American Water Problem

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

A big cause of all the deaths is because of the water. All the following in this paragraph is stated in Document A, B, and E. Due to the fact that rivers and creeks were so close, when English colonists built wells to drink out of, water would rise, it turning the fresh water into salt water which was both unhealthy and dehydrating. Also, the rivers were used for all bathroom needs, so in places where the water was still, the filth tended to fester. This was a probable cause of half the colonists dying of summer sickness. Lastly, the main food source near the James River was fish, so when winter came around, and water got cold, fishing failed, therefore people were starving.

The environment around Jamestown was horrible for disposing human waste. When people tried to discard of their waste many times it would end up in the drinking water. With waste in their water they got diseases and would die. The Jamestown people tried to get around this problem by making wells , but they were vulnerable to drought

After their third year in Jamestown, they began running out of wheat and barley, which was predominantly their food at the time, so they began eating dogs, cats, snakes, and humans. After searching Jamestown, they were let down by not having found silver and gold, they found tobacco. After the new shipments came for food it seemed to be infected with rats which created the bubonic plague. This killed many people.

In document A it explains the deaths of the colonists and the author states that there was brackish water which is mixed with salty and healthy water that made most people sick. Another water problem was that there wasn't enough rain for crops to grow, for example, corn. Then in document E, it states the chronology of the English morality in Virginia through 1607 to 1610 which explains the significant number of people that died from a disease. However, I believe both of these documents gave wonderful evidence that the colonists died of

Environmental Problems, including illness, caused the majority of colonists’ deaths in early Jamestown. The rivers and creeks where Jamestown was located were often brackish, meaning that they were too salty for use. This happened as water levels rose with the tide. Any waste introduced into the water by the settlers tended to “fester” and not get flushed away (Doc A). Drinking salty water causes severe dehydration, so colonists had to find another source for fresh water.

The third and final reason of why Jamestown failed so horribly was because of disease. They had 1 surgeon and no apothecary. Also, the triangle shaped fort they made didn't have any plumping, so... where did they put their human waste? They dumped it in the river. But, the area was notorious for having high and low tides. And they and to drink something, but the water was easier to reach at high tides do to their position on the beach. So the high tides brought in whatever they dumped out and they basically consumed their own waste which definitely got them sick. Smart people right?

One of the reasons I think why the colonists died was that lack of rainfall. Doc B stated, “ “0” on the chart means average tree ring size and therefore average rainfall “ (Doc B line 4). This matters because most of jamestown's rainfall was below zero. I feel that this might have killed the colonists because they were technically in a drought and they didn’t have any water to drink.

Diseases played a big role in Jamestown’s life throughout their history. Causing “neere halfe” (Document E) of the deaths in Jamestown, there had to be a reason. That reason is “brackish water” (Document A) or unclean water caused by the lack of strong currents in the river all of the disease origins such as feces of animals and humans settles and does not wash away. Since they had the disease in their only freshwater source, the lacked a major resource.

The first hardship the settlers had to face was disease. To begin, the contaminated swampy waters were to bad to drink from, leaving the colonists with no water. On page 28 of “

In the beginning many people in Jamestown ended up starving and dying Because of salt poisoning from drinking too much salt water.

In the early Jamestown settlement disease was the primary causes of settler deaths. “[D]isease in the early years to Jamestown’s position at the salt/freshwater transition, where filth introduced into the river tended to fester rather than flush away.” -Dennis Blanton, “Jamestown’s Environment” (Source B) The settlers of Jamestown had to put their waste somewhere, so they decided to dump it in the nearby Jamestown River. Instead of flushing away quickly the dirty water filled with human waste just sat there for long periods of time until it eventually did flush away. Because of the cleanliness levels of this dirty water many who chose to drink it got sick and died. “Disease returns, 100 at Jamestown sickened and half the number died.” -Adapted from J. Frederick Fausz, “An Abundance of Bloodshed on Both Sides: England’s First Indian War 1609-1614,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Source G) When people got sick it happened in vast quantities, so it could spread even quicker and infect more people. The death rate of someone who was sick was also very high, many who were sick ended up dying.

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

The colony needed to leave, they were faced with many challenges that could only be overcame by leaving the colony. Their biggest problem they faced was drought their crops would not have been able to grow. Their main crop was most likely corn. Corn has an inability to grow in low water conditions. Once their first crops failed there was no time to plant a new round of crops. Without their main food source they would have to gather and scavenger for food. They would have to rely on secondary food sources. They were running out of food with no crops. They would have to rely on the fish from the sea or the generosity of their neighbors.

The Chesapeake Colonies was home to many coastal plains, valleys and various mountain systems. Consequently, the warm climate and slow flow of water aided in the spread of diseases, not forgetting the fact that the first colony, Jamestown, was founded on a swamp. The lands on the swamp propagated mosquitoes, who infected many with Malaria and other life-threatening diseases. The lack of clean water, salubrious land and food made life extremely hard for the settlers, contributing to the high death rate. Many after their first