A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America

by James Horn

The definitive history of the Jamestown colony, the crucible of American history Although it was the first permanent English settlement in North America, Jamestown is too often overlooked in the writing of American history. Founded thirteen years before the Mayflower sailed, Jamestown's courageous settlers have been overshadowed ever since by the pilgrims of Plymouth. But as historian James Horn demonstrates in this vivid and meticulously researched account, Jamestown-not Plymouth-was the true crucible of American history. Jamestown introduced slavery into English-speaking North America; it became the first of England's colonies to adopt a representative government; and it was the site of the first white-Indian clashes over territorial expansion. A Land As God Made It offers the definitive account of the colony that give rise to America.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, 17th Century, The United States Of America, American

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 26, 2005

About the author

Colonial Williamsburg Vice President

Reviews

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Williamsburg, Virginia has become a favorite vacation spot for our family. If you’ve never been there, don’t let the outlet malls, pancake houses, and tourist traps (Ripley’s Believe It or Not Wax Museum) fool you: there is a lot of wonderful history to see, if one is so inclined.

The old town of Williamsburg (not the newer part that has a Barnes and Noble bookstore and lots of trendy restaurants and clothing stores) is a beautiful recreation of what life was like in the latter-half of the 18th century. It may not be completely accurate, but the people in charge seem to have done a painstaking job at keeping it as close to the original as possible. There is a bit of the Disney-fied feel to the place: refillable souvenir mugs and soda machines scattered throughout the town, air-conditioned taverns, gift shops that sell all the same overpriced tchotchkes. Still, despite all that, one can feel the vibrant and powerful history of the place. This is a place where people lived and died and fought to create this country, and it’s very humbling.

Williamsburg is also very close to historical landmarks such as Yorktown and Jamestown, both of which have been restored and/or in the process of restoration.

Both cities resonate with historical importance, but Jamestown doesn’t often get the credit it deserves.

The small town of Jamestown (really nothing more than a fort) was the first English settlement in the New World, established in 1607, preceding the more-famous Plymouth, Massachusetts by about 13 years. Plymouth, of course, erroneously gets all the credit as the first settlement in the New World, perhaps due to its mythical role in the story of Thanksgiving. Pilgrims and happy Indians breaking bread together in peace and harmony makes for a far more palatable bedtime story, even if it is complete horseshit.

The truth about the foundation of this country is, as we all know, somewhat darker and bloodier. Jamestown, a colony that had numerous stops and starts and suffered horrible losses of colonists in its first several decades of existence, embodies that darkness and bloody history. Perhaps this is why it tends to get short shrift in history textbooks.

Indeed, it’s doubtful that very few Americans, other than historians, know the true and full story of Jamestown. Thankfully, there are historians like James Horn, who has done the research and put it in a fascinating and readable historical narrative. His book, “A Land As God Made It” is a comprehensive history of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. It is, at times, ugly, disturbing, moving, and funny. There are horrible things that happen in the story, and some things that don’t necessarily make our forefathers and -mothers look very noble or Christian, but it is our history, and it is important.

Setting the Stage for Jamestown

Horn’s book starts off in a weird place and time, a setting that one wouldn’t even think that a history of Jamestown would start.

Strangely enough, the story of Jamestown starts in 1561 in Spain.

Roughly 46 years before the Virginia Company of London landed on the Virginia coast and set up the fort that would become Jamestown, a Spanish ship landed on or near the same coast, its navigation having accidentally been knocked off course. While on shore, the Spaniards met a curious and intelligent young Indian named Paquiquineo (later named “Don Luis” by the Spaniards), who agreed to travel with them back to Spain.

In Spain, Don Luis met and befriended King Philip II. The king granted Don Luis permission to return to his people, after a brief detour to Mexico and Florida. It was in Mexico that Don Luis was “saved” by Jesuit missionaries. The Indian now claimed to have another reason to return to his people: to convert them to Christians.

Based on Don Luis’s subsequent behaviors and actions, Horn suggests that Don Luis’s conversion was probably just a ruse, an attempt to ensure that the Spaniards would get him back to his people, a last-ditch effort by a home-sick traveler whose hosts seemed to be dragging their feet in getting him back.

Whether Don Luis had faked being saved or simply denounced his new-found faith once stepping onto familiar soil is irrelevant. What matters is that Don Luis participated in the slaughter of Catholic missionaries by an Indian war party. Indeed, it is likely that he led the attack.

In retaliation, a ship headed by Pedro Menendez, governor of Florida at the time, fired upon the shore, killing numerous Indians. No record exists as to how many were killed, although by all accounts, on both sides, the number was high. Regardless of the number, the damage would have far-reaching effects.

