Kaitlin Van Buren
Lesson #3—Biography: John Rolfe
Audience: Upper Elementary, Grade 4
Standards:
Introduction to History and Social Science Standards of Learning
VS.4
The student will demonstrate knowledge of life in the Virginia colony by
a) explaining the importance of agriculture and its influence on the institution of
slavery;
National Social Studies Standards (Middle Grades)
Standard 3B: The People, Events, Problems, and Ideas that Created the History of Their
State—Analyze some of the interactions that occurred between the Native Americans or
Hawaiians and the first European, African, and Asian-Pacific explorers and settlers in the
students' state or region.
NSS-C.K-4.5 Roles of the Citizen: What is the importance of political leadership and public
service?
Objective and Its Purpose:
1. After a class discussion about John Rolfe’s influence on Jamestown’s tobacco industry and
Powhatan-English relations, the students will identify John Rolfe’s leadership roles.
2.Given construction paper, Popsicle sticks, glue, and crayons, the students will create paper
puppets of John Rolfe, Pocahontas, and others and act out an important interaction between
John Rolfe and the settlers or John Rolfe and the Powhatans between 1609 and 1617.
Materials/Space/Time: popsicles sticks, cutouts of people, construction paper, scissors, glue,
crayons, skit worksheet; extension timeline worksheet; 20 students; working in small groups
of 2, 1 hour
Lesson Description:
Introduction: As motivation, tell students that you are going to read a paragraph of a letter
from an important leader of the Jamestown settlement. Explain that it is a letter by John Rolfe
to Governor Dale of Virginia where he asks the governor for permission to marry Pocahontas
in 1614. Read the paragraph (See excerpt below). Next, read the translated version of the
letter (see excerpt below). Ask the students if they understand why it would be controversial
for John Rolfe to marry Pocahontas. Tell students that even though John Rolfe’s marriage to
Pocahontas was controversial, it brought peace between the Powhatans and the English
settlers. Explain to students that John Rolfe influenced life in the Jamestown settlement in
more ways than just forming a peaceful inter-racial marriage between the English settlers and
the Powhatans. Tell the students that he was a civic leader who many other English settlers
and Powhatans respected and looked up to. Explain to students that they will learn more
about John Rolfe’s role in Jamestown’s history as a civic leader in today’s lesson.
Content Focus: Students will have previously learned about Pocahontas and the Powhatan
Indians. They learned about how the English settlers and the Powhatans did not get along.
Share information on John Rolfe’s life with the whole class (see Background Information).
Tell students that they will have the chance to re-enact an interaction between John Rolfe and
Powhatans or John Rolfe and other English settlers that occurred from the time Rolfe arrived
in Jamestown in 1609 to the year 1617 when he exported a 20,000-pound shipment of tobacco
to England. Explain to the students that each group will receive an event to describe. Then
they will work with the person seated next to them to make paper puppets of John Rolfe and
other Powhatans and/or English settlers (depending on their event) using construction paper,
glue, crayons, and Popsicle sticks. The students must make at least 2 puppets. Tell students
that after they finish making their puppets, they will write and act out a skit using their
puppets with their partner that describes an interaction between John Rolfe and the English
settlers or the Powhatans. Tell them to use the information they just learned and their
creativity when writing the skit. Tell students that this skit does not need to be long. No more
than 2-3 minutes. Pass out materials to students and give them 35 minutes to work in their
pairs. Explain that each topic sheet has a topic on the front and a hint on the back. The
students only have to look at the hint if they cannot come up with an idea for a skit. After
students act out the vents for each pair, they would have reenacted the period from 1609 to
1617.
Closure: After students finish their puppets and skits, call on groups to share a summary of
their skit with the class. Not every group must share if they are not willing. Collect puppets
and skit scripts to place them on the class Jamestown bulletin board. Pass out multiple-choice
question for students to complete for they leave class.
Evaluation
Formative: Observation of student participation in their small groups while making the
puppets and skits.
Summative: Each student will create a paper puppet of John Rolfe and a Powhatan
Indian/English settler and must act out a skit according to their assigned event. Above
Expectations: students make puppets with clothing that looks time appropriate, and their skits
strongly align with background information. Meets Expectations: students make puppets and
a skit that that aligns with background information. Below Expectations: students do not
make one or more puppets or do not make their puppets resemble correct characters. Their skit
does not align with background information.
Background Information/Content:
John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown in 1609, just two
years after the founding of the settlement. From the time Rolfe arrived in Jamestown, he
portrayed civic leadership in many ways. For example, Rolfe was experimental with
agriculture and was not afraid to try something new to improve Jamestown’s economy.
Rolfe’s enthusiasm for new ideas is responsible for the economic success of Jamestown when
he planted the first Caribbean tobacco seeds at the Jamestown settlement in 1612. These
tobacco seeds produced more desirable tobacco because its smoke had a sweet and strong
taste and it compared to the “Spanish” tobacco leaf. The tobacco crop was shipped to England
where it became extremely popular. His fearlessness and originality set an example for later
farmers who came to Jamestown.
