I was given the opportunity to review a book in the time period of my American history class and decided to choose this little book called Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation. It was well written by author named David A. Price. He’s a native of the Virginia area and has written for many publications such as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Forbes. Price also has degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and College of William and Mary. Besides this book, he also has a well written book called The Pixar Touch which goes into Pixar Studios. Enough about the author, let’s get to the meat of this review, which is the book itself. In this book of Jamestown, Price really shows his true reasoning for writing this book. …show more content…
It’s to clarify the historical folk tales of John Smith and the ever so lovely Pocahontas, not the stories we all came to love from the Walt Disney movie. He depict the duo as the motive why the Jamestown colony endured in the New World. He takes this theory to task by labeling the folks that inhabited the New World with the settlers at Jamestown, relating the leadership skills Smith influenced, and describing his technique for saving the colony from tragedy. He also, in this book, shined the light on how he want to show the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas, as the pair have inherited this fallacy that the two were passionately involved like something out of a romance novel. Price articulates this through a brilliant narrative telling the story of the ship's journey across the Atlantic, the settlement of the colony, and the exchanges that take place with the indigenous peoples. So to start off, let’s go back to the reason why Price wrote this book, to tell the real story of the colony Jamestown. There has been many before him that have told this tale, whether it be through books or movies, and he lets you know he’s been exposed to these stories. He makes notes in the first chapter how Disney tries to make Pocahontas out to be like sexualized Barbie doll love interest of John Smith. The concern behind this tale was that Smith and Pocahontas were never passionately involved as Price discusses. That’s just one of the many instance Price takes issue with to describe how the modernization has changed the real story of Jamestown. I liked how Price went about in describing Pocahontas to us the reader as the daughter of the powerful Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Indian tribe that resided in the Virginia area at the time when settlers came to Jamestown. He went on to express how she was able to tug on her father’s heart like any teenage girl these days and this was the primary reason why John Smith settlement spared from the wrath of the Indian warriors of the area Price then goes into detail about John Smith.
He talks about how Smiths strength and weaknesses had profound effects on Jamestown. What was an interesting fact about Smith, he actually arrived into the colony as a common prisoner and was still able to achieve a leadership role. Smith’s amazing creativity and knowledge in certain areas was what actually saved the colony from starvation and attacks. He gain support with his ability to deal with the native people. Price then goes into detail of describing the people that came here with John Smith. There were no women and the ships were not filled with many soldiers or hardworking men. Instead many of these men that came he with Smith were members of a class from England known as the Gentlemen. They relied on there their titles in life to make there selves wealthy. There main issue was they didn’t know the true value of hard work. This here set the platform for issues to arise. Coming to this new outpost, Smith failed to successfully lead these gentleman, and soon adopted the policy that of one does not work, does not eat. With this strong policy, along with his abilities in addressing, leadership, and organization, he was able to avoid massive failure in
Jamestown. Some of John Smith strategy involved with working with the Indians to increase the survival of the colony. By using this strategy, he was able to adopt a person relationship the natives, though some were good but also some where bad. Though he was captured twice by Chief Powhatan, and sentenced to death, he was saved by Pocahontas. Here’s where some historians will go off and say that she didn’t actually save his life, but that he was mistaking an adoption ceremony for his doomed execution. Though Price writes there was no other way but to describe it as looming execution. Though afterwards, emphasizing that there was a romance between Smith and Pocahontas, are merely nothing but material for a children’s book as she was eleven years old when she meet Smith. Her real romance will come later in her life when she focuses on a wealthy colonist by the name of John Rolfe. They would marry and then have a son named Thomas. Soon after they would travel to London for business. Though Pocahontas, known now as Rebecca, would not ever make it back to the New World and would die in England. Before her death, she would have just one meeting with her friend John Smith, which they had been separated for some time. Now with any good non-fiction book, your sources are key to gathering research to develop your narrative. In the back of the book under the notes sections, nicely noted as the Editorial Method, Price defines the way he has used dialogue, period text, dates, and colonial place names during the course of the book. It should also be noted after you get passed the note section, Price has a wide-ranging bibliography that clearly points to him having extensively researched John Smith and the Jamestown colony, backing his book up textually and literally. Another thing I think helped