Ambitious college freshmen who want to learn something could spend a little time at Jamestown on their spring breaks. The 10th annual Beloit College Mindset List reminds us that the Class of '11 hasn't lived through epochal history, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall or the end of the Cold War. Cultural touchstones, of course, change with each new college class, but with the knowledge of contemporary history diminishing an understanding of our origins becomes more difficult. At Jamestown there's even a memorial to the Magna Carta, a celebration of the roots of Anglo-Saxon common law. Does anyone memorize the date 1215 anymore?
Full disclosure: I couldn't interest my two redheaded grandsons, 8 and 11, in Captain John Smith until they discovered that he had a red beard. But as a hero he cut a fascinating figure. If only half the stories about him are true, he was one tough critter, a rebel with a cause, to save Jamestown from extinction by ordering everyone to work if he wanted to survive. "He that will not work, shall not eat," he said. He was captured by the Powhatan Indians and according to legend was saved from execution by Pocahontas, one of the many daughters of the chief. Peggy Lee sang about their "mad affair" in her hit "Fever," but that's probably myth. The actual story is that Pocahontas grew up to marry John Rolfe, a colonist who established a popular strain of tobacco in Jamestown, the first big money-making crop of the founding community. Husband and wife took their young son to London for a publicity tour to raise money for further investments in their fledgling colony.
When President Bush spoke at the celebration commemorating the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in May, he conceded the flaws of the settlers, but reminded the gathering, including Queen Elizabeth II, that the drive for liberty demands sustained courage in the face of discouraging setbacks. "Yet we can have confidence in the outcome," he said, drawing an analogy with the war in Iraq, "because we've seen freedom's power to transform societies before."
Sandra Day O'Connor, the Supreme Court justice now retired, spoke with greater subtlety. "The settlers of Jamestown underwent severe testing," she said. "Yet Jamestown endured and gave America, if not a perfect start, certainly a legacy of self-reliance sufficient to build upon and establish a system of citizen participation in government." Hear, hear. And enjoy the leisure of this Labor Day. There's a lot of work ahead of us before the next one.