America's Hidden Stories (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Mystery at Jamestown - full transcript

Follows the forensic detective work as scientists excavate and analyze the burials, hoping to match clues with historical records of Yeardley's life. Dramatic reconstructions transport ...

Narrator: Jamestown,
the first successful

English colony in America.

Williams: We think about, of
course, John Smith,

we think about pocahontas.

Narrator: But now, cutting
edge science and technology

are revealing how jamestown
played a pivotal role

in forging america's story.

Owsley: It's a really
a crescendo

culminating with
this excavation.

Yeardley: I bring
instructions from the...

Narrator: 400 years ago...



Yeardley: Establishing of a
commonwealth here.

Narrator: In one critical year...

Yeardley: And that
we might have a hand

in the governing ofourselves.

Narrator: The first
Democratic assembly,

and the dawn of
American slavery.

Alexander: Kidnapped, forced
thousands of miles away

from their homeland with
no hope of getting back.

Narrator: Now,
archeologists are trying

to unearth that history...

Givens: I don't
see a head there.

Leach: I don't see
a head in there either.

Narrator: Before it disappears...

Givens: The island may go
underwater within 50 years.



Narrator: Racing
to uncover the remains

of a long-lost founding father...

Owsley: These teeth
belong to that jaw.

Narrator: And give voice
to those who are known

only by what they left behind.

Givens: This posset cup could
have belonged to Angela.

Narrator: This is the
real origin story of America.

(Guns firing)

History may be more shocking
than we ever imagined.

Today, technology forces the
past to give up its secrets.

Newly discovered documents
turn history on its head,

and discoveries in
ancient archives

reveal startling
stories we never knew.

As recently as 25 years ago,

most people believed
the original settlement

at jamestown had vanished,

washed away by the James river,

except for archeologist
bill kelso.

Kelso: Am I excited?

You better believe it!

Narrator: In 1996, he
discovered the wooden fort

built by John Smith and
the first settlers in 1607.

Kelso: Okay, this way
a little more.

We found where the two
walls came together,

and that was a slam dunk, man.

That was it.

Narrator: The find set
off a decades-long effort

to reconstruct jamestown's
past and its critical role

in setting the course
of American history.

July 2019 marks the
400th anniversary

of the first elected legislative

assembly in English America.

Now, a new generation
of archeologists

is working to uncover the
site where it took place,

a church built in 1617.

It's hidden away inside a
brick memorial sanctuary,

built in the early 20th century
which protects its remains.

Yeardley: I bring
with me, commission...

Narrator: Here
on July 30th, 1619,

the first Democratic
assembly is convened

by a man whose name has
long been forgotten,

George yeardley, a
commoner who Rose to become

the colony's second governor.

The goal is to
reconstruct his story

and the early years
of the colony.

Horn: Because so little was
known about

this earliest church,

the only way we
could find out more

and understand that church
better was to go underground,

to go to the archeology.

Hartley: We are in the
eastern end

or what would be the
chancel of the church.

Narrator: According to 17th
century English tradition,

the chancel, where
the altar stands,

is the most likely burial
place for sir George yeardley

and other high-status members
of the Virginia colony.

But for Mary Anna hartley
and the archeology team,

the dig site poses a puzzle.

Hartley: This is one of the
most complicated sites

that we have ever worked
on here at jamestown.

Narrator: The
original 1617 church

was rebuilt several times,

and bodies were often buried
one on top of another.

One important clue
was a tombstone

clearly indicating someone
prominent like a governor.

Kelso: There's an indent,
or an imprint,

on it where there had been
a brass figure of a knight,

and that had been removed.

And there was also
an epitaph area,

and that had been removed.

Narrator: And the stone
itself had also been moved

from its original position.

Months into the excavation

of the foundation walls
of the early church,

the team finds a grave
that looks important.

Hartley: So this
individual is a male.

He's fairly good-sized, in
his mid-30s when he died.

And this is probably
one of the best craniums

that we've seen in the church.

We think this fits the profile

of two of the individuals
we're looking for.

Narrator: One candidate is
Thomas west, lord de la warr,

appointed the colony's
first governor in 1609.

Horn: De la warr was a lord,

he had the authority of a
very old aristocratic family.

Narrator: Or it could
be sir George yeardley,

a self-made man whose ambition
earns him a knighthood

and the job of governor in 1618.

Horn: Sir George yeardley,
important though he was,

there's no portrait of him,

no image of him from
the early 17th century.

So, we wanted to see
if we could find him.

Narrator: Possibly tipping
the scales in yeardley's favor

is that buried next
to him is a woman.

Hartley: If you have a male
and a female side by side

in such a prominent
place within the church,

that's suggesting that maybe
there's a relationship.

Narrator: Yeardley's
wife, temperance,

died just a year after him.

Hartley: She's really
well-preserved.

It'll be interesting to see
what our analysis comes up with.

Owsley: So if you're
standing over here,

as you're walking down
this aisle on these...

