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Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation

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With apologies to Peggy Lee and Walt Disney, they didn't -- but the story of the Indian princess saving Captain John Smith's life is true. In fact, she saved his life on several occasions. But, in the end, believing Smith to be dead, she married another Virginia colonist, John Rolfe, who was not a bad sort although a bit of a prig.

This is the story of the British colony in Virginia from its founding in 1607 until its near destruction by the Indians and reconstruction in the 1620s. Captain John Smith was only in Virginia for the first few years of the colony, but he saved it from disaster over and over again. Surrounded by idle aristocrats who wanted to search for gold rather than grow corn, Smith adopted the no-nonsense policy that those who didn't work didn't eat. Many of the numerous "gentlemen" in the company preferred death to work -- and realized their desires.

I was surprised at how humane and idealistic were the aims of the parent company of Jamestown back in Britain. The company advocated peaceful coexistence with the Indians and there was much criticism of Smith's more aggressive -- and practical -- strategy. In retrospect, it is amazing that Jamestown survived as it was reduced to near nothingness on several occasions by starvation, disease, and Indian attacks. One of the chapters tells of the arrival of the first Negro slaves in the colony -- an ominous portent for the future.

For me the most interesting chapter of the book was about Pocahontas in England and her single meeting after a long separation with John Smith. I was especially amused at the author's speculation that Pocahontas was appalled at the unhealthy and squalid living conditions of the British in London at that time. She died soon afterward, a shame because her memoirs would be even more fascinating than those of Smith. "Love and Hate" is a well-researched and well-written book about a couple whose names will forever be linked in folklore and history.

Smallchief

The literature of Jamestown exemplifies a history of frustrating complexity. This is partly because the history of Jamestown has become the playing field of propagandists (e.g. post Revolutionary Americans justifying the Revolution, as Tisdale says, by putting down the "gentlemen" of the colony) to Henry Adams, one of the otherwise great minds of America-perhaps its greatest-who admittedly set out to demolish the history of the South in the Civil War era, as Price himself points out. Romanticists have enjoyed a field day inventing a relationship that never existed between a mature John Smith and the child Pocahontas, and Smith himself is so unlikable a hero as to make an unpleasant historical subject. Add the fact that most of the productive research on Jamestown in our century has been archaeological or documentary, and add the fact that during the period concerned Jamestown officials come and go and return again, one is presented with a kaleidascope of confusion. Only with the recent publication of JAMESTOWN NARRATIVES, which arranges the sources in an order comprehensible to the gentle reader and Ivor Noel Hume's outstanding THE VIRGINIA ADVENTURE, has the picture begun to come together for any but the specialists. Bearing in mind that Hume, one of the world's top archaeologists, covers both the Roanoke settlement and Jamestown, this is the first modern book I have seen that embodies the latest research, deals only with Jamestown and does so in a way that is both accurate and readable. This is an excellent starting place for anyone who wants to understand the early colony.

I do have one very small problem with the volume. The gentlmen still come off badly. Contentious, prickly, arrogant and self interested, they undoubtedly were, but their contribution to the colony was considerable, as the adventurers who explored and fought. But this (which I must admit is my own take) is more than overcome by Price's masterful account of how John Smith, one man of rather minor status, brought order out of chaos. It is hard to like Smith, but without him, I think there would have been no Virginia. And it is very easy to like Price, who has done us the inestimable favor of,at last, bringing the threads of the tapestry together.

