...Jamestown: Why Did so Many Colonists Die? It was not an easy beginning. It was spring of 1607, and the English settlers had just reached Jamestown, in what is now Virginia. Many of the colonists came to Jamestown for gold or to start a new life. The question is: Why did so many colonists die? The answer to this question is in 3 main problems- the settlers were not prepared to work to survive, there were environmental problems, and the English had problems with the local natives, the Powhatan. One very important problem, and in my opinion, the most important, is that the English were not prepared to work to survive. Almost half of the first settlers to come to Jamestown were gentlemen, who weren’t used to having to work to survive (Doc...
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...During early Jamestown a tremendous about of settlers died several causes ranging from native attacks to disease raging through the settlement. During 1607 to 1610 Jamestown, located in modern day Virginia. Why did so many people colonists die? Many colonists died in early Jamestown between 1607-1611 for many different reasons for example many harsh and brutal attacks from natives, terrifying and devastating plagues, and no one to care for those crippled by disease and defending against natives. When the colonists first arrived the natives were not happy and often attacked the colonists making the natives a problem for the colony. According to J. Fredrick Fausz, "an abundance of bloodshed on both sides: England's First Indian war, 1909-1614, "the Virginia magazine of history and biography, January 1990 during the first year of the colony two people died from attacks at fort James then three more die from ambushes, then kill two more to capture captain John smith,then in 1609-1610 the killed 60 out of 120 stationed near the falls, and of one hundred men arriving they killed about half, finally during a siege they killed 33 more men. During the years of early Jamestown natives were a large threat primarily because of many attacks and sieges including natives killing half of 120 men stationed near the falls and when 100 new men arrived they killed about half of them making natives a large cause of many deaths....
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...There were many reasons that contributed to eighty percent of the Jamestown colonists dying. Jamestown was an English colony that lasted about four years. Jamestown was located in present day Virginia. The colony was mostly made up of the British lower class searching for a better life. During the time 1607 through 1611, there was a death rate of eighty percent. The main reasons that contributed to the high death rate were, environmental problems, relations with the Native Americans, and their own skills. Of the many reasons that the settlers three of them stand out, the first one was environmental problems. First, Jamestown’s position on the saltwater freshwater transition played a big role in the many deaths. Settlers drank water and took baths in the water. They also dumped their waste in water. Little did they know that the waste stayed in their water, “ … where filth introduced into the river tended to fester rather than flush away (Blatnon).” Secondly, The 1607-1612 drought 1609-1610 ‘starving time’ affected the colonists greatly because their crops and the forest animals struggled to survive. Lastly, precipitation spikes greatly influenced the lives of the Jamestown colonists. Precipitation affected whether their crops grew. If...
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...life was proved to be devastating- by 1611, more than 80% of the 500 settlers who arrived four years before, had perished. The question is: why did so many colonists die in early Jamestown? It can be answered by three main reasons: lack of clean water, shortage of good workers, and poor relations with the Powhatan Indians. First of all, water caused death in three ways. For example, the water was found to be too salty for drinking (Document A). In addition, human waste tended to cluster rather than flush away, leading them to fester in rivers in Jamestown (Document A). Historians also found that droughts were evidenced in the tree-ring patterns of old cypress trees growing near Jamestown throughout the winter of 1609 to 1610 (Document B). These pieces of evidence prove that the water caused sickness, due to the moon tides affecting the water’s saltiness, and the filthy garbage in the water would have caused disease. Droughts were another contributor...
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...The settlers of Jamestown could have died for many reasons, but the first and foremost is drought. They arrived in 1607, which, in accordance with Document B, was the middle of a drought. The chart shows that this drought was already an inch below the average, and was to get worse for several years. A lack of rain lead to food shortage, especially when Francis West and his crew left the settlers without a shipment of grain. This is proven in Document D, “The [ship] and her lifesaving cargo returned to [Jamestown]...[but] headed into the Atlantic, leaving the colonists…” However, this was not the only way the drought caused the settlers to meet their untimely end. Settlers showed no evidence of farming during this drought, and acquired all of their food from the natives in the area. To do so, they often forced trade with violence. As the American Indians ran out of food, the settlers demanded more as their own supplies dropped. Large raids broke out during a portion of the drought that almost reached two inches in the negative direction. Multiple forts were attacked, and on one occasion, 60 men were killed. Nevertheless, many of these deaths were the very fault of the settlers themselves....
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...In the years 1607-1610 English colonists came to the new world and set up a colony called Jamestown. The people of Jamestown had to deal with many problems, but one of the main problems was that everyone was dieing. Many colonists died in Jamestown because of the drought, lack of food and Native Americans. One of the main reasons why the colonists were dieing was because the new settlers that were coming did not have the skills that they needed at the time. Most of the colonists were rich men who didn't want to work (document B). Because of this lack of skill or desire to do the labor, there was no one to grow crops or tend to the fields because no one knew how to. This led to the lack of food and starvation of many people. The lack of...
