America, it has always had everything we need, except for when colonists flocked in the early 1600´s. Its 1609, you and a group of people have been on a boat for months. Now you aren't even sure if the America's exist. But once you lost every single drop of hope, you see it. A beautiful swampy land. This place makes you feel like you have a lot of opportunities, there’s a river, a lot of wildlife, and not that many Native’s around. It seems perfect, that’s what people that saw posters of Jamestown thought in England. Jamestown seemed, perfect, appeared perfect… In the first few years of Jamestown, the colonists experienced the “Starving Time.” The starving time was a period of hunger and disease, it lasted approximately 5 years, from 1609-1614. …show more content…
In Document C, there is a chart that lists all the jobs that the settlers had. They appeared to be prepared, they had every job needed, except for farmers, doctors, and soldiers of course. These 3 jobs could have saved so many lives, such how the farmers that knew how to grow food, unlike gentlemen who had no experience with crops. Another important job that they forgot about was doctors, doctors could have saved lives by treating sick people, but the colonists did not bring a doctor(s), they brought one surgeon, just one. Surgeons are not used to treating diseases, they cut people open, and they treat conditions related to that. Soldiers might also not have been needed, if they had good relations with the Natives, but soldiers could have helped defend the colonists, not gentlemen. Another reason why so many colonists died was because of their relations with the Native Americans. If they did not cut people’s heads of (Document D) because they didn’t want to trade, maybe they could of got some food. They also went through a series of 3 wars with the Powhatan Natives. The first war lasted from 1610-1614 (4 years) which really affected the colonists during the Starving time. If they did not massacre the Natives, maybe they could've traded for
Against all Odds is a very interesting Documentary that follows the early settlement of Jamestown in the 17th century .With endless against the odds situations thrown out in from of the people of Jamestown left and right things seemed bleak. But a lot of perseverance from the early settlers including the Documentaries depiction of the original leader John Smith things seemed to resolve themselves. In Documentary there were several parts where it conceited with what is in chapter three of the Textbook the American Promise. For example, In the Documentary when the subject of the Tobacco business came up it was exampled in the same way as the first page of chapter three. With examples of how the product was grown and distributed out into the world. Making it a very valuable trade to be doing although very labor intensive, which is why it would soon lead into the slave trade. Something that was briefly shown in the documentary mainly to show what lengths the people of Jamestown were willing to go to make things work out in their new home.
Dinesh D’Souza constructs an argument in his essay “What’s so great about America” that is convincing to the average reader. His essay was published 15 years ago and American culture has seen some changes since then. However, nothing that he mentions specifically in the essay has changed drastically. His extrinsic ethos is strong because he is from India and the audience may perceive that he can compare his knowledge of living elsewhere to an immigrant’s knowledge. This view of looking at America from an outsider’s point of view and how others view living in America is essential in D’Souza’s fundamental argument. He compares living in America to living in other less developed countries and appeals to the common citizen in his style, logic, and development of his essay. His arguments are sound and he convinces the average citizen that America is the best place to live, although his lack of facts and statistics to back up his statements could be seen as a weakness.
In sum, many colonists were killed for various reasons. These reasons include sickness and disease, lack of resources, and where Jamestown was chosen to be built. This analysis was important because it included most of the main reasons why many Jamestown colonists
The Jamestown and Plymouth settlements were both settled in the early 1600's. Plymouth and Jamestown were located along the shoreline in Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively. Although both had different forms of government, they both had strong leadership. Jamestown was controlled by the London Company, who wanted to profit from the venture, while the Puritans who settled at Plymouth were self-governed with an early form of democracy and settled in the New World to gain religious freedom. John Smith took charge in efforts to organize Jamestown, and at Plymouth William Bradford helped things run smoothly.
