Love and Hate in Jamestown written by David Price tells the story of the early colonists and a history of the hardships and “love and hate” that occurred during the period of early settlement in Virginia in 1606. Price recounts the goals, hardships, and clashes of interests between the natives, the colonists and the King as they made their mark in the New World. Prices main purpose for writing this book was to debunk the traditional love story we grew up with between John Smith and Pocahontas, and to prove that they were in fact the reason why the colony in Jamestown had survived in the New World in the first place. He wants to give John Smith and Pocahontas a much more deserved reason for recognition than that of which has been given, to correct …show more content…
Price supports this by telling us about John Smiths exceptional leadership skills, his methods of survival and his pragmatic tactics in saving the colony from disaster more than once. In 1606, 105 colonist set out to settle in Jamestown, to find silver, gold and possible trade routes to the West. However, upon arrival they faced hostility from the local native tribes who were led by Chief Powhatan. All the while they were told by the council back in England that if they wanted to be successful that they should maintain a peaceful and respectful relationship with the natives. Price describes the poorly run, yet ever evolving settlement of Jamestown, by using original journal entries of the colonists, and letters that were written from Jamestown back to either family members, or to the Council to support his ideas and give more realistic overview of that facts about Jamestown in the making, John Smith and the relationship him and Pocahontas shared. Although excitement sprouted from this idea of leaving the home land England to settle a new colony in Virginia, the colonists were faced with perpetual fear of starvation, survival, lack of good leadership and also a lack of men …show more content…
Early in the book he objects and mocks the story that has long been thought as fact with his allegations that "the imaginative 1995 Walt Disney Co. movie, for example, endowed Pocahontas with a Barbie-doll figure, dressed her in a deerskin from Victoria's Secret, and made her Smith's love interest" (Price 4). When in fact they were never romantically involved and the story was fabricated by modern Americans. We soon learn that their relationship was based on something much different than romance. Two colonists wrote of Pocahontas’ visits and said that John Smith in fact had great respect for her and that the friendship they had, had “evolved to give her something of greater value: friendship with someone who shared her inquisitive sensibility” (Price77). Also, the story of the romance between the two is dismissed by Price on mere fact that Pocahontas was only at the young age of 11 when they met. If it wasn’t for Pocahontas John Smith would have been executed by her father Chief of Chief’s Powhatan. Price says that some people think the story was changed around to make it seem as though she loved him, but Smith himself didn’t get that vibe he felt and he “attributed it to her compassion for a man in distress” (Price 68). Ultimately there is no real certainty as to why she intervened. Pocahontas had no interest in Smith; in fact much later John Rolfe who would bring the most successful crop tobacco