Love and Hate in Jamestown by David A. Price

                                                                

 Title: Love and Hate in Jamestown

Author: David A. Price

Genre: Nonfictions


Synopsis: 

This book chronicles the founding of Jamestown by the Virginia Company and the efforts (or lack thereof) of the people who lived there to build and maintain a city in the New World. 

My Thoughts

I am really intrigued by pre-American Revolution colonial America, especially in what is now the United States. It is strangely difficult to find information about this period outside the Salem Witch Trials, and the Pilgrims, that is accurate, not a textbook, or written in a SUPER boring manner. 

This book is less than 250 pages and I feel really highlights what life was like for people living in Jamestown. The use of primary sources that Price includes helps the reader to understand the perspective of the founders of Jamestown, especially John Smith. Price works to debunk the Smith/Pocahontas myth and to accurately describe the relationship between the indigenous people of Virginia and the colonists. While I think it is the author's intent to speak write from a non-biased standpoint and give the facts about the colonists and Pohatans, because the book is written about the founding of the colony and the only contemporary writings are from the colonists, it can feel like he depicts the Powhatan culture as primitive aggressors. 

The book is written in a manner that is easy to read and doesn't feel like a cumbersome list of facts. While its main focus is the Jamestown colony, the life of John Smith is followed even after his return to England. John Smith's contributions were a main component of the primary sources used in the research for this book. It also includes a brief look at the beginnings of the African slave trade on the American continent as well.

If you are looking to learn about the Jamestown colony, the Powhatan tribe, and pre-revolutionary America in under 250 pages, then this is the book for you! 

Comment below if you have read this book or have suggestions for others like it!

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