Book Description
Four centuries ago, and fourteen years before the Mayflower, a group of men—led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric and a government spy—left London aboard a fleet of three ships to start a new life in America. They arrived in Virginia in the spring of 1607 and set about trying to create a settlement on a tiny island in the James River. Despite their shortcomings, and against the odds, they built Jamestown, a ramshackle outpost that laid the foundations of the British Empire and the United States of America.
Drawing on new discoveries, neglected sources and manuscript collections scattered across the world, Savage Kingdom challenges the textbook image of Jamestown as a mere money-making venture. It reveals a reckless, daring enterprise led by outcasts of the Old World who found themselves interlopers in a new one. It charts their journey into a beautiful landscape and a sophisticated culture that they found both ravishing and alien, which they yearned to possess but threatened to destroy. They called their new home a "savage kingdom," but it was the savagery they had experienced in Europe that had driven them across the ocean and which they hoped to escape by building in America "one of the most glorious nations under the sun."
An intimate story in an epic setting, Woolley shows how the land of Pocahontas came to be drawn into a new global order, reaching from London to the Orinoco Delta, from the warring kingdoms of Angola to the slave markets of Mexico, from the gates of the Ottoman Empire to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Customer Reviews:
Great stories about our first steps..........2007-08-12
I came across this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR on the anniversary of the Jamestown colony. From just the few minutes I managed to catch from that conversation the author had me rethinking my vague and mostly uninvestigated thoughts on that early settlement.
Wooley has a great ability to take well researched and documented accounts and weave a compelling narrative without overly indulging in fantasy or sketches compiled of heresay or assumptions.
What took me in about this book was just how much Byzantine politics and motives the early administrators of the colony had coming over from England. (i.e aliases, spies, traitors, defectors, etc.)
If you are interested in what the first steps were in The New World before Declarations and Revolutions and why they were made, I would check this out. It's an essential foundation if you are, like me, consuming our countries earliest intentions and ambitions that led us to where we are now.
Good book, with good and sometimes distracting details.......2007-08-02
With the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first colonists and founding of the first permanent British settlement in present day America, there have been a slew of books and reexaminations of the settlement. Wooley, a popular writer and broadcaster in Great Britain has contributed to this review of the Jamestown by presenting a popular history from the British viewpoint, that examines the founding of Jamestown from the perspective that tries to place Jamestown in the perspective of the new House of Stuart monarchy, a Britain with a shaken economy, and the race to make a claim in North America to compete with the Spanish Empire. Along the way, the Powhatan native tribe Chesapeake Bay have their motivations and civilization examined as this strongest of the east coast tribes.
The strongest parts of this book involve the examination of the relationship between the first settlers and the Powhatan Indians, the exploration of the Chesapeake for the first time by Europeans by Captain John Smith and why Jamestown was so important to the British government. The relationship between the founding of Virginia and the discovery of Bermuda, and why, for a time the Bermuda part of the Virginia colony was much more important economically to Britain is a nice find within a book, and Wooley does his best work of showing human drama with Bermuda.
The book is weak by dragging details of the British government out many pages past necessary for the popular reader, especially the American reader who, from the standpoint of 400 years of time will take some effort to dig into the bureaucracy of the that government for a popular history read.
If the general reader is willing to go through the 400 pages of details, at the end, he should find a great explanation for the place of Jamestown in the American, Indian and British story. The book hits its high point with its description of the first Jamestown Assembly, the first such representative government in modern times that was founded as much out of corporate business interests and a leveling out of previous British hierarchies in the American jungle.
For a popular history, Savage Kingdom shows why the British way of colonization - joint stock companies, authorized but not led by the government with a grass roots organization of the Christian church succeeded in the long run over the government/ military colonization of Latin America.
This is a fine book, but again, the general reader should be warned that it has heavy details of the details of British government among personalities that are often hard to follow.
Book Description
The voyage that shaped early America was neither that of the Susan Constant in 1607 nor the Mayflower in 1620. Absolutely vital to the formation of English-speaking America was the voyage made by some sixty Africans stolen from a Spanish slave ship and brought to the young struggling colony of Jamestown in 1619. It was an act of colonial piracy that angered King James I of England, causing him to carve up the Virginia Company’s monopoly for virtually all of North America. It was an infusion of brave and competent souls who were essential to Jamestown’s survival and success. And it was the arrival of pioneers who would fire the first salvos in the centuries-long African-American battle for liberation. Until now, it has been buried by historians.
