Essay Sample on Why Did So Many Jamestown Colonist Die

The year is 1607 and English men are exploring new land, or what they think is new land. 110 men discover Jamestown, an island In Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay, on the James River. Except, this new land isn’t actually new land at all, this place is in the middle of what 17 Pohatten tribes call home. But, by December, only 40 of the 110 men would be alive. Furthermore, by 1610, thousands more would be dead but, why did so many Jamestown Colonist die?

To first show why and how so many people died throughout the time, we have to look at their environment. Jamestown was in a river surrounded by brackish water that only had fish during the spring and early summer. (Document A)  With the colonists of Jamestown believing that they were in freshwater, they would drink it and get sick. By getting sick, obviously, people die and with having a scarce amount of fish, people would starve, leading to death. To furthermore explain why Jamestown was such a deadly place for early colonists, looking at the rainfall explains it more. From the years 1560-1660, the location of Jamestown only had above-average rainfall approximately 15 times and had about 16 droughts in that same amount of time. Often times the location of Jamestown had droughts almost back to back with only a few years between them.  By the time English Colonists found Jamestown, it was already in a serious drought that would end up lasting some 10 years. ( Document B) With looking at how unstable the environment of Jamestown was, it’s no shock only 40 men would end up living by December. The environment can’t be the only cause of death as the colonists themselves had poor planning abilities.

As the Jamestown colonists boarded their ships, they didn’t nearly plan enough making the second most common cause of death themselves. Jamestown colonists brought 47 gentlemen on their first ship in 1607 and then brought additionally 28 more on the second ship in 1608. With a total of 75 gentlemen, they only brought 8 important workers such as sailmakers,  blacksmiths, carpenters, and masons. (Document C) Since gentlemen were rich men and had little experience working with their hands, you could compare it to assigning 5 people to do a slideshow together while 1 works and the other 4 bicker about what color scheme they should do, it’s assigning people to do things they won’t do. Along with bringing the wrong amount of people, the Jamestown colonists didn’t plan enough for their safety.

The early Jamestown colonists were too overly confident that they would be able to settle in a new area with no trouble at all. The colonists put 7 English forts all in the middle of Pohatten tribes as well as doing the same for settlements. Along with that, they only brought 1 gunsmith in 1608, a whole year after they originally settled (Document C) With putting settlements in the middle of all Pohatten tribes with no one to modify, repair, or build guns, how did they expect to protect themselves?

In summary, we can conclude that early Jamestown colonists died so early on because of multiple reasons such as environment, rainfall, and poor planning early on. So, with that being said, what would you have done differently? Would you have survived?