Narrator: Since 1996,
when they unearthed

the bones of an early colonist,

the archeology team has
partnered with Doug owsley

to interpret the human
remains they find.

Owsley: So, you got this Glen

of a tibia right
here, a shin bone.

Narrator: Doug
is a world-renowned

forensic anthropologist
at the smithsonian's

national museum of
natural history.

Owsley: Most of the work that I
do, in terms of my forensics,

is modern, contemporary work.

But in the same sense, I
can take these techniques

and I can go back in time.

In a situation like this,

we have truly an opportunity

to identify the person
specifically by name.

Narrator: But
there's no time to lose.

Archeology is slow,
painstaking work.

And in 50 years,
jamestown may be gone.

Owsley: Because of the
rise in sea level,

this site is ultimately
going to be underwater.

Narrator: The events
that will culminate in 1619

have their roots
12 years earlier.

In 1607, the Virginia company,
funded by private investors,

sends a hundred English
adventurers to the new world.

Their mission: To set
up a colony that

will produce a profit

from gold and other
natural resources.

They settle along
the James river

at a site they call jamestown.

But the place is far from empty.

The English have landed on
a vast Indian confederation

led by a powerful
chief: Powhatan.

In 1608, John Smith,
the colony's leader,

secures a tentative
peace with powhatan,

thanks in part to his
young daughter, pocahontas.

But the colony is
split by rivalries

and barely sustainable.

An embattled John Smith
urges the Virginia company

to send skilled men and their
families, as well as supplies.

The Virginia company mounts
a massive PR campaign

to recruit volunteers:

In return for seven years
of labor for the company,

settlers are promised
100 acres of land

and a share of the profit.

Kelly: These settlers are
coming with the dream of,

within a few years, owning
a hundred acres of land,

which is a fabulous
amount of wealth.

You could be a laborer

who doesn't know how
to read or write,

but you're gonna have
a share in the company,

just as much as the lord

who has bought six
shares in the company.

Narrator: One of
them is George yeardley,

an ambitious 21-year-old
tailor's son turned soldier

who's just returned from the
Spanish war in the Netherlands

and is eager to advance

into the upper level
of English society.

Kelly: Yeardley has not
made that leap,

this kind of enterprise
is really gonna

offer him that opportunity.

Actually, he gets involved
through Thomas gates,

who's a commander of
his in the Netherlands.

Narrator: Sir Thomas gates

has been recruited
for one purpose.

Horn: The company viewing the
disasters of the first few years

wanted to impose a very
rigorous form of government.

And they wanted experienced
military men like gates

to take charge of the colony.

Narrator: Their
job will be to enforce

military discipline before the
arrival of the new governor,

lord de la warr, the Virginia
company's largest investor.

Kelly: Lord de la warr is the
most prominent aristocrat

who deigns to go
over to Virginia.

When he comes to the new world,

he basically thinks that,
"I'm like a king here."

Narrator: One of the
more distinguished settlers

is temperance flowerdew,
the future lady yeardley.

Wulf: She comes from a
high-status family.

She comes from a gentry family.

I think the interesting
thing about her background

is that she decides
to go to jamestown.

Women go for the
same reasons as men.

They're looking for, I
don't want to be casual

and say it's just an adventure,

but they're looking
to better their lives.

Narrator: Newly married,
temperance is traveling

with her first husband
to seek that better life.

In June 1609, the advance
convoy sails from London.

The governor, lord de la
warr, will follow later.

On board are 500 men,
women, and children,

and a year's supplies.

Horn: We have to imagine a great
fleet sailing down the thames,

and with it went the
hopes of the nation.

Kelly: They're having these
wonderful sailing days,

beautiful weather wafting them
across the Atlantic ocean.

They almost get there,

probably within a week of
landing in the chesapeake,

and a hurricane overtakes them.

Narrator: Out of nowhere,
a massive storm strikes,

threatening jamestown's
very future.

The jamestown
rediscovery archeologists

are focused on the chancel
of the 1617 church.

Their hope is to find
the grave of america's

lost founding father,
sir George yeardley.

Hartley: These are really
hallowed spaces

within the church.

That would've been
a very coveted place

back then to be buried.

Narrator: Four
centuries earlier,

there was no guarantee

yeardley would even
make it to jamestown.

Just days from land, a
hurricane scatters the fleet.

The flagship carrying yeardley
and his commander, gates,

is wrecked off the
island of Bermuda.

It will take them 10
months to build new vessels

to continue their journey.

Most of the other
ships survive the storm

and limp in to jamestown.

Kelly: They're all battered,
many are injured.

Their supplies,
to a large extent,

are ruined by saltwater
through the hurricane.

So, they're in pretty
horrible shape.

Narrator: Temperance
and the other new arrivals

are met with open hostility.

Horn: So on top of the people

already in desperate
straits in the colony,

you have another maybe 350
additional mouths to feed.

