Alice B. reviewed Jamestown: First English Colony (American Heritage Junior Library) on + 3559 more book reviews
The story of Jamestown is the story of the first permanent English colony in North America. But what this volume in the American Heritage Junior Library reminds young students is that when a fort was constructed on a malarial peninsula in the James River in 1607 not only had the English failed twice before, but that these efforts were coming decades after the Spanish and the French had begun colonizing on these shores. Indeed, after three years the colony at Jamestown seemed finished when the few surviving settles straggled about rescue ships. But the tiny Virginia colony was replanted almost immediately and within a decade had been firmly established. A century after the founding of Jamestown it was clear that England controlled the largest share of the vast new continent.
"Jamestown" tells the story of how Englishmen like Captain John Smith succeeded in securing a hold on the New World. The story is illustrated by paintings, maps, and sketches made by the colonists themselves, as well as works by later artists who had the advantage of historical and archeological research. Anticipating the argument that Frederic Jackson Turner would make in his "Frontier Thesis," Marshall W. Fishwick (consulted by Parke Rouse, Jr., Executive Director of the Jamestown Foundation) focuses on the qualities that won Virginia for the English: boldness, good business judgment, and a passion for freedom. Through the influence of the many Virginians who were Founding Fathers, those qualities became part of the American character that spread across the continent.
This book is marvelously illustrated, and the period artwork lends an authenticity that few volumes on this series can match. For example, the colony's coat of arms with the Latin motto "Virginia made up the fifth part" shows young readers that these colonies saw themselves on a par with England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. No wonder the movement for American independence had so many strong supporters in Virginia. But the most significant part of this volume is how Fishwick tells the story of what it took for the Jamestown colony to survive and then thrive. American history textbooks establish the importance of Jamestown in the English coming to dominant the continent, but this book makes it clear how difficult it was for these settlers to carve that colony out of the wilderness. This book first came out in 1965 but it is still an excellent history of how the colony of Jamestown was established and survived.
"Jamestown" tells the story of how Englishmen like Captain John Smith succeeded in securing a hold on the New World. The story is illustrated by paintings, maps, and sketches made by the colonists themselves, as well as works by later artists who had the advantage of historical and archeological research. Anticipating the argument that Frederic Jackson Turner would make in his "Frontier Thesis," Marshall W. Fishwick (consulted by Parke Rouse, Jr., Executive Director of the Jamestown Foundation) focuses on the qualities that won Virginia for the English: boldness, good business judgment, and a passion for freedom. Through the influence of the many Virginians who were Founding Fathers, those qualities became part of the American character that spread across the continent.
This book is marvelously illustrated, and the period artwork lends an authenticity that few volumes on this series can match. For example, the colony's coat of arms with the Latin motto "Virginia made up the fifth part" shows young readers that these colonies saw themselves on a par with England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. No wonder the movement for American independence had so many strong supporters in Virginia. But the most significant part of this volume is how Fishwick tells the story of what it took for the Jamestown colony to survive and then thrive. American history textbooks establish the importance of Jamestown in the English coming to dominant the continent, but this book makes it clear how difficult it was for these settlers to carve that colony out of the wilderness. This book first came out in 1965 but it is still an excellent history of how the colony of Jamestown was established and survived.
