen Elizabeth's "sea dogs," English internal problems, and the English promoters of colonization.Student groups might be assigned to research and report on Richard Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's De Orbe Novo, Decades of the New World (1555); Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Discourse of a Discovery for a New Passage to Catia (1576); or perhaps the younger Richard Hakluyt's Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America and the Islands Adjacent (1582) and A Discourse on the Western Planting (1584). These works could be compared with White's account in a discussion of sixteenth-century interest in plantations. On the lost colony itself, students would profit from an assignment to research John White's other writings. For example, his narrative of the initial 1587 voyage and the abortive relief expedition of 1588 provide valuable source material. The purpose of these independent investigations would be to develop student understanding of the expansionist outlook of Elizabethan England. By examining the promotional activities of the "gentlemen adventurers," students will be drawn into discussion of the European origins of American civilization.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 2-1


Kenneth R. Andrews. Trade, Plunder, and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480-1630 (1985).

William Patterson Cumming. Mapping the North Carolina Coast: Sixteenth Century Cartography and the Roanoke Voyages (1988).

David B. Durant. Raleigh's Lost Colony: The Story of the First English Settlements in America (1981).

Stephen J. Greenblatt. Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (1991).

Karen O. Kupperman. Roanoke: A Colony Abandoned (1984).

D. W. Meinig. Atlantic America, 1492-1800 (1986).

Edmund S. Morgan. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975).

J. H. Perry. The Age of Reconnaissance (1963).

David Beers Quinn. England and the Discovery of America, 1481-1620 (1974).

John W. Shirely. Sir Walter Raleigh and the New World (1984).

------. David Beers Quinn. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 (1985).

John W. Shirely. Sir Walter Raleigh and the New World (1984).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 2-1


Roanoke (3 videotapes--60 min. each). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.
Document Set 2-2

Trying Times at Jamestown: The Early Months of the First Permanent English Colony

1. George Percy's Observations on Jamestown's Early Months, 1607
2. John Smith's Impressions of the Jamestown Experience, 1607
3. Virginia Population Characteristics, 1625
4. The London Company Instructs the Governor in Virginia, 1622
5. The Trappen'd Maiden: Or the Distressed Damsel, ca. Seventeenth CenturyStudents are often interested in the Jamestown story. Instructors may take advantage of this interest to engage them in critical thinking rather than mere sentimentalizing. After reviewing the documents and considering the analytical problems, students should be prepared to explore the topic further through class discussion. Instructors may assist by introducing historical problem solving, explanation, and textual analysis. By relying on textbook background, students should be able to explain why the colony had such a difficult, precarious start and how, under such circumstances, it succeeded in surviving. Instructors might elevate the quality of discussion by insisting that the classroom analysis go beyond the obvious. For example, that the colonists faced internal dissension, a lack of food, illness, death, and external threats does not in itself constitute adequate inquiry. Why were these factors present? As the documents are carefully scrutinized, these second-order questions may be dealt with and students can advance to a more sophisticated level of historical explanation. Instructors will find excellent resource material for this exercise in Edmund Morgan's American Slavery, American Freedom (1975).Several corollary activities might also be pursued. Instructors could trace the fascinating career of John Smith through lecture and discuss the controversy surrounding his alleged tendency toward self-aggrandizement, which should raise the question of the reliability of his writings as source materials. Some students may be interested in exploring in detail the "starving time" and subsequent years of colonial development, perhaps to the mid-1620s. Others could read Smith's 1624 General History and his 1608 True Relation and make a comparative analysis of the two accounts. Why does the story of Pocahontas appear in one and not the other? Similarly, students could compare the early years of Jamestown with those of Plymouth, noting similarities and differences. Their point of focus might be an explanation of the Puritans' early success compared to the problem-plagued existence of the Jamestown colonists.Finally, the statistical material on the Virginia population might be examined for clues to the harsh reality of the colonial experience. Students might be asked to mine the statistics for impressions of mortality, life expectancy, sex ratios, and birth rate. The data, if analyzed with care, can provide valuable insights on not only the quality of life but also the factors and practices that sustained the Virginia colony in its early years. When combined with the company's letter to the governor in Virginia, the data also shed light on the evolution of the colony. The documents may be used to explore the division of labor by gender and women's contribution to Virginia's development in the colonial period.As students review the evidence, encourage them to concentrate on the questions of survival and the underlying measures that ensured it. They might also be concerned with the reliability of witnesses and the critical analysis of personal memoirs as source material.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 2-2


Philip L. Barbour. The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith (1964).

Carl Bridenbaugh. Jamestown, 1544-1699 (1982).

Wesley Frank Craven. The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (1949).

James Horn. Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth Century Chesapeake (1994).

Susan Lebsock. "A Share of Honour": Virginia Women, 1600-1945 (1984).

A. J. Leo Lemay. The American Dream of Captain John Smith (1991).

Edmund S. Morgan. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975).

Richard L. Morton. Colonial Virginia (2 vols.; 1960).

David Beers Quinn. Raleigh and the British Empire (1949).

Bradford Smith. Captain John Smith (1953).

Thad Tate and Davie Ammerman, eds. The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century (1979).

