Jamestown 1622: The Anglo-Powhatan Wars (Campaign, 401) Paperback – June 18, 2024

an Indepth history of the early colony. how close it was to not surviving and how the authors deduce the native politics saved them. i learned a lot, good book.

The story of the English settlement of Jamestown on the James River in Virginia in 1607 was once in every elementary book history book in the country. The traditional version has the English settlers outlasting the weather, the challenges of growing in a new land, and the rivalry of the local Indian tribes. Author Cameron Colby brings a surprisingly fresh look in this Osprey Campaign series book.Perhaps the most important point in the narrative is that the local indican tribes, who vastly outnumbered the English, attempted to fit them into their existing multi-tribal political hierarchies. The English in some cases actively participate as a means of survival. In other cases, friction led to violence. The Indians would make at least two serious attempts to wipe out the English and nearly succeeded.The text has lots of maps with tribal groupings and settlements. Period illustrations and museum pieces show the weapon on each side. Very well recommended as a fresh look at an old subject.

Having been born and grown up in Virginia every year I had to hear the Jamestown story again during history class, but the military aspect of the colony was rarely discussed. I was surprised when I heard last year Osprey was doing a book on Jamestown in their Campaign series, but was interested in particular because it seemed like the focus of the book would be the 1622 Powhatan massacre of the English around Jamestown. The book does cover that, but much more. It discusses the years 1607-1632 and both Anglo-Powhatan wars. The illustrations are very well done, particularly the English attack on a Powhatan village in 1624. Definitely a book I would recommend to those interested in 17th century or colonial history.

I was pleased to read Jamestown 1622 because the author had very good knowledge of Jamestown in colonial Virginia and its surrounds as the English charter was founded for trading. The series of battles were well-engaged strategically by the brilliant chief Openhanacanough against the English homesteads and villages. With interest, the English government did not send any further gunpowder to Jamestown after King James' death, so the English did not activate their raids against the Natives in 1626. Afterwards, the area became quiet as there was no military actions later.

The author seems to have a strong pro English , pro Protestant, anti Catholic , anti Spanish and anti Irish point of view . One example is in the section entitled "Elizabethan to Jacobean Britain" . The author is discussing the Roanoke colony, an early and ultimately unsuccessful English attempt to colonize North America .He talks about one Ralph Lane, " a man who had built his influence through Irish peacekeeping " which sounds innocuous enough . The facts, however, are a bit more brutal than just peacekeeping . He was a part of the Tudor/Elizabethan assault upon and colonization of the Gaelic Irish people, the outlawing of and persecution of Catholicism, the destruction of the Gaelic aristocracy, the death of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of many people from their ancestral lands.Peacekeeping seems an odd and euphemistic choice of wording to describe these cultural atrocities .Bear this prejudice of the author in mind when you read this book .

This book provides excellent information in a well-written history of the conflicts between the earliest English colony on the Atlantic seaboard and the Indian nations that inhabited Virginia. The story identifies the major characters, their motivations, and their attempts to use each other as allies against traditional enemies included many misunderstandings between very different cultures. Native American efforts to make peace with the newcomers were doomed by the continuing arrivals of the English until the inevitable explosion of violence that is chronicled by the book.

The author is very reluctant to give any specifics on the amount of casualties suffered by the Powhatans yet seems engrossed with the number of settlers killed in each skirmish. Frequently tiptoes around the extreme mortality rate of the natives at the receiving end of modern firearms and artillery but is hellbent on detailing every incident where a man was wounded by arrows. Massed coordinated volley fire in an unobstructed area cut down tribal warriors in droves regardless of where or when conflict took place in the world at this point in history. The timeline itself was fascinating and I did enjoy reading about the English equipment though I would’ve liked slightly more in depth coverage of the three quarter armor employed by certain high ranking officers such as the one on the cover.

Shoddy. Stingy with photos and illustrations.

Parfait