1985, the year of this conversation with Karen Kupperman and Helen Wallis, marked the 400th anniversary of the English in America. Between 1584 and 1590 came the first attempts at English colonization in the New World under a patent obtained by Sir Walter Raleigh from Queen Elizabeth I. While efforts failed to settle Roanoke Island (off of what is now the coast of North Carolina), they contributed later to the success of the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement, in 1609. What did those first English settlers expect to find in the New World? How did they conceive of its geography, climate, and inhabitants?
At the time of this interview, Kupperman, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1984-85), was professor of history at the University of Connecticut. Wallis was map librarian at the British Library.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
