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Essay on Settling a New World

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The very survival of the early settlers to the New World would depend much upon the generosity of the Native Americans. Had the natives not been so helpful and had instead violently resisted the newcomers, European settlers might not have been so eager to come settle this new land. Both Jamestown and Plymouth would depend upon the goodwill of the native people for their initial survival while establishing their settlements. The Indians not only introduced the area’s indigenous food sources but also their agriculture techniques to the settlers. The settlers would depend upon these for their survival in a new and unfamiliar land. Being able to provide their own food would be the first step in successfully establishing the new colonies, once …show more content…

It was to be her marriage to colonist John Rolfe in 1614 that would bring about a temporary peace between the natives and colonists but it only lasted until her death in 1617. Powhatan died in 1618, and was succeeded by his brother Opechancanough who despised the settlers who were bringing disease and taking Indian lands. On March 22, 1622, Indians attacked the colonists killing 347 of them, one fourth of the colonist’s population. The colonists countered by burning the natives’ cornfields and attacking their villages. During peace talks in April 1623, the colonists served the Indians poisoned wine, killing two hundred of them. The English would be ferocious in the next nine years of war with the natives, and the Indian’s (whose tribes were separate, not united) stood little chance against them.
In 1620, religious separatists called Pilgrims (Protestants who separated from the church of England), and non-separatists would board the Mayflower and set sail from England to colonize the new world; there were 102 men, women, and children in all. The new colony was to be called Plymouth, formerly the site a Wampanoag village that had recently been decimated by disease. Although the newcomers found an abandoned cornfield and buried baskets of corn, it would not be enough to feed the hungry colonists during the first winter and nearly half of them would die. Early the next spring, two English-speaking natives arrived to the settlement.

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