Question

handout 14a: samuels letter to captain smith
directions: pretend you are samuel, and you sit down one winter evening and write a letter to captain smith informing him about what has taken place since his departure. in your letter, make sure you cover the following events and moments of blood on the river using descriptive language:

1. the climax of the novel: when you anxiously await punishment for kidnapping baby virginia and learn of ratcliffes execution;
2. and the resolution: when your sentence of twenty lashings is retracted and you create a happy and safe existence for yourself at point comfort living with john laydons family.

stay true to what you know about samuel as you capture his voice and retell these events. keep in mind that the audience is captain smith, so include details that you know samuel would share with this particular character.

Explanation:

This is a creative writing task from Blood on the River. The letter is written from Samuel's perspective to Captain Smith, using his voice: a former orphan, pragmatic, grateful to Smith, and focused on specific, personal, vivid details from the novel. It covers the climax of fearing punishment for kidnapping Virginia and learning of Ratcliffe's execution, then the resolution of his reprieved sentence and new life at Point Comfort.

Answer:

Samuel's Letter to Captain Smith
Winter Evening, Jamestown
Dear Captain Smith,

The fire sputters low here in the small hut at Point Comfort, but I write this with hands that don’t shake—not like they did that day I thought I’d breathe my last. You left us, and the fort turned to chaos faster than a storm on the James. I was daft, desperate, when I took baby Virginia. I thought I could keep her safe from the bickering, the hunger, the way Ratcliffe’s men wasted every scrap of food. When they dragged me to the stockade, I counted the planks on the wall, waiting for the drumbeat that meant my hanging. Then the cry went up: Ratcliffe’s dead. The men found him stealing corn from the Powhatan, and they put him to the sword. I thought my own neck was still for the taking, but the council said I’d acted out of fear, not malice. They took back the sentence of twenty lashings—said I’d paid enough in fear alone.

Now I’m at Point Comfort, with John Laydon’s family. His wife, Anne, makes bread that smells like the wheat fields I only read about, and Virginia? She crawls around the hut, laughing at the chickens, and calls me “Sam.” I fix nets for the fishermen, mend roofs, and every night I look out at the river and think of how you taught me to read the currents, to not fight the water but work with it. I’m safe here. Truly safe.

I hope you’re warm wherever you are. You once told me to make my own way. I’m trying.
Your servant,
Samuel Collier