The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 (Real Voices, Real History) [Paperback]

Ed Southern (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Real Voices, Real History Series | Publication Date: October 2004

In December 1606, three ships carrying 144 passengers and crew sailed from London for the New World. In May of the following year, a little more than 100 men disembarked on a peninsula in a river they called the James. Eight months later, only 38 were still alive in the fort they named Jamestown. This volume collects contemporary accounts of the first successful colony in America. The earliest text dates from two years before the first landing; the last describes events up to 1614, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe. Most accounts were written by the colonists themselves. The 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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ed Southern, a graduate of Wake Forest University, is a descendant of John Southern, who arrived in Jamestown in 1619. He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: John F. Blair Publisher (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895873028
• ISBN-13: 978-0895873026
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars early Jamestown from all perspectives, October 28, 2004

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 (Real Voices, Real History) (Paperback)

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 The variety of historical documents collected by the editor, a graduate of Wake Forest U., brings out the many sides of the venture of Jamestown.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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar source material, September 30, 2008

By 

Christopher R. Kerr (Hastings on Hudson, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 (Real Voices, Real History) (Paperback)

Ed Southern has done an exemplary job of collecting many new and non-traditional sources of material for this essay, a welcome antidote to some of the more hagiographic tomes produced for this anniversary. For anyone interested in first class source material, this is a great place to start. I would highly recommend this for both general readers and students.