Early Jamestown Essay

Jamestown was the first permanent settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia. About 104 men and boys arrived at a new settlement in Virginia and named it after their king, James I, which was Jamestown. This new settlement was surrounded by many powhatan people that lived there. Although, even though English have found a new settlement, many colonist died. Colonists died in early Jamestown for three big reasons: their water was bad, they lacked key skills, and they had bad relations with the Powhatans.

Although some historians consider the Native Americans responsible for Bacon’s actions, could it be that Bacon was only after the native’s land and property and would do anything to obtain the land for his own financial benefit? In this essay, I will discuss Jamestown, Virginia in the 1600’s, and the conflicts between the settlers, Native Americans and the royalty from England that were sent to govern this area. This essay will also discuss why Bacon should not be considered a hero by taking into account the conflicts between the Governor Sir Berkeley and his corrupt government, the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, the settlers or tobacco farmers, and the Native Americans

To begin, the Jamestown colonists went through a period called the “Starving Time”. This was a period of time where they had no food to eat and were forced to become cannibals, or starve to death. One reason why they had no food was because of droughts. Jamestown suffered its longest drought in 1609-1610 and its severest drought around the year 1590 (Doc B).

Bortholomew Gosnold was the leader, he died within the first five months, and when he died John Smith took over. Josh Smith was prepared to absorb as much as he could about the Indians language and philosophy. Ultimately, John Smith wanted the Indians to trust the colonists. This led to John Smith leading his people to request a trade with the Indians for food, at first, Chief Powhatan refused but then Pocahontas changed his mind. After a while, John Smith began drinking the salty water and got poisoned and they hurried him back to England for medical treatment. Departing from Jamestown and going back to England avoided him being killed. Going to England helped him recover with normal food and

Colonists and Natives were too confident and they tried to survive in the deathful fighting's and attacks! In 1607 the first English colonists arrived on the James River. They were sent by the Virginia company to find riches like gold, copper, and metal. They brought 104 men with them and three ships: The Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed. When they arrived on the James River they also founded Jamestown which was the first English settlement in 1607 although before the colonists even got to the New World the emperor Powhatan was in power. Although why did so many colonists died in early Jamestown between 1607 and 1611? The reason why so many colonists died in Jamestown between 1607 and 1611 was because of disease, attack of Natives, and drought. So in the next few paragraphs, I will prove using historical evidence that colonists died because of disease, drought, and attacks of natives.

As shown, living in Jamestown was not easy. The colony was located around one of the most powerful Native tribes that could have taken over their people. They did not have enough people who specialised in the labor that kept the colony alive. Eventually, a lot of the colonist starved to death during 1609-1610 resulting in humans eating other humans. Overall, the colony of Jamestown had very many hardships that they had to

The deaths of approximately 440 colonists from Jamestown, England's first permanent colony, got many people wondering "Why did so many colonists die?" There are many factors that caused Jamestown to struggle so much, and begin a voyage back to England. A major reason why many colonials died was because they didn’t bring nearly enough supply's, nor did they try to become friends with their surrounding neighbors, the Native Americans.. The evidence that was discovered lies in documents and or journal entries, nearby plants, and annual weather.

The English had two main colonies in the new world, Jamestown and Plymouth. The first colony was Jamestown, established in Virginia in 1607. Jamestown was settled by Captain John Smith, and was named after King James I. Tobacco was the main export of Jamestown, and became the basis of the Jamestown economy, sending more than 50,000 lbs of the plan back to Europe by 1618 (textbook 46). Jamestown had a very rocky start, many colonists dying in the first few years of the settlement, and the settlers had many problems with natives. Shortly after the arrival of English colonists the Natives attacked them, and were finally forced back by a canon from the English. A very uneasy truce was finally settled between the natives, called the Powhatans,

The creation of Jamestown started on May 24, 1607. Captain Christopher Newport led three ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. "They named both the river and their colony after King James I of England" (Jamestown 28). They did not want to leave England completely or they would not have named those two things after him. They probably felt that they needed to name these things after him because he was the main leader and investor of the expedition. The colonies agriculture and Industry started off slow. "They failed to produce silk, grapes, and other items because of the Virginia climate" (Jamestown 29). They had trouble growing these because they thought that they would grow as they did in England but the climate was much different. They brought a lot of stuff over that they thought would work but did not and this trial and error resulted in a long process before they finally found the first product that grew or worked. "The first agricultural products to be successfully raised were hogs and Indian corn" (Jamestown 29). There was more than one leader that contributed to keeping Jamestown up and going. Captain

Settlement of Virginia started with James I becoming king and making peace with Spain who at that time had control over North America; as well as the Native Americas. Charter London Company was mainly started to fund the vogue to Jamestown. The idea behind the company was to give investors land, gold, and goods, for investing in help of settlement in Virginia. The settlement of Jamestown was to find more trade and resources. In 1607 Jamestown was colonized but early on there was crises. Lack of food, and new diseases caused many settlers to die. As well as Spanish and Native American attacked the new settlers seeing them as threats and intruders. With low farmers food was scarce and Atlantic crossing was a 3 months sail in order to send messages to England. In order to survive Jamestown

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

With Francis West taking the only grain the colony had and the corn he had taken from the Patawomeke he left Jamestown with very little food, knowing most of the people wouldn’t make it without the food he had

When examining the sheer importance of the first 13 colonies there was one establishment that triumphed over the others. In 1606, the London Company sent 144 men to Virginia on three ships: the Godspeed, Discovery and Susan Constant. The ships reached Chesapeake Bay in the spring of 1607 and headed 60 miles up the James River. They established a camp which later became called Jamestown. The inhabitants of Jamestown however faced many difficulties during the establishment of a livelihood. Blinded by the pursuit of gold and riches that the land had to offer, the colonists were ill prepared for the harsh winters approaching. Following the approach of the year 1616, the colonists struggling in Jamestown learned how to grow tobacco. Tobacco was a profitable crop and soon began to appeal to English royalty. Following the success of Jamestown, 12

After Jamestown was settled people in europe began to see that there was opportunity in the new world. While people saw opportunity there was something in the way of their success, the native americans. The settlers and the native americans held a dicate relationship with one another and in the colonies beginnings the indians were not a major problem, but as the the seventeenth came more and more Europeans were in the new world. This caused a change in the relationship with the indians and the English settlers. When the English first begin to explore and colonize the new world they do not fight the indians the make peace with them.

The English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, was founded on May 14, 1607 by Captain Christopher Newport and his fleet of a hundred or so Englishmen. During the next nine decades, this settlement would begin as "a verie fit place for the erecting of a great cittie(Tyler, 33)", and develop into "nothing but Abundance of Brick Rubbish, and three or four good inhabited houses(Miers, 107)." Two major factors led to the gradual decay and destruction of Jamestown: (1) The profit-before-survival attitude of the English settlers, and (2) the persistence of the Indians of the area to drive the English from their native lands.