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APART FROM TELLING Catherine’s story, I wanted also to depict what life might have been like in early Jamestown. While I made every effort to be as accurate as possible in citing actual persons and historical events, it is likely, considering that these events happened nearly four hundred years ago and no one is alive today who can verify anything, that I erred in placing someone in Jamestown between 1617 and 1618, when, in fact, he was elsewhere at the time. In my research, I discovered many discrepancies involving times and dates of historical events in the early 1600s. Especially difficult to pin down were the exact dates of deputy-governor’s terms of office. Some, like Captain (later Sir) George Yeardley served more than once. Yeardley was Deputy-Governor through April and May 1617, and again from March through December of 1619. During most of the time DANGEROUS DECEPTIONS takes place, except early in 1619 when Nathaniel Powell was named Argall’s replacement before Yeardley again took office, Captain Samuel Argall was Deputy-Governor. After being investigated for wrongdoing, Argall was removed from office. For Noah to allude to Argall’s nefarious activities does indeed coincide with historical fact.
Scholars also differ regarding the Virginia Company Headright System . . . when it went into effect, the amount of land granted, and to whom given. Some sources state that women could own land, others dispute that claim.
I found discrepancies in the spelling of Indian words, and other words commonly used by the settlers. Since dictionaries did not exist in the early 1600s, people sounded out words when writing them; therefore inconsistencies in spelling became the rule rather than the exception. For instance, the word the Indians used to mean Englishmen I found spelled Tassentasse, Tassautessus, Tasentasse and Tassantasses. The word “Powhatan” was also spelled Powatan, Powhatam, and Powhaten.
The Powhatan Empire or Federation actually referred to all the tribes under Pocahontas’s father’s rule. The English took to calling the chieftain himself Powhatan, rather than Wahunsunacock(e), which was his given name. Most history books maintain that upon Powhatan’s death, his brother Opechancanough succeeded him. However, some historians claim that another of Powhatan’s brothers, Opitchapan, ruled for a time and that he continued the peaceful relations between the Indians and whites, which Pocahontas’s marriage to John Rolfe established in 1614. Four years later, when Opechancanough took over, it was he who engineered the deadly massacre of 1622, which killed hundreds of colonists.
As for Indian words I used, some are from the antiquated Powhatan language, a sampling of which appears online and also in Captain John Smith’s writings, but again, discrepancies exist in spelling. Most of the Indian names, as well as some of the tribal names in my story, I made up.
Regarding the types and numbers of animals present in early Jamestown, one source stated there were only six horses in the entire colony, and not a single cow until 1624, but Smith mentions the presence of “cattle” in his writings, and he was there in 1607. However, as late as the mid-1800s the word “cattle” also meant horses. A coach driver was called a whip if he could drive his cattle (meaning horses) within an inch. For the purposes of this work, I chose to have an assortment of livestock present in 1617, goats, horses, cows, and even an ox.
The exact time of Pocahontas’s death is also in dispute. Some historians declare she died at the inn where her party was staying the night before she and her husband boarded the George for Virginia; another that she became ill on board ship that first night and passed away the following morning. Still another maintains that she became ill several days into the voyage, thus forcing the ship to return to Gravesend where she was taken ashore and soon passed away. Most sources agree that a hasty funeral was held at Gravesend.
The date John Rolfe returned to Virginia following his wife’s sudden death is not firm. Some sources put his return in June 1617, only a few months after Pocahontas died in March of that year. Others maintain he did not return to Jamestown for several years. All agree that their young son Thomas was left behind in England and the boy never again saw his father. Most sources do agree that when John Rolfe did return to Virginia, he eventually married a colonist’s daughter named Jane (or Joan) Pierce and that he died of unknown causes in 1622, although not during the massacre.
Thomas Rolfe eventually returned to Virginia in 1635 and he did inherit many thousands of acres of Powhatan land. Thomas visited his mother’s people from time to time, but married an English girl named Jane Poythress. Among their descendants were noted Virginia statesmen, lawmakers, educators and ministers.
I chose to go with Pocahontas’s death as occurring the morning after the Rolfes’ ship, the George, departed for the New World. I do not know whether or not there were other ships in the convoy that left England that day, sometimes as many as nine ships sailed to the New World together. I invented two fictitious ships: the Inverness, upon which Catherine Fielding and her maid Nancy Mills make their voyage to the New World, and a second ship I called the Hampton.
More important to my story than the exact time of Pocahontas’s death was what Catherine’s meeting with the Indian princess meant to Catherine. Though her interaction with Pocahontas was brief, it made a lasting impression on her, becoming the basis of her lifelong love and compassion for the Indian people.
Once Catherine reaches the New World, I gave her the occupation of teacher, which does not deviate from history since early colonial schools did exist, as they did in England. Such schools, in Colonial America and England, were called “Dame Schools” because the teachers were women who held classes in their homes where children aged six to eight learned to read, write, and cipher.
Within my story, Noah’s deplorable behavior toward Catherine is understandable given the time in which they lived and the prevailing attitudes toward women and their place in society. However, judging by today’s standards, Noah is a selfish, manipulative brute who does not respect women. He did not love Catherine; he wished only to possess her. If you ever find yourself in such an abusive relationship, please seek help. Please understand that if a man mistreats you in the way Noah mistreated Catherine, you are only deceiving yourself if you believe he truly loves you.
I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing Dangerous Deceptions. I hope you enjoyed reading about Catherine’s life and her adventures in early Jamestown, and will want to read the next novel in my Jamestown Series titled Dangerous Secrets also set in Jamestown and featuring some of the same characters you read about in Dangerous Deceptions.
Below is a preview of Dangerous Secrets by Marilyn Clay, originally published in hardcover by Five Star/Gale in June 2012 as Secrets and Lies. Currently available in print as A Petticoat And Lambskin Gloves.