Clash of Cultures
Juanita Morris
HIS/115
November 23, 2014
Carly Muetterties

Clash of Cultures
Have you ever thought about what life would have been like today if certain encounters never took place? For example, if the English settlers never settled in Jamestown and never interacted with the Natives Americans. How would America look today? What would the economic, political, social, cultural, and religious make up of todays society? Most likely a lot different from the structure we see today. The clashing of cultures between Jamestown’s settlers and the Native Americans set the course of events in motion that shaped the America that we know and live in today.
The earliest colonists in Jamestown was in 1607 and it was not with a warm reception as they were attacked by the Paspahegh tribe (StudentDoc, 2014). However, they were able to eventually set up trade with the Powhatan tribe for food and to help teach them to work the land. The Native tribe help them learn how to plant and harvest the cash crop known as tobacco which caused for relations them become strain as the colonist wanted to increase this crop for profit. This greed caused for the need for a labor force to work the crops more prevalent, thus setting in motion of slave trade and indentured servants (Schultz, 2012). As the cash crop continued to do well it not only brought about salve trade it also increased bad relations with Native tribes and a change in leadership. This hostility from the native cause them to lead an attack on the English were many settlers lives was lost caused them to eliminate every Indian they came across. The battle cause a shift in leadership to switch to The House of Burgesses. All of the event that was a result of the settlers of Jamestown and the Native Americans clashing served as a model for other settlers to learn from to create the same successful cash crop minus