Narrator: Soon, John Smith,

the leader who managed to make
peace with chief powhatan,

is injured and taken back
to england, never to return.

With his departure,
war erupts again.

Woodard: And this means
that when englishman

do try to get
outside of the fort,

out in the woods
trying to forage,

they might be picked
off by powhatan archers.

So, they know that if
they leave the fort,

they'll be killed.

Narrator: Cut off from food,
jamestown begins to starve.

Woodard: During that winter
of 1609, it's very bad.

They begin to eat the
animals that they do have,

so horses, dogs, cats,

anything that really is alive.

And then they turn
to their shoe leather

and their belt
leather and boiled it.

Ultimately, there
are some instances

where they turned
to cannibalism,

survival cannibalism,

to be able to get
through the winter.

Narrator: In may
1610, yeardley, gates,

and the group marooned by
the hurricane in Bermuda

finally arrive and are
horrified by what they find.

Kelly: The gate is
off its hinges.

There's holes in the palisade.

They're basically walking
into a ghost town.

People who, you know, the flesh
has fallen off their bodies

because they are starving.

Narrator: There
are only 60 survivors.

Somehow, temperance
is among them.

Her husband does not
survive the ordeal.

She watches in awe, the
miracle now unfolding.

Kelly: You know, this is an
angel from heaven arriving.

They have been clutched
from the very jaws of death,

and now they're gonna live.

Narrator: But
after just two weeks,

sir Thomas gates concludes
the colony is lost.

He orders everyone
out of jamestown.

Yeardley stands guard,

making sure the settlers don't
set fire to the buildings.

Woodard: He evacuates, he
evacuates the place,

he puts them on the
boat, and they sail out.

It would've been the
end of jamestown.

Narrator: The English experiment

to settle the new
world seems doomed.

As they head down river,

the fugitives from jamestown
receive an astonishing message.

Horn: In one of the great
turnarounds in American history,

coming up the river
was a longboat.

Narrator: It brings
a message announcing

the arrival of lord de
la warr and his fleet,

persuading sir Thomas
gates to turn around.

Man: Clear the way!

Narrator: With a
hundred more settlers

and his own private army,

lord de la warr
saves the colony.

Man: Clear the way!

Narrator: And wasted no time

in asserting his
supreme authority.

Kelly: Almost the first
thing that he does

is he has this
elaborate ceremony.

He marches down and when
he gets into the church,

he sits on the chair
with the only pillow

and he makes all the
settlers come and watch this.

He makes reverend bucke
invest him in the church.

Man: The lord has assured us
that he will provide for us.

Kelly: That's the kind of guy
that lord de la warr is.

He pretty much fits that
bill of the stereotypical

high aristocrat who demands
respect from people.

Man: He is my
refuge and my fortress.

Narrator: De la warr intends
to rule with an iron fist:

Martial law for the settlers,
and war with the natives.

It's up to gates and yeardley
to carry out his plan.

(Screams) (Gun fires)

(Woman screams) (Sword rasps)

Woodard: They begin to shoot as
many people as they can,

to run them through with
swords, to decapitate people,

cut all the corn, and
burn entire villages.

Narrator: De la warr's
scorched-earth policy

proves brutally effective.

The native population flees.

Chief powhatan urges his
warriors to be patient.

In time, they'll
have their revenge

against yeardley and his men.

Inside the 1617 church,

the archeology team has
experienced its own setback

in the search for the remains
of the colony's early leaders.

Hartley: So just down from
here, all the way across,

you can see there's
a huge cobblestone

in this kind of mortar-like
Clay that's yellow.

Narrator: The remains of a step

leading up to the chancel.

Hartley: So if this was
a solid step,

there's no way these graves

would have been dug
through that wall.

That means these graves are
part of the later church.

Narrator: Built in 1640s,

meaning the skeletons
uncovered so far

appear to be from
a later period.

Fortunately, the
search also reveals

a promising new place to look,

beneath the church's
central aisle.

Hartley: What we're seeing
is the middle aisle

for the church in profile.

What's really interesting
is that just below that,

where we've taken out a grave,

we're seeing another
grave underneath

that looks really early to us.

And we think that there's
a good possibility

that's where the
knight's tombstone

may have originally been placed.

Narrator: Potentially
marking the grave

of either sir George
yeardley or lord de la warr.

After less than a year, de
la warr's health is failing.

He heads back to
england to recover,

leaving sir Thomas Dale,
another military hard man,

in charge until his return.

For yeardley, it's an
opportunity to advance.

Promoted to captain, he
serves as dale's deputy.

By now, many of the settlers
are on the verge of revolt.

Life under martial
law is wearing thin.

Kelly: There is so
much discontent

that the colony
is a penal colony.

They have absolutely no say.

As a matter of fact, they
have fewer rights in jamestown

than they had in england.

Narrator: Some settlers
even face execution

for petty crimes like blasphemy

or badmouthing the
Virginia company.

Kelly: We have to assume
that yeardley

is a part of enforcing
this martial law.

