BLOODROOT

A young Englishman travels to the newly settled Virginia that’s billed as a paradise only to find a realm dominated by greed, hunger, and violence in this novel.

Matthew James violates the terms of his apprenticeship—he’s training to become a carpenter—when he assaults his abusive master; as a result, he likely faces prison. His friend Richard Scott—a bookish, dreamily idealistic scholar— plans to head for Jamestown, a “new promised land” that he believes is a utopian alternative to the “vile and sinful land” that is England. Matthew is skeptical but joins Richard anyway, if for no other reason than his lack of options. When they arrive, they quickly discover Richard’s optimism was hyperbolic—the environment is an unforgiving one; supplies are perilously scarce; and the settlers have a gravely hostile relationship with the Natives, the Powhatan. But, as the pair’s leader, Capt. John Smith, explains, the British are driven by an insatiable lust for gold they believe is there to be mined but likely does not really exist. Richard is undeterred, and decides to learn the Natives’ language in order to bring the Powhatan Christian civilization. He marries Anne Breton, but she and Matthew develop romantic feelings for each other that threaten to grow into a betrayal of Richard. In this engaging novel, Meier depicts, with rigorous historical authenticity and rich period details, the difficulties and dangers of Jamestown in the early 17th century, especially acute when the settlers face starvation. In addition, he astutely probes the English conceit that the British are the noble bearers of civilization while the Native Americans are unrefined savages. As one soldier succinctly puts it: “These people fight with us for the same reasons that we would fight with them if they were to invade our country. We call them savages, but what is more savage than English law that would disembowel a man and then pull his body apart while he yet lives?”

A thoughtful and historically exacting tale of a treacherous New World.