Four hundred years after the birth of English-speaking America, as a nation turns its attention to its ancestry, The Birth of Black America reconstructs the true origins of the United States and of the African-American experience.
Customer Reviews:
African Americans and their background.......2007-08-07
This book is excellent for 1) putting the arrival of Africans at Jamestown in context both in European (English, Spanish and Portuguese) politics of the time, and 2) giving in great detail the political, social and economic situation of the Angolan kingdom whence these Africans originated. The activities of the Spanish ambassador to the court of King James is enjoyable diplomatic intrigue; the relation of James to Africa is convincing and should be part of literary studies of Ben Jonson's work. I was amazed to learn that many of the enslaved Africans had Christian backgrounds of several generations, and familiarity with European languages and customs, resulting from Portuguese colonization and missionary activities for more than a century prior. Hashaw does himself credit in showing the similarities and differences in the political and military activities and alliances of these African and European rulers and aristocracies. In addition, he shows in great detail the identities, activities and onward movements of these Africans and their descendents (who are normally anonymous figures in standard histories), and gives credible evidence on the origin of the Melungeon families of Appalachia, and insight into the contributions of Africans to cattle herding and to agricultural success in the Americas. A real page-turner -- a riveting and enlightening account that makes fresh some once-stale facts from your obligatory American history class.
The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown.......2007-03-30
The book was excellent!
Book Description
For thirty-five years, as writer, lecturer, and chief archaeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, Ivor Noel Hume has enlivened for us the material culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. After his warmly praised book Martin's Hundred, he now turns to the two earliest English outposts in Virginia -- Roanoke and James Towne -- and pieces together revelatory information extrapolated from the shards and postholes of excavations at these sites with contemporary accounts found in journals, letters, and official records of the period. He illuminates narratives that have a mythic status in our early history: the exploits of Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain John Smith, and Powhatan; the life and death of Pocahontas; and the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. He recounts a recent important excavation at Roanoke where he and his colleagues found the work site of a metallurgist named Joachim Gans, whose findings about the mineral wealth of Virginia helped to convince London merchants that America was a worthy risk This is an account of high and low adventure, of noble efforts and base impulses, and of the inevitably tragic interactions between Indians and Europeans, marked by greed, treachery, and commonplace savagery on both sides. The astonishment of this history is that despite bad luck, bad management, and bad blood, the English presence in America persisted and the Virginia settlements survived as the birthplace of a country founded on English law and language.
With clarity, authority, and elegant wit, Noel Hume has enhanced our understanding of the historical forces and principal players behind England's first perilous ventures into the New World, and proved again that he is without a doubt one of the great interpreters of our early colonial past.
Customer Reviews:
making history come alive.......2007-01-19
I am not an historian and primarily bought this book because I was confused by my children's elementary school's lessons on Jamestown. Well, this book was a fascinating trip - gives great insight into the whole turn of the 17th century era as well as a "never will be found in elementary school textbooks" look at the beginnings of the US, and true aspirations and difficulties of the English adventurers. With his dry wit and acceptance of human shortcomings, Mr. Hume managed to make the journey, even when macabre and disillusioning, enjoyable. Details and difficulties of the archeology are put into the context of both the original settlers and the archeologists of the past century.
The Virginia Adventure.......2005-09-14
One of the best resources for preparing for the forthcoming quadricentenary of the founding of Jamestowne. A must-read to learn about the genesis of our American culture and history.
"The Virginia Adventure" Review by a college student.......2001-09-30
The Virginia Adventure, Roanoke to James Towne: An Archaeological and Historical Odyssey. By Ivor Noel Hume. Edited by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Xxviii + 491pp.)
The Virginia Adventure, Roanoke to James Towne: An Archaeological and Historical Odyssey is a hungry quest for the answers to the mysteries of Americaýs first permanent settlement, James Towne.
European trade routes were extremely dangerous before, during, and after Columbusýs time. Untrustworthy mercenary soldiers, treacherous roads, and overpriced commodities did their best to set Europeans looking seaward for new, promising trade routes. Spain took the opportunity and sent the eager Christopher Columbus out to sea, not expecting much in return for their financial support. Though Columbus discovered a New World, he remained convinced until the day he died that he had set foot on the shores of East China and India. Spain and Portugal were quick to send out more explorers who soon exploited the wealth of South and Central American natives. News of Spainýs success was slow to reach English ears, but when it finally did, it caused a flurry of urgency, and thus began the race to colonize America.
