Speaker Circuit: I'm thinking about joining the 'speaker circuit.' It's similar to the 'art gallery circuit.' Last night I went to a talk by Jason Opel, Colby College assistant history professor. It was called, 'Chaos, Catastrophe, and National Destiny: Early Jamestown in Global Perspective.' Free class; well worth it.
7 p.m., 101007, Waterville Public Library, Maine: (I thought that I was new to the lecturer circuit, but I guess I'm not. I went to a lecture by a well-know photographer Tim Davis maybe a year ago at D.C.'s Bridge Street Books. My friend Andy McMillan pointed me out at the back of a Tim Davis photo, in one of his projects called, 'My Audience'. Cool. That's me in the back.)
Outline:
Chaos, Catastrophe, and National Destiny: Early Jamestown in Global Perspective
Introduction: What's in an anniversary?
I.A Sequence of Events
- The Company and its miscalculations
- Laws Divine, Moral, and [especially] Martial
- Towards slavery
II.Chaos: Masterless Men, 'Blackymore Maids,' and Black Dogs
- Discovering the Ocean
- Redefining Property
- 'A Prison Without Walls'
III. Catastrophe: Lost Colonies, Shipwrecks, and ELEs*
- 'I dare to say it'
- Rats, pigs, and pathogens
- War without mercy
IV. National Destiny: 'This Blessed Plot' and its promoters
- Protestant Nationalism
- The 'Black Legend'
- When the Crown took over
Conclusion: Taking the Step
Some Interesting Points:
Chaos: Virginia was a giant tobacco plantation used to cleanse London of Irish and blacks.
Catastrophe: Over the course of a century smallpox, finding its way into pockets of communities, kills 90 percent of the Native American population. Bermuda, the result of a shipwreck, is one of the most successful colonies.
National Destiny: Protestants invent nationalism. The creation of the Church of England took away the umbrella that united much of the world under Catholicism.
Historical Accuracy: After the lecture, finding a visual aid within arms reach on the children videos shelf of the Waterville Public Library, Opal discussed the historical accuracy ... of history.
My Conclusion: In an attempt to learn something, I did.
As Nancy Hill, a member of the Maine Development Foundation, told me after the discussion, 'If you're going to move to a small town it has to have a college in it.'
*Extinction Level Events
