Overview

Captain John Smith's voyages throughout the New World did not end - or, for that matter, begin - with the trip on which he was captured and brought to the great chief Powhatan. Partly in an effort to map the region, Smith covered countless leagues of the Chesapeake Bay and its many tributary rivers, and documented his experiences. In this ambitious and extensively illustrated book, scholars from multiple disciplines take the reader on Smith's exploratory voyages and reconstruct the Chesapeake environment and its people as Smith encountered them.

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9780813927282

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Reviews

Anyone who wants to understand the environment, people, and relationships that shaped the early years of the Jamestown colony must read this book. Based on deep and broad research, it is genuinely interdisciplinary and presents recent work in ecology and archaeology as well as the written record and oral tradition. - Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Silver Professor of History at New York University, author of The Jamestown Project All those intrigued by the early history and rich ecology of Chesapeake Bay will welcome this handsome book. The accessible text links John Smith's detailed explorations with the best that modern archaeology, ethnohistory, and environmental science have to offer. It puts the Jamestown encounter in a rich context, drawing on the bay's unique natural and human history. I suspect that Captain Smith himself would welcome this informed and engaging new appraisal, with its detailed maps linking the present to the past. - Peter H. Wood, Duke University Not only an engaging account of Smith's travels around Chesapeake Bay but also a fresh and exciting introduction to the native peoples in their natural environment at the time of English exploration and settlement.... Crisply and clearly written. The style should delight the general reader. - Brooks Miles Barnes, Eastern Shore Public Library, coeditor of Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands Nothing of a physical nature escapes this investigative report. There are detailed explanations for all sorts of things, from making watercraft and dwellings to the harvesting of various resources. Each section of the book treats a single region, namely the James, Pamunkey, Patuxent, and Rappahannock river areas, the Head of the Bay, and the Lower and Middle Eastern Shore.... This work is a monumental achievement and fills a void. Summing up: Highly recommended. - Choice

Anyone who wants to understand the environment, people, and relationships that shaped the early years of the Jamestown colony must read this book. Based on deep and broad research, it is genuinely interdisciplinary and presents recent work in ecology and archaeology as well as the written record and oral tradition. - Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Silver Professor of History at New York University, author of The Jamestown Project All those intrigued by the early history and rich ecology of Chesapeake Bay will welcome this handsome book. The accessible text links John Smith's detailed explorations with the best that modern archaeology, ethnohistory, and environmental science have to offer. It puts the Jamestown encounter in a rich context, drawing on the bay's unique natural and human history. I suspect that Captain Smith himself would welcome this informed and engaging new appraisal, with its detailed maps linking the present to the past. - Peter H. Wood, Duke University Not only an engaging account of Smith's travels around Chesapeake Bay but also a fresh and exciting introduction to the native peoples in their natural environment at the time of English exploration and settlement.... Crisply and clearly written. The style should delight the general reader. - Brooks Miles Barnes, Eastern Shore Public Library, coeditor of Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands Nothing of a physical nature escapes this investigative report. There are detailed explanations for all sorts of things, from making watercraft and dwellings to the harvesting of various resources. Each section of the book treats a single region, namely the James, Pamunkey, Patuxent, and Rappahannock river areas, the Head of the Bay, and the Lower and Middle Eastern Shore.... This work is a monumental achievement and fills a void. Summing up: Highly recommended. - Choice

Author Information

Helen C. Rountree, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Old Dominion University, is the author most recently of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown (Virginia). Wayne E. Clark is Executive Director of the Tri-County Council of Southern Maryland. Ecologist and environmental historian Kent Mountford is the author of Closed Sea: From the Manasquan to the Mullica.

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