The Man Who Foiled a Jamestown Massacre

Book excerpt: In the beginning was Jamestown... This is the wondrous story of the genesis of America told through this cradle to the grave account of the life of one man. Richard Pace was a simple London carpenter who became an Ancient Planter - a name given to the earliest colonial settlers. It was his timely warning of an impending attack that saved the first permanent settlement in Virginia from annihilation. Richard’s heroic act had profound consequences: If the Powhatan Confederacy had wiped out James Fort then they would have been able to take the outlying plantations at their leisure. The Jamestown Settlement would be a footnote in history. Failure meant that the Confederacy had effectively signed its own death warrant. The fate intended for the interloping white man was to be visited on the attackers. In the years to follow the native tribes would suffer subjugation, marginalisation, and be pressed from their tribal lands. The settlers secured undisputed occupation and control of the territory. Virginia would prosper under arrangements that encouraged enterprise balanced by institutions which ensured the rule of law and participative governance. The colony organised round this combination of individualism, free markets and democratic self government, presaged what America would become.