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Which works by John Smith described the Virginia colony?
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American literature
Map of Virginia from John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, 1624.
John Smith, who is credited with initiating American literature, wrote several works that described the Virginia colony to prospective English settlers. His primary writings on the subject include:
- A True Relation of...Virginia... (1608)1
- A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country (1612)2
- The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624)21
These volumes were written to explain colonizing opportunities and depict the natural abundance of the New World, though some historians have noted that Smith was prone to self-promotion in his accounts.21