essay about jamestown

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What Was Life Like in Jamestown?

By: Annette McDermott

Updated: August 23, 2023 | Original: July 25, 2018

The first settlers at the English settlement in Jamestown , Virginia hoped to forge new lives away from England―but life in the early 1600s at Jamestown consisted mainly of danger, hardship, disease and death.

All of the early settlers in 1607 were men and boys, including laborers, carpenters, bricklayers, a blacksmith, a barber, a tailor, a mason and a preacher. Within weeks, they built a basic fortification to protect themselves against attacks from the local Powhatan tribe. The Powhatan’s reception of the settlers was mixed―some welcomed them, while others assaulted them.

“Since there were often several different tribes in a given area, it was not strange for different native groups to view the Europeans as potential allies against enemies,” says  Stephen Leccese, a historian and Ph.D. candidate at Fordham University . “Great diversity among native groups meant that rarely was there widespread cooperation against European settlements.

As the roughly 100 colonists settled in, they soon realized angry natives were the least of their problems: They were pathetically unprepared for forging a new colony. Daily life soon revolved around survival as starvation and disease ravaged them; only about 38 settlers survived the first year.

The winter of 1609 was disastrous―and crude health care didn’t help.

In January 1608, more settlers arrived―including the first two women and the first physician. According to Leccese, “The English government at the time had a vested interest in settlers traveling to the Americas because this was a rough time in English history … the government concluded that England was overpopulated and wanted a way to get rid of the excess population.”

During the winter of 1609, relations between the colonists and the Indians worsened and the Indians laid siege to Jamestown during a terrible famine. To survive, the colonists ate anything and everything they could including, according to recently discovered (and disputed) archaeological evidence , some dead corpses of other settlers. Only 60 colonists survived this “starving time.”

There’s not much written about specific remedies physicians used in Jamestown to treat their sick and dying patients. Bloodletting is documented as well as the use of herbal remedies. Local Native American medicinal practitioners likely had an influence on treatments used. But as evidenced by the massive number of settlers who died, these early medicines were only marginally successful at best.

The marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas created stability.

Despite the arrival of more colonists and attempts to improve conditions at Jamestown, it wasn’t until 1612, when colonist John Rolfe introduced tobacco to the settlement, that the colony became profitable.

In 1613, English colonists captured the Powhatan princess Pocahontas . In 1614, she converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe, which led to a period of peace between the Powhatan and the Jamestown settlers.

In 1619, a representative General Assembly was established to make laws and help maintain order in the fledging colony.

Women showed real grit in the early Jamestown colony.

Between 1620 and 1622, well over one hundred women arrived in Jamestown. Some were purchased by unwed colonists as wives. Others were indentured servants who endured harsh conditions working the tobacco fields―as well as physical and sexual abuse.

England hoped the women would help men create ties to the community and make them less likely to abandon the colony.

Once an indentured woman paid her debt, she’d likely marry, but many were still responsible for working the fields as well as handling domestic household duties. Women were much less submissive in Jamestown than in England, however, and often fought for their rights and those of their children.

At first, some men appreciated their wives’ contributions so much that they requested the women be given land of their own. This generosity didn’t last, however. By the mid-17th century, as the men’s primary concern turned from mere survival to consolidating wealth and land, the General Assembly passed a law in 1662 stating that argumentative wives could be dunked under water.

In 1619, the Dutch introduced the first captured Africans to America, planting the seeds of a slavery system that evolved into a nightmare of abuse and cruelty that would ultimately divide the nation.

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Africans arrived in Jamestown as indentured servants.

By 1619, tobacco was king and daily life for almost everyone in Jamestown revolved around producing and selling tobacco.

In August, the first Africans arrived as indentured servants. Although they were not officially slaves and might eventually gain their freedom, they’d been kidnapped from their homeland and forced to live a hard life of servitude. Their presence opened the door for Virginia to accept the institution of slavery and eventually replace African indentured servants with enslaved Africans.

The next decades in Jamestown brought periods of war and peace with the Indians. More and more colonists arrived, spread out and created new towns and plantations. In 1624, Virginia became a royal colony.

