Read Marianne Moore's poem "Enough: Jamestown" (1957) [you have to scroll down the page to find the relevant poem], pick 2-3 lines, investigate and comment on clues concerning the first English settlements in the 17th century and the subsequent claims to territory and sovereignty leading to the quest for independency in the 18th century.
Here is a map of Virginia published in Captain John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia (1624), where you can see, in the right-hand corner a depiction of the native Indian King Powhatan.