No one knows what happened to Don Luis, although some historians suggest that he survived and later played a significant role in the subsequent bloody war between the Indian nations and the Jamestown settlers.

Horn’s prologue is an important setting of the stage for the events to come. It gives context and possible reasons for why Indians possessed an immediate hostility and aggression toward the English settlers.

It also illustrates the destructive role that religion and greed (sadly, two things that often went hand in hand among early European explorers) played in the founding of this country, a role that, for the most part, religion still plays. Granted, greed, too, plays a significant role today in our country, but greed has simply become business as usual.

Colonization Fever and a man called John Smith

The 17th century ushered in an era of colonization fever, especially for England. While the Spanish had a head-start and an almost-insatiable hunger for colonization, the hunger came a bit later for England. When it became clear that the New World could provide a plethora of new business opportunities, England finally began taking colonization attempts more seriously. Not that there hadn’t been previous attempts. Several 16th century attempts to start English colonies in the New World ended in complete failure, with major losses in life and property.

Several things changed to help push colonization forward. One was Queen Elizabeth, a tough, smart queen who saw the business potential in New World colonies, as well as a way to control more of the sea-trade and protect England against the Spanish Armada. Another were more outspoken proponents of colonization, such as Richard Hakluyt, who believed more English colonies meant more wealth and, of course, more Christian converts among the “savages” known to live there. It’s not clear, though, which was more important: saving Indians’s souls or finding riches galore.

In any case, there were several bad starts, including the mysterious disappearance of the colonists at Roanoke. No one knows what happened to the colonists, although the most popular theory suggests that a majority of the colonists were killed by warrior Indian tribes, and the survivors may have been assimilated by various tribes.

Undaunted by the high risks of colonizing the New World, ex-military man and adventurer extraordinaire, John Smith, immediately signed up to take the next round of ships to the Americas.

Smith is a charismatic and colorful character in American history, and while he was probably more of a legend in his own mind, he was influential in the founding of Jamestown.

His relationships he garnered with the warrior Powhatan Indian tribe was, in some ways, both a help and a hindrance to the colonists.

Smith was not one to kowtow to those in authority. Numerous documents exist that record his outbursts and antagonisms to those in charge. Many of these incidents resulted in his being temporarily imprisoned by colony leaders. While he was much hated among the colony leaders, he was looked up to by a majority of the colonists themselves. For a time.

Sadly, one of Smith’s major weaknesses was his annoying lack of restraint when it came to matters of the tongue. It is this weakness, perhaps, that also ended up eventually pissing off many of the Indian leaders and priests, who were notorious for not being able to accept even the most minor of criticisms. (This, of course, was a trait shared by many of the English leaders.)

Smith did not create the hostility and anger that Indians felt toward the invading white man, but he certainly didn’t help much.

Eventually, Smith would be forcibly sent back to England, never to return to the New World.

Interestingly, Horn sheds more light on the alleged relationship between Smith and the Indian Princess, Pocahontas.

Of course, there was NO relationship between the two, at least not in the romantic sense as the Disney movie would have us believe. Their first encounter took place when Pocahontas was merely eleven years old. Smith himself was already in his fifties at the time, making any romantic interlude between the two just creepy and disgusting.

So, why does the ridiculous story persist?

According to Horn, the relationship between Smith and Pocahontas persisted because there was plenty not known about it. Clearly, according to records, a lasting friendship, at least, developed between the older white man and the young Indian princess, one that continued even after Pocahontas’s marriage to John Rolfe and her move to London, where she died of illness.

Smith was strangely silent about the subject for the rest of his life.

Legacy

The history of Jamestown is a rich and lavish one, but it is not always pleasant. Stories of Indian massacres and subsequent bloody battles between colonists and Indians; descriptions of the “starving time” and the more-than-a-few incidents involving cannibalism; the political in-fighting; the Virginia Company’s failed attempts at “cover-ups” of the deplorable conditions at Jamestown; the church-sanctioned “genocide” of the Indians---these are not the stories we were told in school about our early colonial days.

Still, the job of the historian is not to pass judgment or to even editorialize. Thankfully, Horn does not do either. He simply documents the events, using a wide variety of primary sources, to tell a fascinating story, one that every American citizen should know.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamestown, Virginia, is the site of the first English-sponsored settlement in America and the birthplace of our now United States. English settlers arrived in Jamestown 14 years before pilgrims landed in Plymouth, and despite the many hardships that settlers faced, including disease, natural disasters, and political warfare, the town endured.