England pushed early settlers into the Atlantic, where they quickly took Roanoke Island as their first habitation. Virginia proved to be a foreboding place for the new arrivals with its hot climate and bad Indian relations. The Roanoke fort and settlement were soon abandoned; the inhabitants vanished, never to be seen again. The first permanent settlement, James Town, was established soon after Roanokeýs demise. James Town experienced many hardships from the start. The food supplies were almost always low, at one time to the point that the colonists resorted to eating dug-up corpses. Relations with the local natives were not always friendly, not that the colonists helped the situation. England was also preoccupied with internal affairs and could not always send supply ships. Disease ravaged the town and wreaked havoc on the colonistsý moral and health, taking hundreds of lives over the course of James Townýs existence. Ivor Noel Hume explains that despite all of these hardships, early settlers established a permanent settlement from which America later sprung.
Ivor Noel Hume, a free-lance writer and an archaeologist, was born in London. He studied at Framlingham College and St. Lawrence College in England. He is currently the chairman of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquitiesý Jamestown Rediscovery Advisory Board, though he has held other honored positions in England. He has written other books on colonial America, such as Here Lies Virginia (1963), A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America (1970), and Martinýs Hundred (1982).
Mr. Noel Hume openly states in the preface that he chose to, whenever possible, use the eyewitness accounts of the involved persons instead of ýparaphrasing their evidenceý(xxiii). He is careful to provide the reader with many records from different, first-person accounts as opposed to choosing a favored or cherished story. Mr. Noel Hume does not jump to far-fetched conclusions, but instead, he uses the provided information to produce logical explanations. He does not seem to take the side of any race, nationality, or gender. Archaeology is used on a large scale in this book to convey his messages.
Although The Virginia Adventure is packed full of differing eyewitness accounts, useful archaeological information, and scholarly insights, it is by no means written eloquently. Mr. Noel Hume jumps frequently from story to archaeology, which confuses the reader and disrupts the colorful flow of text needed to appropriately convey a message.
The Virginia Adventure differs from other books and writings on colonial America in that it provides the reader with a variety of first person testimonies, points of view, and experiences. Ivor Noel Hume also adds the element of archaeological expeditions and research into the James Town and Roanoke sites, bringing yet more insight to the table. He explains the intricate complications of shaky relations with the Native Americans, the English crownýs regrettable apathy towards James Town, and the mysteries that surround the disappearance of hundreds. Other text and reading books on colonial America tend to adopt a single explanation of a certain situation where there are different accounts in order to make the story simpler and more comprehensible. Mr. Noel Hume blends first and second person accounts and archeological elements together, though it is not particularly enjoyable to read.
Ivor Noel Hume accomplished his goal of shedding new light from many different perspectives on colonial America in The Virginia Adventure. This book has contributed numerous insights into early America, and for that, it should be praised.
History 151
October 2, 2001
A James Towne Reading Experience.......2001-02-04
I purchased this book when on site at Jamestown. The ranger who gave us the tour of the park said that this was the best book on the subject of Jamestown. My guess is that he was probably right. This is a well researched account of the first efforts of the British to colonize Virginia.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the book is the relationship between the colonists and the natives. I would describe the relationship as one of cunning and deceit on both sides. The governing of James Fort was largely inept.
Some characters made famous by Disney meet their demise, and there is a fair treatment of Pocohantas. There are a couple of portraits of Pocohantas, described as "no fayre lady." The book is well illustrated.
The predominant them in this historical treatise on Jamestown, is the search for James Fort. It seems the prevailing opinion was that its foundations now lay under the river. This is proved to be only one-third true.
At times, history books can be dry and boring. Hume makes the characters come alive. Quotation and citation of source documents is frequent. This book is comprehensive and would be a wonderful starting point for any student of James Fort and the settlement. I enjoyed it very much.
Book Description
This volume collects contemporary accounts of the first successful colony in what would become the first thirteen United States. Most of the accounts were written by the colonists themselves; others reflect the perceptions and expectations of investors and observers back in England, while two reveal the keen and hostile interest taken in the colony by England's chief rival, Spain. These narratives take the reader from the London stage to Powhatan's lodge, from the halls of royal power to the derelict hovels of the Starving Time. They speak of unimaginable suffering, cruelty, hope, and perseverance. They show the modern reader what an adventure the founding of English America was-the desperate battles and fraught negotiations with Powhatan and his warriors, the political intrigues in Europe and Virginia, the shipwreck that inspired William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the captures and escapes, the discoveries that thrilled the colonists, the discoveries that broke their hearts.