Fire, disease, famine and Indian attacks remained, but according to Leccese, “One other important problem was the increasingly stratified society. As time went on, original settlers had snatched up all the quality land and new settlers were finding less opportunity to become independent farmers on their own land. This resulted in a small class of rich landowners and a large class of landless or small farmers.”

By 1699 there were around 60,000 people in the Virginia colony, including about 6,000 enslaved peoples. Jamestown had started a tradition of slavery that would endure in America for generations.

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2c. Jamestown Settlement and the "Starving Time"

The first joint-stock company to launch a lasting venture to the New World was the Virginia Company of London . The investors had one goal in mind: gold. They hoped to repeat the success of Spaniards who found gold in South America.

In 1607, 144 English men and boys established the Jamestown colony, named after King James I.

The colonists were told that if they did not generate any wealth, financial support for their efforts would end. Many of the men spent their days vainly searching for gold.

As a consequence, the colonists spent little time farming. Food supplies dwindled. Malaria and the harsh winter besieged the colonists, as well. After the first year, only 38 of the original 144 had survived.

First Virginia Charter

James, by the grace of God [King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith], etc.

Whereas our loving and weldisposed subjects ... and divers others of our loving subjects, have been humble sutors unto us that wee woulde vouchsafe unto them our licence to make habitacion, plantacion and to deduce a colonie of sondrie of our people into that parte of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appartaining unto us or which are not nowe actuallie possessed by anie Christian prince or people, scituate, lying and being all along the sea coastes between fower and thirtie degrees of northerly latitude from the equinoctiall line and five and fortie degrees of the same latitude and in the maine lande betweene the same fower and thirtie and five and fourtie degrees, and the ilandes thereunto adjacente or within one hundred miles of the coaste thereof;

And to that ende, and for themore speedy accomplishemente of theire saide intended plantacion and habitacion there, are desirous to devide themselves into two severall colonies and companies, the one consisting of certaine Knightes, gentlemen, marchanntes and other adventurers of our cittie of London, and elsewhere, which are and from time to time shalbe joined unto them which doe desire to begin theire plantacions and habitacions in some fitt and conveniente place between fower and thirtie and one and fortie degrees of the said latitude all alongest the coaste of Virginia and coastes of America aforesaid and the other consisting of sondrie Knightes, gentlemen, merchanntes, and other adventurers of our citties of Bristoll and Exeter, and of our towne of Plymouthe, and of other places which doe joine themselves unto that colonie which doe desire to beginn theire plantacions and habitacions in some fitt and convenient place betweene eighte and thirtie degrees and five and fortie degrees of the saide latitude all alongst the saide coaste of Virginia and America as that coaste lieth;

Wee, greately commending and graciously accepting of theire desires to the furtherance of soe noble a worke which may, by the providence of Almightie God, hereafter tende to the glorie of His Divine Majestie in propagating of Christian religion to suche people as yet live in darkenesse and miserable ignorance of the true knoweledge and worshippe of God and may in tyme bring the infidels and salvages living in those parts to humane civilitie and to a setled and quiet govermente, doe by theise our lettres patents graciously accepte of and agree to theire humble and well intended desires;

April 10, 1606

"Work or Starve"

The colony may well have perished had it not been for the leadership of John Smith . He imposed strict discipline on the colonists. "Work or starve" was his motto, and each colonist was required to spend four hours per day farming.

The twenty of April. Being at work, in hewing down Trees, and setting Corn, an alarum caused us with all speed to take our arms, each expecting a new assault of the Savages: but understanding it a Boat under sail, our doubts were presently satisfied with the happy sight of Master Nelson, his many perils of extreme storms and tempests, his ship well as his company could testify, his care in sparing our provision was well: but the providence thereof, as also of our stones, Hatchets and other tools (only ours excepted) which of all the rest was most necessary: which might inforce us to thinke either a seditious traitor to our action, or a most unconscionable deceiver of our treasures.