Historian James Horn chronicles the history of Jamestown from the first landing by English colonists through the end of the English settlement charter. In 1606, an English trading company known as the "Virginia Company," sponsored by King James I, commissioned three ships to colonize America. Under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport, the Susan (or Sarah) Constant anchored in Jamestown along with the Discovery and Godspeed. Among the men who sailed on these ships were historical notables John Smith and John Rolfe. Horn relates their stories, situating them in the context of early American political history. Horn describes the relationship of the English settlers with the indigenous people of the area, particularly with Powhatan tribes and their leaders, Wahunsonacock and Opechancanough. The English promoted and worked toward Christianizing Powhatans. Although the indigenous people under the leadership of Opechancanough and other high-ranking Powhatans appeared to fall under the whims of the English, rebellion eventually broke out, leading to death and destruction for both peoples. On many occasions, the English settlers were nearly decimated by disease, hunger, natural disasters, and warfare. After the uprising by the Powhatans, the English charter was pulled, causing the Virginia Company to disband in 1624. By then, Jamestown was established, and local settlers continued with their own leadership as a royal colony of England.

In summation, Horn makes an interesting point, "Had Jamestown failed, as seemed probable on any number of occasions in its first fifteen years, English attempts to establish settlements in the Chesapeake might have been delayed for several decades, or even abandoned." (p. 288) America could have been settled at a much different time, by a different sovereignty, or not at all. If relations with Indigenous people had turned out differently with a different group of colonizers, perhaps the country would have been left with those who rightfully belong to it.

This is an excellent resource for early American political and racial history.

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll include here essentially what I wrote as my book review for a class in which I read this book. It's not formatted like my other book reviews, but gets the gist of my views on the book. The book is really good, has an adaquate amount of footnotes, and is fair to all parties invovled, showing the positive and negative aspects of colonization.

The history of Jamestown has been largely been forgotten in modern culture. What little is known about Jamestown has been falsely construed by attempts to make the history of Jamestown fit epic storytelling capabilities, as seen in the Disney movie Pocahontas. Unfortunately, the negative aspects of Jamestown have become the focus of historical documentation in the ever-growing popularity of the 1619 Project. While the history of Jamestown is indeed filled with failures, immoral actions, and long reaching consequences on all involved, it is important to focus on both the positive and the negative, not forgetting why the colony was established or why desperate measures were taken. In his book A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, James Horn examines the history of the Virginia colony, and tells a narrative filled with surprising reveals even to the most learned historians. James Horn’s basic premise behind the book is that while religious conversion and political expansion played a part of the founding of Jamestown, the primary reason for its existence lies in the commercial value of the colony.

In the beginning of the book, Horn displays the intent from the English leadership in their many failed attempts to produce colonies in the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh, who funded and supported many of the early attempts at settlement in America, essentially asserted that wealth and fame are so powerful drivers of the motivation of man that they override all other reasons for actions. James Horn comments in his book that “Raleigh was referring to the wars against the Spanish, but his remarks apply equally to colonizing projects, allowing that the desire for riches was hardly confined to the rank and file” (Horn 2005, 41). Both the leadership of the Virginia Company as well as the settlers and workers involved all essentially desired from the outset to earn and produce wealth in the new colony. While Horn points out that the investment eventually failed for the colony, leading to its eventual demise, the long-term benefits of wealth to its individual citizenry had long lasting effects, bringing Virginia prominently into the economy of the New World.

Horn asserts in the book that the initial reason for the founding of the Jamestown settlement was to find a resource that would quickly bring the Virginia Company a return on their incredible investment. While explorers in the new land such as John Smith, Thomas Harriot, and others searched for mountains filled with gold, silver, or other commodities, their exploits were unsuccessful. Eventually, Horn points out, “As prospects of riches faded, it would be Hakluyts’ vision of sustainable agriculture, not the example of the Spanish conquistadors, that would eventually guide the colonists' efforts.” (Horn 2005, 98). The Virginia Company had the prescience and patience to continue investment in the colony long term, and while it never was able to capitalize on the success of the settlement, they were correct in asserting that there was a resource in Virginia ripe of exploitation. That resource is discovered, whether intentional or not, by John Rolfe when he learned that Tobacco not only grew well in the fertile soil, but also that it was in popular demand back in England.

With the realization that Tobacco would be the lightning bolt that would strike the colonies economy, Horn asserts that the settlements quickly grew into the full colony Virginia, leading the way for England’s commercial empire. Horn discuss in his book how “England’s empire was an “empire of goods”…Virginia, like other colonies, created bright new opportunities for tens of thousands…attaining a social position they could have never achieved at home” (Horn 2005, 285. When America is referred to as the “land of opportunity”, it truly starts in Jamestown, not in the Pilgrim’s colony, that the idea truly originated.

