Jamestown

Author's Note: This essay is about the difficult times that the settlers of our country went through. I have sited all my sources that I used to find this information in the sentence that it is used in. After I had my conference, I was told that my sources were not cited correctly. My teacher told me that it was okay that I don't correct it so if you really care that the sources were not done right, mind them.

Since Europe brought difficult times to the settlers, they decided to move to a New World. As they boarded the ship to hopefully a better life, different thoughts were running through everyone's minds. They thought they had an idea in where they were going to end up because they thought it was going to be Asia. They had been to Asia before, but just going in a different direction. However, they ended up in America with the Powhatan Indians. Being with the Indians laid out even more struggles in their paths. A tremendous amount of colonists died when they settled in Jamestown because of sickness, starvation, and Indian attacks.

Many people died back in the 1600's because there was either no treatment for what was wrong, or they didn't feel like they would be any help to anything anymore because of their sickness. Sometimes they didn't even know they had a virus. Brackish water was also a huge problem for the settlers because they didn't know that it was, in a sense, toxic. It is a combination of fresh water and salt water and it is not safe to drink. (Doc A) Another large problem that occurred was that human waste was dumped into the river and it just sat. It didn't move down-stream, it just sat and festered. Therefore, the people that didn't know about that water and drank it or bathed in it, got sick and died eventually as well. (Doc A)

Though sickness took a huge toll on the population, starvation was an even larger killer. Starvation was probably the biggest problem among the English. Because they arrived fairly close to the beginning of winter, they obviously didn't have enough time for the crops they needed for winter to grow, so it was a very long and hard winter. (historicjamestowne.org) Another factor was that they had to share the land with the Indians and there honestly wasn't enough food for both settlements. The English began to strong-arm more and more villages in the area wanting food; relations quickly deteriorated and soon came to cause problems .(historicjamestowne.org) Drought was also a problem throughout the years at Jamestown. The longest unbroken period of drought was 1607-1612. (Doc B)

Even though things were already difficult with sickness and starvation, the Indians started attacking.  When the English arrived in Virginia, the Powhatan Indians were already there and they had already made a place to call home. They weren't exactly what you would call thrilled to see other people take over their land. Nobody for sure knows why, but the Indians started attacking and killing the English starting in 1607-1608. (Doc E) They only killed 13 people within those two years which is pretty good considering how many people they could've killed. However, in the next summer, about 134 were killed in the attacks. (Doc E) Most people predict that these attacks occurred because when the English got hungry, they thought it was okay to kill people for what they wanted. (Doc D) Those raids for food are most likely what sparked the issues with the Indians. (historicjamestowne.org) 

As you've read, it was a dangerous and deadly period of time for the colonists from England. Due to sickness, starvation, and Indian attacks, hundreds of settlers died. What they thought would turn out to be an easy trek over to the New World, ended up being much of a hardship in many ways. They thought they would find gold and things to help them in the next years to thrive as a society. (historicjamestowne.org) Instead they encountered hunger and death as their main events. By May of 1610, only 60 of the 500 settlers that come to Jamestown, made it out alive. (Making Thirteen Colonies- Joy Hakim)