The Pilgrims of Plymouth, Mass get all the attention, of course, but it’s worthy of commemoration that the Jamestown colony pre-dated Plymouth by a full thirteen years. And instead of bible-thumping pre-destinarian fanatics, Jamestown’s population was made up exclusively of drunks and hookers. However, this did not look so good on a stamp, and these unsung heroes of American history were condemned to obscurity.
We learn a great deal from the painstakingly exact recreation of the original settlement and the neighbouring Powhatan Indian village. For a start, we deduce the reason why this colony succeeded where Raleigh’s Roanoke colony had failed. If the costumed guides of the Village exhibit are anything to go by, the local Indians were all asthmatic hippies in bifocals, and so no match for the massed musketry and synchronized syphilis of the heroic English settlers.
104 people arrived in three ships, the smallest of which was barely larger than the Odyssey minivan we arrived in. And from that humble beginning sprang both the British Commonwealth and the United States. These guys really should be better known…
The Powhatan Village exhibit, yesterday. It breathes authenticity from every pore.
5 comments:
...this did not look so good on a postcard. Looks good to me, I tell ya. Maybe we should change that slogan to "what happens in Jamestown, stays in Jamestown." Although, if the native chicks in your pic are anything to go by, I think I'll go to Vegas, after all.
Where was General Burgoyne in all this?
Can anyone please tell me how ( I've learnt how to do links on the dashboard) I can get it in Word and thence my blog?
Ivan, I thought this was the place with Mel Gibson and that Indian chick singing to talking trees. See, we do know our history.
Cheers.
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