It seems that he
must be realizing

this is not a successful policy.

And presumably, also
recognizing this is inhumanity.

(Gun fires) (Woman screams)

This is just wrong.

Narrator: Harsh rule,
a never-ending Indian war,

and no sign of the riches
the new world promised.

The jamestown venture is
on the verge of collapse.

Horn: There was no profit,

and that really was a problem
for the Virginia company.

If there was nothing to
show for the adventure,

then investors would
simply turn away.

Narrator: But one man is
about to change American history

with a commodity more
valuable than gold.

John rolfe is a
young entrepreneur

who was shipwrecked with
George yeardley in Bermuda.

Horn: John rolfe had
been experimenting

with tobacco for a while.

We think probably
it began in Bermuda.

There is a natural growing
tobacco in Virginia

that Indian peoples
had used for centuries.

But it was acrid,
it was very bitter.

So, what rolfe was trying
to do was develop a blend.

Narrator: While
experimenting with tobacco,

John rolfe befriends the
legendary pocahontas,

now a young woman and
living with the English.

Woodard: And some even
suggest that possibly

his knowledge of tobacco was
improved with pocahontas.

And then that becomes the
profitable cash crop article

that they've been looking for

since the founding of jamestown.

Narrator: As a young girl,

pocahontas played a pivotal
role in forging peace

between her father
and John Smith

when the English first arrived.

Now, they hope she
can do it again.

The daughter of chief powhatan
is being held hostage,

a bargaining chip in the war
that continues to smolder.

Woodard: Her father though, does
not appear to be moved

by her hostage situation.

And so, pocahontas is
left among the English

almost as their ward for months.

And eventually, rolfe reveals
that he's developed feelings

for pocahontas while
she's in captivity.

Man: Dearly beloved friends,

we are gathered together
here in the sight of god,

to join together this man and...

Horn: They marry in the
spring, April of 1614,

in the church here at jamestown,

and in the presence of
Indians from her own tribe.

Narrator: The marriage, at last,

persuades chief powhatan
to agree to a new peace...

Pocahontas: I do.

Narrator: Just yards
from where pocahontas

and John rolfe took their vows.

Leach: Here's clean
subsoil that doesn't

look like it's been disturbed.

Narrator: The archeologists
have dug down to just inches

above the recently discovered
grave under the central aisle.

They believe it
contains the remains

of either lord de la warr

or the man they'd prefer to
find, sir George yeardley.

Givens: We're gonna come
down that right side, Peter.

Narrator: Before disturbing
such an important site,

they've asked
geophysicist, Peter leach,

to do a survey with
ground penetrating radar,

a remote sensing device
more commonly used

to detect buried objects
made of wood or metal.

Leach: I'm here in this
unique situation

where I can finally put
this question to rest:

Can we find bone with gpr?

Narrator: If he
can, it'll be a first.

He begins running lines
with the radar antenna.

Leach: If bones gonna show
up on gpr, long bones,

I don't know, leg
bones, like femurs,

I might expect them to generate

these characteristic
hyperbolic targets.

Narrator: When
the entire surface

of the grave is covered,

he and archeologist
Dave givens take a look.

Leach: Yeah, so I got some
preliminary data.

Just first glance at the
data after collecting it,

I see a spinal column.

I see potentially arm
bones coming down.

Maybe they're
crossing at the chest,

but I think that these
are two leg bones.

For me, this is
like a huge deal.

Givens: Radio waves
to see through dirt.

(Chuckles)

Leach: I kinda think we did.

Narrator: Without
digging an inch,

they've captured the
first images

of a 400-year-old skeleton

who may be america's
first founding father.

Leach: I feel like Bob Ballard
looking at the monitors

when the Titanic showed up.

Narrator: And there's more.

Leach: If I'm reading
this right,

the head's opposite where
we thought it would be.

Givens: Right.

Narrator: Unlike
in previous burials,

the head is pointing
toward the altar,

and it appears to be missing.

Givens: I don't
see a head there.

Leach: I don't see
a head in there either.

Givens: I guess maybe 'cause it
doesn't have the density

that some of these
bones do, maybe.

Leach: There's a couple of
things that might lead to that.

One of them is that, like a
lot of burials that we find,

the cranium is probably
full of sediment, of soil.

Givens: Ah.

Narrator: To resolve the
many mysteries once and for all,

they will have to dig.

But first, the archeologists
must transform the chancel

into a high-tech laboratory.

Givens: O-8 is the
dark organic sample.

Woman: Okay.

Givens: We start with
the feet first

and work our way to the cranium

because the cranium
is very delicate.

Narrator: They hope to
extract DNA from the bones,

so they're gowned like surgeons
to prevent contamination.

Givens: We just found
the first chunk of bone

and it's really, really
in good condition

which is always exciting.

The biggest problem right now

that's gonna slow
us down is the toes

because they're loose
and they're small.

Narrator: It'll take them hours

to expose the full skeleton.

