Early Jamestown: Why Did Some Many Colonist Die? In the year of 1607, three ships sailed to a newly discovered land with over one hundred British colonists, but they had no idea what was in store(B.E.). Within a year of their journey, half the men died, but why? The three primary reasons why the early colonists in Jamestown died was due to environmental problems, war and continuous droughts.
Many colonists died because of the environment. The main reason the enviroment killed them was because of the contamination of the water, and tides. The contamination of the water happened when they dumped their waste into the river. The colonist thought the waste would wash up but instead it “tended to fester rather than flush away” according to document A written by Denni Blanton of William and Mary College. They would later drink the water and they would get ill and eventually die from diseases. The tides also caused the colonists to die because when it is a high tide, the salt water would come into
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According to Document D, there was mistrust between the British colonists and the Native Americans. There was mistrust between the two because the colonist forced the Native Americans to trade goods, which was unfair to the Natives because it was not their fault they were unprepared. Native Americans and the English settlers couldn’t get along, and because this happened, this led to war, which led to death. Also those who were wounded or injured did not have enough doctors or surgeons to help( Doc.C). Also, according to document E, 144 colonists died by the attack of the Native Americans in the years of 1607 to 1610. This again shows the tension between the two groups. Although it is the Native Americans that did the attacking, it may have been because of the settler’s treatment in document D, when the colonists threatened to kill the Native