Jim Beaux
04-22-2008, 10:31 AM
A TV programme in the UK called Time Team does archaeology digs, and has just run 2 specials over the last 2 days.
The first was Jamestown, Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in what would become the US. It was 400 years old last May and for about 90 years was the capital of Virginia.
The (American) team digging Jamestown found it started as a triangular fort enclosing a very special type of house. That type of house existed, and still exists, in only one other location in the world, East Lincolnshire in England. Which is where most of the original settlers came from, and where the single carpenter, who must have built the houses in Jamestown, also came from.
Jamestown was founded in May, 1607, and by the middle of summer half of the original settlers were dead, mainly due to drinking polluted water.
What tipped the balance and made the US? A pipemaker found clay in Virginia that was ideal for making pipes, then in short supply in England, and started exporting pipes to Britain. More importantly, someone took some West Indies seeds to Virginia, planted them, and found that Virginia was ideal for growing tobacco, and the colony flourished.
Thus the US got English language, English law and a bundle of English heritage. And we got fags.
You can see other things resulting, can't you? That tobacco crop is going to need a lot of hard, physical toil to flourish. Where's that going to come from?
The first was Jamestown, Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in what would become the US. It was 400 years old last May and for about 90 years was the capital of Virginia.
The (American) team digging Jamestown found it started as a triangular fort enclosing a very special type of house. That type of house existed, and still exists, in only one other location in the world, East Lincolnshire in England. Which is where most of the original settlers came from, and where the single carpenter, who must have built the houses in Jamestown, also came from.
Jamestown was founded in May, 1607, and by the middle of summer half of the original settlers were dead, mainly due to drinking polluted water.
What tipped the balance and made the US? A pipemaker found clay in Virginia that was ideal for making pipes, then in short supply in England, and started exporting pipes to Britain. More importantly, someone took some West Indies seeds to Virginia, planted them, and found that Virginia was ideal for growing tobacco, and the colony flourished.
Thus the US got English language, English law and a bundle of English heritage. And we got fags.
You can see other things resulting, can't you? That tobacco crop is going to need a lot of hard, physical toil to flourish. Where's that going to come from?