What’s in a Map?
Learning to Analyze John Smith’s 1612 Map of Virginia
Essential Questions
How does John Smith persuade his audience of Virginia Company members to invest or move to the new colony of Virginia?
What do historical maps tell us about how people lived during that period of time?
Let’s Discuss!
As a group or on your own, brainstorm what we will we need to know to answer these questions?
Your Quest
First, you will watch and take notes on the video below and learn about the history of early Virginia. Second, using your historical knowledge, you will analyze John Smith’s map of Virginia and answer our two essential questions. Finally, you will create your own persuasive map.
Virginia, John Smith, 1612
Click on the map to get a closer look!
Watch The Video Below
Click Through the Slides
Now it’s your turn!
You have been asked by the Virginia Company of London to create a map that will persuade investors and potential settlers to take an interest in your town. Use what you have learned through the analysis of John Smith’s map to inspire your creation. Once you are done, write a paragraph or present your map and explain how it is persuasive.
Bibliography
Barbour, P.L. (Ed.). (2011). The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606-1609: Documents relating to the Foundation of Jamestown and the History of the Jamestown Colony up to the Departure of Captain John Smith, last President of the Council in Virginia under the First Charter, early in October, 1609 (1st ed.). Hakluyt Society. https://doi-org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.4324/9781315556505
“Captain John Smith’s Shallop (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov, National Park Service, www.nps.gov/articles/000/john-smith-shallop.htm.
Cassandra Britt Farrell. “Smith Map, The.” Encyclopedia Virginia, encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/smith-map/.
Faričić, J., Kljajić, I., Mirošević, L. et al. Symbolism of Compass Roses on Early Modern Nautical Charts of the Adriatic Sea. KN J. Cartogr. Geogr. Inf. 73, 19–37 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42489-022-00129-z.
King, Julia A., et al. "Rappahannock Oral Tradition, John Smith’s Map of Virginia, and Political Authority in the Algonquian Chesapeake." The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 80 no. 1, 2023, p. 3-48. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/wmq.2023.0012.
KUPPERMAN, KAREN ORDAHL, editor. Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings. University of North Carolina Press, 1988. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807839317_kupperman.
“Royal Coat of Arms I United Kingdom I the British Monarchy.” The British Monarchy, www.thebritishmonarchy.co.uk/royal-coat-of-arms.
Smith, John. A true relation of Virginia. ed by Deane, Charles Boston, Wiggin and Lunt, 1866. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/rc01002803/>.
Smith, John, and Jay I. Kislak Reference Collection. The generall historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles: together with The true travels, adventures and observations, and A sea grammar. Glasgow: J. MacLehose ; New York: Macmillan, 1907. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/75320262/>.
The English Crown. "First Charter of Virginia (1606)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. Last updated: 2020, December 07
Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, and Samuel Merrifield Bemiss. The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London. The Project Gutenberg, 21 May 2011, www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36181/pg36181-images.html#pg_1.