Where did America truly begin?

Move over, Manhattan.

Sayonara, St. Augustine.

Poppycock, Popham Colony.

Only Jamestown has earned the title: "America's Birthplace."

The rest are mere pretenders to the throne.

But not everyone agrees.

We have heard of the officials who don't want to "celebrate an invasion." And we have witnessed the politically correct crowd turn our anniversary into an homage to American self-loathing. But there is yet a third group who would prefer to forget Jamestown. This group pooh-poohs the idea that America even has an anniversary to remember.

They are the regional jingoists.

In fact, some of the more disparaging comments against Jamestown arise from sectional rivalries as politicians and pundits jockey to proclaim their city the true heir to the title "America's birthplace."

And the war of the words shows no signs of abatement.

Leaders from the former Spanish colony in St. Augustine, Fla., are hoping to remind America their city – not Jamestown – is the birthplace of America.

Earlier this month, an advocate for St. Augustine's supremacy issued this barb as Queen Elizabeth II journeyed to Jamestown:

Sorry, your Majesty. England wasn't first. Despite the hoopla at Jamestown over its 400th anniversary, it was the Spanish who founded America's oldest city: St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565. That's 42 years earlier.

Then there was the Jamestown billboard slight.

George Gardner, former mayor of St. Augustine noted to an AP reporter that the city almost erected a billboard outside Jamestown that read, "Happy birthday to our younger brother."

While the billboard never went up, the tension aired by St. Augustinians who discount Jamestown's claim to prominence has been palpable.

The cries from the "Big Apple" have been no less uncharitable.

In an article published in – surprise, surprise – the New York Times, Kenneth T. Jackson, editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, characterized Jamestown as "a town that disappears into the mud."

Men like Jackson argue that New York, not Jamestown, should be remembered with pomp and circumstance. Jackson writes: ''New York becomes the greatest city in the world. The Hudson becomes the river west, the river of empire.''

Times journalist Sam Roberts even wrote: "New York trumps Jamestown."

So what of these claims?

New York absolutely fails the test to be the birthplace of America.

Present-day New York was discovered in 1609 by explorer Henry Hudson – a full two years after Jamestown was settled.

Despite Holland's notoriety as a haven for religious freedom, the Dutch colony on Manhattan Island founded in the 1620s established a feudal system (called a "patroon" system) that is outside the American tradition of law and liberty under God. It was only after the English laid claim to New Amsterdam (changing the name to New York) in 1664 that this settlement would be positioned to achieve its later stature.

Significantly, following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, King William III granted New York a representative assembly – something it had lacked previously – a distinct legacy that Jamestown claimed long before her northern counterpart. And while New York City was a polyglot culture from its early days – with 14 languages reportedly spoken on Long Island at the time the Dutch ceded the settlement to England in 1664 – it was the later triumph of English Protestantism that gave rise to New York City's greatness.

And despite its former antiquity over Jamestown, St. Augustine fails the test as America's birthplace.

The settlement of St. Augustine in 1565 followed on the heels of an ambitious exploration campaign by the Spanish, as De Leon, Balboa and Magellan discovered and claimed vast territories in the Western Hemisphere for the Spanish Crown. At Spain's zenith under Phillip II, the Spanish made claims to the better part of the New World.

But the vision for "New Spain" never materialized in North America.

While we have the Spanish to thank for the introduction of horses, mules and a unique architectural style, Spain's settlement at St. Augustine – while predating Jamestown's by 42 years – had no direct impact in shaping America's great heritage of liberty under God that would later be championed at Jamestown and Plymouth.

In fact, had Phillip II's Navy not fallen to the English in 1588, and had England not taken a more active role in colonization – thanks to men of vision such as Richard Hakluyt – America might well have become another Third World country.

It is also important to note that St. Augustine began with the massacre of French Huguenots in Florida (and the Huguenot colony of Ft. Caroline predated the Spanish settlement) and the very annihilation of the Reformation legacy later introduced to North America at Jamestown and incorporated into our nation's founding documents.

Our Founding Fathers drew from the legacy of Jamestown, not St. Augustine. It was Jamestown, not St. Augustine, that brought the formulative Reformation doctrines of liberty under the law of God and of representative government to the American people. In short, St. Augustine's legacy directly opposes the great heritage Americans have come to treasure.

And what about other historic cities?

Historical nitpickers will sometimes point to the Lost Colony of Roanoke as the birthplace of America.

Certainly, Roanoke predated Jamestown, and it carries tremendous historic significance. Roanoke was a place of many firsts, including the notable birth of Virginia Dare, America's first baby born to Christian parents on this continent. But the colony disappeared. Its primary legacy is a wonderful story of intrigue and mystery rather than an enduring legacy of freedom.

It, too, fails to meet the test to be America's birthplace.

Like the failed lost Colony of Roanoke, the Popham Colony of New England, planted in August 1607 (after the founding of Jamestown), self-destructed in the days following the death of its noble Christian leader. Popham left little by way of a legacy to the American people, and consequently it also fails to meet the test.

That leaves us with Plymouth as Jamestown's only real "rival." Founded 13 years after the Jamestown colony, the profound spiritual legacy of Plymouth remains singular in American history.

Though Plymouth falls short of earning the title "America's birthplace," she certainly represents the very best and brightest of the spiritual foundation of this nation.

But rather than pitting the history of one city over another, the two must be seen as the providential stepping stones used by God to produce this land of liberty. It was Jamestown and Plymouth – not Manhattan or St. Augustine – that have inspired us with the noblest ideals of providence and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds. Where Jamestown gave us our first Protestant church, conversions and baptisms, Plymouth gave America her first truly covenant community under God. It was Jamestown and Plymouth that introduced the centrality of Christian laws and charters under God as a prerequisite to a free society.

And there would have been no Plymouth without the birth of this nation at Jamestown. The battles fought at Jamestown paved the way for the victories at Plymouth.

But in the end, Jamestown was first. She alone has the right to the title: "America's birthplace."

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"To Have and to Hold: A Tale of Providence and Perseverance in Colonial Jamestown"