Roanoke first impressions

I just finished reading Karen Kupperman's Roanoke. I read it over the course of three days and it fueled my weird dreams lately involving the Algonquian Indians. I had one dream I was out collecting oysters or clams at night in a slow moving narrow river. I then dreamed that I was drilling holes in the pearls to make a necklace. I had another dream about being in Roanoke and being frustrated with the fact that I'm a low priority to the English investors, who favor privateering and immediate returns, and I believe I was made at Ralph Lane for being too heavy handed with the locals and pissing them off. I felt frustrated and endangered. But since in the dream I was in the Lane colony and not the White colony, at least I had a chance of going back to England.

In my reading I was taken by the idea of how Roanoke fits into the larger context of Britain being a marginalized parasitic nation that's on the verge of usurping Spain's position as the main superpower in the world. Kupperman touches on the larger Protestant verses Catholic themes of the day, which I was aware of but never truly ever considered how that might of faired in early American colonization.

I was also surprised to learn about French Huguenot attempts to colonize Florida, that's an interesting tid-bit of trivia. I was also surprised to learn about Joachim Ganz who was probably the first Jew in British America. I've read before about how a at least a few of the people that went with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage were probably secret Jews (so called Marranos or swine)and later on how Dutch Recife Brazil became a 16th century haven for Jews, but to my knowledge there isn't a similarly interesting and exciting story to tell about Jews in the British colonies.

I think Kupperman does a really good job of describing the mindset of the gentry and how that played into their dealings with the Indians. Things that seemed plainly obvious to them seem stupid and fool hearted to me, such as Ralph Lane attacking the Indians over a cup, which I imagine would of really pissed them off. Into this delicate situation come the Lane colonist that then mistakenly attack Indians that are friendly to them, granted this time it was a more honest mistake. But still I'm left with a feeling that the English were very unskillful with their dealings with the Roanoke area Indians.

One more thing about Algonquians Indians, the "flyer" or Shaman described by and painted by John White seems to fit in with what I know about larger Shamanic studies. The name alone "the flyer" might be indiciative of the whole shamanic experience of soul travel and "flying" around the world making spirit frineds (perhaps he's friend with a bird?). This is speculation on my part though.