★★★★★ 5
Sheds Light On A Dimly Perceived Period
Format: Kindle
This book is clearly intended for those of us (non-historians) curious about what is a dimly perceived period of North American colonial history. Living as I do in Tidewater Virginia, I consider myself fairly well versed with the earliest years of English settlement or invasion, depending on your point of view. But, I was wrong. I had, of course, read about the wretched first two years of the Jamestown enterprise, but I had no idea just how ghastly the conditions of the first twenty years of the English colonial period were. Wave after wave of newcomers simply starved or died of disease in those years. The mortality rate was shocking. So many people were dying off that the local Indians did not even think it necessary to kill these newcomers (which proved a mistake, of course). And this was not just at Jamestown. For example, the author says that in any given year in one county 30 to 40% of the children under the age of eight were orphans. And the origins of many of these earliest colonists -- orphans dumped by local churches, beggars snatched off of urban streets, prisoners marched from gaol to waiting ships, many poor people literally kidnapped or tricked into emigrating -- was eye-opening. Talk about the refuse of British society. (As an aside, anyone whose humble immigrant ancestors came to Virginia in those years can forget about doing any genealogical research. You will never find the answers to your questions.)
This does tend to be a bleak read. One of the things that jumped out at me was the sad, repetitive tale of European-Indian relations. It mattered not where one was. Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Amsterdam, New York, the pattern is always the same. Trade and early friendly relations were quickly undermined by misunderstandings, stupidity, devious tricks, alcohol, and land disputes that led to attack and counter attack and massacres on both sides.
One of the things I did enjoy was the Indians' views of Christianity. Those mentioned by the author viewed it as little more than a strange dream. When the concept of a universal god was explained to them they laughed and called it a silly fable. I can only agree. My respect for their powers of reasoning and perspicacity rose immeasurably. Just who was the savage?
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Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2013
