Smith, John (1580?-1631), was an English soldier and adventurer. He helped establish the first permanent English colony in America, at Jamestown, Virginia.
According to a book that Smith wrote, he was once captured by unfriendly Native Americans while on an expedition in the wilderness. The Native American chief, Powhatan, intended to kill Smith, but Pocahontas, the chief’s daughter, stopped the execution. Smith was released, and he returned to Jamestown. Pocahontas remained Smith’s friend and warned him of at least one plan to attack the settlement. See Pocahontas; Powhatan.
Early years.
John Smith was born in Willoughby, England, near Louth. He worked on his father’s farm and went to school until about age 15. A short time later, after his father’s death, he left home and became a soldier. He fought in the Netherlands with the Dutch army against the Spaniards. In 1601, he joined the fight of several east European nations against invasion by the Ottoman Empire, which was based in what is now Turkey. Smith was quickly promoted to captain. But the Ottomans soon captured Smith and sold him as a slave. He later escaped to Russia and then returned to England.
Life in the colonies.
In 1606, Smith joined a group that sailed from England to establish a colony in Virginia. The expedition was financed by the Virginia Company of London, an organization formed partly by London business people (see London Company). These people believed gold and silver could be found in America, and the colonists were instructed to transport the precious metals back to England. 
The colonists landed in Virginia in 1607 and founded a settlement, which they named Jamestown in honor of King James I. From the beginning, Jamestown suffered heavily from disease, starvation, and attacks by native peoples. Most of the colonists were unable or unwilling to work to feed and protect themselves. Smith served as president of the colony in 1608 and 1609. He enforced order and required all the colonists to work. They built forts along the James River and traded with Native Americans for food. Smith’s book, A True Relation of … Virginia (1608), described the settling of Jamestown. It was the first book written in the American Colonies to be published.
Under Smith’s leadership, Jamestown was almost free of hunger and disease. Smith treated the Native Americans harshly. They feared him, and so fewer conflicts occurred between them and the colonists. But Smith’s rough manner toward the Native Americans increased their hatred of the settlers. After Smith left Jamestown, the tribes increased their attacks against the colony.
Some of the settlers criticized Smith’s leadership. Many of his opponents were aristocrats who resented being governed by a farmer’s son. Smith sailed back to England in 1609 after being wounded in a gunpowder accident. That winter, the colony was almost wiped out by starvation and attacks. Smith returned to America in 1614, though not to Virginia. He spent several months exploring the coast in the Massachusetts Bay area. He later named this region “New England.”
In his later years, Smith lived in London and wrote several books that promoted American colonization. His most influential book was The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624). Smith stressed the value of such products as fish, furs, and timber. He criticized the useless searches for gold and silver by earlier colonists. He also urged that future expeditions be carefully planned and that people chosen as colonists be willing to work and undergo hardship. Smith died on June 21, 1631.
See also American literature (Virginia) ; Jamestown ; Map (Mapping the Americas) .
