The Chesapeake Bay Colony Report

My dearest grandson John, January 1, 1700 It seems only yesterday I was an ambitious young man looking for riches. I had heard about the abundance of gold and jewels in the new world and was actively looking for passage there. A friend of mine, who was employed by The Virginia Company, suggested that I join him in his voyage. Being young and naïve, I spontaneously agreed. We left England in the December of 1606 . 144 of us, all boys and men, were mainly in search of gold and other riches . When we docked in The Chesapeake bay, in 1607, there were only 104 passengers left in our vessels . I thought to myself that the worst had already passed. I had no idea of the upcoming hardships. We settled along the Chesapeake River and decided to

When we first met the natives we were treated with the utmost respect and hospitality. We traded with them for meat, fish, and crops. The natives called themselves the Powhatan confederacy after their leader Powhatan. They were oddly dressed and followed different gods. The Powhatan provided our colony with food however it was not enough. The colony starved and by January of 1608 there were only 38 of us left in Jamestown . Around this time relief ships arrived in the colony carrying food as well as people. Mostly young unskilled lower-sort men were carried on these ships. Over the years, as relief ships continued to come in, the population would replenish itself and then drastically drop due our colony’s lack of survival skills. The Powhatan were growing tired of our reliance on them and would not meet our demands for food. Our only option was to attack their villages and force them to provide us with food. This only made them more hostile towards us. Chief Powhatan died in 1618 and gave his brother, Opechancanough, control of the Powhatan confederacy . Unlike his brother, Opechancanough could not tolerate us. One day I was accompanying a group of men up the Chesapeake River. When we got back to Jamestown we found blood flowing down the streets. The natives had attacked our colony and killed 347 of our men . This started a series of attacks between us and them that lasted for the next 20 years. Finally in 1646 the fighting ceased when we captured Opechancanough and executed him . Because the native’s population numbers had dwindled due to diseases and war, they didn’t retaliate. Jamestown’s history with the natives is filled with death and misery. Just recently some colonists have again begun fighting the natives. A man by the name of Nathaniel Bacon led a group of colonist to attack native villages. The group’s goal was to claim more land and