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Early Jamestown Why Did So Many Colonists Die Essay

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In 1607, three ships sent by King James the first sailed into Chesapeake bay, Virginia carrying each over 100 people. They then sailed up the James river and settled on a piece of land today called James island. This piece of land was home to over 15,000 Powhatan natives. They gentleman who provided the voyage came here to become rich and make money by collecting animal pelts, wood, and iron. The cause of numerous colonist fatalities in early Jamestown was in direct correlation to their relations with the natives, the horrendous lack of essential supplies impeding their survival, and atrocious ailments leading to inevitable disease. One hypothesis of why the colonists died is because of the lack of supplies they had and because of the resources …show more content…

The abundance of natives in the woods was in the thousands. At first, when the colonists arrived, they met the natives and they both were friendly to each other for around 2 years. But when the settlers nourishment expired, they went to the only people that had food and knew how to grow it in such bad conditions. Of course when their resources ran out, apparently their intelligence did too. There fore, they tried to take the food by force instead of asking. That's when the natives killed 134 colonists in around 1609-1610. 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? Therefore, the cause of numerous colonist fatalities in early Jamestown was in direct correlation to their relations with the natives, the horrendous lack of essential supplies impeding their survival, and atrocious ailments leading to inevitable

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