Jamestown
Introduction
The remains of eaten dogs and horses lay there. The people are dying to eat anything in sight. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat” stated John Smith. This colony of Jamestown faced many hardships and had many conflicts throughout this settlement. This settlement was started by a group of rich and wealthy men. The colonists has had several threats such as the “Starving time”, and John Smith’s capture. This was the first successful English settlement.
Their Arrival
This colony started off to the new land on December 20, 1606, on the ships Discovery, Susan Constant, and Godspeed. Roughly 100 colonists decided to join this voyage with the group to find riches and gold along the beaches and land. The principle of coming here was just to find gold and become rich. The ships landed at Jamestown, Virginia on April 26, 1607 at a swampy marsh. The voyage took around 5-6 months across the Atlantic. Right when they unboarded the ship onto the land, houses, huts, and the Jamestown fort was being built straight away. Shelter was the very first thing the settlers decided to make and was aiming for. The first time the settlers saw this amazing site of the new land, they noticed it was very different than their homeland back in England.
Challenges and Events
Landing at Jamestown was very rough for the settlers. They landed at a marsh which carried mosquitoes and the mosquitoes gave the settlers a deadly disease called Malaria. In almost half a year most of the settlers died. Not only that, the Marsh’s water was very dirty and salty which made a big impact on drinking water and farming for the settlers.
The winter of 1609-1610 was called the Starving Time. Nearly 80% of the settlers died during these two years. The number of diseases and fallen ones grew exponentially. This deadly event was horrible and even showed examples of cannibalism. Back then in this horrific period, cannibalism was an eating source if there were no mice, rats, or any animals around. The cause of this “Starving Time” was because of bad trade relations with the other Native tribes, and because they couldn’t plant anything like corn during this time of year. Many people might think this major, harsh event that happened must have been like torture to these settlers. Eating dirty creatures and dropped blood from weak ones must have forced some people to just give up on surviving this deadly event. This event was a major cause and effect. The Starving Time was the cause of the many settlers that had died. The effect was the colony was no longer (only for this winter) strong and couldn’t handle or survive as well as they did in the beginning of the settlement.
Although Jamestown could never find any gold, a guy named John Rolfe fixed all of that. He introduced a sweet-tasting tobacco that had become the new Virginia’s gold, and also known as the first good cash crop . Other than that, the other cash crop they could think of was cedar wood. This was a big key event to Jamestown. This is because when tobacco came out, trading was big and had very good deals. Trade relations had become great for the colony which led them to grow bigger and stronger.
One more step and challenge the colony of Jamestown had to face to get to where they are now, was surviving a big attack from the Powhatan Indians. This tribe used to be sort of allies with the colonists and were friends at one point in time. This all changed when John Smith left to England because he burnt himself from a gunpowder explosion, and Powhatan (the chief/leader of the Powhatan Indians) had died and his brother became chief. This new chief in my opinion did not at all consider being friendly or trying to trade with them. He went straight to attacking and it seemed like he wanted to take over and have all the power of the land. Another theory of mine is that he was afraid of more ships and colonists coming over to their new land and taking over. This attack was harsh but, not harsh enough to destroy Jamestown.
Afterlife
After Jamestown survived the big attack from the Powhatan Indians , and was known to be successful, many other important things happened in the afterlife. In the 1620’s, Jamestown expanded hundred and hundreds of acres. Houses and land expanded a lot and they became stronger and more powerful. They made new towns and one huge one down the James River (right besides the Jamestown fort). While all of this was happening, Plymouth (the pilgrims) was working their way up making shelter, hunting, trading with the Natives, facing conflicts, all the way up to where Jamestown is now. Both meanings of coming here for Jamestown and Plymouth were very different, one coming here to get rich and find gold, and the other for freedom, religious freedom. Both are similar in a way because they both wanted or wished for something when they would unboard at the new land. After they have had success with the attack from the Indians of Powhatan, much weight was lifted off the colonists of Jamestown.
Conclusion
Jamestown has faced many challenges and deadly winters to succeed in the colonial times. Their arrival was harsh, and they faced one of the worst climates imaginable, but fortunately, the colonists Jamestown did not give up and believed they could survive. After Jamestown was known to be successful, the colonists realized that it had all paid off. Is it possible that the people of the United States would even be here if Jamestown hadn’t settled successfully?
Glossary
- Colony-a group of people that live away from home but still keep in touch with their homeland.
- Cannibalism-when the a living eats one of its own species.
- Settlement-a location where a colony settles
- Malaria-a disease caught from mosquitoes mostly from marshes and causes you to have colds and fevers; you can die from this also
- Tobacco-a sweet-tasting dried leaf of a tobacco plant that is used for smoking.