Throughout the book, Horn does discuss that the British did have multiple motives for founding the Jamestown colony, and that these motives may have included religious conversion as well as political power. Horn points out the obvious advantages of the Jamestown colony in providing a buffer to stopping the Spanish expansion in the New World. Horn also does a good job of laying out the religious reasons for founding the Jamestown colony. He discusses early on in the book how “the English would establish a universal Anglican church in America that would serve as a counterbalance to the expansion of Catholicism in Spanish possessions”(Horn 2005, 24). Horn also includes quotes and anecdotes from many Preachers and pious individuals who were sent in order to convert the local population. However, Horn is fairly emphatic in his text that neither of these reasons overruled the desire for wealth and financial prosperity, which drove not only the Virginia Company and the settlers, but the leadership of England as well.

In keeping with its many strength, the book also tells a narrative surrounding John Smith, John Rolfe, and Pocahontas that serves as a subplot in the story of Jamestown that shows how diplomacy and communication can go a long way towards peace. Pocahontas’s marriage to John Rolfe not only served as a guarantee of peace between the colony and the Powhatans, but also served to show that the natives could be converted to Christianity and English culture. Horn states that “She had adopted English ways and converted to the English church but had not abandoned her own culture. She remained a Powhatan, Matoaka, but was also English, Rebecca, and was both an Indian Princess and an English wife” (Horn 2005, 228).

Overall, James Horn’s book is an excellent dive into the Jamestown settlement and how the commercial prospects drove its colonization. Horn doesn’t just include anecdotes from the side of the settlers but takes into account as much as possible from the Powhatan and other Indian perspectives. He doesn’t shy away from portraying either group in a bad light, but rather shows how America may be flawed but still has enormous historical, cultural, and economic value. Horn’s book is able to tell a narrative from almost compete chronological order but is also able to make that narrative interesting to the reader and understandable to those unfamiliar with Jamestown’s history. If only all more citizens knew the history of Jamestown as presented in this book, America would be a much better place.

Overall, I liked this book. It told the history well and kept me interested throughout. 9.2 out of 10.

[Leslie Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always judge a good history book by whether or not after reading it (or during reading it) it makes me excited to soon read other books on that particular era, place or person. By that measure, A Land As God Made It, is a tremendous success. No sooner than I started to read it, I was already anxious to read James Horn's book on the lost colony of Roanoke. His writing style is excellent - he tells a historical story in an interesting way, inserting primary sources to tell the story. However, sometimes those primary sources were overly used and confusing to follow (particularly as Horn doesn't update spelling and syntax to reflect our time, but rather, quotes directly from original texts). On occasion, they slowed down the pace as I had to re-read the primary text passages several times to get their full meaning. I nonetheless appreciate that Horn is a historian who relies on primary documents and uses the accounts of Jamestown settlers to tell the story. I can't wait to read more!

[Claire Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a more human story about the experience of the settlers, how they lived and how difficult it was. There was a bit of that but a lot more about the leaders and I found it got a bit dry.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Horn’s A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America offers a detailed yet easily accessible account of the founding and struggles of the Jamestown colony. Published just two years before Jamestown celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding, Horn’s account goes even further by offering fresh and plausible insight into the possible fate of the lost Roanoke colony, the disastrous end of which preceded Jamestown. Jamestown’s account is firmly based on documentary resources, from which the author abundantly quotes, and one would assume archaeological evidence, though when this is used is unfortunately not clear. One of the elements which make the reading experience such an enjoyable one is that Horn rarely allows foreknowledge to cloud the events he is depicting, making room for suspense and presenting the reader with just how dire the circumstances often were for colonist and native alike. Through this he shows how violence and deception on both sides often meant survival in the moment, and it makes it difficult to judge the harsh treatments which occurred between the two peoples as so many modern accounts of Jamestown often do. Even more importantly, he shows that even a deep cultural understanding between English colonists and natives would likely not have avoided war, as their goals and interests were just too incompatible.

For those who know the story of Jamestown only through the mythical love story between John Smith and Pocahontas, and who may be looking for confirmation of that tale within these pages, disappointment will surely follow. Horn presents Smith as the evidence shows he was: arrogant, crafty, pragmatic, and ever the self-promoter. What Smith believed, or at least wanted others to believe, with regard to his saving from execution by Pocahontas (perhaps the most iconic moment of the tale) was more than likely his misunderstanding of a rebirth ritual in which he was symbolically killed, Pocahontas simply acting her part in the ceremony (68). The great chief’s daughter is largely absent from the story until her marriage to John Rolfe, long after Smith’s removal, and her trip to England. Horn takes no stock in the love story with Smith, though they did appear to have had some mutual affection of the father/daughter variety, at least on Pocahontas’s part, as revealed in the dialogue of their last meeting.

