In 1609, nearly a hundred women and children left comfortable homes in England for the wilderness of Jamestown, Virginia, expecting prosperity and an abundant land with exotic animals and plants, thousand-pound fish in the James River, and friendly natives. Joan Peirce led her little daughter Jane up the gangplank and into a world she could never have imagined. Moldy food and horses in the deck below them were just the beginning. Weeks into their journey, a hurricane at sea struck the fleet right at “the haunted Bermudas,” battering them for five days and scattering the ships. The sinking of the flagship with all the leaders, soldiers, and food threatened their survivial. Joan Peirce, her husband lost at sea, walked off her little ship, the Blessing, and right into Jamestown’s Starving Time.Author Connie Lapallo tells the true story of Jamestown’s first women and children during the winter of 1609 to 1610 and what became of the survivors. (Based on her novels Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky and When the Moon Has No More Silver.)
