Virginia Document

-Author
King James, as well as (I assume) a council of advisers.
-Audience
The people of England.
-Tone
Legal, business-like, commanding.
--Vocabulary
Large words abound, seemingly for the purpose of making the document look more commanding.
-Purpose and Content
Is to inform the people of England of England’s claim to the land called Virginia.
--Main Idea/Thesis
To provide a legal excuse for taking “unclaimed” land in the New World of America.
-Persuasion
-Ethos (emotions)
As this is a legal document, there is little emotion. It does however attempt to stir up greed, allowing the people who settle in the new land to keep 80% of all valuable minerals (gold and silver) found in the New World, and granting them the right to print their own money.
-Pathos (character)
The people of England were at this time living in very crowded conditions, so this New World, with all its wide open virgin land must have seemed a utopia to the people.
-Logos (logic)
When I think of it, I cannot see anything that we might now call logic, but it does seem that they are using the unclaimed nature of the land as an excuse for setting up an over-seas trade post.