Horn’s writing style is at times engaging and vivid, such as his description of snow on London rooftops (131). He focuses his narrative through the experiences of individuals, granting a decidedly human element to the Jamestown story and making a complex tale, filled with a large cast of participants, more relatable and understandable to the reader. Most of these individuals are, not surprisingly, European, as they left the written record and appropriately provide the voices for the book’s main character, Jamestown, as they were its builders and occupants. Overall, Horn’s efforts in this respect are very successful. There are, however, a few instances when the action which Horn recounts becomes confusing, such as the awkward introduction of Reverend Hunt, in which a ship is described as passing a church where he once preached only to be immediately followed by him seasick on that same ship, though his illness is the first indication he is even present (42). This makes the reader go back to check if they have perhaps missed an earlier mention of him, which they have not. Likewise, we are shown an incident where Indian warriors surround “the great chief’s house” just after the chief has left a meeting, the location of which has not yet been given. The reader assumes that chief has entered his own house and is being protected by the gathering warriors until John Smith has to fight his way out of the ambush (122). The reader must then reimagine the entire scene in order to understand John Smith’s panic and flight, once again rereading the passage, to visualize the chief leaving the house rather than entering it. These are minor qualms in a book this size and serve as but a few potholes in otherwise well-paved prose.

A reader could be forgiven for not understanding Horn’s thesis until he actually reveals it in his epilogue after nearly three-hundred pages, and the book would have been better served to have it presented early on. The title of the book offers no clues, and instead confuses the matter. The expression “a Land even as God made it” is a quote taken from a critic of the Virginia colony, describing that landscape, suggesting that the colonists had established their lands on virgin soil, uncultivated or unchanged (unlike the cities and gold which the Spanish found) (97). However, Horn himself describes native crop cultivation and controlled burning, suggesting a landscape that was very much the result of human intervention, and it is unclear what Horn meant to suggest by choosing this title. The book itself makes some strong cases that may have also served as theses. Jamestown was in no state to survive, in Horn’s account of it, until the English had abandoned the courses of reconciliation and conversion that had informed their relations to the natives and turned instead to tactics of conquest and subjugation of the variety that Smith had embodied and for which he had been criticized. Horn does not seek to excuse the violence perpetrated by the colonists, but merely to provide a scholarly explanation of what happened and why. If conquest was the key to Jamestown’s initial survival, its continued prosperity depended upon two resources: tobacco and slave labor. Tobacco was quickly seen as Virginia’s prized commodity, or as Horn later puts it, it “was Virginia’s salvation” (280). Likewise, it was the abundance of servants and eventually slaves that contributed to Jamestown’s longevity and defined its economy, for as John Pory is quoted as writing, “Our principall wealth…. consisteth in servants” (247). Yet while these points come close to the thesis’ mark, they do so only indirectly. Horn therefore gives a fairly straightforward, though engaging, narrative without clearly identifiable themes, and the epilogue’s argument feels more like an afterthought as a result.

Instead, the subtitle of the book points in the right direction. Horn argues that Jamestown’s survival was crucial to the future survival of an English America, and that it established a blueprint that America would follow for the next nearly three centuries in its commitment to plantation-style slave labor, the unending violent conflicts with native peoples, and finally the first representative government in America, the House of Burgesses. It is not difficult to imagine slave labor or “Indian Wars” not being an inevitable result of European mercantilism, especially as it was being practiced in the West Indies. If it had not been Jamestown, it may have been another, though perhaps not English. Likewise, wars with natives would soon come to define the New England colonies as well, and they would also go on to create their own representative governments. Whether Virginia’s government served as an influence or was an earlier coincidence Horn does not say. This is not to suggest that Horn’s thesis is wrong, but really that it appears irrelevant, or at least weakened, especially as it feels merely attached to a solid narrative the value of which lies not in the epilogue’s argument, but rather in its own lively telling of the tale and the exceptional scholarship that permeates it.

[Steven J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give this book SIX STARS if I could! This is a well written book that provides accounts of the founding, that includes the many struggles, and few positive events and outcomes of Jamestown. As it turns out there were more problems with competition for power, poor management, and incapable settlers that held the colony back. Disease also took a major toll on the colony while trying to feed and protect themselves from the local Powhatan Nation. More often than not the venture (initial investors and later the Virginia Company)was on the brink of disaster and dissolution.
Working with the Indians was an on and off affair with times of peace and more often than not,war. Great atrocities were committed by both sides. No matter what agreements were made, the native population, understandably, were not going to tolerate the English to take their land. To this end the Powhatans played a long game/strategy to lure the English into complacency and attacked them all at once which worked well initially. They were very smart, but in the end this caused the end of the Virginia Company as a profit venture and the start of the English King’s ownership. As such, more competent management and settlers were introduced that enabled the colony and other settlements to thrive with less fear of Indian attacks.