In document F, you can see that there is such a shortage of food that people resort to stealing their fellow colonists' clothes to pay for things like “butter and beef out of a ship”. You can also use the example of a resource shortage in document B, which shows a graph of the average rainfall during the first few years that the colonists lived there. From 1605-1612, Jamestown went through it’s longest, harshest drought. This meant there was very little food and water during that time. When you remember that the time period we are looking at is only from 1607 to 1610, it seems like that drought could have been a major factor in why a lot of the colonists died. Lastly, document D shows us that it was not just the colonists struggling. Native people also were having trouble finding food. An expedition of colonists was sent out to try to trade with some of the natives, but they had to force them to give anything. All the colonists got was a small shipload of grain and some very angry natives. The crew of that ship determined that the amount of grain they had would not do anything substantial for the colony, so they headed back to England, eating the grain along the way. So the colony never even got the grain, but they did have to deal with some very angry natives, which on its own is another reason that a lot of them didn’t
Another reason they bought land was to give their children a better future so that he/she could do the same. The sons looked upon their father to inherit them with land, but how much can an average colonist afford if he had more than just one son. An example that Gross provides in his book is of a young man who looked upon his father to give him some land. That young man was Purchase Brown a seventeen year old boy, whose father Captain David brown “lived in a household crammed with thirteen people.”(Gross 83). Purchase had four younger brothers and Purchase could not “take over the family farm… before the youngest child came to age…” (Gross 84). This was a problem to all of Concords residents and as land became scarcer, men of Concord started looking west to the frontiers for more land. Another example that Gross describes in of the struggle of some residents of Concord, is a story of two couples named Lucy and Joseph Hosmer. They got married at a young age and Lucy lived her husband on “her in-laws land that was still owned by Joseph’s father.”(Gross 101). The couples worked hard to sustain a good family living. When the war approached in Concord Lucy Hosmer was scared that what if she loses her husband and he dies without “writing a will, then Lucy would struggle to make a living…”(Gross 103). Then Gross state how the
With an eye toward finding precious metals, the Virginia Company, a joint stock company sent jewelers, goldsmiths, aristocrats, and the like, but not a single farmer. As the company had expected, the settlers spent their time searching for gold, and hoped to obtain all of their food by trading with the nearby Powhatan tribes. This made their settlement neither profitable nor socially stable, since individual colonists felt little attachment to their community but instead sought individual wealth. A lack of social bonds in the community was further exacerbated by the fact that all the initial colonists, and most of the later arrivals, were male. Without wives or children to protect, the colonists had little incentive to protect their settlement or work towards its long-term growth.
About one-third of the colonists were patriots who were ready to take any means necessary to fight for independence for their country. The patriots were so passionate about their cause that they would torture or even kill loyalists or indifferent people. Because of this strong passion, the colonists had much more to gain then the British had to lose. The British had other colonies and other forms of export and import to create a profit, but if the Colonists lost they would have lost their independence and freedom.
Love And Hate In Jamestown by David A. Price David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf)
The Jamestown Project discusses the monumental landmark, the colony of Jamestown, was in Atlantic History. The story of Jamestown is told in a much more authentic, elaborate style than our textbooks has presented. As Kupperman points out, Jamestown was not only important to United State’s history but also to British history. From the motivations to the lasting effects, she gives an accurate account of all components involved in Jamestown. Also, there is a chapter devoted to the Native American experience, which shows a non-Western view of events. The book is written in a format that is easily read but also compacted with information. More importantly she puts Jamestown in its right place in United State’s and British history, as the foundation of colonial United States and the British Empire.
Throughout history, humankind has done just about everything wrong; from slavery to bowl cuts. We are creatures of habit, greed, and want. We all believe in hope that eventually history won’t repeat, but we creatures of habit are doing very little to stop it. Our habitual patterns cause chaos and disrupt in war most of the time, so the fact that the colonies usually failed and died isn’t surprising. Jamestown was the first “successful” colony but all the people in the colony mainly died. We love to look the other way and say that they died because they didn’t know the land or because the natives were evil but the truth is; the Jamestown colonists died because of their stupidity, mistrust, and greed (a.k.a human nature).
Colonial living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the New World was both diverse and, in many cases, proved deadly through such avenues as disease, Native American attacks, a lack of proper medical treatment, and disastrous weather conditions. Even through all of these hardships, the first colonists persevered, doing their best to see the blessings in their lives and create a better life for their children through all of the uncertainties. Nothing, it seems, in the original colonies was set in stone except for the fact that they never knew what the next day would hold in store. Everything, even small mishaps, had dramatic impacts on the social, economic, and political aspects of their lives. These circumstances, however, were more strongly influenced by geography than class position, unlike what many were used to in England. How population, economics, disease, and climate played into the social conditions of early colonists is truly a story for the ages. Whether people were seeking land, religious freedom, or money and profits, everyone worked to a certain extent just to survive, let alone thrive, in the wilderness that was North America at that time.
America. It was a dream come true in a New World that was envisioned by artists, politicians, and monarchs alike. The ones who believed that anything could be achieved by God, the mind, and manpower. Even through opposition from governments, kingdoms, nobles, and naysayers, these brave individuals strived to establish a better life for themselves and their families, aimed to retain a secure future in the process, and wanted to worship God in their own way.
With this heat and also a drought that summer, the fresh water around them became saturated by salt and it is believed they also died of salt poisoning. With all these events, deaths, and hardships the colonists were now just fighting for survival. With their store of wheat and barley thin, starvation drove them to cannibalism, eating dogs, cats and other animals. With all the deaths and less and less able bodied men, with about 60 men alive and only 6 months in, they decided to execute a man just because he was believed to be a spy. This shows how they were still weary of a Spanish attack and needed guidance.
...sage is an explanation of the starvation in Jamestown; the second passage is based off of when the first English arrived on Plymouth land. The third passage is about how the English settlers found land to live on and start their new lives. The final passage is about the new governor and the first marriage. In conclusion I believe I gave the right facts to back up my opinion and that I also followed the rubric assigned with the essay.