There were many hard obstacles along the way. The colonists went to Jamestown because they thought there was a lot of gold there but what they didn’t know was that there were Native Americans near by where they camped and landed. Many of the Colonists died because of 3 reasons: lack of preparation, bad location, and unexpected events. One of the reasons why the colonists died in Jamestown was the lack of preparation. An evidence that can support this reason is “No one doubted that this new supply of grain would help, but it would not be enough to last the winter.” (Document D) This evidence supports the reason because the colonists didn’t have enough food. Another evidence is they needed more men because they were dying. (Document E) This evidence supports the thesis because the …show more content…
An evidence that supports this reason is that there were many Indian attacks. For example, “ Of 120 mean stationed near the falls, the Indians kill “neere halfe”.” This evidence supports the reason because the colonists had no idea that there were Native Americans near by where they landed. Another evidence that supports this is that many deaths happened during that time. An example is “ 11 colonists die in boating accident.” There are much more examples of death like Indian attacks, Indian ambushes, sickness, the winter, disease, the Jamestown Drought and many more examples. (Document E and B) A third evidence is the period “Starving Time.” This period was a hard period for the colonists because they didn’t have enough food and grains. (Document B) All of this evidence supports the thesis because the colonists thought that Jamestown was a place where they could find many goods, gold, and other good things that would benefit them. Instead, they found dead and bad things that would affect them like the Indians that killed many of them and the period of “Starving Time” which also killed much
Edmond Morgan builds an easy to understand case of explaining the initial failures of the Jamestown colony. He credits the failures to chaotic organization, laziness, the makeup of the population, and poor ideas for prosperity.
( Document D) The Indians had most of the forts in Jamestown then the English had. The English had very little space to farm or to do anything in there land areas that they had they also had very little supplement. The supplement just barely got around to all of the English settlers sometimes the some of the English had no food to eat so they died in Jamestown. (Document
Second mistake was the need for the food. The settlers’ priority was to find gold. They did not have any knowledge about what were the resource of the land. They should have a plan to invest in agriculture in order to survive, but they did not. They relayed on Indians to provide them with food. That is why in the winter of 1609-1610 many suffered and died because
The Indians knew how to live off the land and were expert hunters and gatherers their main food they grew was corn and traded with the colonist by giving them corn and gathering up food for them. Back in England people who were wealthy had no clue how to survive on the plains and take care of a farm and plow fields and hunt for meat. Since they came from the city of England the Englishmen were people who did not know that kind of life. They were wealthy Englishmen; most of these men were lazy and didn’t know what manual labor was. In addition, there were Englishmen of trade who were carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers who settled down in Jamestown. It was known that one of the main reasons why the Englishmen settled in Jamestown in hope to find gold, rubies, pearls, and silver and to be able to sell it in England for a profit. Devastation struck instead, within a few months less than hundred died. These deaths were excruciating deaths, and the horror of deaths continued from 1607 to 1610. Some men would find themselves going out of their mind, while others had a blistering burning fever, and some men’s skin would just peel off like peeling off a boiled potato and sudden deaths rapidly appeared, some licked up the blood from their falling comrades as some swelled up so fast less than a hundred from five hundred survived. Many of the colonists were very weak and could not do hardly anything. Some figured the cause of the deaths was from
Colonists and Natives were too confident and they tried to survive in the deathful fighting's and attacks! In 1607 the first English colonists arrived on the James River. They were sent by the Virginia company to find riches like gold, copper, and metal. They brought 104 men with them and three ships: The Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed. When they arrived on the James River they also founded Jamestown which was the first English settlement in 1607 although before the colonists even got to the New World the emperor Powhatan was in power. Although why did so many colonists died in early Jamestown between 1607 and 1611? The reason why so many colonists died in Jamestown between 1607 and 1611 was because of disease, attack of Natives, and drought. So in the next few paragraphs, I will prove using historical evidence that colonists died because of disease, drought, and attacks of natives.
Of all the English settlers that arrived in early Jamestown from 1607 to 1611, 80% of them died. The first three ships arrived at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay bringing just over one hundred settlers who would attempt to establish the first English settlement. Fifty miles up the James River, the colonists chose a piece of land that seemed to be full of resources, and called it Jamestown. Those who study early Jamestown often wonder why so many colonists died despite the resources that were originally thought to be available. Environmental problems, lack of settler skills, and poor relationships with Native Americans were the main contributors to the high percentage of colonists’ death.
