The Underside

JAMESTOWN, 1544-1699

by Carl Bridenbaugh '25 Oxford, 1980. 199 pp. $12.95

Every schoolchild knows the storybook details of Jamestown's early history. Upon reaching a desolate peninsula in the James River, a handful of soldier-settlers founded England's first successful colony in the New World. The settlement was ultimately saved through the stout heroics of Captain John Smith, who was himself rescued from sudden death by Chief Powhatan's beautiful daughter, Pocahontas.

Jamestown, of course, also had its less romantic features. Disease, starvation, profiteering, and racial brutality were rampant. But what might be termed the "underside" of English colonization has rarely enjoyed the attention given more fabled occurrences. Carl Bridenbaugh's Jamestown, 1544-1699 is one of several recent studies designed to correct this imbalance. Bridenbaugh, a distinguished colonial historian, offers a less than ennobling account of life in the early settlement. It is a gripping portrait depicting in graphic detail how the colony quickly became a nightmare for both Englishmen and Indians.

Life was harshest during the first years. Between 1607 and 1624, roughly 6,000 out of the more than 7,000 immigrants perished. Very few died from Indian attacks; a much larger number fell victim to malaria, typhoid fever, shortages of food, and immobilizing bouts of depression. Though conditions improved toward mid-century, Jamestown never experienced the sort of stable community life characteristic of Puritan New England. Families hardly existed because of a severe scarcity of women; in the entire colony men outnumbered women by a ratio of three to one. Religious institutions were also weak, in part because the few ministers who chose to cross the Atlantic often represented the dregs of the Anglican Church. Most colonists were also simply more interested in present profit than in the less tangible rewards of salvation.

Though Jamestown had a notoriously unhealthy environment, clearly the settlers were also to blame for many of their problems. Viewing the colony as a way-station to quick wealth, they took little interest in constructing a settled community. Their desire for profit also helped to sour relations with neighboring Indians, particularly after the introduction of tobacco in 1613 made tribal lands more tempting to the white man. By the end of the century, practically all tidewater Indians had either been displaced, subjugated, or killed.

Because Jamestown was written for a general audience, much of Bridenbaugh's account is not particularly novel. The book owes an obvious debt to other recent works on Virginia. A striking exception is a fascinating chapter on Indian society which explores the shrouded life of Opechancanough, Powhatan's elder brother. In all probability Opechancanough was the superior leader of the two men, as well as the principal architect of the so-called "Massacre" of 1622.

The chief weakness of this work is its focus. In trying to cover a multitude of topics in the colony's early history, Bridenbaugh occasionally loses sight of Jamestown's more particular role. There is little at times to distinguish his study from general accounts of 17th century Virginia.

But this is still a valuable book. Bridenbaugh has succeeded in providing more than just a colorful portrait of Jamestown. He has shown how England's first successful colony could also become a social failure of tragic proportions.

Professor Ekirch, who teaches early Americanhistory at Virginia Tech, is the author of aforthcoming book on 18th-century NorthCarolina.