What was life like for the settlers in Jamestown?

Answer 1

The Jamestown settlement sparked a series of cultural encounters that helped shape the nation. The government, language, beliefs, aspirations and customs of early Virginians formed the United States' heritage of present times.

Answer 2

Jamestown, founded in 1607, started off slow. The one hundred and twenty men who came to this first permanent English settlement soon dwindled to forty, due to diseases, starvation-due to not being willing to work for their food, quarreling, and accidents. In the first seventeen years, out of the five thousand, five hundred people who had lived in the town, four thousand had died. The leaders of the town, especially John Smith, worked hard to keep the town going, but it was difficult. Although John Smith was the man who insisted that "if anyone would not work, neither would he eat," it was John Rolfe, Pocahontas' husband, that introduced the salvation of the colony, tobacco farming.

Answer 3

It was pretty awful. One of the problems is the men who landed there weren't serious about doing anything but looking for gold. They settled in a swampy area so there was disease because of that, hostile natives, a Spanish spy was along, and there was a shortage of food. They were starving, sick, and dying. They got to the point that they were eating their shoe leather. Only 32 of the first 105 who landed there survived the first 7 months. The years of 1609-1610 was called the "starving time". It wasn't until 1616 that John Rolfe brought tobacco to the colony.But sometimes the Powhatan tribe would sometimes bring them food.

Settling Jamestown Twenty years went by before a permanent English colony was established in America. In 1607, a group of merchants formed the London Company to start a moneymaking colony in Virginia. The company crammed 105 settlers and 39 sailors into three tiny ships and sent them across the Atlantic. The settlers were to ship back valuable goods such as furs and timber.

When they reached Virginia, the colonists settled on a swampy peninsula they believed could be easily defended against American Indians or Spanish ships. They called their new home Jamestown after King James I. What the settlers didn't know was that the spot they chose to settle would soon be swarming with disease-carrying mosquitoes. It was also surrounded by a large and powerful American Indian group.

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To make matters worse, the Jamestown settlers were a mix of gentlemen and craftsmen. None of them knew much about farming. Nor were they willing to work very hard at it. They thought they were in Virginia to look for gold, not to provide for themselves.

As the food the settlers had brought with them disappeared, they began to trade with the Indians, bartering glass beads and iron hatchets for corn and meat. But barter wasn't easy. Many Indians decided they would sooner kill the English-or just let them starve-than trade. Hunger and disease soon took their toll. Every few days, another body was carried off to the graveyard.

John Smith was one of the members of the Jamestown expedition. A natural leader, Smith took control of Jamestown in 1608. "If any would not work," announced Smith, "neither should he eat." They were hungry, so they worked.

Smith wrote an account of how he met an Indian girl whose help saved the colony from starvation. While scouting for food, Smith was captured by the Indians and brought to a smoky longhouse. Seated at one end, he saw Powhatan, the Indians' powerful chief. The Indians greeted Smith with a loud shout and a great feast. But when the meal ended, the mood changed. Smith was about to be clubbed to death when a young girl leapt out of the shadows. "She got [my] head in her armes and laid her owne upon [mine] to save [me] from death," Smith later wrote.

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Smith's savior was Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's favorite daughter. Historians disagree about the details of how Smith and Pocahontas first met. They do agree, however, that Pocahontas helped Smith save Jamestown by bringing food and keeping peace with her people. "She, next under God," Smith wrote, "was . . . the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine, and utter confusion."

The Starving Time Jamestown's troubles, however, were far from over. In the fall of 1609, after being injured in a gunpowder explosion, Smith returned to England. The following winter was the worst ever-so bad that it came to be known as the "Starving Time."

Without the encouragement of Smith and Pocahontas, the Indians refused to trade with the settlers. The English ate dogs, rats, and even human corpses to survive. By spring, only 60 of the 500 people Smith had left in the fall remained alive.

When supply ships came the next spring, the survivors were ordered to abandon their colony. Then three more English ships brought food, 150 new colonists, and 100 soldiers. Jamestown was saved again.

Jamestown Survives Even with more settlers, the people of Jamestown lived in constant danger of Indian attacks. To end that threat, the English kidnapped Pocahontas and held her hostage. For a year, Pocahontas remained a prisoner-but a willing and curious one. During that time she learned English, adopted the Christian faith, and made new friends.

Among those new friends was a widower named John Rolfe. Rolfe had already helped the colony survive by finding a crop that could be raised in Virginia and sold for good prices in England-tobacco. The happy settlers went tobacco mad, planting the crop everywhere, even in Jamestown's streets.

Now Rolfe helped again by making a marriage proposal to Pocahontas. Both the governor of Jamestown and Chief Powhatan gave their consent to this unusual match. Maybe they hoped the marriage would help end the conflict between their peoples.

The union of Pocahontas and John Rolfe did bring peace to Jamestown. In 1616, Rolfe wrote, "Our people yearly plant and reap quietly, and travel in the woods . . . as freely and securely from danger . . . as in England."

(second part from learntci.com)

Answer 4

Jamestown was a very simple colony established in the United States. This colony was not well maintained and did not survive.

Answer 5

The Jamestown Settlement was the first settlement of the Virginia colony. This settlement was founded in 1609 but served only till 1699 as the capital colony of Virginia.