– John Smith, "A True Relation of Occurrences and Accidents in Virginia" (1608)

An accidental gunpowder burn forced Smith to return to England in 1609. After his departure, the colony endured even more hardships. A new boatload of colonists and supplies sank off the coast of Bermuda on its way to help the hungry settlement. The winter of 1609-10, known as the " starving time ," may have been the worst of all.

Disease and hunger ravaged Jamestown. Two desperate colonists were tied to posts and left to starve as punishment for raiding the colonies' stores. One colonist even took to cannibalism, eating his own wife. The fate of the venture was precarious. Yet still more colonists arrived, and their numbers included women.

Despite the introduction of tobacco cultivation, the colony was a failure as a financial venture. The king declared the Virginia Company bankrupt in 1624.

About 200,000 pounds were lost among the investors. The charter was thereby revoked, and Virginia became a royal colony, the first in America to be ruled by the Crown.

Investments in permanent settlements were risky indeed. The merchants and gentry paid with their pocketbooks. Many colonists paid with their lives. For every six colonists who ventured across the Atlantic, only one survived.

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History Resources

A Jamestown settler describes life in Virginia, 1622

A spotlight on a primary source by sebastian brandt.

This 1622 letter from Jamestown colonist Sebastian Brandt to Henry Hovener, a Dutch merchant living in London, provides a snapshot of the colony in flux. Brandt, who likely arrived in 1619 in a wave of 1,200 immigrants, writes of his wife’s and brother’s deaths the previous year almost in passing. He mentions that, due to his own illness, he “was not able to travell up and downe the hills and dales of these countries but doo nowe intend every daye to walke up and downe the hills for good Mineralls here is both golde silver and copper.” Most of Brandt’s letter is devoted to its real purpose: putting in orders for cheese, vinegar, tools, spices, and other assorted goods from the London Company that were not available in Virginia. Interestingly, he promises to pay in tobacco and furs—not in the gold and copper he’s looking for.

We know little about Brandt. He does not appear in any known existing official records, and historians presume he died not long after writing this letter. The glimpse he offers into early Jamestown serves as a tantalizing example of the challenges and thrills of studying colonial American history.

A full transcript is available.

Well beloved good friend Henry Hovener

My comendations remembred, I hartely [wish] your welfare for god be thanked I am now in good health, but my brother and my wyfe are dead aboute a yeare pass’d And touchinge the busynesse that I came hither is nothing yett performed, by reason of my sicknesse & weaknesse I was not able to travell up and downe the hills and dales of these countries but doo nowe intend every daye to walke up and downe the hills for good Mineralls here is both golde silver and copper to be had and therefore I will doe my endeavour by the grace of god to effect what I am able to performe And I intreat you to beseeche the Right Hon: & Wor: Company in my behalfe to grant me my freedome to be sent either to me I dowbte not to doo well & good service in these countries humbly desyringe them also to provyde me some [appointed] fellowe & a strong boye to assiste me in my businesse, and that it may please the aforesaid Company to send me at my charge a bed wth a bolster and cover and some Linnen for shirtes and sheetes. Sixe fallinge bands wth Last Size pairs of shoes twoo pairs of bootes three pairs of cullered stockings and garters wth three pairs of lether gloves some powder and shott twoo little runletts of oyle and vinnegar some spice & suger to comfort us here in our sicknesse abowte ffyftie pounds weight of holland and Englishe cheese together, Lykewyse some knyves, spoons, combes and all sorts of cullerd beads as you knowe the savage Indians use Allso one Rundlett wth all sortes of yron nayles great and small, three haire sives, two hatchetts wth twoo broad yrons and some Allum And send all these necessaries thinges in a dry fatt wth the first shippinge dyrected unto Mr. Pontes in James Towne here in Virginia And whatsoever this all costes I will not onely wth my moste humble service but allso wth some good Tobacco Bevor and Otterskins and other commodities here to be had recompence the Company for the same And yf you could send for my brother Phillipps Sonne in Darbesheere to come hether itt [were] a great commoditie ffor me or suche another used in minerall workes And thus I comitt you to the Almighty. Virginia 13 January 1622.

