Pocahontas and the English Boys: Caught between Cultures in Early Virginia

Most people know the story of Pocahontas, at least the Disney version. In the novel Pocahontas and the English Boys: Caught Between Cultures in Early Virginia, Karen Ordahl Kupperman has put together a novel that focuses on the youth that helped ensure the English colonist’s survival in the foreign land of Virginia. At a young age, boys were sent from England with other men and women to help settle land in America to bring profits back home. For these young boys, they were sent to live with the neighboring Indian tribes to learn their culture, language, work ethics, etc. One such tribe was that of Pocahontas’ father, Powhatan. After years of living among the Americans, they returned back to the colony and had to deal with the speculation from their original family of whether or not they were still loyal.

I don’t read too many history books, since some are harder to understand, but Kupperman’s novel was an enjoyable experience. Knowing Pocahontas mostly just by name, I was able to learn much more about her and the true experiences of the settlers and many other things going on at that time. I learned more about both peoples’ cultures and how history keeps repeating itself.