It's hardly Pocahontas: new exhibits portray Jamestown colonists as killers and rapists
England's first successful colonists in America have been branded as rapists and murderers who imported slavery and oppressed the local Indian population.
The controversial portrait of pioneer life in 17th-century Jamestown has become a central part of this year's 400th anniversary of the colony, whose settlement led directly to the birth of the world's most powerful nation.
When the Queen arrives in Virginia as guest of honour in early May, she will find that organisers have banned plans for a "celebration", instead calling the event a "commemoration" after black and Indian members of the organising committee branded Jamestown "an invasion".
An exhibition by the US National Park Service, which manages the land on which the original settlement was built, plays down the achievements of the first 107 settlers, who brought with them the English language and the traditions of English justice and common law that still underpin modern America.
A critic for The New York Times, who visited the exhibition this month, noted that the Queen would find "not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism". Edward Rothstein warned that the "overall impact" of the exhibition was "only to diminish a visitor's sense of English culture"....
Read entire article at James Langton in the Sunday Telegraph (UK)
The controversial portrait of pioneer life in 17th-century Jamestown has become a central part of this year's 400th anniversary of the colony, whose settlement led directly to the birth of the world's most powerful nation.
When the Queen arrives in Virginia as guest of honour in early May, she will find that organisers have banned plans for a "celebration", instead calling the event a "commemoration" after black and Indian members of the organising committee branded Jamestown "an invasion".
An exhibition by the US National Park Service, which manages the land on which the original settlement was built, plays down the achievements of the first 107 settlers, who brought with them the English language and the traditions of English justice and common law that still underpin modern America.
A critic for The New York Times, who visited the exhibition this month, noted that the Queen would find "not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism". Edward Rothstein warned that the "overall impact" of the exhibition was "only to diminish a visitor's sense of English culture"....