RPTM Podcast Episode Six: Roanoke, Disease, and the New Culture

Remember, in the first episode, I mentioned that historians are detectives? That we are charged with uncovering the truth, what happened throughout recorded history? Well, time to grab your deerstalker hats and magnifying glasses. We have a few mysteries for you. But do yourself a favor and not focus on the ‘truth’ portion of this exercise. Truth is relative to those that experience it. The Information Age in which I currently reside has demonstrated that. In the era of “fake news,” is anything definitive? Or were things EVER absolute? The truth of the European entrepreneurial colonists is a far cry from that of the natives of the Americas. And the sad part is? We may never find the answers. It may be buried in the sands forever. The best we can do is comb the beaches of history until we find the kernel of data.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The fate of the 1587 colonists of Roanoke remains unknown. 
• Joachim Gans was a Bohemian mining expert and he became the not only first Bohemian and the first recorded Jew in colonial America 
• During the Colonial era, lifestyles consisted mostly of plowing the land for crops, hunting for food, and herding cattle. This lifestyle provided enough physical activity levels with no additional need or demand for exercise to maintain fitness levels.
• It is essential to keep in mind there is no such thing as a "typical colonial meal." The Royal Governor of Virginia ate quite differently from the first Pilgrim settlers and the West Indians laboring in Philadelphia's cookshops.
• Most mainstream scholars believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the American natives' population decline because of their lack of immunity to new diseases brought from Europe. 
• In 1673, Marquette, with Louis Jolliet, an explorer born near Quebec City, was the first European to explore and map the Mississippi River Valley's northern portion.
• New Netherland left an enduring legacy on American cultural and political life of religious tolerance and sensible trade in urban areas and rural traditionalism in the countryside. 
• Squanto, also known as Tisquantum, is best remembered for serving as an interpreter and guide for the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth in the 1620s. 
• Though there is much in primary sources referring to the folk music of the time, it is virtually all written by those who condemned the songs as uncouth. As such, little is objectively known. 

CHAPTERS
0:00 Start
0:37 Introduction
1:45 Roanoke Colony
9:05 Joachim Gans
11:19 Colonials and Fitness
16:15 Food in the New World
21:50 Epidemic Disease
25:43 French Colonization Part 2
29:19 Dutch Mid-Atlantic
33:37 Squanto
36:00 17th Century Music
43:09 Outro

RESOURCES
The Roanoke Colonies
Joachim Gans
How to have a good workout: lessons from the 16th century
Colonial & early American fare
History of Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States
Henry Hudson: Discoverer of the Island of Manhattan
Music history of the United States during the colonial era

Episode 5

RPTM Podcast

Episode 7