Karen Ordahl Kupperman

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BOOK REVIEW:
“Pocahontas and the English Boys” by Karen Ordahl Kupperman's is a fascinating read. The story is about several young English boys who were traded with the Native American Indians (Powhatans and other tribes) in exchange for corn and other staples to help the floundering Virginia colony survive. The plan was to trade these youngsters so they would learn the language and culture and then be able to act as translators in the relationships. Apparently it was very common to trade or ship out your kid when they reached the “nonage” years of the early teens. I was surprised to learn this trading out of young boys and girls was a very common custom even amongst the rich. They believed a parent, especially the mother, couldn’t properly raise their child into adulthood because their affection would interfere. Most were traded out between the ages of 10-15 years of age.

The author pulls from many source documents to tell these stories and weaves it all into a narrative thread because the English boys and Pocahontas were about the same age and knew each other too. Their lives and survival was very tenuous as they were sometimes used to send friendly messages as a ruse and set up one side to attack the other. Additionally, they developed affections for their keepers so their loyalties were split. On the whole, I think it was better to be sold or traded to the Indians because you were going to eat and they just treated their captives better. The Indians “adopted” these boys as a “sons.” But the reason why they were there was inherently dangerous and created one precarious situation after another.

For more on “Pocahontas and the English Boys” engrossing adventures read the book. Karen Ordahl Kupperman’s meticulous research is well documented on every page while still narrating and weaving an amazing story. @KatoJustus4… (altro)

Most Americans have some vague recollection from school that Pocahontas was taken from her people to England. In fact, even as a 10 year old girl, she learned English quickly (as kids do) and served as translator and go between for her father. At least three English boys were given to the various tribes to absorb their languages and facilitate communications. For the most part, these exchange children were well treated, but there were many incidents where one side or the other told lies to the children, which they then carried to their hosts. It got so neither side trusted the children. As they became adults, their situations became even more suspect. Pocahontas of course married an Englishman and went to England, where she died, but the English boys had varied fates. In the conclusion, the author compares the children to Stockholm Syndrome sufferers, whereby they are put in a terrifying situation but then are treated with kindness by their captors.

While the book wasn’t difficult reading, the author goes into great detail about the actions of the colonists and the Native Americans, and I would sometimes become confused as to which group or person she was talking about. It’s a great book, though, for showing the kind of misleading things the English did to take advantage of the Native Americans, as well as the situations the colonists found themselves in, in an area with different plants and animals from what they were used to. Four stars.… (altro)

In Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America, Karen Ordahl Kupperman argues, “Early encounters provoked a complex and varied series of reactions, and these were recorded in a mountain of sources, which tell the careful reader much about the reactions of everyone involved in these confrontations” (pg. 1). She writes, “English who actually spent time with Americans and tried to understand what American associates told them about their history, religious beliefs, and cultural practices exhibited a range of responses – within a single brief book writers could be contemptuous and admiring, hostile and friendly, self-confident and terrified – and it is the scope and complexity of these reactions that this book seeks to elucidate” (pg. x). She further writes of these writings, “This literature, regardless of its source, shares several characteristics: it sought to tell people at home about America and why it was important for England to be involved there; and it tried desperately to make readers in England understand how difficult it was to establish thriving settlements. The American natives were central to both themes” (pg. 3). Kupperman cautions, “It is important to realize that, just as the Americans and their culture are remote and foreign to us, so the English are as well. It is a mistake to think that we can easily and directly understand the minds of English actors” (pg. 11). Further, “The Indian experience of colonialism was in many ways the mirror image of the English. Strong native leaders, looking at the pathetic early plantations, understood that the English were utterly dependent and therefore controllable” (pg. 13). She concludes, “As recent work on the postcolonial world has reminded us, all documents of colonialism are the result of dialogue, and the voice of the colonized is always there, shaping and focusing the statement despite the writers’ own determination to control the story” (pg. 15).… (altro)