Lethal Encounters: Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia (Native America: Yesterday and Today (Hardcover))

This in-depth narrative history of the interactions between English settlers and American Indians during the Virginia colony's first century explains why a harmonious coexistence proved impossible.Britain's first successful settlements in America occurred over 400 years ago. Not surprisingly, the historical accounts of these events have often contained inaccuracies. This compelling study of colonial Virginia is based upon the latest research, shedding new light on the tensions between the English and the American Indians and clarifying the facts about storied relationships.In Lethal Encounters: Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia, the author examines why the Anglo settlers were unable to establish a peaceful and productive relationship with the region's native inhabitants. Readers will come to understand how the deep prejudices harbored by both whites and Indians, the incompatibility of their economic and social systems, and the leadership failures of protagonists like John Smith, Powhatan, Opechacanough, and William Berkeley caused this breakdown. Explorations, Encounters, And Abandoned Colonies -- Our Mortall Enemies : Early Encounters At Jamestown -- To Subdue The Wilde Savages : Captain John Smith And The Powhatans -- A World Of Miseries : The Virginia Colony, 1609-1614 -- Upon Doubtful Terms : Virginia, 1616-1622 -- A Plantation Of Sorrows : Virginia, 1622-1635 -- Another War And A New Policy -- Bacon's Rebellion And Its Aftermath -- Conclusions. Alfred A. Cave. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. While the romanticized story of the Jamestown colony has been retold many times in books, films, and even comic strips, the events following the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe are less well-known. The peace and goodwill did not last; in fact, within 100 years of the English settlers' arrival in Virginia, the Indian population was reduced by over 90 percent through warfare, disease, and indiscriminate extermination A study of colonial Virginia, arguing that the peace and goodwill between English settlers and native inhabitants had evaporated within one hundred years of the settlers' arrival, and examining the reasons why the two groups were unable to establish a productive relationship