History 108

History 108

21 January 2015

Life is a struggle

Through retaliating Indians, horrifying diseases, and dwindling food supplies early life for the incoming settlers in colonial America was some of the hardest life ever constructed from the tight grasp of the unforgiving land. There are several attributing factors that I believe caused such horrible living conditions for settlers in early colonial America, but these three are the main ones that I am going to focus on; retaliating Indians, horrifying diseases, and dwindling food supplies.

The first attributing factor that caused horrible living conditions is the retaliation of the local Indians. Though early colonials may have brought it on their selves, they were at constant risk from Indian attacks. As Francis LeJau says in his report that, “I gave you an account in my last of the desolate condition of Renoque. It was in October or the later end of September that the Tuscarora’s Indianans living near Cape fair cut off 137 of our people, most of them Palatines and some Switzers”. What he is saying is that 137 of the colonial people were cut off by these Indians in an attempt to destroy or retaliate against the settlers. As settlers began to reach out and spread across the land they were encountering more and more Indians, causing more conflicts and more deaths. Even though colonials had superior weapons and a superior defense the settler’s losses were many. Through retaliating Indians it showed how land in America was unforgiving and extremely to settle.

The second attributing factor that caused horrible living conditions in the early colonies were horrifying diseases. The diseases in colonial America were very dangerous unknown entity’s with very few remedies. Such simple illness that we get today, could have demolished an entire family in the colonies. These diseases included such things as smallpox, yellow fever, malaria, and distemper. In William Byrd’s diary he told that, “Distemper continued to rage...