By 1614, the latest
war with chief powhatan

is at a standstill.

Woodard: Even though there
are attacks going

in both directions,

there appears to be
a type of stalemate.

No one side is able
to overcome the other.

Narrator: In the
tentative peace that follows,

George yeardley shows he can
be much more than a soldier.

Horn: This is the period
where yeardley

really, really does
come into his own,

becoming someone quite
senior within the ranks.

Narrator: In 1616,
sir Thomas Dale,

appointed by governor de la warr

as his deputy in his absence,
is recalled to england.

Dale appoints
yeardley in his place.

He's only 28 years old.

Kelly: Anybody who's gonna
succeed in the new world,

I mean, it's almost
like natural selection.

Anybody who not only survives,

but rises the way yeardley Rose,

indicates that there's
a lot to his character.

Narrator: His
promotion gives yeardley,

a commoner by birth,

the confidence to ask the
widow temperance flowerdew

for her hand in marriage.

Man: Wilt thou have this
woman to thy wedded wife,

to love together after
god's ordinance...

Kelly: This is a big step
up, to be marrying a lady

who has this kind of
family background.

Wulf: She's a person who comes
from a world of resources

that she knows how to manage.

She's gonna be of really
great catch for him.

Kelly: Who knows, they might
have been desperately

in love with each other,
that could be true too,

but, for her, this is
a guy on the way up.

He's a resourceful man.

Yeardley: I will.

Narrator: To safeguard the
peace with the native people,

one of yeardley's first
actions is to arrange a meeting

with the man who
will soon succeed

the aging chief powhatan,

his younger brother,
opechancanough.

Woodard: It's likely that
yeardley and opechancanough

had discourse multiple times.

There was enough
of a relationship

for yeardley to be
granted a tract of land

in one of the territorial areas

that opechancanough controlled.

Narrator: Now a
landowner and a leader,

yeardley is determined to
make the colony a success,

and he knows just what to do.

Kelly: We can see,
over the course

of his career in jamestown,

a shift in his attitude
about what is going

to make a successful colony.

Narrator: In 1618, when
he's recalled to england,

he offers his vision
to sir Edwin sandys,

one of the leading officers
at the Virginia company.

Put an end to martial law.

Give the settlers the
land they have earned

from seven years of labor
and a say in how they use it.

With tobacco, the new gold,
everyone can make money,

including the Virginia company.

Kelly: We don't know what
the give and take was,

but clearly yeardley
is aligned with sandys.

Maybe he even persuades sandys,

"this is what's going
on, this is what works."

Narrator: The result is
a sweeping set of reforms

that will profoundly
impact virginia's future.

But then, shocking news arrives.

On his way back to resume
his post as governor,

lord de la warr has died.

For the Virginia company,

there's only one man
who can replace him.

Kelly: Yeardley was the guy
with the skills at the top.

He's the elite guy who is
running the government,

who can make it work.

Narrator: But governorships
are reserved for noblemen,

and yeardley is just a commoner.

Horn: The company then came
up with, they thought,

a very clever plan, just
have the king create him,

a member of the aristocracy,

gentry aristocracy
by knighting him.

Narrator: On
November 24th, 1618,

king James I orders sir
George yeardley to rise.

The tailor's son completes
his meteoric ascent.

Horn: Both sir George and lady
temperance must have wondered

how their stars had
aligned in such a fashion

to propel them from middle rank

into the highest
rank of society.

Narrator: In April 1619,

governor yeardley and his
wife sail back to Virginia.

His return will bring the
first glimmer of democracy

to the earliest English
settlement in America.

On the very spot where
governor yeardley

would soon address the
first legislative assembly,

the archeology team is slowly
unearthing the skeleton.

Givens: Right now, with
the limited view I'm seeing,

this is a pretty robust
individual, it's a male.

Looking like a male.

Narrator: A small
fragment of bone

has already been sent to

forensic anthropologist
Doug owsley

for bone chemistry analysis.

Owsley: One of the
things that we use

to get at clues as
to who is high-status

is really heavy
metals in the bone.

And in 17th century england,

one of the sources of that
is going to be pewter.

Back then, it's a fancy
word for lead and tin.

Narrator: A high
ranking aristocrat,

like lord de la warr,

used pewter plates and utensils
to show off his wealth.

Owsley: That can
leach out, lead,

and it can become
incorporated into your bones.

I'm not seeing anyone that has
the lead levels high enough

that I would think would be
indicative of lord de la warr.

Narrator: Whoever
the individual was,

his lead levels are too
low to be an aristocrat.

And further dietary
analysis using isotopes

shows that he ate American
corn, not English wheat.

Owsley: When you come over here,

one of the things
that became a staple

of their diet is corn.

Those different plants,
corn versus wheat,

have very different
chemical signals

in terms of their
carbon isotope values.

Narrator: The tests
seem to rule out de la warr

who only lived in
Virginia for a year.

That leaves yeardley as
the most likely candidate,

but they need more evidence

before they can positively
identify the body.

