Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and The Start of a New Nation

What role does class play in John Smith’s initial treatment by the rest of the Virginia Company’s council members?

Price depicts the early settlers as driven by relatable motives toward profit and comfort. Does his depiction of the Algonquins meet this standard of relatability?

The only available written sources on Jamestown are entirely in English, and often written by people, like Smith, who had their reputations on the line. How does this affect Price’s telling of history?

Because of their highborn station, many of the settlers refused to work, often choosing to starve while waiting for others to do so. How does the English conception of labor differ from that of the Algonquin, as depicted by Price?

How does Price puncture the romantic myths surrounding John Smith and Pocahontas? What new myths does he support to replace them?

Powhatan nearly drove the English colony to extinction in its first years by simply refusing to trade his own stores of food with them. How does this differ from the extermination policy of the English that took place 20 or 40 years later?

In what ways does Price link John Smith to future American ideology?

What reasons does Price give for Pocahontas’s rejection of her people and adoption of English culture? How are they similar to later romantic depictions of people grateful for liberation by “enlightened” empires (as told by would-be liberators)?