The best explanation for the "starving time" is : Kupperman, Karen
Ordahl. "Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown." Journal of American
History 66, no. 1 (1979): 24-40. She links the failure of will to live
in part to the "alien-ness" of America, and the traumatizing conditions
of being trapped among enemies.
David Kiracofe
David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
Chesapeake, Va 23322
>>> [log in to unmask] 12/03/05 10:09 AM >>>
I can't remember the citations but years ago I read an article that
compared
the "starving time" in colonial Virginia with the strange atrophy of US
prisoners of war in Korea circa 1950-1953. The thesis of the article
was
that cultural alienation produced a psychological lethargy that
literally
killed the settlers and prisoners. For the Korea situation I have
gathered
plenty of anecdotal evidence, because many of my teachers from grade
school
to college where Korean War vets. The one that is most memorable was
told
to me by an older student, a Cherokee who joined the Marines, was
seriously
wounded in Korea and captured by the Chinese. He told me that he had
three
bullets in him and had perotenitus (sp?) and swore that he would stay
alive,
accept Chinese medical aid, and just keep his mind focused on staying
alert
and alive. And as he healed he noticed that all around him his
unwounded
comrades began to fade, stop eating, and thus die.
Edmund Morgan more than suggests (in American Slavery, American
Freedom)
that the colonists, unsophisticated in intercultural relations,
similarly
atrophied, at least until they discovered the commerical value of
tobacco
and focused on getting rich.
Harold S. Forsythe
Visiting Fellow (2005-2006)
Program in Agrarian Studies
Yale University
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 11:31 PM
Subject: Re: northern bias
> HELLO,
> COULD YOU GIVE THE TITLE OF THE BOOK ON JAMESTOWN THAT SHORTO WAS
> REVIEWING?
> THANKS.
> DFM
> PS.
> WHILST ON THE SUBJECT OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA AND JAMESTOWN, I WOULD
LOOOOVE
> TO
> SEE A DISCUSSION ON THE STARVING TIME. THERE SEEM TO BE SEVERAL
DIFFERENT
> IDEAS EMERGING ABOUT WHAT ACTUALLY KILLED ALL THOSE POOR SOULS....I'VE
> LONG
> WONDERED HOW ON EARTH ALL THOSE FOLKS COULD HAVE DIED OF STARVATION
WHEN
> THE
> WOODS AND WATERS AROUND JAMESTOWN WERE TEEMNG WITH WILDLIFE. YES, THE
> INDIANS WERE LURKING, PERHAPS, READY TO PICK THEM OFF IF THEY LEFT THE
> SECURITY OF THE FORT BUT SURELY A DEATH BY INDIAN ATTACK WOULD HAVE
BEEN
> PREFERABLE TO DEATH BY STARVATION.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Louise Bernikow" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <>
> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 12:32 PM
> Subject: northern bias
>
>
>> i take it from the discussion so far that no one saw Russell Shorto's
> review
>> of a book about Jamestown some weeks ago in the NYTimes Book Review.
> Shorto
>> says the bias that has made "colonial American history" synonymous
with
> New
>> England for so long arose because NE is "easier to sanitize" and fits
>> more
> neatly
>> the myth of America's founding. I agree and have been provoked by the
>> "sanitizing" to work on a historical fiction about tobacco brides and
the
> 17th
>> century= for which I have fruitfully been picking all your brains for
>> some
> time now,
>> gratefully. Louise Bernikow
>>
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