Back at the dig site,

the archeologists have
hit a problem.

Hartley: So the head should
have rested right here.

Givens: As we excavated down,

it was getting on
to be 15, 16 hours,

we realized there was no head.

We were so crestfallen because
you want a perfect skeleton.

Narrator: If they
can't locate the skull,

they will lose their
best source of DNA

and a way to put a face
on a forgotten governor.

On the verge of defeat, they
make an intriguing discovery.

Hartley: Turns out
that some pieces of it

actually are still here.

I saw four teeth
start to show up.

One here, two, three, four.

It is really fantastic
that we've got some teeth

to work with 'cause we're
trying to extract DNA.

Narrator: Teeth are one
of the best sources for DNA.

But they also give one team
member, Michael lavin, an idea.

Lavin: We dug another burial

that was directly
above this one.

There was an extra
cranium in there,

an adult male
about 40 years old.

Narrator: Was the skull,
now held at the Smithsonian,

accidentally chopped off by
someone digging a later grave?

That could explain the extra
cranium and the loose teeth.

Hartley: If you were to
hit them with a shovel

just in digging a
grave for someone else,

a lot of the teeth are
probably gonna fall out.

Narrator: If the teeth
they're finding fit that skull,

it could be the
key to identifying

the remains of sir
George yeardley.

400 years earlier,
on July 30th, 1619,

yeardley makes history by
convening 22 elected members

of the first Democratic
assembly in America.

Yeardley: For the
better establishing

of a commonwealth here.

Horn: Our Democratic
experiment really begins here.

Yeardley: And we are now to
be governed by those free laws.

Horn: For the first time, the
settlers were represented

by their own assembly
and, in effect, had a say

in their own government.

Yeardley: And that we
might have a hand

in the governing of ourselves.

Narrator: This
first seed of democracy

would bear fruit
150 years later,

with the revolution of 1776.

Yeardley: To make and
ordain whatsoever laws

and orders are to be
good and profitable

for our subsistence.

Horn: Some people think that
using the word democracy

is anachronistic,
women couldn't vote,

only property owners or people

with access to
property could vote,

but, nevertheless, when
yeardley sends out the writs

ordering people to
elect their burgesses,

that's a pretty wide
coverage of people,

far wider than in england.

(Crowd cheers)

Kelly: This is one of those
important first steps,

and yeardley is the
one who Shepherds it.

He's not the one who
invents the idea,

but he's the one who
puts it into action.

Yeardley: The
governor, counselors...

Narrator: In accordance
with the new charter,

governor yeardley fulfills
the Virginia company's

original promise, finally
delivering land to the settlers.

Horn: We do see sir
George yeardley

as the earliest founding father

of our Democratic
system here in America,

and that may seem
like a big claim,

but when you look at
what went on here,

it's clearly based on
the kinds of principles

that still are very much
part of our democracy today.

Narrator: Not far from the
remains of the 1617 church,

archeologist Mary Anna hartley

joins anthropologist Doug owsley

and his team in a forensic lab.

Once again, they're fully
gowned to prevent contamination.

The extra skull from the earlier
burial has been retrieved,

along with its lower jaw.

Hartley: This mandible was found

approximately a foot above the
grave we are now excavating,

owsley: He's a middle-aged male

because he's got tooth loss.

Narrator: The
question Doug must answer

is whether the teeth found
with the headless skeleton,

possibly sir George yeardley,

actually come from
this mandible.

Owsley: So if we can take
these individual teeth,

and place them in these sockets
just like a Jigsaw puzzle.

Narrator: It's trial and error.

Owsley: There you go.

Bruwelheide: That looks
good, Doug.

Ooh, that looks really good.

Yeah.

Hartley: Pieces seem
to be coming together.

Narrator: Within minutes,

Doug has most of the
front teeth in place.

Owsley: These teeth
belong to that jaw.

Hartley: Well, it looks
like the teeth

that we've been
finding in the ground

do match with the mandible.

I'm feeling really good.

Narrator: The team
now has what it needs

to make a positive ID.

Just weeks after making history

with america's first
Democratic assembly,

governor yeardley is
about to add a second,

darker dimension to his legacy.

An English ship, the white lion,

docks at point comfort at
the mouth of the James river.

The captain unloads his cargo,
"some 20 and odd negroes,"

as John rolfe describes them

in a letter to the
Virginia company.

Seized from a
Portuguese slave ship,

they are the first africans

to set foot in jamestown
and English America.

Alexander: In england, unlike
in Spain and Portugal

and some of the other countries,

there were no real laws in place

governing the
institution of slavery.

The custom of the day is what
governed people's behavior.

Narrator: Although the English

aren't yet active
in the slave trade,

governor yeardley
sees these strangers

as a valuable commodity.

He decides to buy some of them,

paying the captain
in ship's supplies.

Historians will later argue
whether they were enslaved

or treated as
indentured servants.

