A neglected classic of colonial Americana. Illustrated with sixteen fine engravings of Indigenous Virginians, drawing on Theodore de Bry’s famed illustrations for Harriot’s A Brief and True History…, in turn made after the watercolours by English colonist John White.
First published in London in 1705, the first French edition appeared in Paris in 1707. This second English edition is expanded with further history of the colony up to 1710. The revisions also expunge or mellow some of Beverley’s more vigorous partisanships and grievances, which are still evident in his discourse on fellow settlers. Although technically the second account of the history of the colony (after John Smith’s 1624 The Generall Historie…), Beverley’s work was the first history of Virginia to be penned by a native son and is considered to be “the best contemporary record of its aboriginal tribes and of the life of its early settlers” (Howes).
The work is divided into four parts: the history of the settlement; the natural resources of the land including flora and fauna; the Native Americans, their religion, laws and customs; and an overview of the present state of the county, including government and agriculture. Beverley is extremely favourable in his descriptions of the Native Nations, often going as far as to use their virtues to pointedly highlight the shortcomings of the colonists. He makes much of the natural beauty and fecundity of the land, presumably with an intent encourage further immigrant settlers from Europe. He also details the difference between the states of servitude and slavery in Virginia at that time, describing the types of work expected of each. This is no doubt in order to make passage via indentured servitude seem more appealing.
Furthermore, Beverley’s History has been lauded as an outlier in its genre for literary merit. Aptly put by Louis B. Wright, “it is a readable work, simple and vigorous in style, with flashes of ironic and satirical humour. […] Many a reader choking on some indigestible chunk from Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana, has cursed the quality of colonial letters without realizing that the age offered any tastier fare.”
Wright, Louis B. ‘Beverley’s History… of Virginia (1705): A Neglected Classic.’ The William and Mary Quarterly. Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan., 1944), pp. 49-64; Sabin, 5113; Howes, H410; cf. Field, 122; cf. Streeter II, 1098.