This book does great job chronicling the events that shaped the English colonial aspirations in Virginia even though my view of the role that the Pilgrims in New England played in the formation of America compared that of Jamestown differs. The author covers most of the bases.

Areas to expand upon that would be interesting to delve into would cover:

What really happened to Pocahontas? Poisoned vs tuberculosis? Was she used to gin-up interest to obtain more investors? Abuse while being held hostage by the English? Was John Rolfe the real father of her daughter?

Also, how to measure which colony was the “birthplace of America?” Both Jamestown and Plymouth have arguments for this claim/honor. One thought is that the Pilgrims were not in North America to create an English colony as was Jamestown. They were there to get away from England and religious persecution. Therefore, in my view, they would be more aligned to separate from England in the larger sense than of course Jamestown who were representing England. Pilgrim descendants fought in the American Revolution thereby creating America directly. To that end the birthplace of America is in New England not Jamestown.

[Phil J]

I was looking for information on Stephen Hopkins, Samuel Collier and the first African Americans. What I found was well-written, but less detailed than what I have found elsewhere.

[Graham Catt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent account of the Jamestown colony.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just read "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War" by Nathaniel Philbrick, which is the story of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, and decided to read a book on the other inaugural English settlement in America at Jamestown. The book I chose was "A Land as God made it; Jamestown and the Birth of America." The two books are best read as a set as they give a more complete history than does one or the other alone.

There is a misconception that England started the two colonies which is not exactly true. Under the English system a company (a business concern) applied to the King, was granted permission to establish a settlement in America and then investors were solicited to fund the venture in expectation of profits to come. While the Pilgrim effort was nominally a religious effort it was actually a business venture. The Jamestown effort had its religious element but was more a business venture than was Plymouth. Both settlements went through similar experiences, misunderstandings with Native Americans leading to blood shed, starvation during the first few years, a high percentage of deaths from disease and finally conquering their areas of endeavor. Both books cover their colonies through the first wars with the Native Americans, at Plymouth it was Prince Philip's War while with Jamestown it was the great massacre of 1622 in which the Powhatans wiped out nearly a quarter of the English settlers ending any hope of an accommodation between the two sides.

In the background of the Jamestown effort was the Roanoke colony which was wiped out twenty years before. James Horn, author of "A Land as God Made It," explains what happened to the supposedly mysterious disappearance of those settlers. Faced with starvation and disease, the Roanoke settlers and having despaired of ever seeing a ship from England again, were absorbed by local Native American tribes. The Powhatans, a Native tribe which was attacking and conquering the other tribes of the area, realized a new effort by the English had been established at Jamestown, hunted these Roanoke settlers down and slaughtered them to prevent them from aiding the new settlers. This fairly settles for me the mystery of Roanoke.

Here is something I did not know; the first Thanksgiving in America was at Jamestown not at Plymouth.

I thoroughly enjoyed "A Land as God Made It" and recommend it. Particularly interesting was the true story of John Smith and Pocahontas.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I found the writing only fair (the writer has a tendency to tie himself up in knots of prose occasionally or make unnecessarily confusing word choices) and I can't say I found anything in the book particularly fresh or original. On occasions, I found myself wanting to read the words of Captain John Smith directly, rather than through the vehicle of James Horn, who didn't always seem to be doing the best work with the material. All that said, I did learn quite a lot about Jamestown, Captain John Smith, and the relations between the Native Americans and the English colonists in Virginia. The book has whetted my appetite for more on the subject, so in that sense it was successful.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. This is the 6th book I have read regarding the rise and fall of Jamestown. This is either the best or a tie with the title "Love and Hate in Jamestown", Both excellent. This book goes into a better explanation of the historical constructs that drove some of the decisions behind WHY Jamestown was founded and provided additional insight into the sheer random chance of the new colony's shot at survival. fascinating book and more evidence that reality is truly stranger than fiction.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite detailed account of the early years of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in America and their dealings with the Indians, etc. Clears up the myth of John Smith and Pocohontas. At first they wanted to convert the Indians, but that changed fast after a big massacre in 1622 and for profit reasons. Touches a little on the beginnings of slavery. Worthwhile, but gets slow at the end.

[Eric Eickhoff]

So far I am enjoying it greatly. It is similar to Mayflower in the discussion of Colonial American History but obvisouly in a different region. It is especially timely that since it is the 400th Anniversary of the Jamestowne landing and that Leah and I live in James City County.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book added greatly to my understanding of the colony at Jamestown. My husband and I had just visited the site and this book answered many of my questions and has caused me to think about the events that took place there.

