Jamestown Hardship

Why Did So Many Colonists Die in Jamestown?

By Fernando, Li Zefan, 1400012913, Wednesday 3:00 pm

Waking up from a nightmare, you find your bed is surrounded by unbearable foul water for your sewer was clogged last night. Can you live longer than five minutes? That was what the colonists in Jamestown confronted. In the spring of 1607, three English ships carrying more than 100 colonists sailed to Jamestown to build the first permanent English settlement. Dreams to be rich overnight were beautiful, but the mortality was as high as 80% at the beginning. Superficially, the main reasons for deaths are food and water shortage, disease, and conflicts with Indians. However, it is a complex interaction of them as well as such hidden reason as the random composition of members.

Food and water were two basic resources for survival. Unfortunately, they were both scarce in Jamestown in that period. According to the rainfall statistics, 1605-1615 was the driest decade then. The total water resource was not affluent originally. Because of the low altitude of Jamestown and tide effect, rivers and shallow wells became brackish as water levels rose, which made water​even scarcer. Fishes were in impressive abundance in summer but there was little food in winter in Jamestown. Starvation and drought were the root cause of the conflicts with Indians. On the other hand, nearly a half of colonists were gentlemen who did nothing for themselves, which added great food pressure to laborers. There was also no experienced explorer in the ship list who could choose a place of ample food and water rather than Jamestown. No wonder many colonists died of hungry and thirsty.

Diseases killed nearly 1/3 of the colonists. The same as brackish water, filth introduced into the river tended to fester rather than flush away, just like the sewer was clogged. So, the salt-fresh water transition became the paradise of germs. As colonists didn’t cultivate land, vegetables and fruits might be rare. Long...