In 1614, John Rolfe met Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan Chief, after she was
kidnapped by English settlers and bought to Jamestown to be traded for English prisoners and
weapons held by Powhatan. Pocahontas was never traded back to the Powhatans, and she
lived with the Europeans where she learned English, was baptized, and married John Rolfe.
The wedding between John Rolfe and Pocahontas resulted in peace with the Powhatans. This
peaceful relationship between the Powhatans and the English allowed the settlers to expand
their colony and establish other larger, permanent settlements in the region. Even though
Rolfe knew that marrying Pocahontas was not culturally acceptable, he followed his heart
anyway. This proves that Rolfe was a leader for stepping out of social norms and doing what
he believed was right. John Rolfe and Pocahontas had a son named Thomas. The Rolfe
family moved to England in 1616 where Rolfe promoted and campaigned for the Virginia
Company, but John returned to Jamestown seven months later after Pocahontas died. Back in
Jamestown, Rolfe became a member of the House of Burgesses and continued to grow
tobacco. This membership gave him an influential political voice in the colony. By 1617,
tobacco exports to England totaled 20,000 pounds, and tobacco became Virginia’s “cash
crop”. Not only did John Rolfe bring peace among the Powhatans and the English, but he also
gave Jamestown the economic base it needed to survive settlement.
Resources:
Preservation Virginia. (2007). John Rolfe. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from
http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=6
Wisconsin Historical Society. (2003). Letter of John Rolfe, 1614. Retrieved March 23,
2010 from
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/aj&CISOPTR=48
97
Materials:
Topics Slips to pass out to each group.
(Front)
Group 1: In 1609, John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown just two years after the founding of
the settlement.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hints: Create a puppet of Rolfe and a famous English settler (like John Smith) and
imagine a conversation they could have together about improving life in the Jamestown
Settlement.
(Front)
Group 2: In 1612, Rolfe had success with the Caribbean tobacco seed and made the plant
popular.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and another English settler who is a farmer. Describe
how Rolfe inspired other farmers to experiment with agriculture.
(Front)
Group 3: In 1612, Rolfe established Varina Farms, a plantation on the James River about
30 miles upstream from the Jamestown Settlement.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and other English farmers who could have worked on
Varina Farms. Describe how Rolfe’s portrayed leadership during this time throughout
managing the farm and overseeing workers.
(Front)
Group 4: In 1614, Rolfe had his first sale of Virginia tobacco to England.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and another English settler who worked on the boat that
shipped the first shipment of tobacco to England. Describe how you think Rolfe inspired
other workers in the colony to make/grow exports for England.
(Front)
Group 5: In 1614, Rolfe writes letter to Virginia Governor Dale asking for permission to
marry Pocahontas.
__________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and Governor Dale. Describe how Rolfe had to be firm
and convincing when speaking with the governor.
(Front)
Group 6: In 1614, Rolfe married Pocahontas.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and Pocahontas and/or Chief Powhatan. Describe a
peaceful interaction among them.
(Front)
Group 7: From 1614 to 1617, Rolfe severed as a secretary and recorder of the colony.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and an English settler and/or a Powhatan Indian.
Describe an interaction between them that Rolfe would write about.
(Front)
Group 8: In 1616, Rolfe and Pocahontas traveled to England to promote the Virginia
Company.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and Pocahontas dressed in English clothes. Describe how
they both must have spoken to the English people about the Virginia Company to
promote it.
(Front)
Group 9: In 1617, Rolfe became an original member of the Virginia House of Burgesses
even before their first official meeting in 1619.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and another Englishman in the House of Burgesses (like
James Powell). Describe how Rolfe established a minimum price for tobacco using his
experience as a farmer and his new political voice.
(Front)
Group 10: In 1617, Rolfe and his tobacco industry exported over 20, 000 pounds of
tobacco to England.
____________________________________________________________________
(Back)
Hint: Create a puppet of Rolfe and an English farmer/ship worker who worked with
Rolfe to ship the tobacco to England. Describe how Rolfe could have led and directed
the English worker to load the shipment.
Multiple-Choice Question:
John Rolfe portrayed civic leadership in Jamestown during which of the
following events between 1609-1617:
A. He served as captain of the Godspeed that sailed to Jamestown from
England.
B. He traded wampum belts with the Powhatans.
C. He built houses for the Jamestown Settlement.
D. He served as a member of the House of Burgesses.
Letter of John Rolfe to Governor Dale of Virginia, 1614
Translation of Letter:
Let this be my well advised declaration, which I make between God and my own
conscience, be a sufficient witness, at the dreadful day of judgment (when the secret of
all men’s hearts shall be opened) to condemn me to argue with my power of body and
mind, and in the responsibility of such a great matter, not be led by a desire of physical
affection: but for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the glory of
God, for my own salvation, and for the wonderful creature named Pocahontas. To whom
m hart and best thought are, and have been for a long time so entangles, and enthralled in
an intricate labyrinth, that I was mental exhausted.
Names:
Date:
John Rolfe Civic Leadership Skit Worksheet
Create a skit with your Popsicle stick puppets that describes the your event
between 1609-1617. This skit does not need to be long. No more than 2-3
minutes. Use the information we talked about in today’s lesson and your
CREATIVITY!
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