Questions for Discussion

Read the document introduction and transcript and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer these questions.

• Carefully view the printable image of the document. Describe the skills an archivist needs to transform an original document into a format we can understand.
• In the very first sentence of Sebastian Brandt’s letter he mentions that his “brother and . . . wyfe are dead aboute a year” and does not mention them again. How does this matter-of-fact statement help us understand conditions faced by settlers in Virginia in the early 1600s?
• What conclusions can you draw about Brandt knowing that he continued to search for precious metals after most Jamestown settlers were involved in agriculture?
• Make a list of what you think you would need to survive a year in Jamestown. Compare it with the shopping list Brandt sent to the merchant in London.

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Everyday Life in the Jamestown Colony

Few of the 104 English men and boys who set sail from England knew what to expect from their new home when they disembarked from their ships, the Susan Constant , the Godspeed , and the Discovery on May 14, 1607. Under a charter granted by King James I, these first English colonists to Virginia named their settlement Jamestown after their king, and the nearby river the James. Though this world was certainly new to them, these places already had names—the Algonquian-speaking tribes who inhabited the area knew the land as Tsenacomoco and the river, the Powhatan (named after the paramount chief of the Powhatan Indians). These English settlers would soon encounter the Powhatan and later, men and women from West Central Africa. All would have critical roles to play in everyday life in the Jamestown settlement as what began as a military outpost soon grew into a more stable colony with the introduction of the cash crop, tobacco.

Who lived in Jamestown?

When the Virginia Company of London sent the first settlers to Jamestown in 1607, they only included English men and boys. Many of the first settlers were wealthy English gentlemen, but the list of first settlers also included laborers, bricklayers, carpenters, a blacksmith, barber, tailor, and a preacher. The first two English women arrived in 1608. More women, children, and family groups began arriving in 1609. As soon as the English arrived, they encountered the Powhatan Indians. Archaeologists have discovered evidence that Powhatan women visited the fort and brought food, goods, and supplies to the colonists in the first year of settlement. In 1619 the first “20 and odd” Africans arrived at Jamestown. These first Africans were captured by the Portuguese in Angola in West Central Africa, and sold into slavery. Once in Jamestown, the wealthier merchants and planters bought them for their households. The March 1620 muster of the inhabitants listed 32 Africans in Virginia (17 women and 15 men), with 892 European colonists. Even with the looming threat of warfare with the Indians, these numbers continued to grow, especially as tobacco—a labor-intensive crop—demanded the labor of indentured servants and enslaved Africans.

Throughout the earliest years of European settlement at Jamestown, mortality rates were high. Sickness and disease were a constant threat and plagued the English settlers heavily. Historians have identified both environmental factors and malnutrition as contributing factors to the high death rate among the early colonists. The water around Jamestown Island, where the first colonists settled, is an oligohaline zone, where the mix of fresh and salty water come together to trap contaminates. The resulting water is high in salinity, and also delivered colonists low doses of naturally occurring arsenic, iron, and sulfur.  The colonists also inadvertently further contaminated their drinking water with their own waste. The first settlers planned to rely on the local Powhatan Indians for much of their food needs, and so did not plan ahead for their own nutritional needs. A long and devastating drought from 1606-1612 may have contributed to the early colonists’ malnourishment. Even as environmental conditions improved and colonists settled near better water supplies, sickness continued to spread. One colonist wrote home to his parents in 1623 of the pervasiveness of disease in Virginia, “…the nature of the Country is such that it Causeth much sicknes, as the scurvie and the bloody flix, and divers other diseases, wch maketh the bodie very poore, and Weake, and when wee are sicke there is nothing to Comfort us.”

