Empires in the Forest ― Jamestown And the Beginning of America

Four hundred years ago in the tidewater forests of Virginia, native and foreign peoples clashed, and the resulting alloy became an American Identity. This is the story of a few remarkable people whose lives and nations were forever changed when the English established their first permanent colony here in 1607. Today, we know something of the people who lived out that drama. But whether we know anything about John Smith and Pocahontas, the deeper psychological tragedy of their times remains all too buried under myth and entertainment. From Jamestown to the Powhatan capital of Werowocomoco, Empires in the Forest follows their attempts to forge their own identities against the backdrop of a new nation that begins at a harrowing cost. In these pages, we rediscover their hearts and minds, and find some truth about how we came to be the Americans.

Robert Llewellyn is a photographer with more than thirty books of his work in print, including Upland Virginia, The Academical Village, and Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown: America’s Historic Triangle. His book Washington, the Capital was an official diplomatic gift of the White House and State Department. He and his family live in the Albemarle countryside, an area he has photographed extensively for more than thirty years. Avery Chenoweth is a Charlottesville writer whose novel-in-stories, Wingtips, was short-listed for the Library of Virginia fiction prize and nominated for the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has written for a number of national magazines, including Harper’s, Spy, Lingua Franca, and the New York Times Magazine.