Really?

Last week, I brought home a bunch of library books on Williamsburg and Jamestown.  We're going back there in August and I thought the kids might want to bone up on some of the area history before our return.

They didn't really want to.  But, they acquiesced when I encouraged them this morning.  Within a few minutes of picking up Jamestown: The First Colony, Sag made a strangled sort of sound and by the time I looked up from my own reading, he was cowering under the couch, tears in his eyes.

"From the shallop, the Englishmen watched the villagers strip George Cassen of his clothes and tie him to a pair of wooden stakes.  Using mussel shells, they cut each of his fingers, joint by joint, and then tossed each piece into the fire.  On board the shallop, the men could hear Cassen's agonizing screams as the villagers skinned him alive.  Then, they watched in horror as the villagers sliced open his belly and removed his bowels, which they threw into the fire.  Finally, they burned the nearly dead Cassen alive."

(p. 22  Jamestown: The First English Colony by Susan Harkins and William H. Harkins)

I was at a loss for articulate words.  Truly shocked.

Here is the School Library Journal review at Amazon:

"Grade 4-6–A well-researched, readable, no-frills introduction to the history of the first permanent English settlement in America, useful for reports. The facts are straightforward and chronologically presented, and the authors are careful to say what is unknown or conjecture. FYInfo pages present more details on topics such as The Virginia Company and Pocahontas. The Native American point of view is included but limited. The book design is utilitarian. Only two small maps are included, and neither one shows Virginia in relation to the whole country or to Europe. The other illustrations are stock images and drawings. This title is aimed at a slightly older audience than MaryLee Knowlton and Janet Riehecky's The Settling of Jamestown (Gareth Stevens, 2002), Elaine Landau's Explore Colonial Jamestown (Enslow, 2006), and Daniel Rosen's New Beginnings: Jamestown and the Virginia Colony, 1607-1699 (National Geographic, 2005).–Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA"

Sag would be going into fifth grade if he were going to school.  He's right in the target reader group.  Clearly, I am a mainstream outlier in my incredulous reaction to this passage being included in a book for kids Sag's age.  Part of me wants to bring this passage to the attention of one of our children's librarian...part of me just wants to return the book and forget about it...part of me wants to read/review the book myself.

I am disturbed, not only by the graphic and horrific description of how this man was tortured and killed, but also that this depiction lends itself so easily to thinking of "the villagers" as a psycho/sociopathic being/mob.

Hopefully, Sag will not be terrified by these images come bedtime.  (Not holding my breath on that one.)