Relation of Virginia: A Boy's Memoir of Life with the Powhatans and the Patawomecks - Hardcover

Spelman, Henry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1479835196 ISBN 13: 9781479835195

Publisher: NYU Press, 2019

Synopsis

A memoir of one of America’s first adventurers, a young boy who acted as a link between the Jamestown colonists and the Patawomecks and Powhatans "Being in displeasure of my friends, and desirous to see other countries, after three months sail we come with prosperous winds in sight of Virginia.” So begins the fascinating tale of Henry Spelman, a 14 year-old boy whose mother sent him to Virginia in 1609. One of Jamestown’s early arrivals, Spelman soon became an integral player, and sometimes a pawn, in the power struggle between the Chesapeake Algonquians and the English settlers.   Shortly after he arrived in the Chesapeake, Henry accompanied another English boy, Thomas Savage, to Powhatan's capital and after a few months accompanied the Patawomeck chief Iopassus to the Potomac. Spelman learned Chesapeake Algonquian languages and customs, acted as an interpreter, and knew a host of colonial America’s most well-known figures, from Pocahontas to Powhatan to Captain John Smith. This remarkable manuscript tells Henry’s story in his own words, and it is the only description of Chesapeake Algonquian culture written with an insider's knowledge. Spelman's account is lively and violent, rich with anthropological and historical detail.  A valuable and unique primary document, this book illuminates the beginnings of English America and tells us much about how the Chesapeake Algonquians viewed the English invaders. It provides the first transcription from the original manuscript since 1872. 

About this title

Review:

"InRelation of Virginia, Ms. Kupperman provides an impeccable scholarly transcription of the account Spelman gave while visiting England in 1611-12. He described the land and its natural resources, its husbandry, the Indians towns, their spiritual beliefs, marriage customs, laws and government with a freshness that reflected his deep familiarity with their culture. His vivid descriptions are among the earliest English accounts of American Indian life."--Wall Street Journal

About the Author:

Henry Spelman was a new arrival in England’s Jamestown colony who, at age fourteen, was sent to live with the Powhatans, Pocahontas's people. Henry is unique among boys who lived with Native people because he wrote about his experiences, and his memoir is a major source on Chesapeake Algonquian life in the early days of English colonization. As he matured, he was caught between loyalties. Colonial authorities put him on trial for informing Opechancanough, the Powhatan chief, about changes in Jamestown, and he died at the age of twenty-eight in fighting between Natives and English.  

Karen Ordahl Kupperman is Silver Professor of History Emerita at New York University. Her books include The Atlantic in World History (Oxford University Press), The Jamestown Project (Belknap Press), and Indians and English (Cornell University Press), Winner of the AHA Prize in Atlantic History.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1479835196
• ISBN 13: 9781479835195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96
• Editor: Kupperman Karen Ordahl