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| Image By: Wikimedia Commons |
Table of Contents
1) Introduction
2) Where it All Started
3) Where the Powhatans Come In
4) Jamestown's Geography
5) The Starving Time
6) Food in Jamestown
7) What Happened to Jamestown
8) Time Thinking
9) Conclusion
Intro
Did you know that during The Starving Time in Jamestown, colonists ate their pets? There are a lot more facts like that in this book. This book will also tell you about Jamestown's Geography, researchers’ time thinking about Jamestown, and the good things that happened while Jamestown was a colony, etc.
Where It All Started
In 1606, the king of England sent a group of wealthy men to North America to start a new colony. In April 1607, 105 settlers arrived in Virginia to start the colony. In honor of King James, they named the colony Jamestown.
John Smith once said “If you do not work you do not eat.” This might seem a bit harsh but it is actually a good policy if you think about it.
Unfortunately, Jamestown was built on a marsh and the ground and area it was not good for farming. Also the mosquitoes on the marsh carried a disease called Malaria. By January 1608, only 38 of the settlers were still alive!
Where the Powhatans Come In
In 1607, John Smith was captured by the natives and told to lay his head between two rocks. Many men raised their clubs and John Smith believed that he was about to be killed. Then Pocahontas ran over and layed her head on John Smith’s head. He thought that she had saved him but scientists think that it was a Native American ceremony. Later, the Native Americans started bringing food and supplies to the colonists.
Jamestown’s Geography
They also taught the colonists how to fish and plant crops. This is good because Jamestown is right on the James River and is also very close to the Atlantic Ocean. Jamestown is also very close to Williamsburg. They probably settled near the water because they knew that they could catch fish, crabs, and lobsters. Also, they most likely settled near Williamsburg because they thought that they could trade goods with the people there.
The Starving Time
John Smith was elected president and that winter of 1607 only 18 colonists died. After that, John Smith got badly burned and had to return to England. Because of this loss, the next winter hundreds of the colonists died because of hunger. People even started eating stuff like pets and leather boots!
Food in Jamestown
Then John Rolfe, a settler in Jamestown, found a way to grow sweet tasting tobacco. Tobacco is a type of plant that people smoke, chew, and sniff. John Rolfe sold the tobacco in the neighboring colonies in exchange for money and supplies.
Jamestown was growing and each settler was gave a lot of land for growing crops. The most popular crops in Jamestown were corn, beans, squash, and tobacco. Tobacco was Jamestown’s most popular and valued crop. Many people think this because the settlers could sell the tobacco for a lot of money\supplies. They also think it was very easy to sell because it was a new type and people wanted to try it.
Historians noticed that in the colonial times tobacco was a lot more popular than right now. They think that it was more popular back then because the colonists didn’t know it had so many bad ingredients it had. Now we know that it has stuff like nicotine in it. Nicotine is an ingredient that makes you addicted to the substance that it’s in. Also,researchers have noticed that we eat most of the the food that the colonists ate in Jamestown but they didn’t have as many desserts as we do.
The English settlers made their foods in a different way than we do today. For example, to make rice cakes the settlers had to put a round pile of dough on a pile of burning coals and wait for it to cook. Also, to cook fish they had to hang the fish on a stick by its gills over a fire with all of its scales still on it
What Happened To Jamestown
The House of Burgesses was made and Pocahontas married John Rolfe.
A while later, Pocahontas died. Also soon after Powhatan died his brother became chief and he and his men attacked Jamestown. They killed 347 of the settlers but Jamestown, luckily, survived and became the first successful colony in North America.
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| Image By: Wikimedia Commons |
Jamestown became a royal colony. Also it became the capital of Virginia and the tobacco farms kept making the colony bigger. 74 years later the State House got burnt down and a couple years later Jamestown was no longer the capital of Virginia. In the 1750s Jamestown no longer existed and is now just a lot of farmland.
Time Thinking
Researchers have thought that since Jamestown was successful, lots of other people decided to settle in new places. They think this because the other colonies were probably inspired by Jamestown. Some of the colonies that were probably inspired by Jamestown are Maryland, which was settled in 1634, Carolina, which was settled in 1670, and Georgia, which was settled in 1733. Maryland was inspired by Jamestown, Carolina was inspired by Maryland, and Georgia was inspired by Carolina. If Jamestown wasn’t successful than these colonies might have not settled. Those places would probably be farm land right now just like Jamestown!
Conclusion
Jamestown was a very important colony for sure. It lead the way for many other colonies and was the first successful colony in North America. Researchers have noticed that the climate and geography really affected the things that happened while Jamestown was still a colony. For example, if Jamestown hadn’t settled on a marsh than not as many people would have died. Many people think that if they were settling on an unknown island with Native Americans who want to kill them all around, they would be very scared. Would you?
Glossary
The Starving Time: The winter after John White went back to England.
Geography: Where something is or was.
Malaria: A blood disease caused by Anopheles Mosquitoes.
Ceremony : A type of celebration.
Colonists : People who settled in colonies.
Gills : Flaps on a fish that filter oxygen out of the water so they can breath.
Burgess : A representative in the popular branch of the colonial legislature of Virginia and Maryland.
Image By: Encyclopedia Britannica