Early Settlement

Soon after their arrival, the first English settlers constructed a fort to defend themselves. The first fort, which was finished on June 5, 1607, included “bulwarkes at every corner, like a halfe moone, and four or five pieces of artillerie mounted in them.” Because the English faced the threat of attack and violence from the Powhatan, they constructed many necessities inside the fort walls, such as a well and a church. Inside the fort, the first settlers also constructed a barracks and other houses. The early colonists constructed these buildings in a style known as “mud and stud,” a traditional building technique that the colonists knew from home in England. When the first men and boys arrived at Jamestown, most of them lived together in the barracks, while after 1611 were built “two fair rows of houses, all of framed timber, two stories, and an upper garret, or corn loft.” The governor of the colony likely lived in one of those row homes.

Eventually, the colonists outgrew the fort, and as more women and families arrived in Virginia the colony expanded. As English colonists expanded outside of James Fort, a small community began to take shape called New Towne, which later grew into “James Cittie.” As the century progressed wealthier colonists used brick to construct their homes in this larger settlement, where wharves, warehouses, and a tavern also appeared to support the growing population. The majority of the colonists continued to live in the more modest frame, not brick, dwellings, with only one or two rooms which served a variety of functions and housed all the family members. Household inventories from later in the 17 th century reveal that some families had very little—perhaps just bare necessities for cooking and farming—while other families had tables, beds, chests, chairs, mattresses, and a variety of pots—not necessities, but comforts and luxuries.

Initially, English colonists sought to rely on trade with the Powhatan Indians for corn and meat. The first colonists were also preoccupied with searching for gold, so they did not spend adequate time planting corn or other crops to become self-sufficient without help from the Indians. Colonist George Percy recorded that shortly after their arrival the Indians “(relieved) us with victuals, as Bread, Corne, Fish, and Flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men, otherwise wee had all perished.” Archaeologists have found numerous brass and iron fishhooks at Jamestown, indicating that colonists looked to the river to supplement their diet. Sturgeon became an especially important part of early colonists’ diet. In 1609 Captain John Smith wrote “we had more sturgeon than could be devoured by dog and man.”

Historians sometimes refer to the winter of 1609/10 as “the starving time.” During this period, tensions between the English and the Powhatan escalated. Trade with the Powhatan ceased and the colonists were confined to their fort, unable to hunt. Colonist George Percy wrote that outside the fort, “Indians killed as fast as Famine and Pestilence did within.” Percy also wrote that those colonists who left the fort in search of “serpents and snakes” to eat, were “cut off and slayne” by the Indians. A severe draught which impacted the region from 1606-1612 complicated the situation, with even the Powhatan likely having to compensate for this environmental factor. Desperate colonists resorted to boiling shoe leather and starch before turning to their horses, dogs, cats, and mice. Percy also wrote of survival cannibalism, which has been corroborated by archaeological evidence. Due to the severe feminine and resulting disease, only 60 colonists survived by spring 1610, but ships arriving from England brought supplies.

The following years saw more supply ships arriving from England, bringing pigs, goats, and cattle. In addition to meat the colonists used cows for milk, butter, and cheese, the production of which increased with the immigration of women to Virginia (dairying tasks were traditionally women’s work). Colonists transplanted fruit trees which Captain John Smith noted “prosper(ed) exceedingly.” Fruit like apples and figs could be distilled into hard cider and other alcoholic beverages, which was often safer to drink than the local water supply. Through most of the 17 th -century salt was not prevalent in Jamestown, meaning that colonists had few options to preserve meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Work and Daily Life

In the early years of the colony, many men and boys spent their days searching for Virginia’s natural resources to benefit England, building her a trading empire to both rival and free the country’s dependence upon Europe. Shirking all other needs such as planting and building projects, John Smith wrote that the colonists were distracted by the prospect of finding gold in Virginia: “There was no talk, no hope, no work but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold.” In additional to procuring raw materials, the crown had also encouraged the colonists to experiment with industrial pursuits to benefit England, sending skilled craftsmen and laborers to the colony to support that effort. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of metallurgy (such as testing for gold or other metals) as well as glassmaking, and other colonists tried their hands at silk production with the area’s mulberry trees. None of these ventures proved successful or economically sustainable.

