The Myth of the Cape Henry Cross
On April 29, the White House released a statement commemorating commemorating the erection of a cross on Cape Henry in 1607 by the founders of Jamestown, Virginia. I’ll return to that statement in a moment, but first I want to talk about the Christian mythology and the false narrative that has grown up around that event. Facts and Myths Here’s what we know about that event and how we know it. George Percy was one of the settlers who at the Virginia coast on April 26, 1607. In 1608 he wrote, The nine and twentieth day we set up a Cross at Chesupioc Bay, and named that place Cape Henry. So that’s all we know. That’s the only contemporaneous witness to the event who wrote about it, and that’s the entire description in a very word narrative about the first days of Jamestown. We don’t know who was present on Cape Henry on April 29. Most of the settlers were living on the ships while landing parties searched for a suitable place to settle. We don’t know what was said or done as the cross was...