made his point get across was him using quotes from the same time period that he’s writing about. In one of the last section at the end of the book, labeled Marginalia, Price takes the time out to give his personal opinion on some provocative historical issues regarding Jamestown. Historians have struggled over certain specifics of the Jamestown story, precisely, John Smith. Here in this section Price weighs in with his views on the subject. For instance, he takes to task the first rescue of John Smith, and to weigh in on the critics who would like to attest Smiths account. Overall, Price uses his sources resourcefully to write about a time so long ago. After finishing up this book, I realized that Price has a wide-ranging knowledge and enough research to write a roundabout book that details such a legendary story. Once you put this book down, you’ll want to learn more about this era and other great story you could research and learn about. The way Price used the language of the time, made this book read so smooth. It’s sometimes hard to find a history based book informative but easy to read at the same time. During the course of the book, he lays out the story Jamestown in such a way that makes it very believable. He’s also able to present us with both sides of the discussion about the colony so that we the reader are able to a conclusion, while still knowing Price’s opinion on it. So now let’s go back the main theory of this book that Price wanted to lay out for us. He wanted to disclose the truth about John Smith and Pocahontas. The support of theories where plentiful throughout the book. Price had an ability to portray John Smith as an accomplished leader despite the views of the other settlers at Jamestown, and that really gave true meaning to writing the book. Along with that, he was able to describe the real John Smith and Pocahontas relationship as well explaining the real causes for the successful settlement of Jamestown. So now coming to the end of my review for this book, I reflect on what I’ve been given, a new perspective on the story of Jamestown. It was an interesting book to read and I would recommend to anyone looking to learn something new that may have been lost through the magical love story that Disney made awhile back. If someone is looking for a book that is well researched, and easy to read, this may be your book on the time period of the colonization of Jamestown.
...ue detailing what Ralegh and White did after the Roanoke colonies. To sum up my opinions, this book was not only an excellent read from a scholarly perspective, but is also great for anyone to read if they are interested in the early colonization efforts of the New World and how it functioned. I would, however, not advise anyone to read this without having some background information on Western European powers and knowledge of Indian tribes in the mid to late 16th century.
Against all Odds is a very interesting Documentary that follows the early settlement of Jamestown in the 17th century .With endless against the odds situations thrown out in from of the people of Jamestown left and right things seemed bleak. But a lot of perseverance from the early settlers including the Documentaries depiction of the original leader John Smith things seemed to resolve themselves. In Documentary there were several parts where it conceited with what is in chapter three of the Textbook the American Promise. For example, In the Documentary when the subject of the Tobacco business came up it was exampled in the same way as the first page of chapter three. With examples of how the product was grown and distributed out into the world. Making it a very valuable trade to be doing although very labor intensive, which is why it would soon lead into the slave trade. Something that was briefly shown in the documentary mainly to show what lengths the people of Jamestown were willing to go to make things work out in their new home.
Because of his restlessness in England, Smith became actively involved with plans to colonize Virginia, which had been granted a charter from King James I. After setting sail, this famous expedition finally reached Virginia in April, after enduring a lengthy voyage of over four months in three tiny ships. John Smith was one of the seven chosen to govern and start the colony. He took a...
Things in Jamestown were good. The people were fed, cared for, and happy. They created their own working government order, but, in a place where everything seems perfect, there is always one man to disagree. In this case, his name was Nathaniel Bacon.
In her work, Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown, Karen Ordahl Kupperman argues that the “high mortality rate” of Jamestown was caused by apathy, which formed from “a combination of psychological and physical factors” of disease, malnutrition, and despair. She supports her argument by making parallel connections between the source of death of those at Jamestown to the deaths of American prisoners of war in World War II and the Korean War. Although her claims are interesting to read due to the engaging comparisons she makes to the death rates in Jamestown, her analogy between prisoners of war and colonists is weak due to the two vastly different situation that the people of both times went through.
Jamestown was the first successful settlement established by England. It was first built in 1607 and lasted until about 1614. On the first ship, 100 male settlers set off for a new settlement in the New World. Life there at times was hard for various reasons. They did, however, become 7 7 trading partners with the Indians. 80% of Jamestown’s more than 500 settlers that had arrived had been dead by 1611. The reason for this is because of sickness and disease, lack of resources, and where they chose to build their settlement.
