An Increase In Deaths Equals A Decrease In Hope

“He that will not worke shall not eate.” Captain John Smith spoke these words to a crowd of starving, fatigued people in Jamestown, Virginia in the year 1608. John Smith, although he was not in a political position to make these demands of the poor, troubled people, was by far the best leader in Jamestown at this time. He had the determination to keep the colony going in its time of starvation and pain, and as a result, the majority of the people listened to him. The only ones who didn’t were the high and mighty English gentlemen who believed they were too important to work, and eventually, they came around to Smith’s methodical way of ruling. None of these people wanted to be a part of the close to 90% of people in Jamestown who suffered from immense emotional pain as they watched their fellow colonists die, then died themselves as a result of one or more factors which posed a threat to the safety of the colonists there. In Jamestown, shortly after its founding (1607-1612), there was a death rate of almost 90%, which was a result of Native American attacks, lack of natural resources, poorly trained professionals, and other problems associated with Jamestown’s environment, occupations, and relations among themselves and others. The first reason Jamestown colonists died at such a high rate was that the environment did not provide the natural resources necessary for survival. A great location for information on this topic can be found in “The Lost Colony and Jamestown Droughts,” (Science, April 24, 1998). This source shows the amount of rainfall every year from 1560 to 1650 in Jamestown in graph form. This data was acquired by observing the width of rings inside tree trunks at Jamestown (wider ring means more rain that year), and shows a very disturbing fact. The Jamestown settlers, in the time that they arrived and first began settling (1607-1612), experienced little to no rainfall. This means that a primary source of water (at least in that era of history) would be close to nonexistent. Imagine the sky never releasing water for several years, and think about how much the water sources on the ground would decrease in amount. This, combined with another problem which is analyzed in Dennis B. Blanton (Center for Archeological Research, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia)’s article “Jamestown’s Environment” (2000), helped contribute to the downfall of Jamestown. Blanton’s article states the problem that there is/was a lack of fresh water and natural food in Jamestown. The reason for the remarkable lack of water on the ground was the rising of tides in the nearby streams and creeks which led to the mixing of salt water into fresh water, causing the fresh water to become brackish (contaminated with salt and made unsuitable to drink). Although the tides did raise and lower enough to mix the types of water, they did not change enough to remove the colonists’ discarded waste and excrement from the water where they had put it. This eliminated another water source. Obviously, the Jamestown settlers would be dying at an exceptionally high rate. In order, to survive, one needs a certain amount of natural food and water. The second factor which almost led to the inevitable (or would have been inevitable, if it weren’t for the last-second arrival of a supply ship) downfall of the Jamestown colony was that none of the Jamestown colonists were prepared to endure the harshness of the area. An excellent primary source of information on this topic comes from Captain John Smith himself, in his book “The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, Book III, 1624.” The book shows a chart which has specific information on the occupations of the settlers who arrived in the first wave of colonists at Jamestown. The most important thing to understand from looking at this source is that the majority of Jamestown settlers were wealthy gentlemen with absolutely no labor experience whatsoever. If no colonists were trained for the environment, of course they would have little to no chance of survival. The gentlemen were likely primarily investors, hoping to increase traffic to the fabled New World by going there themselves (only to realize that they had no idea what they were up against in terms of survival). This is very important to remember when trying to understand the death rate of 90%, with 47 out of 110 total colonists were untrained, wealthy, investors. This, combined with the fact that there was only one doctor in all of Jamestown, is part of the overarching shame that is the untrained people of the colony. However, not only was there but one doctor there, but said doctor was also a surgeon, and likely had little to no experience with treating the viruses and infections that ran rampant in the houses of Virginia, despite the fact that these diseases were carried primarily by rats, mice, and other vermin who infect human food through contact with their mouths, a problem which Europeans had been facing for hundreds, if not thousands of years previous. This evidence on the topic of occupations helps to explain why so many colonists died because there were no settlers in Jamestown who had a job that was well-suited to the harsh environment of the colony. The third, and probably the most important cause of death in Jamestown was that there were many problems with rebellion and with surrounding Native American tribes who wished to attack the settlers. The first example of said topic comes from a famous story of trouble with natives, as published in Ivor Noel Hume’s “The Virginia Adventure.” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1 994) “Though West was able to load his (small ship) with grain, the success involved ‘some harsh and Crewell dealinge by cutting of towe (two) of the Salvages heads and other extremetyes.’” To translate, Francis West stole large amounts of grain from Native Americans, killing a few, then left for England. He left the remaining settlers to deal with enraged natives who also were now experiencing a lack of foodstuffs. This was only the beginning of the colonists’ troubles with the Native Americans of the area. There were many tragic situations which caused bloodshed, turmoil, and anger between the Native Americans and the Jamestown colonists, including but not limited to Powhatan’s Siege of Jamestown (“Starving Time”), the Attack on the Falls, and other raids. There is a recorded number of how many colonists were slain at the hands of angered Native Americans, which can be found in J. Frederick Fausz’s “An Abundance of Blood Shed on Both Sides: England’s First Indian War, 1609-1614,” (The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January, 1990) in which there is a chart which sums up all the deaths and new arrivals at the Jamestown colony. The amount of colonists killed by Native Americans from 1607-1610 was 298. That is more people than all the other causes of death, combined. Francis West, in a sense, caused this, by being the one to start angering the natives. This evidence on the topic of relations helps explain why so many colonists died because the Native Americans were angry and ordered many raids and attacks on Jamestown and its colonists. As can be seen in the evidence above, many colonists died as a result of outside relations, environmental issues, and occupational problems. There were Native American attacks as a result of people like Francis West and other foolish colonists, poorly trained wealthy settlers (primarily “gentlemen” who merely invested in Jamestown and went there to draw some traffic to their new source of income), and an almost remarkable lack of natural resources (food, but mostly water as a result of a lack of rainfall, brackish water, etc.) which spelled certain doom for the settlers of Jamestown. These were the most hazardous obstacles that could have caused Jamestown to be a failed attempt. However, the significant word in that sentence is “could.” Despite all these problems, Jamestown pulled through. Whether it was the determination of the colonists, the few but powerful miracles that occurred (for example, a new supply ship arriving right as the colonists were preparing to give up), or some combination thereof, Jamestown did not fail. It remains a major city in our country to this day, and is an excellent example of determination and pulling through. It is important to understand why and how so many Jamestown settlers died, as without their failures and successes, we would not have continued to colonize the United States of America and developed our country as we know it today.