Author David Price, "Love and Hate in Jamestown" is an excellent telling of America's first successful European colony and the nearly mythic characters of John Smith and Pocahontas who were so instrumental in achieving that success.
Indeed this is popular history as it should be. An entertaining read that illuminates an epoch and sets some misunderstandings straight.
It turns out that John Smith, done hard by popular culture in recent years, was in fact a hero of British aims to settle in North America, providing the type of acumen and leadership that so many who came over were unable or unwilling to provide. Price is masterful in fleshing out the iconic Englishmen as he is with the evidently beautiful and precocious native who came to be known as Pocahontoas. She is a far more complex figure than many of us have been led to believe and her story neither lends itself to portrayals of her as a pawn to the English or as a Smith's nubile young lover. Indeed Price claims that they the two had great affection for one another but not romantic love. Price successfully goes to great lengths to give the two their due in the ultimate success of the english settlement.
"Love and Hate in Jamestown" portrays neither the settlers nor the Powhatans as particularly heroic. In Price's hands they are not symbols to advance political interpretations merely people from vastly different cultures who collided at this particular time and place. Both sides are curious and suspicious, sometimes cruel, oft times duplicitous. We of course now how the story turned out for both groups but this book helps us understand why and how.
In the wake of Terrance Malick's film "The New World" interest in Jamestown and its two most famous figures will doubtless grow. Prices's book will be an excellent place for the curious to get a fuller and more accurate story and enjoy a good read in the bargain.

This is easily the most absorbing history book I have ever read. Price is a very good writer; furthermore his narrative is thoroughly researched, detached and unbiased, and optimistic. Between the English and the natives Price doesn't take sides or pass judgement, which I find gratifying as I tend strongly to resist any interpretation of history, even in times of violence and atrocity, that sees it even somewhat in terms of black and white, the good guys against the bad. It just doesn't work that way. If there are any bad guys for Price, they are only the inept early leaders at Jamestown, whose deadly incompetence John Smith was only sometimes able to neutralize.

Far more than only the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, this history covers the narrow survival of the early colony at Jamestown, the subtleties of the diplomacy and military stand-offs with the native tribes, the broader scope of diplomatic relations between the European powers of the day, the travels of several of the Powhatans to London, the arrival of the first African slaves to Virginia, the natives' too-late (and ultimately self-destructive) effort to force the colonists out through the massacre of 1622, and the early emergence of a distinctly American character in the colonists by their second or third decade in the New World.

Don't pass this one by! Almost two centuries of lesser-known, but disticntly American history took place before the Revolutionary War. Right from the start, as personified in the extraordinary John Smith, the settlers had a unique outlook and lifestyle that constituted the beginnings of American character and culture. Price communicates all of it with a novelists' skill.

One might shy away -- with a Disney-phobic mind-set -- from a book about the Jamestown colony, John Smith, and, of course, Pocahontas. Most of us feel we know the story anyway. "Love and Hate in Jamestown" by David Price however fills in the familiar outline with some new muscles and sinews.

The book principally follows the history of Smith and of the Jamestown colony from the departure of the three ship flotilla from London in 1606 until Smith's death in 1631. This history is of course in large measure one of relations with the Indians. Price, not a historian, has written for both the Wall Street Journal and Investor's Business Daily, so the economic motivations and structure of the colony also are given significant attention.

The story is told in a straight-forward style that is largely a strength, but at times makes it seem to be no more than a summary of others' work. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Certainly, it's a well-documented book, with an extensive Bibliography.

The book highlights many facets of the Jamestown/Smith story that add to a reader's understanding. I found certain aspects especially effective in this regard. 1) John Smith's background as a commoner, fighter for Dutch independence, self-taught student of military tactics (especially munitions), enlistee in Austrian forces battling the Ottoman Empire, and a captive slave to the Turks. 2) The ease with which the Spanish could have destroyed the colony, changing the whole course of North American history, and the big power politics that led King Philip of Spain to inaction. 3) The evolving expectations of the Virginia Company's managers back in England of what they could expect as return on their investment.

At the well-known and crucial point in the story, the author does an effective job of recreating the circumstances of Smith's capture by the Powhatans and Pocahontas' role in his deliverance from certain death.

Although strong in presenting these various facets, the book suffers I believe from the lack of a centralizing focus. At many points it seems a biography of Smith, then veers into the dramatic details of the colony's travails after Smith is shipped back to England, then returns to a focus on Smith as he struggles to find an avenue for returning to the New World. Each shift of attention seems abrupt and the level of detail varies uncomfortably.