The Jamestown and Plymouth settlements were both settled in the early 1600's. Plymouth and Jamestown were located along the shoreline in Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively. Although both had different forms of government, they both had strong leadership. Jamestown was controlled by the London Company, who wanted to profit from the venture, while the Puritans who settled at Plymouth were self-governed with an early form of democracy and settled in the New World to gain religious freedom. John Smith took charge in efforts to organize Jamestown, and at Plymouth William Bradford helped things run smoothly.
America, it has always had everything we need, except for when colonists flocked in the early 1600´s. Its 1609, you and a group of people have been on a boat for months. Now you aren't even sure if the America's exist. But once you lost every single drop of hope, you see it. A beautiful swampy land. This place makes you feel like you have a lot of opportunities, there’s a river, a lot of wildlife, and not that many Native’s around. It seems perfect, that’s what people that saw posters of Jamestown thought in England. Jamestown seemed, perfect, appeared perfect…
People’s main motives were not religious, but to “dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold,”(Doc F). This resulted in competition, rather than bonding, over the settlement. The economy of the Chesapeake region made it more profitable to spread out, making the development of cities, schools, and churches more difficult. When the Joint Stock Co landed at Jamestown, they were looking for gold. Even though no gold appeared, John Rolfe’s founding of tobacco (Doc F) as a cash crop, and Virginia’s headright system, ensured people would continue to mold the Chesapeake and leave behind a mercantilist environment. The Chesapeake drew mostly single men, who came for individual profit, and indentured servants (Doc C). The economic gap between rich and poor was much larger, especially after the introduction of slaves and indentured servants, in the Chesapeake region than in New England. The Articles of Agreement shown in (Doc D) stated a common goal of “everyone’s quality and estate.” As they developed a much tighter community, they were more invested in the prosperity of everyone in their community. (Doc E) says that laborers “consider the religious end of their callings,” this shows that there was a religious motive to serve God by striving to maintain the strength of their
Love And Hate In Jamestown by David A. Price David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf)
In this documentary by The National Geographic, The New World: Nightmare in Jamestown captures what it must have been like for the settlers of Jamestown. It takes place in an archeological site which is owned by the APVA where they found remains of the original men who first arrived to the New World and who set up the colony at Jamestown. They were sent by the Virginia Company in hopes of being able to bring home gold and other riches that the Spanish had already been taking advantage of. Unfortunately, in the process, they faced disease, death, hunger, and hostility from the Indians.
Smith, John. "Settlement Of Jamestown - 1607." The National Center for Public Policy Research. http://www.nationalcenter.org/SettlementofJamestown
John Smith explains the hardships of the voyage in the “General History of Virginia” he and others endured. While finally landing on land and discovering the head of the Chickahamania River, The colony endured Disease, severe weather, Native American attacks, and starvation all threatened to destroy the colony. Smith talks about his accomplishments of being a “good leader” and how he helped in many ways. John Smith was captured by the Native Americans and brought back to the camp. Within an hour, the Native Americans prepared to shoot him, but the Native Americans done as Chief Powhatan ordered and brought stones to beat Smiths brains out. John Smith gave an ivory double compass to the Chief of Powhatan. The Native Americans marveled at the parts of the compass. After the Native Americans admired the compass for an hour Chief Powhatan held...
Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford and A Description of New England by John Smith are essentially irrelevant to one another in the way that each piece has a very different point of view. The author John Smith was a pilgrim who arrived in the Americas and wrote a description of the new land. William Bradford was also a pilgrim who arrived at Plymouth and wrote more about the realities of his personal journey. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the purposes of the writers, their intended audiences, and how each writer gives out a specific feeling.
The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles by John Smith, portrays the enormous troubles the settlers were faced with by the Native Americans. He explains how he was captured by Indians and also saved by a young Native American girl, Pocahontas. He vividly describes the ceremonies and rituals of the Natives performed before his execution. However, the execution never occurred due to the tremendous mercy showed by the king’s daughter who blanketed John Smith’s body her own. Pocahontas went on to persuade the Native Americans to help the settlers by giving them food and other necessities. Despite her efforts to reach peaceful grounds, her people were still bitter and planned an attacks on the colony. Nevertheless, Pocahontas saved them once again by warning the settlers of attacks. Pocahontas went on to marry an Englishman and traveled to England. She resembled the prosperity and good that was to be found in an untamed land.