A man and a woman sit on the ground by the side of a mat. They eat
stewed corn with their hands. This tableau was one of several
watercolor paintings composed by the artist and explorer John White,
who sailed with Richard Grenville and others to coastal North Carolina
in 1585. Commissioned to portray the landscape, flora, fauna, and
customs of the Algonquin-speaking peoples of the region, White
depicted ceremonies, villages, food culture, and communal
arrangements. Warriors, elders, chiefs, mothers, and children strike
various poses to provide visual evidence of England’s earliest
encounters with the native peoples of North America. Upon his return
to England in 1587, White mounted and presented these paintings, along
with several others depicting the West Indies, to an unknown patron at
court. Unusual for their composition in watercolors rather than
oil-based paints, White’s drawings became a sensation in Western
Europe, catching the eye of the Flemish engraver Theodore de Bry. De
Bry’s engravings of these drawings made their way into print through
Thomas Hariot’s companion volume, A Brief and True Report of the
Newfound Land of Virginia, printed in 1588. Hariot’s caption to
White’s depiction of the man and woman eating corn described the
couple as “sober in their eating and drinking.” They lived “long”
lives and did not “oppress nature.” The flattering portrayal probably
stemmed from the fact that White and Hariot were active participants
in English overseas exploration and colonization. Both men took an
active role in the famous ‘lost colony’ of Roanoke Island (1585-1590).
White’s drawings were commissioned in part to promote the land and
its people as salutary, bountiful, welcoming, and docile. The
promotional character of this and other examples of early modern
European encounter literature encouraged archetypical depictions of
the Americas as paradisiacal lands inhabited by noble savages.
A guest post by Dr. James Allegro, Norfolk State University.