[Linde · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this book for a university research about Pocahontas and used it for the historical context of Jamestown and anglo-powhatan relations in the early years of the colony. however, i got carried away. instead of reading only useful parts for my research, i couldn’t stop reading and spent a whole day finishing the entire book.

james horn uses first-hand accounts to write his history of Jamestown; most importantly those of John Smith, arguably the most legendary english colonist in Turtle Island (the indigenous term for north america). as my research also required primary sources and i personally prefer direct quotations, i also read the accounts by Smith which horn used (a true relation, 1608, and the generall historie, 1624).

i understand that not everyone would be interested in such a dense and very historical book (with lots of direct quotations in old english, which can be tiring to “translate” to some readers). i was also completely surprised that i actually wanted to finish the entire book, as normally i don’t care for american history or very detailed history books like these. but i especially liked the character of Wahunsenacawh (the powhatan chief and father of pocahontas, his name is spelt in various ways, but this spelling is used most by modern indigenous websites). although horn only used english sources for Wahunsenacawh’s portrayal (and did not include or consider the oral history of surviving tribes near the historical powhatan region), the chief’s character was incredibly appealing to me. he was cynical, brave and strategic, stoic almost. refusing many english offers (or better, demands) which seem so risky and dangerous in hindsight, which he would have known too, but Wahunsenacawh simply stood his ground. i found that truly admirable.

it is also funny and interesting to read the real notes of the english colonists. mostly about daily life and contact with the powhatan or other indigenous tribes, the quotations speak volumes of the european and english ways of thought and morals, which really adds to your understanding of history. horn doesn’t really speak in the name of history, but lets the historical figures speak for themselves. this allows you to form your own thoughts and judgment of the situations and events, which horn describes.

i also truly learnt a lot, obviously about the Jamestown history, but i especially appreciated horn’s conclusion on why Jamestown matters in american history (which also explains his title “and the birth of america”). i always wondered why the pilgrims at plymouth were so much more known and celebrated in american culture, and not Jamestown’s foundation: the first permanent settlement in Turtle Island years earlier in 1607. horn explains that thanksgiving (the indigenous were left with nothing to give thanks for, but sure) had some part in it, but after the civil war, everything southern was inferiour to the victorious north. jamestown, located in virginia, was replaced by plymouth as the first colony of america and “birth” of the free nation of 1776. i found this super interesting and informative!

this book simply isn’t for everyone. it’s a tougher read, partly because of the old english quotations, but also because horn doesn’t do all the work for you. you have to piece some things together yourself, which is in itself a challenge. enjoy!

[Xavier Patiño · Rating 4 out of 5]

Embarrassingly, the only knowledge I had about the colony of Jamestown was from the bits and pieces I remember watching from Disney's Pocahontas.

Yup.

And so I leaped headfirst into James Horn's A Land as God Made it and kicked ignorance's ass. I now know so much about the infamous colony. The story of James Smith and Pocahontas was not what I thought it was. At all. And the horrendous "Starving Time" that occurred in the colony pushed the colonists into cannibalism! Aside from fleeting moments of peace between the English and the Powhatan Indians, there was constant war. The "Indian Massacre of 1622" left hundreds slaughtered and settlements reduced to ash. And there is so much more.

I found Horns' writing to be simple and eloquent. The history is presented as a narrative and so it was easy to follow the different characters and the flux of events that took place from 1607 onward. I found it all fascinating and was astonished at the fact that the colony eventually flourished despite constantly befalling to sickness, disease and death.

Jamestown's success eventually helped spur the growth of the other colonies and gave birth to the United States that we know today.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a clear, readable style that is nonetheless reflective of the best scholarship, this book provides a fine narrative of the Jamestown colony from its first settlement in 1607 until 1624, when the crown revoked the Virginia Company charter. In the early part of the book, Horn depends by necessity on the writings of John Smith, and he credits a great deal of Smith’s interminable self-promotion. Still, Horn’s treatment of the Pocahontas story is measured, arguing “we can say with some certainty” that it “did not happen as he described it.” (68)

Horn’s work is not analytical in sense of Edmund S. Morgan's classic American Slavery, American Freedom (1975). By the end of Land as God Made It we are fully aware that for the vast majority of Jamestown settlers life was nasty, brutish, and short. But Horn doesn’t speculate about why, for such an extended period, the death rate in early Virginia surpassed that of plague years in 14th-century Europe.

