A True Relation Summary

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Smith 's first book, A True Relation, told the British people of Smith 's travels in what was known then as the New World. He would tell his countrymen of the beautiful sights he saw there, the resources abounding, the settling of the colony Jamestown, all of his adventures and misadventures. But most importantly, he would speak of the people. Those strange and foreign people who lived so differently than the British. While the British wore stiff petticoats with corsets and tail suits, these new people were draped in deerskin. While the British lived in stone houses on busy streets, these new people lived in earthen mounds, animal hide huts, homes made of leaves and branches. While the British waged bloody wars, armed with metal weapons …show more content…

Who were those foreign beings? How long had they been in this new land? Were they a threat? What resources did they hold? It was in result of this insatiable curiosity that Smith 's novel spread swiftly between hands and eyes and minds. And whispers started, neighbors telling neighbors how Smith said the new people were kind and hospitable to him. How Smith said the new people treated him to their delicacies and provided him with provisions on his journeys. How Smith said the new people were respectful, helpful, and friendly. Smith writes about Chief Powhatan of the Powhatan Nation, "He kindly welcomed me with such good words and great platters of sundry victuals, assuring me his friendship and my Liberty in four days... Having all the kindness he could devise, sought to content me, he sent me home with four men: one that usually carried my gown and knapsack after me, two loaded with bread, and one to accompany me." (True Relation, John Smith) Smith had nothing but praise for the strange new people. Seventeen years later, that story changed. Seventeen years later, Smith transformed his originally kind and welcoming Natives into brutal killers. Seventeen years later, John Smith lied to the world. Because seventeen years later, a young Native American woman would travel to England and create