But this moment, and
yeardley's act, is a first.

Horn: So he embodies, literally,

the two sides of
this great paradox

of the beginnings of
democracy on the one hand,

and the origins of
slavery and racism

that goes along with
it on the other.

Narrator: A few days later,
yeardley sends John rolfe

to meet a second ship
bringing more africans.

Among them is a young Angolan
woman they refer to as Angela.

She is quickly purchased

and brought upriver to begin
a new life in jamestown.

Givens: Where the
archeologists are

digging right there,

there would have been
a house standing.

Narrator: A few hundred
yards from the jamestown church,

the archeology team is
investigating the site

where Angela is
believed to have lived.

Givens: We have very, very
light historical documents

of angela's life here.

And so, it's gotta
come from the ground

of understanding of how
first africans, like Angela,

would have lived and
worked in a household.

Narrator: This is a
national park property,

so deputy superintendent
Steve Williams

has come to see the progress.

Williams: We think about, of
course, John Smith,

we think about pocahontas,

but the africans are sometimes
the invisible people.

That is a missing piece
of the history of America

that we want to explore.

Narrator: In the search
for clues to angela's life,

they've dug down to
the early 1600s level.

Givens: Once we start getting
that hit, we're on to it.

So we've got a hit here.

Narrator: By carefully
sifting through the soil,

they've come across
telltale objects

that begin to tell
angela's story.

Givens: Local earthenwares,
that's what I want.

Something like this is what
would have been on site.

So this is the bottom fragment.

It doesn't look like a lot,

but the reason I like
it is that objects

like this posset cup could
have belonged to Angela.

Narrator: Angela
and her fellow captives

are not the only new arrivals.

As yeardley increases
the colony's

workforce with
enslaved africans,

he also welcomes new settlers
sent by the Virginia company,

this time, a group of women.

Wulf: One can look at
this and say,

look, are they just providing
women for these male settlers?

And that's not a completely
unfair perspective,

but the point is that marriage,

and trying to provide
couples who will procreate,

and who will enhance
the population,

is a strategy that all
these empires pursue.

Narrator: To native eyes,

each of these new
efforts under yeardley

to strengthen the colony
looks like a fresh assault.

(Speaking in foreign language)

Woodard: So there's
great concern

among the powhatans
about encroachment.

As we begin to know more
and more from the English

about their interest in
missionizing among the Indians,

converting the natives from
what they saw to be heathen

and wild to Christian and civil.

So, this is a troubling
time with these threats

that are layer upon
layer upon layer.

Narrator: Chief opechancanough

and his fellow leaders

finally decide to strike back.

In the early morning
hours of march 22nd, 1622,

native resentment boils over.

Woodard: Opechancanough
is the mastermind

behind the 1622 attack.

It's an attack that stretches

across a hundred-mile geography,

throughout the entirety
of the English colony.

(Knife rasps) (Woman screams)

And they kill them
with their cutlery

at the breakfast table.

They try to eradicate everybody.

Narrator: But the
English quickly regroup

and launch their own
merciless campaign.

Woodard: And it forever changes
the way in which englishmen

and indigenous people
interact in America.

It sets the tone, keep
the native peoples

away from the English population

and to remove them
from the landscape.

Narrator: Yeardley and his wife

somehow survive
the 1622 uprising.

As he watches events unfold,

he has no way of knowing

that his actions in
the summer of 1619,

presiding over
the first assembly

and buying the first
enslaved africans,

have decisively shaped the
course of American history.

Bruwelheide: Well, are you
anxious to see

the remains laid out?

Givens: I am, I am.

Narrator: At the smithsonian's

national museum of
natural history,

25 years of research
is coming to a head.

Are the remains
recently uncovered

in the jamestown church
sir George yeardley,

a lost founding father?

Historian Jim horn and
the archeology team

from jamestown rediscovery
have come to find out.

Givens: One thing,
I'm just amazed

to see it out here on the table,

because the last time we saw it,

we were in a tent,
in white suits.

Narrator: Doug owsley
and fellow anthropologist,

kari bruwelheide, have laid
out the complete skeleton

from the central
aisle in their lab.

To figure out if this really
is sir George yeardley,

they first need to know his age.

Lavin: So how old do
you think that he is, Doug?

Owsley: Well, we have a
whole number

of different indicators
that we look at.

Bruwelheide: Because
not one clue

will give you an accurate age.

Narrator: Changes
in the pelvic joints,

the cranial sutures
of the skull,

and receding gums around
the teeth all provide clues.

Owsley: Our age estimate is
in the range of 38 to 44 years.

Horn: Yeardley was born
in 1588, died in 1627,

so that would put him
in the right range.

Narrator: Age,
too, could explain

the poor state of
this man's spine.

Bruwelheide: The vertebrae have
multiple herniated discs

and that would
not necessarily be

an indication of
heavy physical labor.

Horn: That could be
because all this life,

he'd served in the army.

Either he was riding a horse,

or he'd be wearing armor
that might have compressed.

