Christopher Columbus did not "discover" America. Indigenous peole have lived in the Americas for thousands of years prior to Columbus. Columbus's ship did not even land in what is now considered "America." His ship actually landed in what is now called the Bahamas. Columbus was no hero. He was responsible for the enslavement and later genocide of the indigenous people he encountered. He and his crew inflicted horrid violence on the indigenous people and forced them into laboring for them. Columbus was driven by greed and power and was a brutal, evil man. With John Smith and Pocahontas, there is no factual evidence to prove they were actually married. Pocahantas was actually a little girl at the time they were supposedly married. They might have had a friendly relationship based on Pocahantas' wanting to do everything she could to protect her people from the English settlers who were stealing their land and way of life.

Explore The Big Idea Write an essay telling how the English learned to live in their new settlement of Jamestown. After Christopher Columbus discovered America, people from England first came to the Powhatan lands in 1607. They began making this land their home and named it Jamestown. In the beginning, in the winter of 1609, life in Jamestown was hard, settlers were suffering sharp pangs of hunger. They went to their neighbors for help. They learned how to hunt and grow food, and made friends with the Powhatans, some even got married, such as John Rolfe and Pocahontas. After ten years, the Powhatan had lost much of their land to the Jamestown settlers. As more settlers arrived, Jamestown grew stronger. Settlers chopped down trees. They planted tobacco. They also made glass. Then they traded these goods back to England. In 1619 a Dutch ship brought the first African workers, or to be more specific, slaves to Jamestown. They did almost all the jobs and helped Jamestown to grow even more. Slavery began and it went from bad to worse over time.

Explore The Big Idea Write an essay telling/describing how the English learned to live in their new settlement of Jamestown. After Christopher Columbus discovered America, people from England first came to Powhatan lands in 1607. They began making this land their home and named it Jamestown. In the beginning, in the winter of 1609, life in Jamestown was hard. Settlers were suffering/suffered the sharp pangs of hunger. They went to their neighbors (the Powhatans?) for help. They learned how to hunt and grow food, they and made friends with the Powhatans. Some even intermarried with them, such as John Rolfe and Pocahontas. In ten years, the Powhatans had lost much of their land to the Jamestown settlers. As more settlers arrived, Jamestown grew stronger. Settlers chopped down trees. They planted tobacco. They also made glass. Then they traded these goods back to England. In 1619 a Dutch ship brought the first African workers, or slaves, to Jamestown. They did almost all the jobs and helped Jamestown to grow even more. Slavery began, and it developed from bad to worse over time.