Virginia's Jamestown Colony

*Title Here* The English settlement of Jamestown was established in May of 1607. From then on to 1610 almost 200 of the settlers had died. So many settlers died in such little time because of disease, Native American attacks, and starvation. In the early Jamestown settlement disease was the primary causes

Death has overcome the Jamestown colony. In 1607, 110 colonists arrived at Jamestown, but by the end of December, only 40 would still be alive. More people kept arriving, but in the winter of 1609-1610, only one-third of the settlement were still alive. Also by 1611, 80% of the 500+ settlers were dead. An abundant amount colonists died in early Jamestown because of a few reasons. There was a drought, so the food and water were scarce, and the Indians and colonists weren’t on excellent terms.

Jamestown is now known as the very first permanent English settlement in the New World. However, from 1607-1610, early Jamestown constantly hovered right above the line of failure from reasons both outside the settlement and within its borders. Three main reasons the Jamestown colonists died were because of their lack of preparation, poor relations with the Native Americans, and the location of their settlement.

Why Did So Many Colonists Die? In hope of a new beginning 110 people traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to a small area in Virginia. In 1607, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, hopeful spirits had arrived. With a blessing from King James these people had arrived to start a settlement. They had no idea what was in store for them. If only they knew that the story of their death would later be told for many years. The colonists who came to Jamestown from 1607 - 1611 died because of polluted water, starvation, and different reasons for death.

When Jamestown was founded in 1607 many of the settlers were unsure of what to expect. John Smith preserved the first English Virginians from the ravages off their own sloth as well from the hostility of their native neighbors. John Smith called them savages and barbarians but also thought they were kind. Jamestown’s John Smith led an expedition of the Chesapeake Bay and was almost killed by a ray on the first of his two explorations. In the 1620’s jamestown expanded from James fort into a new town built in the East and is now the capitol of

Early Jamestown By 1611, four years after it started, more than 500 Englishmen had arrived in the colony of Jamestown in total, but eighty percent of them had died. This started in 1607, when roughly 104 Englishmen came to what is now the modern day state of Virginia to found the first settlement in the new world. The 104 or so Englishmen sailed up Chesapeake bay and found an island to create a settlement known as Jamestown. The colony built a large fort with three walls, and they quickly figured out that they were not the only ones here. The group of indians the English knew as the Powhatans were there too already with many settlements around the area. You may think the colony was thriving but at the end of the year 1607, there would only

In December, 1606 The Virginia Company of London sent 144 men and 3 ships to part of North America. They were sent to look for gold and try to trade fish and furs. 40 people died on the way there. By April 1607 they entered Chesapeake Bay and sailed up a river leading to it. They named the river the James and their settlement Jamestown to honor their king. They built the settlement on a peninsula so they could defend from attacks, but there were many mosquitoes that carried diseases and it also didn’t have very good farmland. They were looking for gold and silver most of the time but they should've been growing food. The main reason they survived was because of their captain, John Smith. He forced them to work, and he explored the area and

Jamestown, which was led by Governor John White, landed on Roanoke Island between April and late July 1587 and was a royal grantee of Sir Walter Raleigh. Jamestown was a small, self-supporting community that was suppose to be protected by the

Jamestown: The Founding of a Settlement Jamestown was a very interesting settlement. It was full of death, mosquitoes, and tobacco. With this you will find a lot out about Jamestown.

The Southern colony of Virginia was considered one of the primary voices for freedom and liberty around the revolutionary period. Many illustrious liberty-driven figure heads such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and even George Washington were originally from Virginia. Although the men of Virginia had ideals revolving around freedom and liberty, they ironically had 40% of the population in Virginia enslaved. The idea of equality became apparent for only those of white descent, and people of color were oppressed in order to achieve this “equality” among the white classes. The events in the 16th and 17th century Virginia that lead to equality among white men consisted of the relationship of white and Native Americans in both colonial and revolutionary America, the transition from indentured servants to slavery, oppressing the people of color, deliberately enforcing racism, and the impact of the Declaration of Independence on African-Americans.

In 1607 a group of 120 Englishmen who sought gold and other treasure established Jamestown, Virginia. This town was named in honor of King James I who granted this land to the Virginia Company of London. The group of men did not in fact find treasure. More than half of

In 1585 the colony of Roanoke was founded, captain John White left the colony to find soldiers, food, and supplies. However, when he left for England a war was declared on Spain and England and he couldn’t return until three years later, the colony of Roanoke during that time was

In the Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia is a document of 1619 which tells of the first twelve years of the Jamestown colony. The first settlement had a hundred persons, who had one small ladle of barley per meal. When more people arrived, there was even less food. Many of the people lived in cavelike holes dug into the ground, and in the winter of 1609-1610, they were

Jamestown Rediscovery Artifacts How do we recapture the lives of people who left no written record? If a pot is found in the middle of the woods, how do we determine how it got there? From what clues can we unlock the history behind that pot? Are artifacts a reliable source of factual information? It’s through artifacts uncovered, put together with written documentation, that we can tell the story of the way people lived. With the Jamestown Rediscovery, artifacts are analyzed and put together with written documentation to piece together the story of what happened to the people of Jamestown. Through such artifacts such as clothing materials, the bones of animals, and the remains of the teenage girl names “Jane”, we can scientifically couple the evidence to learn about the early settlement on the James River.

Rise and Fall of the Jamestown Colony 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.