The map above was created by John F. Smith in 1888 and is an attempt to show the Historical Geography of the United States in 1888.
The copy of the map above comes from the Library of Congress and here’s what is written at the bottom:
The two English colonies that first settled in America furnish a moral lesson that is full of interest and in some respects without a parallel in the history of the world.
This — represents those colonies by two trees whose striking contrast will be apparent to the most superficial observer, but not more so than the historical facts make them appear.
The student of history can here see at a glance what it would require him years of hard study to glean from text books, and many will sew the moral of the subject here for the first time.
It is said that history repeats itself. We do not claim that it does; but there is a similarity between the first colony of the old world and the first colonies of the new world.
The first colony of the old world was established in the Garden of Eden where good and evil existed and the evil caused the down-fall of man; so it was in the new world.
Good and evil came here also, the good to Plymouth and the bad to Jamestown.
As the tree which bore the forbidden fruit caused thecurse to be brought upon man in Eden, so did the tree of Slavery in Jamestown.
There was a constant warfare in the old world between good and evil, so there has been in the new world. The evil of Jamestown has always been and is to-day at war with the good of Plymouth.
Much of the trouble in the new world was caused in this way. In 1620 each colony planted a tree. The tree of Liberty, then quite small, was planted by the Pilgrims upon the Bible, at Plymouth, where it received God’s blessing, which accounts for its wonderful growth and the excellent quality of its fruit.
The tree of slavery was brought from the old world and the people of Jamestown planted it upon mammon.
In time a dispute arose between the two colonies as to whose tree should grow so large that it would occupy all the land.
Slavery with its attendant evils would overshadow the land with darkness, while Liberty with its manifold blessings would send a flood of light over the whole country.
At one time it appeared that the tree of Slavery would gain the supremacy, but God cursed that tree and it soon began to lean southward. Its friends then tried to prop it up, but it still continued to lean and showed signs that it would fall.
This made the Southern man jealous and he decided to murder his Northern brother, as Cain of old had done his brother Abel.
For this sin God set a black mark upon Cain and sent Father Abraham with his big emancipation axe to cut the tree of Slavery down.
It is a remarkable fact that so far as the influence of the two colonies has been felt in the affairs of our country, that of the Jamestown colony has been bad, and that of the Plymouth colony good.
The grand and noble thoughts recorded, the wonderful inventions, our free schools, the many blessings we enjoy to-day and all that tends to elevate mankind are heirlooms handed down from the Puritans and their children. While nearly every evil which exists in the political economy of our beloved country can be traced back to the pernicious teachings of the Jamestown settlers and their children.
Jamestown is no more, but the colony still lives in the form of the Democratic party; Plymouth is a flourishing city and her children now form the Republican party of this great country.
For a verification of these facts study the history of the United States.
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