Alden Vaughan. American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia (1975).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 2-2


As It Was in the Beginning (audiotape--25 min.). Audiotape program 1, Annenberg/CPB Project American History Series, Part 2. Annenberg/CPB Project, 1111 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Home Away from Home(videotape--52 min.). Episode 2, America Series. Time-Life Films, 110 Eisenhower Drive, P.O. Box 644, Paramus, N.J. 07652.

Jamestown (film--14 min.). United States National Audiovisual Center, General Services Administration, Washington, D.C. 20409.

Pocahontas: Her True Story (videotape--48 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.
Document Set 2-3

Varieties of Interaction: The Consequence of Cross-Cultural Contact in the New World

1. Bartolomé de Las Casas Indicts the Conquistadores, 1542
2. The Aztec View of the Conquest, ca. Sixteenth Century
3. A Jesuit Description of the Missionary Alternative to Violence, 1570
4. Samuel de Champlain Establishes a Trade Relationship with the Indians, 1604
5. Sir Walter Raleigh Describes the English Approach to the Caribbean Indians, 1595
6. The Plymouth Settlers Strike an Agreement with the Indians, 1620
7. William Wood's Impressions of New England Indians, 1639
8. Images of the New WorldThe documents in this unit hold great potential for the sharpening of student analytical skills. While the textbook will acquaint readers with the Spanish conquest, students should be asked to broaden their examination of white-Indian relations. It is important that instructors provide a lecture introduction to the interpretive problems associated with the record of the conquistadores, as well as the origins of the propaganda attack on Spain by Protestant Europe. With contextual background, students will be prepared for informed discussion.The textbook's richly detailed description of the Old World religious context for international competition in America will enable instructors to explore with students the contradictory impulses present in the Spanish record. One approach to discussion might be to ask students to compare and contrast the accounts of Spain's efforts in Florida and Mexico. The words of Rogel, Las Casas, and Sahagún should provide some opportunity for analysis of both Spanish behavior and the motives of the chroniclers of Spain's New World experience. This discussion should not overlook the importance of propaganda and international diplomatic competition as influences on image-making in Europe.The effort to identify and evaluate images of Indians and the European contacts with native populations also offers an excellent opportunity to deepen students' understanding of historical evidence through the use of nonprint materials. The sixteenth-century illustrations invite students to question the meaning of visual images and uncover the hidden (and sometimes inflammatory) messages communicated by artists. Moreover, an analysis of the contrast between native art and the work of European interpreters of America should provide students with insight into the clash of cultures and the gap between expectations and experience at the point of contact.The inclusion of non-Spanish materials is designed to encourage students to think of the post-Columbian encounter as an interaction that transcended the exchange of brutalities that marked some of the earliest contacts in Mexico, Peru, and the Caribbean. The documents will challenge students to recognize that not all white-Indian encounters were hostile and that many forms of engagement were evident in a variety of situations. Students might probe the evidence for explanations of these diverse exchanges, including the reasons why some settings produced hostile encounters and others did not. The end result can be greater student sophistication in generalizing about the interaction of Europeans and Indians on the earliest frontier.For those students who seek further insight on the Black Legend itself, a legalistic framework could be used to scrutinize the charges made by Las Casas. Student teams might be called on to research the arguments made by both Las Casas and his detractors, such as Juan Ginés de Supúlveda. This project would require further examination of both positions, especially that of Sepúlveda, but would enable students to engage in a courtroom-style debate that would force them to confront the arguments of Spaniards in the colonies, as well as those of such humanitarians as Las Casas, whose entreaties could not be completely ignored by the Spanish crown.Finally, instructors might bring closure to this unit with a capstone discussion of the long-term implications of the issues raised by the documents. Reflecting on both the primary sources and the textbook material, students might discuss the demographic impact of the European conquest on the Indian population. The documents should raise the question of comparative results in areas dominated by the English, French, and Spanish, respectively. This discussion should not fail to address the question of unexplored solutions to the problems created by the clash of cultures in sixteenth-century America, as well as the factors that worked to prevent the implementation of those alternatives.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 2-3


Denis Delâge. Bitter Feast: Amerindians and Europeans in Northeastern North America, 1600-64 (1993).

Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (1978).

Alfred W. Crosby. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (1972).

Louis Hanke. The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (1965).

Hugh Honour. The European Vision of America (1975).

James Lang. Conquest and Commerce: Spain and England in the Americas (1975).

James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz. Early Latin America: A History of Spanish America and Brazil (1983).

Christopher Miller and George Hammell. "A New Perspective on Indian-White Contact: Cultural Symbols and Colonial Trade." Journal of American History 73 (1986): 311-328.

Daniel T. Reff. Disease, Depopulation and Culture Change in Northwestern New Spain, 1518-1764 (1991).

Kirkpatrick Sale. The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (1990).

Neal Salisbury. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643 (1982).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 2-3


Clash of Cultures (videotape--49 min.). Zenger Media, 10200 Jefferson Blvd., P.O. Box 802, Culver City, Calif. 90232-0802.

The Columbian Exchange (videotape--58 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.

1492 Revisited (videotape--28 min.). University of California Extension, Center for Media and Independent Learning, 2176 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704.

Home Away from Home (videotape--52 min.). Episode 2, America Series. Time-Life Films, 110 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, N.J. 07652.

The Sword and the Cross (videotape--58 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.