John Smith apparently kept good notes while in Virginia and then wrote extensively about his colonizing experiences. Price of course draws heavily on these narratives and appears to always accept Smith's version of events. This is both natural (Smith had many supporters who verified his accounts) and somewhat unbalanced. The book paints the other colonial leaders - with whom Smith was in unremitting conflict - as incredibly selfish, naïve, and catastrophically unwilling to learn from their mistakes. A more nuanced depiction of those with whom Smith clashed would have added depth to the book.

Oddly, while the book does deal with disease among the settlers, there is no such discussion of the role European germs might have played in the decimation of the natives. This is a disconcerting omission. Price also has an amateurish habit of unnecessarily foreshadowing events: "shortly he would disclose it", "before long, he would owe her his life several times over", and "Smith would not learn of this for a long time to come".

There are two well-rendered maps, one of the voyage from England through the West Indies and onto the North American coast, and one of the layout of Indian tribes in the large area surrounding Jamestown. A map of the colony and its immediate area would have been helpful, particularly since recent archaeological efforts have added greatly to knowledge of the site. The web site of "Jamestown Rediscovery" (http://www.apva.org/jr.html) provides a useful adjunct while reading Price's book.

Some notes on "Editorial Method" (covering the rendering of dialogue, spelling, place names, dates, etc.) follow the main text. These would have been better placed as an introduction. Readers would be advised to read these notes first.

I have no hesitation in an overall recommendation for "Love and Hate in Jamestown". It should add extensively to the general reader's understanding of a nation's beginnings and the crucial role played by one of history's most singular characters.

Love and Hate in Jamestown is an appropriate title for this fascinating book. Details of the love between John Rolfe and Pocahontas that developed into marriage, a trip to England, and her untimely death are provided. We are also provided with details of the uneasy relationship between the native Americans and the English settlers as they each tried to put up a front of friendship with the other. If the book has a hero, it would be John Smith who dealt with the environment in Jamestown, Virginia, as it was, not as the settlers wanted it to be. Many of the settlers were "gentlemen" who knew nothing about getting their hands dirty in work. Looking for gold was first and foremost in their minds. Among the settlers were workers and shirkers. Initially, food was provided for all from a common storehouse, but this method didn't encourage everyone to do their share of work. Jealously and envy were enemies of the settlers as to who they wanted as a leader. Not only was there hate towards the common enemy, the native Americans, but towards each other as well. Author David Price believes the story of Smith being saved by Pocahontas to be authentic. History is about people who lived in a different period under different circumstances. This is the story of America's beginnings told in a most effective manner.

Price's book includes the stories of John Smith and Pocahontas, but carries the tale beyond them. It's really a full history of early colonial Virginia, from the founding of Jamestown to the introduction of democracy and slavery, and finally to the destruction of Virginia's American Indian civilization. Price, a very good writer, vividly brings to life his cast of characters, both European and Indian, without ever going beyond the sometimes-scanty sources. And it's nice to see that he's made no effort to needlessly puff the book up: It's a short, enjoyable, very educational read.

The love story between Pocahontas and John Smith is one of the most famous stories in American history. It is learned by schoolchildren and reinforced by movies and popular songs. At the very start of _Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation_ (Knopf), David A. Price notes that the "imaginative" Disney movie gave Pocahontas a Barbie-doll figure, a deerskin from Victoria's Secret, and Smith as a love interest. Peggy Lee sang that Pocahontas pled to her father that "He gives me fever with his kisses." It should not surprise anyone that such accounts are wrong, but the degree to which they are wrong and the intricacies of the real story, as much as we have them, make fascinating reading.

