First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624 (Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical B)

Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to the early years of Virginia
Review: This short, chronological look at the first seventeen years of the colony of Virginia has been in print since its publication in 1957. Readable, thorough, and lively, this little history is a clear-headed view of the most troubled colony of them all. Reading through what seem in hindsight as the most bone-headed, dumb mistakes ever made by settlers this side of the Pilgrims (who arrived in the middle of winter without sufficient provisions), watching the colonists blunder time and again is graveyard humor at its grisliest. Jamestown was plunked down in the middle of a swamp, where mosquitoes and foul water bred death (and the colonists knew the cause of their troubles, but the bosses back in London wouldn't let them move). They antagonized the Indians over and over, then wondered why the Indians were so hostile. But the colonists also survived, against all odds, and produced one of the most paradoxical of all colonies and states: the birthplace of freedom and liberty in the minds of Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, and the birthplace of slavery as well. This book should be read by anyone wanting to understand the roots of America.

Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to the early years of Virginia
Review: This short, chronological look at the first seventeen years of the colony of Virginia has been in print since its publication in 1957. Readable, thorough, and lively, this little history is a clear-headed view of the most troubled colony of them all. Reading through what seem in hindsight as the most bone-headed, dumb mistakes ever made by settlers this side of the Pilgrims (who arrived in the middle of winter without sufficient provisions), watching the colonists blunder time and again is graveyard humor at its grisliest. Jamestown was plunked down in the middle of a swamp, where mosquitoes and foul water bred death (and the colonists knew the cause of their troubles, but the bosses back in London wouldn't let them move). They antagonized the Indians over and over, then wondered why the Indians were so hostile. But the colonists also survived, against all odds, and produced one of the most paradoxical of all colonies and states: the birthplace of freedom and liberty in the minds of Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, and the birthplace of slavery as well. This book should be read by anyone wanting to understand the roots of America.