The chief counsel of the authorities behind the Jamestown settlement focused on serving and fearing God. John Smith gives us the following account of their instructions:

Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind of the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.