[Greg Schloesser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly engaging and fascinating history of the English efforts to found a settlement off the Chesapeake coast of Virginia. The settlement was named Jamestowne and became the first successful and permanent English settlement in the Americas.

The author dives deeply into the history, using a variety of sources, including letters, reports, Virginia Company records and more. The stories of the struggles with the native Americans are sometimes riveting, and it is stunning to realize just how close the colony came to collapsing on several occasions.

Not overlooked is the power struggles that occured within the Virginia Company and with the English government, upon which the success or failure of the colony was largely dependent.

For those who enjoy early American history, this book is a must.

[Kate Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a dramatic beginning the English had in America, including exploration of unknown lands, cross-cultural politics, war, starvation, betrayal--has no television miniseries been made of this? I was totally engrossed in this early history of Jamestown, which ultimately survived as a permanent colony, but barely. I became interested in this because I have an ancestor who arrived there from
England in 1610, but the story deserves to be more widely known. James Horn is one of the foremost scholars of the colonial Chesapeake; reviewers have called the book "lucidly written," "authoritative," "wonderfully haunting," "the best short narrative of the history of the first two decades of the colony of Virginia, the first successful English colony in America." Not to mention a riveting read.

[Chris Heim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes, when you read a book (even a nonfiction one), you learn as much about yourself as you do anything else. In this case, I learned that I'm not as interested in the nitty-gritty history of Jamestown as I thought I was, or maybe as I used to be (I purchased this book much closer to its publication year of 2006. My two-star rating isn't to say that it's "not a good book." It's simply a statement that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would've. Clearly, this book is impeccably researched, and it is an extremely thorough account of the settlement of Jamestown. Stylistically, I found it a pretty dense, academic read, but if that is what you are looking for, I think you'll enjoy this book more than I did.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonable survey of the Jamestown settlement from the early 1600s to the mid 1620s. The focus the politics between the investors and the settlers, the politics within the settlement, and the politics and fighting between the settlers and native peoples.

This book is very good if you want to to understand the forces shaping the settlement, and the personalities and strategies of some of the major players. It does not give you the experience of what it was like to be a settler - the lack of food, the hard labor that was unequally divided, the native attacks, and the attack on natives.

So- good book for a specific slice through a complicated experience.

[Eugene · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bland, rather un-engaging history of Jamestown from its beginning in 1607 to the end of the revocation of the Company Charter by the Crown in 1624. The writing is okay but not great, and Horn spends too much time on events that didn’t really interest me. The book is strongest with the colony’s leaders - John Smith, Wingfield, Newport, Baron De La Warr, Sir Thomas Gates. It is weakest with the day-to-day life of the colonists at Jamestown (which happens to be what I was most interested in). It provides a decent account of relations between the Powhatans and the settlers, as well as insight into the global struggle between the Spanish and English.

[Stephen Morrissey · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Horn writes up a thorough history of the Jamestown Colony, with particular focus on the relations between Native Americans and English, Spanish, and other European colonists. The extent to which the colonists relied, and suffered when that reliance was misplaced or betrayed, on Native Americans for food, provisions, and security runs contrary to the "manifest destiny" portrait of American history. Instead of dominating, John Smith and others had to subtly navigate power relations with Native American tribes, often being played by such tribes and suffering further violence and bloodshed.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Land as God Made it is a book about the Jamestown settlement and what those settlers went through to establish a foothold. This book details the struggles experienced such as threat from the local Indian population, starvation, mutiny. Englands commitment to the colony shows how countries were just then realizing global trade and the money that could be made. Yes, John Smith and Pocahontas are mentioned, but they are not the main storyline. It's amazing to read about the early colonizers. I highly recommend this book.

[Marc Arginteanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Level of research and scholarship unparalleled. Written in a way that keeps you at the edge of your seat during the more dramatic interactions between the Indians and the settlers

drawing upon original quotes from the dramatic players which are at once illustrative of the language of the day while remaining poetic to the modern ear

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamestown history from before the English to about 1625- they hung on by a thread, kept bringing in fresh settlers to be killed off by starvation, Indians, disease. Tobacco was the bailout.
This was a great follow up to our trip to Jamestown archeology earlier in 2018.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in the gift shop at Jamestown. I wish I'd read it before visiting as it nicely explains everything I saw on the Island. James Horn does a great job dispelling the myths of the early English settlement of North America, using many primary sources to do so.

[Henry Kline · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to believe that such compelling matrial could be such a dull read, even though one of my ancestesors is mentioned a few times. I learned a lot and there is a good supply of historical material.

[Kevin A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent survey of the early history of the first permanent English settlement in mainland North America. It neither glorifies nor demonizes the settlers or the native Americans, but instead examines the role of each from their own perspectives.