Love And Hate In Jamestown
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David Prices reason for writing Love and Hate in Jamestown is to demystify the historical legends of John Smith and Pocahontas, and portray both as the reason why the Jamestown colony survived in the New World. Price supports this thesis by describing the people that inhabited the New World with the settlers at Jamestown, describing the leadership skills Smith possessed, and describing his method for saving the colony from disaster. Price wants to portray Smith and Pocahontas in the correct light, and correct the common misconception that the two were romantically involved. Price expresses this through an excellent narrative telling the story of the ships voyage across the Atlantic, the settlement of the colony, and the interactions that take place with the native peoples.
As I have stated, Prices reason for writing this book is to finally tell the true story behind the colony of Jamestown. Many stories have been told of the colony, and Price has been exposed to them just as we have. He notes the Disney animated movie Pocahontas early in his text, “the imaginative 1995 Walt Disney Co. movie, for example, endowed Pocahontas with a Barbie-doll figure, dressed her in a deerskin from Victorias Secret, and made her Smiths love interest.” (Price 4) The trouble behind this tale was that Smith and Pocahontas were “never romantically involved”, Price says. This is just one example of many that Price describes that show how the story of Jamestown has been altered by modern Americans. Price goes on to describe Pocahontas as the daughter of the great Chief Powhatan, a leader of a group of Indian tribes present in Virginia at the time of the Jamestown settlement. Price describes how Pocahontas ability to tug on her fathers heart strings was the reason John Smiths settlement was saved from disaster at the hands of Indian warriors. Also, the romantic relationship falsely attributed to the pair is down struck by the fact that Pocahontas was a young girl of about eleven when they met. Price also describes the character of the people who voyaged with Smith to Jamestown. Many were members of a class in England known as gentlemen those in which relied on their titles in life to make them prosperous, and did not know the value of hard work. Smith, after these gentlemen failed as leaders at Jamestown to provide a stable English outpost in the New World, adopted the policy of “one, who does not work, does not eat.” This policy, along with Smiths skills of oration, leadership, and organization, were the sole reason the James town colony avoided failure.
Price uses varying sources in his text, and explains at the end of his book the methods to his gathering research. In the section titled, “Editorial Method,” Price describes the way he has used dialogue, period text, dates, and colonial place names throughout the book. Also, Prices extensive bibliography at the end of the text