It was a difficult start for the colonists in Early Jamestown for three main reasons. Colonists started to come over to the James River by Chesapeake Bay in Virginia in the spring of 1607. Almost all of the colonists wanted a new start for their life and wanted to escape the rules of Britain and to make new homes. Many people hoped to get wealthy with their new start in another place. Though many did not realize that all their hopes and dreams would come to a crashing halt shortly after they arrived in the new land. By the end of 1611, 400 out of the 500 colonists that had arrived were dead. Though why is that so? There are three main reasons of why they died so early- lack of water, lack of
Although Jamestown was the first successful English colony, in America most Jamestown colonists died. Life in Jamestown was rough for multiple reasons. Many colonists died in Jamestown during 1607 to 1619 because of water problems, diseases and angry Native Americans. Water problems caused starvation and dehydration. Diseases caused deaths and sickness. Native Americans became enemies with the Jamestown colonists and attacked Jamestown. Thus, many Jamestown colonists were dehydrated, sick and opposed Native Americans.
One of North America’s very first colony Jamestown had many people die. Jamestown’s people came from England in search of gold, work, and many more things. However, Jamestown was far from safe and healthy. Lack of food, uncleansed water, and disease caused many deaths throughout the years Jamestown stood. It started when the people of Jamestown ran out of food.
In the document titled “Jamestown’s Environment”, it says that the tides caused saltwater to overflow into their drinking water, turning it into brackish water, deeming it undrinkable. Also, in the document “Rainfall in Jamestown”, you can see that in there was a large drought during the first 5 years that Jamestown was established, which didn’t really help crop growth. Finally, in “Chronology of English Mortality”, it talks about how the area bred disease that constantly sickened many of the settlers and even killed them. So, all of that can connect back to the thesis since the diseases and lack of water ended killing so many of the
On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company, founded the first permanent English settlement in North America. The Jamestown colonists purpose is to find gold, silver, and other resources all they want is claiming land and riches. Smith left the Jamestown settlers without a strong leader so he left all his people alone. There’s no houses for them, there’s no supplies for them to survive due to the lack of leadership. So the settlers faced many hardships they had not expected. The settlers lacked some skills necessary to contribute for themselves like farming, hunting, etc. Many settlers died not only because of starvation & disease but also during the winter many settlers starve or froze to death because they don’t have anything for that season. After all what happens to them the settler adjusted to their new lives in America. The few remaining colonists turned to local Powhatan Indians to help them learn the process of planting and harvesting corn and tobacco. The settlers relied on
Jamestown is now known as the very first permanent English settlement in the New World. However, from 1607-1610, early Jamestown constantly hovered right above the line of failure from reasons both outside the settlement and within its borders. Three main reasons the Jamestown colonists died were because of their lack of preparation, poor relations with the Native Americans, and the location of their settlement.
To start off, autumn had come and the settlers were able to establish a good supply for the winter. Unfortunately, their food supply was burned in a fire along with their fort. In the video “Jamestown Rediscovery Part 3” slide 38 mentions, “bad luck struck again, however, when their food supplies were ruined in a blaze that swept through and damaged the fort.” Secondly, instead of gathering food supplies, the settlers decided to go looking for ways to please the Virginia Company. Slide 44 of “Jamestown Rediscovery Part 3” states, “In their zeal to do the Virginia Company well, they failed to acquire enough food stores for their own need.” Now, after their food burned, they neglected the fact that they needed a stable food supply of their own. Lastly, the winter, also known as the “Starving Time” was one of the worst periods in Jamestown. With the arrival of 400 new settlers they had to share their small supply with, people began fighting. In addition, page 33 of “Making Thirteen Colonies” states, “That means armed Indians wouldn’t let anyone out. The settlers couldn’t hunt or fish.” With diseases, no water, and no food, only 60 of the people in Jamestown out of 504 died. To conclude, hunger was the worst hardship settlers had to
One of the causes that led to making the relationships between the colonist worst was because Francis West and 36 men. (Doc D) "Though West was able to load his (small ship) with grain, the success involved some harshe and crewel dealing by cutting of towe (two) of the salvages heads and other extremetyes." This quote tells us that Francis and men cut off Indians heads for their grain to go back to England. Another reason is that after Francis had cut off their heads, he left to England with the grains and men. He left the colony in Jamestown to deal with the Powhatans and indians to be killed. The Powhatans would be angried with the colonist because they had their men’s heads cut off by Francis. Many colonist died is because of their relationships. This was a bad encounter because the Powhatans killed the Colonist people, and the Colonist killed the Powhatans. This is another reason to why the many colonist died in early
* Many were gentlemen who felt it below their stations to clear fields or build stockades (barriers)