The upper-class councilors and leaders only succeeded in making Jamestown dangerous, and did not make it profitable. Smith, a commoner who had studied Machiavelli and intended to use his knowledge, got into trouble even on the voyage from England. He was actually imprisoned on the ship, for insurrection; probably he was doing nothing more than insisting that people do things his way. He learned the language and customs of the Indians. This was essential; these were not unorganized tribes, but a confederation of tribes ruled by Powhatan, an intelligent and ruthless military leader. Although Smith was only in Jamestown for little more than two years (1607- 1609), much of the book is devoted to the displays of friendship, enmity, trust, and betrayal between the two strong central characters. The third main character, Pocahontas, remains obscure in history, partially because Smith, in all his writings, had little to say about her. It does seem that she rescued him not once but twice, but at the time she was around twelve years old. While it is possible she might have had some adolescent infatuation for the powerful leader of the colonists, no historian seriously believes in a romance between them. After Smith left, due to an injury, she was captured to blackmail Powhatan, but joined the settlers. She was married to John Rolfe, a widower who gave us the blessings of tobacco as a cash crop. She sailed to England, where she and Smith had one awkward reunion, but he was able to ensure that she was not neglected by the court when he wrote a letter to Queen Anne to confirm her merits, the aid she had given the settlers, and her status as the daughter of the equivalent of an emperor. The Old World was too much for her; she died, probably of pneumonia or tuberculosis, before Rolfe could take her, against her will, back to the New.

John Smith never returned to Jamestown, although he explored and mapped New England (he gave it that name) and he was always writing books to promote further colonization. Price's book makes clear that Smith's enterprise, and the Virginia Company's, were commercial from the start; Jamestown was a company before it was a colony. As the man who saved it, Smith became memorialized as a particularly fine example of an American; Chief Justice Marshall, George Bancroft, Noah Webster, and others praised his courage, prudence, and resolution. (It might be, too, that his interest in wealth, exploitation, and self-promotion are also American characteristics.) Price is right to show that that though Smith was no Founding Father, and that the Founding Fathers did not look to him directly for an example, he had prescient views of America as a place of liberty, where one could pursue one's own purposes and passions as far as one's ability and industriousness could go.

All of us heard the John Smith/ Pocohontas tale in grade school. What is most interesting is that the basic folklore is true. Pocohontas did save John Smith from execution from her father. What was most interesting about this wonderful book is that the battle for survival against the elements and hostile Indian tribes lasted many years. Pocohontas did not make lasting peace between Europeans and Indians, but merely saved one important man. The Indians, justifiably fearing the settlers, kept trying sunsequently to end their existence through open war, false friendship and ambush, and even by poisoning their food.

John Smith, the professional soldier among the settlers, both respected and distrusted the Indians. It was his wariness that kept the settlers alive. Eventually, despite many deaths from disease and battle, the settlers survived long enough to outlast the Indians' desire to see them dissapear. Ultimately the longer the settlers survived the more came, eventually being too large a popultaion to be defeated. Price's book is a testament to how fragile that first colony was and what might have been had they been wiped out as was the Roanoke colony was, some 20 years earlier.

What is also interesting is that the first U.S. city, Jamestown, was a commercial operation, set up to look for gold primarily. The United States owes its existance largely to capitialism not religious freedom. While others came later for religious tolerance, Jamestown was an attempt by a private company to see what riches could be exported to England. Overall a great book.

More untruths have been told about Jamestown than about any other part of the early history of America. The truth as presented here is more interesting than fiction.
This is a scholarly but very readable investigation into the history of John Smith and his contribution to Jamestown as well as to the later settlement in New England.Smith's intelligence, talents and personality as described by the author portray a fascinating man who was ahead of his time in many ways.
John Smith was a published author in England and provided early factual descriptions and information about Virginia. He was an able, practical and strong leader who almost singlehandedly guided the fledgling colony through the first two years (1607- 1609).
The early seventeenth century with its European class consciousness and strife between classes comes alive in this book. The daily struggles and rigors of life for the colonists who were sent to find gold are described in detail.
With the majority of the country believing the Disney portrayal of Smith and Pocahontas, it is refreshing to know them as they were. If only this research and book could have come a hundred years earlier!