Pocahontas and the English Boys

Karen Ordahl Kupperman is Silver Professor of History Emerita at New York University. Her books include The Atlantic in World History (Oxford University Press), The Jamestown Project (Belknap Press), and Indians and English (Cornell University Press), Winner of the AHA Prize in Atlantic History.

"Based on a lifetime of study, Ms. Kupperman provides a remarkably perceptive and sympathetic portrait of five young people who, with little control over their own fate, found themselves caught up in the dangerously shifting cultural realities of early Jamestown." (Wall Street Journal) ""A culturally resonant understanding of the early confluences in America between Indigenous peoples and Europeans...this new take on her life and times answers questions essential to our time: What is the nature of fluidity in civic culture — what happens to us when we encounter new cultures, people, languages — not just once but frequently? And what happens to our human condition when someone else tries to shape who we are?" - NPR.org "An inventive and lively new account of the Powhatan peoples' encounter with the Virginia colonists. While Pocahontas has been the subject of a fair amount of scholarship, the story of the English youths who learned Algonquian languages has never been so explicitly (and fittingly) paired with hers." - Andrew Lipman,author of The Saltwater Frontier "From the opening scene of young Pocahontas teaching an English boy how to live in her fathers capital city, this stunningly original book puts us in the shoes and moccasins of bilingual and bicultural adolescents and shows us a whole new world. Even if you think you know everything about colonial Virginia, you need to read this book." - Kathleen DuVal,Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina "Karen Kuppermans well-researched and accessible book shows us the familiar Chesapeake story from surprisingand youthfulnew vantage points. This ingenious work by a noted scholar highlights dilemmas of cultural exchange across the Atlantic world." - Peter H. Wood,Professor Emeritus of History, Duke University "Kupperman offers new insights through her focus on young people who moved between Algonquian and English communities and worlds. Hers is a sobering account of the costs of colonialism for Indigenous people and settlers alike, and brings to life a place a time that still has many lessons to teach us." - Coll Thrush,author of Indigenous London "Like all her work, Karen Kuppermans new book is as compelling as a great novel. It offers a richly detailed history of three English boys adopted into indigenous communities in early Virginia: a fascinating story of bilingual knowledge, divided loyalties, and the meaning of adolescence across cultures that reframes prior studies of Jamestown, Pocahontas, and early Virginia in significant ways." - Anna Brickhouse,University of Virginia "Only Karen Ordahl Kupperman could have written this book. She draws on a lifetime of research to craft a human-scale story of young people caught up in events beyond their control. Pocahontas and the English Boys provides general readers with a moving introduction to the tragic history of the Jamestown colony." - Daniel K. Richter,University of Pennsylvania "While the story of Jamestown itself has been told, the author manages to find a new and fascinating lens. After reading the piece, I am convinced that Thomas Savage, Henry Spelman, and Pocahontas were important cultural brokers whose lives shaped and were profoundly shaped by the English settlement of Virginia." - Jared Hardesty,author of Unfreedom "A compelling narrative of cultural entanglement that challenges traditional perceptions of early Virginia. A refreshing and readable new take on an old story that should be considered an essential read for anyone striving to understand the human stories of friendship and betrayal that lie at the heart of early modern colonial encounters." - Audrey Horning,William and Mary "This enlightening study highlights a form of slavery that has been often overlooked in histories of colonial Virginia." (Library Journal) "Kupperman's nuanced portrait of the English boys makes this book an excellent addition to literature on seventeenth-century Virginia. The book's unique perspective on the process of cultural negotiation, combined with its clear writing style, make it ideally suited for undergraduates." (Anglican And Episcopai History) "In a deeply nuanced study, Kupperman deftly crafts a narrative based on her decades of study into the early Virginia colony and the Atlantic world, of the important role of captive children and the exchange of peoples in the settlement process… [She] has produced an important synthesis of this era that allows a glimpse into a terrifying aspect of the colonial era and brings to life their circumstances and hardships." - Kristalyn Shefveland, University of Southern Indiana (Journal of American Ethnic History)