The Jamestown Colony
 |
The colonist’s journey to Jamestown
“If you don't work you don't eat”, that is what John Smith said to the Jamestown colonists when they were in hard times. If you want to learn about Jamestown you should keep on going and read this article.
It was very hard to be a colonial on the trip to Jamestown. The boat they were on was This photo is courtesy of Pinterest crammed and germy. The colonists had to be on the lookout every single second of the day to make sure the ship wasn't jumped by pirates. This researcher thinks their journey there was pretty harsh especially because they were traveling in the fall, not the summer, so that made the water cold. If it got on the ship and if the travelers couldn’t get dry that would cause sicknesses maybe even resulting in death. The first winter, the harsh weather and lack of food was so bad that they couldn't even celebrate Christmas.
The British started this colony in the race for colonies vs. Spain, little did the king know that this colony would be remembered for years to come. The Colonists studied how the native Americans made their food. Also, John Smith had to take control of Jamestown and organize it. People were not working so he created a system that if you worked he would reward you in land. The colonists liked the system so they could get land to plant their own crops and build their own homes. That pushed the colonists to work harder so that they could earn their own land and do whatever they wanted with it. This was a photo of James Fort.
How the colonist’s made their fortune
The Colonists came to Jamestown to find gold and riches but it turned out that they found their riches were earned by farming tobacco.
This historian thought that the colonists were looking for gold because they were near water, where gold is normally located. At that time the colonists were struggling. They ran out of food and there is a story that is someone was so hungry that he tried to kill his wife for food. Then, luckily, they found tobacco which turned the colonists’ lives around. They could sell the tobacco which made them tons of money so they could buy food and get resources to make better houses and other things they needed to survive. So, they went to find natural resources such as gold and they came back with something the colonists never expected: tobacco! Tobacco was their key to becoming the first ever successful colony. They expected something else but they got tobacco. The colonists did plant tobacco in the beginning but as time progressed the work got too labor intensive.The colonists sent in Africans to plant the tobacco for low pay. The Colonists started out saying,” oh ,don't worry, we'll pay you”, but they then ended up not ever paying them. The colonists lied and got people to work for them without ever paying them.
The colonists relationship with the Native Americans
Another key for Jamestown being a success is that they had the Native Americans who inhabited the island on their side. It was good that they didn't hate each other because there could have been a war there with tons of blood everywhere and many deaths. That would have been terrible for both sides. This researcher thinks that the Native Americans didn't hate the colonists because the daughter of the chief of the Native Americans daughter, Pocahontas, jumped on and saved John Smith in late 1607, when they were going to try and kill him. Since Pocahontas did like him, the chief would not want to kill someone whom his daughter liked. In my opinion this enabled them to get along and stay away from war.
A lot of the time was happy but a lot of the time was not. There were times that they did not get along and both sides were nervous that the other would attack. The year after they had suffered the terrible winter and the year after pocahontas died weren't so very happy. The relations were good before because colonist John Rolfe was married to Pocahontas. Before that,when they got to Jamestown, they weren't so agreeable. They did not agree on much because the English thought that land could be bought and the Native Americans thought that land belonged to everyone. The British wanted to buy some of the land and the Native Americans wouldn't make the deal so that caused a lot of problems and tension between the colonists and the Native Americans (which wasn't very good for either side).
The British ended up building up the James river. Then, after Pocahontas died, in 1617 the Native Americans sent a group of people that attacked the colonists and that stirred the pot up so there was actually fighting and not just anger. As you can see, not everything was fun and games. The two sides were big trading partners and disagreements affected their trading. There were some ups and there were some downs. Sometimes they were friends and at peace but sometimes they were foes and at war. It really depended on the time and what was happening
At the end of the day there were a lot of reasons that came into play for why the colony survived and how not every person in the colony died of sickness. This historian imagines that more of the colonists could have survived if they knew the geography and where they had to go or why the Native Americans didn't kill captain John Smith or why Pocahontas helped John Smith. At the end of the day, you can't travel back in time to answer these questions.
The conclusion of Jamestown
The colony of Jamestown in the beginning was also known as James fort. It was started by a group of 100 people that got to the colony via three boats from Great Britain in search of riches in the Americas. They began searching for things like gold and other natural resources. The trip there was very hard on the colonists because back then they didn't go on luxury boats and cruise ships or factory made motor boats. They travelled on handmade wooden ships that could break easily and they had to constantly be on the lookout for pirates. One will ever know why all these things occurred ...what do you think?
How to make Jamestown’s breakfast gruel
Gruel is the breakfast they ate in Jamestown. It is two cups of water and a tab of oatmeal which you boil for 10 Minutes. That sounds like a pretty bad breakfast to me!
