The 400th Anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement

May 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America, by some 100 adventurous men who sailed across the ocean in three ships. There have been numerous recent newspaper articles, television documentaries and, of course, several interesting books to commemorate the date:

(Click on each book cover to request that item)

Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America, by Benjamin Wooley draws on new discoveries, neglected sources and newly analyzed documents to retell an already dramatic historical event.

Jamestown, The Buried Truth, by William M. Kelso tells of what archaeologists, led by Kelso, have unearthed recently at the site of the 400 year old James Fort, long thought to have washed away into the James River. What they have found in uncovering the structure of the fort and some 500,000 objects paints a revealing picture of the lives and deaths of these early settlers.

Captain John Smith: Writings : With Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of America is a collection which provides primary source material written by the leader of the first settlement at Jamestown and other accounts of the lost colony of Roanoke. It is from these writings that the story of Pocahontas arises.

A recent Nova television documentary, Pocahontas Revealed, details the archaeological discovery of the Native American village of the Powhatan tribe where the dramatic rescue of John Smith is supposed to have occurred. A combination of dramatic reenactment and scenes from the current discoveries sheds new light on an ever-fascinating story. --Mary B.