English · Lycée général (C1 to C2), Bac pro (B1 to B2)

Session 2: Jamestown, 1619: an assembly and the first enslaved Africans

Recap check
  1. On whose land were the colonies founded?
  2. What does the Ferris painting leave out?
  3. What does colony come from?
Answer key
  1. On the homelands of Native nations such as the Powhatan, the Wampanoag, the Lenape.
  2. Epidemics, the land question, the Wampanoag point of view.
  3. From the Latin colonia.
Question: Can democracy and slavery be born in the same year?

Objectives

Documents

Key document

Jamestown was founded in 1607 on the land of the Powhatan paramount chiefdom. On 30 July 1619, twenty-two burgesses elected by the settlers met with Governor Yeardley and his council in the church at Jamestown: it was the first representative legislative assembly in English America. In late August 1619, “20 and odd” Africans arrived at Point Comfort aboard the English ship White Lion. They had been taken from the Portuguese slave ship San Juan Bautista.

Read the source: National Park Service, the first legislative assembly · National Park Service, African Americans at Jamestown

"The burgesses initiated and passed more legislation regulating relations with the Indians and the personal affairs of the colonists"
National Park Service, Historic Jamestowne

Activities

  1. Build a timeline: 1607, July 1619, August 1619.
  2. Read the key document: who could be elected? who was left out?
  3. Pair discussion: why do historians stress that these two events took place the same summer?
  4. Summary: in Virginia, self-government for settlers and the enslavement of Africans begin together, on Powhatan land.

Exercise

Put the verbs in the passive past simple: 1. Jamestown (found) in 1607. 2. The burgesses (elect) by the settlers. 3. The Africans (take) from a Portuguese ship.
Answer key1. Jamestown was founded in 1607. 2. The burgesses were elected by the settlers. 3. The Africans were taken from a Portuguese ship.

Gap-fill worksheet

Word bank: burgesses, assembly, enslaved, 1607, Powhatan

  1. Jamestown was founded in ______.
  2. It stood on the land of the ______.
  3. Twenty-two ______ met in July 1619.
  4. It was the first representative ______ in English America.
  5. In August 1619, ______ Africans arrived in Virginia.
Answer key
  1. 1607
  2. Powhatan
  3. burgesses
  4. assembly
  5. enslaved

Homework

Write a short news report, dated September 1619, presenting both events of the summer in a neutral tone (80 words).
Answer keyModel answer: a headline, a dateline (Jamestown, September 1619), the meeting of the burgesses on 30 July, the arrival of the White Lion in late August, no personal opinion, facts in the past simple.

Levels

LevelAdjustment
PremièreTimeline with three dates to complete.
TerminaleExplain the paradox in a paragraph with whereas and while.
C1/C2 extensionDiscuss how national stories choose a starting date (1607, 1619 or 1620).
Bac proPresent the two events orally in one minute.