Customer Reviews:
early Jamestown from all perspectives.......2004-10-29
The 20 collected writings relating to the English colony of Jamestown in Virginia, the first English settlement in America, are arranged chronologically from 1605 to 1614. This covers the time just before the arrival of the first colonists on three ships to the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. The variety of historical documents collected by the editor, a graduate of Wake Forest U., brings out the many sides of the venture of Jamestown. The struggle of the first colonists and mysteries surrounding the fate of some of them are the usual focus of the Jamestown colony. But besides these familiar subjects, Southern includes in this anthology Spanish documents evidencing concern over the colony; English papers voicing the interests and worries of investors; and references by Shakespeare to Jamestown.
Book Description
The story of the feisty, determined Lizzie of Pat Hermes' Our Strange New Land continues in this installment with the departure of both Captain John Smith and Lizzie's dear friend, Jessie. Facing new challenges, Lizzie records in her new diary all of the challenges that face the struggling colony. As a result of starvation and disease, Lizzed watches hopelessly as many of the settlers die. She records all of this, but even more, she records the intimate lives of the children who remain there, along with that of her new baby sister.
Customer Reviews:
Good way to get kids interested in History.......2007-07-17
Very well written, though it did tend to push the "Indian good, white man bad" agenda which is not historically accurate in this case. It should be noted that this is NOT an actual diary but a recently written book that is composed in diary form. My daughter enjoyed it but I would recommend that you do a little follow-up by dividing the historical "wheat from the chaff".
The great book........2004-03-13
When I first got this book I didn't want to let it go . It was so interseting that I didn't want to go to sleep.The part I liked was that Elizabeth's mom had a baby. Also that Elizabeth and Jessie asked Captain John Smith if he can go back to England and say hi to Caleb. I had fun reading this book.If you heard about this book then check it out.
A sad but good book.......2004-01-14
This book tells about nine-year-old Elizabeth Barker, an English girl who has come to live in the Jamestown colony in 1609. Food is very scarce, and many people are starving. Many people die, including Elizabeth's friend and mother. But she also makes another friend, a really nice one, and her twin brother, Caleb, who was too ill to travel with Elizabeth and her parents before, finally arrives on the spring supply ship, which also has food. By the end of the book, the colony is a peaceful place to be.
A book all people should read.......2003-10-31
I am a 9 year old girl who loved this book. I think it had great adventures in it and it was historical. It was not a hard book to read, but was very interesting.
top one of the best.......2003-03-30
I am almost in 6th grade and it is great for-girls book. Boys can read it to. I had to go to three schools until I came on the inter net and bought it. It is my all favorite book.
Book Description
Elizabeth, who is finally reunited with her twin brother Caleb, continues to grieve for the death of her mother in this third and final volume of her diary. And things don't get much easier when the cruel Lord Delaware begins to impose strict new laws on the residents of the Jamestown colony, and her father decides to remarry. But Elizabeth's brave spirit carries her through the hard times and into happier ones, as she and her friends rebuild the colony's church and discover true happiness.
Customer Reviews:
This book did not live up to it's promise........2003-01-05
"Season of Promise" was somewhat of a disappointment. This book could have been added on to "The Starving Time: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary;" in fact, it would have been better off if it was, as "Season of Promise" can't really stand on it's own two feet. Even though this is the longest of the three books, it feels the emptiest. With the addition of Caleb and Mistress Whistler (Anna), you'd think there would be more action, but there isn't. I still give this book three stars because it's apart of a good trio of books. And, once again, there is room for another edition. I don't recommend.
The wonderful conclusion to Elizabeth's story........2002-10-18
Ten-year-old Elizabeth Barker has been learning to live without her mother, who died during a terrible time of disease and starvation in Jamestown Colony. But now, in the summer of 1610, things are beginning to improve. Elizabeth's twin brother, Caleb, has finally arrived in Jamestown to rejoin the family. But Elizabeth worries that her father wishes to remarry, and that he will choose sour Mistress Whistler. Elizabeth is grateful to Mistress Whistler for nursing her baby sister, Abigail, after their mother died. But she doesn't want the woman, who is rarely nice to her, as her new mother. To make matters worse, the colony's new governor is imposing strict, terrible new laws. It will take all of Elizabeth's spirit and bravery to bring her through these new challenges and help her face the changes in her life. I highly recommend this book to readers who have read Elizabeth's first two diaries in the My America series, and to young readers who enjoy reading historical fiction.
