One hundred and forty-five English
emigrants establish the settlement of Jamestown on the banks of the
James River. They did so without any real legal or moral
justification, other than a royal charter. The Jamestown
colony was established without any assurance that either the
Indians or Spain would recognize theirs as a legitimate
enterprise. (click here for more on Jamestown)
Powhatan, the
chief of the neighboring tribe, rejected English claims to superior
rights out of hand, but the popular puritan preacher of the day,
Robert Gray, delivered a sermon entitled "A good speed in Virginia"
which urged the colonists to make war "upon the savages of
Virginia" because a Christian king could lawfully make war upon
barbarous and savage people in order to convert the barbaric
heathens into a life of piety and honesty.
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