At the four-hundred year anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia several books celebrated the event, and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography featured a review article of a number of them altogether. Several are still readily available from their publishers. Two have previously been reviewed here as among the our Virginia Survey Bibliographies 300: “The Atlantic World and Virginia”, and “Jamestown: The Buried Truth”.
Perhaps the best of the remainder in print is “1607: Jamestown and the New World”, a compilation of 27 articles published in the Colonial Williamsburg. “The River Where America Began” uses the historical literature to describe events surrounding the James River from geological times to the end of the Civil War.
“Savage Kingdom” is especially useful in describing the English players and their politics related to the colonization effort at Jamestown. “Sea Venture” focuses on the ocean travails and colonization history of one boatload of adventurers. “The True History of Pocahontas” offers an alternative account of the Powhatan princess as preserved in Mattaponi Indian lore.
Of special interest was the international and imperial perspective offered in the out of print publication commemorating the Smithsonian Institute exhibit on “Jamestown, Quebec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings” of empire by the English, French and Spanish in 1607.
Jamestown and the New World
Dennis Montgomery compiled 1607: Jamestown and the New World in 2007. It is available at Rowman and Littlefield, on Kindle and online new and used.
Montgomery frames the accounts of Jamestown between 1607 and 1705. All of the twenty-seven articles first appeared in Colonial Williamsburg between 1990 and 2007. Biographical sketches describe King James I, Captain John Smith, Sir George Somers, the Reverend Robert Hunt, John Clarke (also of the Mayflower), Dr. John Pott, and John Martin a councilor who outlived them all.
Pocahontas is featured in three articles, as is one for Chanco who alerted Jamestown of the 1622 attack. There is also a piece on memory addressing the “Historical Rivalry” between Jamestown and Plymouth. The popular history is made up of contributions from serious scholars and it is well illustrated with maps, prints, portraits and staged photographs of historic re-enactors in costume pursuing period activities such as hunting and fishing.
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*James C. Kelly and Barbara Clark Smith wrote Jamestown, Quebec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings in 2007. Previously reviewed as a Bibliography 300 title at TheVirginiaHistorian.com.Available on line new and used at Amazon here.
*Kim Sloan wrote A New World: England’s First View of America in 2007. Available on line new and used at Amazon here.
*Peter C. Mancall edited The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624 in 2007. Previously reviewed as a Bibliography 300 title at TheVirginiaHistorian.com. Available online new and used at Amazon here.
The River Where America Began
Bob Deans wrote The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James in 2007. It is available at Rowman and Littlefield, on Kindle and online new and used.
Deans is a national newspaper correspondent covering the history of the James River beginning with its geological beginnings, primarily in the colonial period, ending with seventy pages taking the story to 1865.
He makes specialist historians available to the general reader, such as Edmund S. Morgan, Ira Berlin, James Horn, Anthony S. Parent Jr., and Helen C. Rountree. The Powhatans, Jamestown, the Virginia dynasty and prominent Virginians in the Civil War all get discussion.
To buy “The River Where America Began” at Amazon, click here.
Sea Venture
Kieran Doherty wrote Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World in 2007. It is available new online.
It contains useful information about period sea travel in the early 17th century, and an outline of Bermuda and Jamestown colonization.
To buy “Sea Venture” at Amazon, click here.
Savage Kingdom
Benjamin Woolley wrote Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, and the Settlement of America in 2007. It is available on ebook from Harper Perennial Publishers and online new and used.
Wooley who is a British writer, provides details on the ways Jamestown and its sponsoring Virginia Company were enmeshed in the political affairs of Parliament and empire. The stories of Jacobean court politics, company factionalism and Spanish intrigues are laced with accounts of London plays and the “Sirenaical” intellectuals who met at the Mermaid Tavern. The account ends with the 1622 massacre that triggered Virginia becoming a royal colony.
To buy “Savage Kingd0m” at Amazon, click here.
*William M. Kelson wrote Jamestown: The Buried Truth in 2006. Previously reviewed as a Bibliography 300 title at TheVirginiaHistorian.com.
The True Story of Pocahontas
Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star” wrote The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of the Story in 2007. It is available on Kindle and online in paperback new and used.
The descendant of Mattaponi chiefs and a William and Mary anthropologist teamed up to present the “Mattaponi sacred oral history” of Pocahontas. It asserts that “Powhatan” Wahunsenaca was the Don Luis who encountered the Spanish in the 1560s and 1570s. Pocahontas played no role in John Smith becoming a Powhatan werowance. She had a native son by her first husband before the English killed him, and her English rape during captivity produced a second son before her marriage to John Rolfe. Pocahontas was said to be murdered by Jamestown colonists administering a poison that took effect only after her transit to England.
The review in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography describes the book as “flawed”, cautioning that its publication coincided with the contemporary controversy over the King William Reservoir dam along the Mattaponi River.
To buy “True Story” at Amazon, click here.
Additional history related to Virginia during this time period can be found at the Table of Contents of TheVirginiaHistorian website on the page for Early and Late Colonial Eras, 1600-1763. Titles are organized by topics related to Powhatan Virginia, Political and Economic Virginia, Social, Gender, Religious, African American and Wars in Virginia.
General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Note: Insights for these reviews include those available from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.