Givens: So is there any other
damage to the skeleton?

Anything else we're seeing?

Bruwelheide: This
individual was suffering

from some sort of
systemic infection

that probably
affected his health

for a period of years
prior to his death.

It's not something that would
be affecting him for months.

Givens: And we do know...
Bruwelheide: This is years.

Givens: From the records,

that he suffered
some debilitation

and then wrote his will.

So, he knew he was sick.

Narrator: In early 1627,

yeardley's health
begins to fail.

Though he is serving his
second term as governor

and is a wealthy man,

disease and decades of
violence have taken a toll.

A few months later, he is dead.

He is only 39 years old.

His grieving wife temperance
is thought to have secured

for him a prominent burial
lot inside jamestown church.

Though the
circumstantial evidence

for this being sir George
yeardley is compelling,

Doug owsley wants the group

to reconsider two
other skeletons.

Owsley: This is just about
the best-preserved skull

that has come out of the island.

Hers is distorted when
you look at the backside.

Narrator: Buried side by side,

these were the first candidates

for yeardley and
his wife temperance,

who died just a year after him.

But the archeologists
dismissed them early on.

Hartley: Both of these
burial shafts

for these individuals
crosses over,

where the original 1617
church wall once stood.

Narrator: However, the
church's original footprint

is still emerging.

Givens: This story has
certainly evolved,

so we've learned
a little bit more

what that church looked like

since these people
were excavated.

Narrator: Could the colonists
have extended the church,

making room for two
important burials?

Because Doug sees
compelling evidence here.

Owsley: This individual
has an extremely

unusual tooth wear.

Narrator: Using a
stereo zoom microscope,

Doug has imaged the
inside of his upper teeth.

Owsley: For one thing, you have
got a polished wear surface,

and it's just planing off
the insides of these teeth.

And what I think that is

is that's from habitually
holding an awl.

They're that you're
using to punch with.

Narrator: On the lower teeth,

Doug finds notches caused by
pulling thread through them.

Owsley: We call
those tailor's facets.

And so, I'm seeing in this man,

I'm seeing a
history of a tailor.

Narrator: Before
he was a soldier,

George yeardley
was a tailor's son,

most likely learning the trade

until his father died
when he was a teenager.

And there's another important
piece to doug's case,

the woman buried alongside.

For Doug and kari,

the strongest clue to her
identity is her teeth.

Bruwelheide: She has pretty
severe cavities, tooth decay.

She's lost a number
of teeth in life,

possibly even had
them extracted.

Narrator: Temperance
yeardley likely suffered

from poor health and tooth decay

as a result of
the starving time,

a condition possibly made worse

by the yeardleys involvement
in the sugar trade.

Owsley: We have bills of
lading from ports.

She's importing as much
as 300 pounds of sugar.

And so, this is someone
that loves sweets.

Narrator: Finally, the
ages of these two skeletons

match sir George and
lady temperance yeardley

when they died.

That leaves three
possible scenarios:

Yeardley was buried alone,

or with his wife temperance,

or none of these
skeletons is yeardley.

Horn: We've got plenty
of mysteries.

There's no question.

We think yeardley has
to be in the church.

I mean, in some ways
that's literally

the most concrete piece
of evidence that we have.

Narrator: Perhaps DNA analysis

and a clearer understanding
of the church's construction

will someday provide
a definitive answer.

One thing is certain, in time
for the 400th anniversary,

years of scientific research
is providing new insights

into the people
and critical events

that took place in
jamestown in 1619.

George yeardley plays
the leading role.

Kelly: In order to go from
just a common soldier,

work his way up as an officer,

and end up eventually
governor, and getting knighted,

I mean, this really is a
tremendous success story.

Narrator: Even the first
American success story.

But the Democratic body
yeardley introduces

is far from inclusive.

Alexander: Now, of course, who
were the representatives?

Well, the elite.

Less than 2% of the population.

They wanted to create the laws

to protect their own property.

Narrator: It excludes
women, indentured servants,

enslaved africans, and the
thousands of indigenous people

living around jamestown.

Woodard: Native peoples were
outside of that vision.

And so, the conflicts
and relationships

with indigenous people
here in Virginia

will shape the way
in which england

and English-speaking people
interacted with native Americans

for the next 400 years.

Wulf: I think the difficulty
is that the way

that the past gets humanized
with very elite people,

and elite European colonists,

they are a tiny piece
of a much bigger whole.

Givens: So this is the
edge of the pit feature here.

Narrator: Archeologists are
trying correct the imbalance

by recreating the lives
of people like Angela,

one of the earliest
enslaved africans.

Recently, Dave
givens and his team

made an intriguing discovery.

Givens: There are three
burials in this area.

We know the park
service found two

just to the west of us here,

but these are burial shafts
and you can see the...

Narrator: One of them
may belong to Angela.

One day, she may
tell her own story

and help us better
understand the price paid

to forge a new nation.