Oh boy, do I stand here with egg all over my face!!!
Just a bit more poking around in my library brought up a very modern reprint of
"A True Declaration" in Edward Wright Haile's wonderful collection of original
documents, etc. -- _Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Early
Virginia Colony, The First Decade: 1607-1617_, (Champlain, VA, 1998). It is the
pen ultimate item in the book, pp 891-913, followed by the VA Assembly's
"answer."
One might argue I was mislead by Haile's' dating of 1607-1617 when in fact the
"True Declaration" probably dates from 1623-1624, but that is little comfort to
one who tries hard to collate his sources..... as Jon Kukla will surely confirm.
My apologies to all -- and especially Jon -- for downplaying his hint that there
was a more modern version than the Wynne edition available.
Peter V. Bergstrom, PhD
Independent Historian,
PC Services Consultant & Web Designer
336-286-8654
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Peter V. Bergstrom
Sent: 04 December 2005 4:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Senate Document - Extra
Jon is right on the money about Thomas Wynne -- although I can't locate a more
recent edition of this tract than the reprint included in the _Journal of the
House of Burgesses 1619-1658/9_:28-37 -- which is in fact a reprint of the Wynne
edition -- and both of these come from the Bancroft transcripts at the New York
Public Library. The original is in the British Public Record Office (PRO CO1/3:
item 21i). Although Kingsbury's "Document List" item #694 is marked that the
document would be reprinted, it does not in fact appear in volume 4 of the
_Records of the Virginia Company_ -- most likely because of the JHB reprint
which was by then in print.
As to the whole question of cannibalism -- Wynne's introductory note pretty well
disposes of it as propaganda against the Virginia Company. I assume that all
the new archeology going on at Jamestown and the tree-ring evidence of droughts,
and yes, Earle's work on the salt water in the wells all points to far more
persuasive reasons for the "starving time." I also think we need to reflect on
just how alien an environment Virginia was to Englishmen in the early 17th C.
Not even the Scotts highlands were as wild or remote as Virginia was in the
English mind and experience. We know that there was an abundance of food
available -- but if you didn't know how to hunt it, fish it, or grow it which
the English didn't for the first few years -- then you were prime candidates for
"starvation.'' Add to that the drought, etc. and you've got a real script for
calamity.
Peter V. Bergstrom, PhD
Independent Historian,
PC Services Consultant & Web Designer
336-286-8654
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
Sent: 04 December 2005 3:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Senate Document - Extra
In 1870 the General Assembly arranged for the publication of some
historical documents (if memory serves Thomas Hicks Wynne or Winn had a
hand in it) - most of the texts have been supplanted by subsequent
documentary editions, but at the time it was a service to history. If
memory serves, one of the documents in that edition was the 1619 journal
of the first general assembly....
Jon Kukla
> I have a little book called "Colonial Records of Virginia" which was
> originally published as "Senate Document - Extra" in Richmond in 1874.
> This
> version is a reprint by the Clearfield Company from 1992. It contains a
> 16
> page article entitled "A Briefe Declaration of the Plantation of Virginia
> During the First Twelve Yeares When Sir Thomas Smith was Governor of the
> Companie & Downe to the Present Tyme" by the Ancient Planters Nowe
> Remaining
> Alive in Virginia 1624. All spelling is theirs. It isn't copyrighted (or
> copyrightable) since it is just copies of lists and documents.
>
> Has anybody else seen this? And, if so, how much credence do you give it?
> It claims they resorted to cannibalism and other equally disgusting acts.
> They put the blame squarely on Smith so I don't know how politically
> motivated it may have been. I just cannot imagine that people would have
> hated him so much as to admit they, themselves, had resorted to such
> inhuman
> and inhumane behavior.
>
> Also, it mentions several times that they built houses that fell down.
> Did
> they not have tools? Or skills? They were in a dense forest so they
> surely
> had plenty raw materials. During the same time period they mention
> erecting
> forts. Did the forts fare any better and, if so, why?
>
> Mildred "Mickey" Fournier
> 1730 SE CR 252
> Lake City, FL 32025
> [log in to unmask]
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia
>> history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Emily Rose
>> Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 7:37 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Jamestown ( was "northern bias")
>>
>> For those wondering about the "Starving Time" in Jamestown, see
>>
>> "Tree-ring data from Virginia indicate that the Lost Colony
>> of Roanoke Island disappeared during the most extreme drought
>> in 800 years (1587-1589) and that the alarming mortality and
>> the near abandonment of Jamestown colony occurred during the
>> driest 7-year episode in 770 years (1606-1612). These
>> extraordinary droughts can now be implicated in the fate of
>> the Lost Colony and in the appalling death rate during the
>> early occupations at Jamestown,the first permanent English
>> settlement in America."
>> [Stahle, David W., Malcolm K. Cleaveland, Dennis B. Blanton, Mathew D.
>> Therrell, and David A. Gay. "-the Lost Colony and Jamestown Droughts."
>> Science 280, no. April 24 (1998): 564-67.]
>>
>> Great picture of tree-rings analysis that shows the drought!!
>>
>> Also, Randy, Do you by any chance have the ballad music sung
>> to "lusty gallant" to which "London live thou famous long" was sung?
>>
>> Emily Rose
>> Cambridge University
>>
>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
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>>
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
>
Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463
Fax 434-376-2647
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