The Virginia Adventure: Roanoke to James Towne : an Archaeological and Historical OdysseyFor thirty-five years, as writer, lecturer, and chief archaeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, Ivor Noel Hume has enlivened for us the material culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. After his warmly praised book Martin's Hundred, he now turns to the two earliest English outposts in Virginia -- Roanoke and James Towne -- and pieces together revelatory information extrapolated from the shards and postholes of excavations at these sites with contemporary accounts found in journals, letters, and official records of the period. He illuminates narratives that have a mythic status in our early history: the exploits of Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain John Smith, and Powhatan; the life and death of Pocahontas; and the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. He recounts a recent important excavation at Roanoke where he and his colleagues found the work site of a metallurgist named Joachim Gans, whose findings about the mineral wealth of Virginia helped to convince London merchants that America was a worthy risk This is an account of high and low adventure, of noble efforts and base impulses, and of the inevitably tragic interactions between Indians and Europeans, marked by greed, treachery, and commonplace savagery on both sides. The astonishment of this history is that despite bad luck, bad management, and bad blood, the English presence in America persisted and the Virginia settlements survived as the birthplace of a country founded on English law and language. With clarity, authority, and elegant wit, Noel Hume has enhanced our understanding of the historical forces and principal players behind England's first perilous ventures into the New World, and proved again that he iswithout a doubt one of the great interpreters of our early colonial past. |
From inside the book
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Page 18
... Drake . In 1570 and 1571 Drake made reconnoitering sorties into the Caribbean , searching for points of Spanish vulnerability . Both he and Hawkyns con- cluded that successful attacks on the Spanish treasure fleets demanded large ships ...
... Drake . In 1570 and 1571 Drake made reconnoitering sorties into the Caribbean , searching for points of Spanish vulnerability . Both he and Hawkyns con- cluded that successful attacks on the Spanish treasure fleets demanded large ships ...
Page 45
... Drake's plan took on the aura of a really attractive idea . The expedition left Plymouth on September 14 , 1585 , with Drake as general aboard the six - hundred - ton Elizabeth Bonaventure , one of two ships assigned from the queen's ...
... Drake's plan took on the aura of a really attractive idea . The expedition left Plymouth on September 14 , 1585 , with Drake as general aboard the six - hundred - ton Elizabeth Bonaventure , one of two ships assigned from the queen's ...
Page 50
... Drake completed his destruc- tion of St. Augustine . Because he had left Plymouth on September 14 of the previous year , he knew that Ralegh's second supply flotilla had been diverted to the Newfoundland fishing grounds , but he should ...
... Drake completed his destruc- tion of St. Augustine . Because he had left Plymouth on September 14 of the previous year , he knew that Ralegh's second supply flotilla had been diverted to the Newfoundland fishing grounds , but he should ...
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The Virginia Adventure: Roanoke to James Towne : an Archaeological and ... Ivor Noël Hume No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
aboard archaeological archaeologists Archer Argall arrived artifacts ashore Barbour Bermuda blockhouse boat building built bulwark cannon Captain John Smith century church Cittie colonists colony colony's Company's corn council crew defenses described Drake earthwork England English engraving evidence excavations expedition feet fire fleet Fort Algernon Francis Gates Generall Historie George Percy Governor Grenville guns Hakluyt Hamor Harrington houses hundred Ibid Indians James Fort's James River James Towne James Towne's Jamestown Island John Rolfe John White's king land Lane Lane's later London Lord musket Newport Opechancanough palisades Paspaheghs Percy's pinnace Plymouth Pocahontas Popham Powhatan Quinn Ratcliffe remained returned Roanoke Island sailed Sea Venture sent settlement settlers ships Sir Thomas Dale Sir Walter Ralegh Spain Spaniards Spanish Strachey Strachey's supplies surviving Susan Constant tion trade trees village Virginia Company voyage Warr weroance Werowocomoco West White Wingfield Wolstenholme Towne Yeardley Zúñiga