There were two specific details that I vividly remember having a visceral reaction to. The first was during the part about the Starving Time, where a man salted his wife and then ate her. And I remember thinking at the time, That’s the detail that’s going to stick with me. The second was after the author started to explore the colonists’ relationship with the native people. The systematic murder of a helpless prisoner and an entire family shocked me. And the primary source was so cavalier about it, so nonchalant. They pushed children into the water and then shot at them until they were dead. I’m not going to forget the specific phrasing of that action anytime soon, if ever. After I finished the first two chapters, I reflected on the details that had stood out to me, and I had to think for a while before I remembered the guy who ate his wife. The queasiness that I felt reading that was nothing compared to the absolute horror I felt reading about the casual murders of several innocent children.

I thought it was so interesting that the author mentioned Richmond being built on contradictions – a heretical religion, and even the idea of “discovering” a land that was already inhabited. Richmond was built to satisfy the dreams of greedy men living across an ocean, but that came at the price of innocent blood – a price the builders were all too happy to pay. There was a complete lack of empathy and emotion that was shocking to me. I can’t help but wonder how in the world English colonists were able to look at other human beings and commit such atrocities towards them without feeling any sort of remorse for their actions.