Product Description
In 1606, one hundred and five men left England for the western shores of the Chesapeake Bay. They were looking for adventure, land, and treasure. Instead of gold and silver, the men found a dark and mysterious wilderness. A few, like John Smith, found friendship with the local natives. Others found new lives, hacked out of the Virginia wilderness. Most, however, found disease, starvation, and eventually death. Two-thirds of the original Jamestown settlers died within the first year. Still, the English kept coming. Land and opportunity were worth the risks. By the 1621, Jamestown had grown to 1,200 settlers, and people from the first successful English colony began to branch out and settle other towns. The Building America series tells the story of the early years in which America struggled to become an independent nation. Jamestown: The First English Colony details the extraordinary circumstances and often harrowing experiences overcome by the persistent Englishmen who wanted to settle in Virginia.
Customer Reviews:
Facts for a Change.......2006-08-12
Students assigned "Jamestown, the First English Colony," will smile at how compelling it turns out to be. Good map and pictures. Quick and easy to read. Background research outstanding. Even-handed candor highly refreshing.
Average customer rating:
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American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790
Evarts Greene , and
Virginia D. Harrington
Manufacturer: Genealogical Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0806313773 |
Book Description
This is an exhaustive survey of the population lists, estimates, and statistics that were produced in the American colonies before the first federal census of 1790. The population lists, which are of paramount importance to the genealogist, include poll lists, tax lists, taxables, militia lists, and censuses, and were originally drawn up for purposes of taxation and local defense. Gleaned from archives in Britain and the U.S. and from a wide range of published sources, their itemization in this work puts colonial population records in a handy framework for research, much like Ann Lainhart's work on post-colonial population records below. Coverage, by the way, isn't confined merely to the original thirteen colonies, but includes population lists from territories such as the Illinois Country, Kentucky and Tennessee, and the northern and southern Indian Departments.
Customer Reviews:
The Jamestown Colony.......2007-03-28
The book was well received by school children visiting Jamestown and Williamsburg on the 400th anniversary of the landing by the British colonists in Virginia.
The troubled history of the first permanent English colony.......2002-03-14
"The Jamestown Colony" was the third attempt by the English to establish a colony in the New World. In 1606 three small ships arrived at the mouth of a broad river that emptied in Chesapeake Bay. The colonists named it the James River in honor of the King who had granted their charger. The area was settled by nearly 10,000 Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy, not all of whom were friendly, which required the colonists to find a secure location to build a fort and harbor their ships. The site was called Jamestown and Gail Sakurai tells the story of the first permanent English colony in the Americas, although by the end of the century it was abandoned.
Sakurai goes well beyond what young readers are going to find in their American History textbooks. We learn about why more than half the settlers died by the end of their first summer, the true story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, the arrival of the first women at Jamestown, the brutal winter known as the "Starving Time," and the arrival of the new governor, Lord Delaware, who stopped the settlers from abandoning the colony in 1610. Ironically, we learn that this famous colony was an economic failure, which explains why the last part of the book talks more about the impact Pocahontas made on her visit to England than what was happening at Jamestown, where slavery was introduced but massacres, diseases, fires and other disasters decimated the colony, which was burned to the ground following an unsuccessful revolt. Thousands of new settlers came to Virginia, but not to Jamestown, which was replaced as capital of the colony by Williamsburg.
Teachers and students alike will find this story interesting and ample proof that colonizing America was not an easy task. Other Cornerstones of Freedom titles on related subjects include "The Pilgrims," "Williamsburg," and "African-Americans in the Thirteen Colonies." These books remain an excellent first place to look for detailed information about various facets of American History.
The First colony of America.......2000-06-22
The story, The Jamestown Colony, is about the first colony in the United States. It describes why the settlers left and what difficulties they arrived at. A smart buy for anyone wishing to learn more about our countries early colonial times.
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Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social, and Cultural History
Frank Grizzard , and
D. Boyd Smith
Manufacturer: ABC-CLIO
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ASIN: 185109637X
Release Date: 2007-03-21 |
Books:
- Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
- Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945
- Shield of Thunder (Troy Trilogy, Book 2)
- Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry
- Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel
- STREETS (Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's)
- Teaching Today's Health, Seventh Edition
- Ten Days to Self-Esteem
- The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes(Expanded and Revised 5th Edition)
- The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown
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