Jamestown Colony Research Paper

Max Wenzel

Dr. Rucker

AMH 2010

9/28/17

The Jamestown Colony

In the year 1606, the English king James I granted a charter for a British settlement to be established in the new world. Volunteers did not necessarily flood in to venture to this new colony, after all the previous English attempt at colonization led to the 1587 lost colony of Roanoke in which the entire populace disappeared after the British relief effort was delayed to combat the Spanish armada. However, a recently formed joint-stock company known as the "Virgina Company" got a group of roughly 100-150 people to ship over to the new world. "Roughly 100 colonists left England in late December 1606 on three ships (the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery) and reached

However, many of the settlers focused a bit too much on the "find gold" part of their orders (being the most important part of course) because of this, few colonists focused on gathering food, leading to a lack of food for the colony to sustain itself. To combat this, Smith established a simple "tough love" policy, in simple terms, if you did not work, you did not eat. Smith also made trade agreements with the tribes under the leadership of Chief Powhatan. The colonists offered glass and metal goods to the Indians in exchange for food for the colony. Thanks to the actions of John Smith, things were looking great for the colony, however, "his (Smith's) strict leadership made enemies within and without the fort, and a mysterious gunpowder explosion badly injured him and sent him back to England in October 1609."

Following Smith's departure, in the winter of 1609-1610 a large force of Powhatan Indians laid siege to the colony, also a critical food shortage swept throughout the colony, it was a time where many people starved, a sort of "starving time" of you will in which only about 60 colonists survived. " Aware of the food shortages, the Virginia Company sent a fleet of nine ships in July 1609 with new colonists and enough supplies to last through the winter (. . .) In mid-August some of the ships arrived at Jamestown with 300 colonists and few supplies." (Kelso). The ships also brought with them new colony leadership, Lord De La Warr, and his successor Sir Thomas Gates both arrived to Jamestown on the relief/supply ships.

A settlement had been thoroughly established, however the Jamestown colonists never did accomplish their goal of finding gold in their new home. That is until John Rolfe had the idea for something better (well not really but it was a better idea at the time). The Spanish had