Winter of the Dead

This is a book about the early years of the Jamestown colony. It's a realistic story of greed and stupidity among the men behind the founding of the colony and the running of the colony.

The business organization responsible for the founding of the colony was interested in making a quick profit, and people had been mislead to believe that the America was a place where riches could be had just by walking around and picking them up, such riches including gold.

Nathanial Peacock, 15, is the main character of the story, and it's through his eyes that we see one of the biggest problems with the colony, and that was the 'gentlemen' who came to the colony and were too rich and too lazy and too sure of themselves to lower themselves to doing physical work and helping others out. The 'gentlemen' spent most of their time arguing among themselves about who was to lead the colony.

The young boys like Nathanial were treated like garbage, and were even at times traded to the Native Americans for food. All the actual work of the colony was put on their shoulders. It wasn't a democratic arrangement by any means; it was a dictatorship in all the worst meanings of the word.

The end result of everything was chaos, starvation and violence in the colony, with a death rate of about 80% due to illness, Indian attack, and an occasional execution.

It's a very dark story that is well told.

Main Index

Yadult Index