Samuel Collier Explained

Birth Date: 1595
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:Virginia Colony, British America
Death Cause:Friendly fire
Powhatan Uprising
Known For:Page to captain John Smith, interpreter in Early America, Jamestown colonist

Samuel Collier (b. around 1595, d. 1622) was an English boy who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 aboard the Susan Constant, one of the three founding ships. He served as the page to captain John Smith, and later as an Algonquian interpreter for the colony.

Early life

Collier was born around 1595 in London, England.[1] [2]

Jamestown colonist

Collier is listed among the 104 colonists on the Virginia Company of London's manifest, and was one of four boys in the first group of settlers to Jamestown.[3] [4] He served as a servant and page to captain John Smith and accompanied Smith on his explorations into the unknown parts of Virginia.[5] Collier was likely around 12-13 years old in 1607 which was a normal age for apprenticeships in England. Collier accompanied Smith for his first meeting with Powhatan and Pocahontas.[6] [7]

According to contemporary historians, Collier was sent by Smith to learn the language of the Algonquian-speaking Warraskoyack tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy, and later served the colony as an interpreter.[8] [9] [10] He befriended weroance (chief) Tackonekintaco during that period. Collier was held in high esteem by Smith as a respected member of the community.[11]

Death

According to Smith's accounts, Collier died in 1622 aged 26-27 due to accidental friendly fire of an English sentinel during the Powhatan Uprising.[12] [13] [14]

Legacy

Collier's story has been fictionalized in several children's books and in young adult literature. The 2001 book Surviving Jamestown: The Adventures Of Young Sam Collier by Gail Langer Karwoski provides a fictional account of Collier's journey to the New World and his life in Jamestown.[15] [16]

Collier is a character in the 2000 book titled 1609: Winter of the Dead by Elizabeth Massie.[17]

In 2007, a children's historical semi-fiction book by Candice F. Ransom was published titled Sam Collier and the Founding of Jamestown, which describes Collier's adventures in Virginia.[18]

A children's book about Collier was written by Elisa Carbone titled Blood in the River, which centers on his travels with John Smith.[19] [20] [21]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Price, David A. . Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation . 2007-12-18 . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group . 978-0-307-42670-3 . en.
  2. Web site: JR1225B Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.
  3. Book: Kay, Alan N. . Jamestown Journey . Thomas Publications . 1992 . 978-0-939631-53-7 . en.
  4. Book: Billings, Warren M. . The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century (Volume 1 of 2) (EasyRead Large Bold Edition) . 2008 . ReadHowYouWant.com . 978-1-4429-6084-8 . en.
  5. Web site: Kids in Jamestown History Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.
  6. Book: Kupperman, Karen Ordahl . Pocahontas and the English Boys: Caught between Cultures in Early Virginia . 2021-01-19 . NYU Press . 978-1-4798-0598-3 . en.
  7. Book: Society, Hakluyt . Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society: Extra series . 1906 . en.
  8. Web site: Egloff . Nancy . 'Trusty Servants' and 'Converted Infidells': Cultural Intermediaries In Early Virginia . Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
  9. Book: Simms, William Gilmore . The Life of Captain John Smith: The Founder of Virginia . 1846 . G.F. Cooledge & Brother . en.
  10. Book: Kupperman, Karen Ordahl . Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America . 2000 . Cornell University Press . 978-0-8014-8282-3 . en.
  11. Book: Goode, George Brown . Virginia Cousins: A Study of the Ancestry and Posterity of John Goode of Whitby, a Virginia Colonist of the Seventeenth Century, with Notes Upon Related Families, a Key to Southern Genealogy and a History of the English Surname Gode, Goad, Goode Or Good from 1148 to 1887 . 1887 . J. W. Randolph & English . en.
  12. Web site: The First Residents of Jamestown - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) . 2024-05-09 . www.nps.gov . en.
  13. Book: Gray, Edward G. . The Language Encounter in the Americas, 1492-1800: A Collection of Essays . Fiering . Norman . 2000 . Berghahn Books . 978-1-57181-160-8 . en.
  14. Book: Kupperman, Karen Ordahl . The Jamestown Project . 2007-03-23 . Harvard University Press . 978-0-674-02474-8 . en.
  15. Web site: Surviving Jamestown Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.
  16. Web site: Audiobook: Surviving Jamestown the Adventures of young Sam Collier . 2024-05-09 . portal.learningally.org.
  17. Book: Massie, Elizabeth . 1609: Winter of the Dead: A Novel of the Founding of Jamestown . 2000-03-15 . Macmillan . 978-0-8125-9093-7 . en.
  18. Web site: Sam Collier And The Founding Of Jamestown Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.
  19. Web site: Sangre en el Rio Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.
  20. Book: Walker, Sally M. . Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland . 2009 . Carolrhoda Books . 978-0-8225-7135-3 . en.
  21. Web site: Blood on the River Historic Jamestowne . 2024-05-09 . en-US.

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