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...Carolina. Roanoke was created to make a permanent settlement for the English in North America, or the “New World”. This town turned out to not be as permanent as the Queen had hoped. The colony disappeared during the Spanish war that was raging at the time. “The Lost Colony”, as it is called, went three years without supplies because of England being preoccupied with the war. It is still unknown when in that three year timespan they died off. The English did not give up at making a successful establishment in the New World. After several trials and errors, they finally had a thriving colony in the Americas. Many continued to die, but they did not die off. It was...
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...Early Jamestown: Why Did So Many Colonists Die? Suppose you have to live in an infested, uncommon, and to you an inhabitable land. You come with 100 other men, some dressed in cloth, some dressed in rages. How would the relationship be between you, the environment, unknown aliens, and your “companions?” The spring of 1607, three English ships with a hundred passengers came across the Atlantic, through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and up the James River. Their intention was to create the first permanent English settlement in the “New World”, teach the ways of Jesus Christ to the Native peoples, find a trade route to China, and gather riches. Though only in the first few years of this “permanent” settlement, it started to parish. People...
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...Jamestown was established in 1607 when 100 passengers sailed to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in early spring. They sailed to Chesapeake Bay in hopes of finding possible riches, spreading English culture, and to find a possible route to China. However Chesapeake was not empty, there were about 15,000 Powhatan Indians living in small villages along the James River. During which Jamestown was being established, a drought occurred due to irregular rainfall, and the river, which was their main source of water supply, developed impurities from the high tides, which lead to diseases. By the end of December, 40 of the 110 settlers were still remaining. But did not only die from the droughts and impure water, so, why did so many colonists die? Colonists...
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...In 1607, on the west side of the Atlantic Ocean was an area that would soon be known as Jamestown. On the other side of this same ocean were a group of merchants who did not know what was coming as they left their lives in England to settle in a new land. The first English settlement in the Americas would consist of 110 hopeful settlers. Over the course of 4 years some settlers would die and some would survive. When the colonists came to the Americas, their goal was to find gold, silver, or anything that will make them money in England. With this in mind, when they arrived in the Chesapeake Bay none of them expected what was to come. So why did so many colonists die in a settlement that had such high hopes? Was it due to their water situation? Was it because of...
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...other reasons why their hopes were high; there was freshwater streams, possible riches, to spread their religion about Jesus Christ, and maybe even a hidden route to China. They sailed through the James River and then disembarked near the James River. What they did not know was that they were not alone; there were at least 15,000 Powhatan Indians living in small villages. Furthermore, one reason that can have caused many deaths could have been because of the drought that they had to live through. According to Doc B, in the years, 1600 and 1610, Jamestown suffered the longest unbroken period of drought....
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...colonist were dying by the hundreds in Jamestown. The colonists were met with problems, and many to come, because they had too many people not trained correctly to endure what was to come. They also had a large amount of colonists that were gentlemen, wealthy people who were not trained to work with their hands. The moment the settlers arrived in America difficult thing were stirred up. Colonists made the Native Americans mad, because they had begun stealing land from the natives. The colonist began to die from disease, Indian attacks, starvation and many other things . One of the main reasons the colonists were dying was because of disease. The summer sickness of 1607 killed half of the colonists (Fausz, 63). Of the original settlers in May of 1607 there were no apothecaries, which could have assisted with medical issues and needs. Another concern that contributed to death by disease was that fresh water supply...
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...Why did so many of the Early Colonist died in Jamestown? The first Jamestown settlers, out of one-hundred and ten of these men, only forty bared to remain. That means that seventy men perished. These men died for many reason including disease, war and lack of educated people. The english men lived in a bad part of nature, they had bad relations with people, and also had bad skills to survive. Due to these disadvantages, that is why so many people died. Maybe if decisions were made more wisely there will still be a Jamestown. The environment was very bad in Jamestown. There was many swampy land in the area and mosquitoes that carried diseases. Food...
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...The shallow supply of sustenance for inhabitants of Jamestown, ultimately lead to a myriad of casualties. The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit from the venture. The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, carrying 105 passengers, one of whom died during the voyage, departed from England in December 1606 and reached the Virginia coast in late April 1607. The expedition was led by Captain Christopher Newport. On May 14, 1607, settlers with the aid of the Virginia Company landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. As told in Dennis B. Blanton’s “Jamestown’s Environment”, “Because the adjacent river and creeks became brackish as water levels rose, reliable sources of fresh water would have been scarce by seventeenth century…” Although brackish water contains fifty percent freshwater which is drinkable. It’s the other fifty saltwater that causes harm to the human body. Because human kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. The human kidneys must, get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking seawater, you have to urinate more water...
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...known as North Carolina. He named it “Virginia” after the virgin queen, Elizabeth. Roanoke was a struggle. They did not know the new land and the animals, nor did they know about planting vegetation, they were not equipped with the tools and equipment needed, and then there were the Indians that they had to contend with. They were sailors and did not know the skills for planting crops and surviving on the new land. Raleigh left the Roanoke colony in 1587 and in 1590 returned with a supply ship and found no one at the colony. No one knew what happened to that colony....
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