With the colony in disarray after the Starving Time in 1610, officials implemented a set of rules to order the lives of settlers in Jamestown. These “lawes divine, morall and martiall” dictated the colonists’ church attendance (two times every Sunday), ordered housing and bedding to be kept clean, and directed trade and the everyday work lives of both men and women in the colony. Some of the laws (such as the law against doing “the necessities of nature” within a quarter mile of the well) were clearly meant to correct the mistakes of the early years of the colony. Under this code of conduct, colonists were forbidden to gamble, church attendance was mandatory, and blasphemy, treason, robbery, stealing from Indians, and trading without permission were all punishable by death. More minor offenders were whipped in public or endured other physical punishments.

These laws ceased to be enforced after 1619, but by then a new venture had taken hold in Jamestown which ordered the lives of the colonists—planting tobacco. After John Rolfe’s successful experiments with the crop tobacco quickly became the profitable export England was hoping for from the Jamestown venture. Tobacco production, however, was labor intensive. Men, women, and even children contributed to the cultivation of their family’s tobacco crop—clearing fields of trees, planting the tobacco seeds, weeding the crops and “topping” the plants, and removing the tobacco worms that threatened to destroy the crop. Harvesting the leaves to prepare them for export involved even more time and labor.

Threat of Violence and Warfare

European colonists and Powhatan Indians constantly navigated changing relationships, which were sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent. A series of smaller attacks spurned what some historians refer to as First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1609, which lasted through 1614. The colonists’ increasing demands on the Powhatan for food and support reached a climax when colonists attempted to take control of the town of Powhatan (hometown of the paramount chief Powhatan). Shortly thereafter, under the guise of trading for corn Powhatan invited colonists to visit his new capital, but the colonists were ambushed. This attack drove surviving colonists into the safety of James Fort where, without help or food from the Powhatan Indians, they endured the Starving Time. Once food, supplies, and more colonists arrived in 1610, the war picked up in momentum with fighting occurring throughout Virginia. In 1613, the English captured Pocahontas, daughter of the paramount chief Powhatan, and held her for ransom. Pocahontas stayed with the English and, after announcing her intention to marry one of the colonists, John Rolfe, paramount chief Powhatan called off the attacks on English settlements. This peace was short-lived. In March 1622 Opechancanough, younger brother of paramount chief Powhatan, instigated the Second Anglo-Powhatan War with his attack on the dispersed English settlements up and down the James River. The ten year war that ensued devastated both the English and Powhatan, and the sides merely agreed to “a peace” in 1632.

Further Reading

• The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1700   By: Warren Billings
• Jamestown, the Truth Revealed   By: William M. Kelso
• A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America   By: James Horn
• 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy   By: James Horn 

The Battle of Moot

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Jamestown, founded in 1607, was the first successful permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The settlement existed for nearly 100 years as the capital of the Virginia colony, but it was abandoned after the capital moved to Williamsburg in 1699. 

The history of Jamestown (sometimes spelled Jamestowne) includes human cannibalism, enslaved people forcibly brought from Africa and children kidnapped off the streets of London and taken to the colony. Jamestown is the "creation story from hell," wrote Karen Ordahl Kupperman, a professor of history at New York University, in her book " The Jamestown Project " (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007).

A preservationist group took over the site in the late 1800s, and today what's left of Jamestown is part of a national historic park with tours, museums and ongoing archaeological digs that continue to reveal new findings. However, rising sea levels caused by climate change may pose a threat to the site, research suggests . There are plans to reinforce a seawall to try to save the site the Washington Post reports . 

Jamestown was not the first successful permanent European settlement in what would become the United States; that distinction belongs to St. Augustine, in Florida, which the Spanish founded in 1565.

At the beginning of the 17th century, England's attempts to colonize the Americas lagged behind other European nations' endeavours. Spain controlled a vast empire in the Western Hemisphere that included much of South and Central America, Mexico, part of the Caribbean and a settlement in Florida. The Spanish were also moving into what is now the American Southwest.

Meanwhile, the French were exploring Canada's northeast and, in time, would establish a highly profitable fur trade in the region.

In the 16th century, the English had attempted to found Roanoke colony , but the venture ended in disaster; the colonists disappeared and were never heard from again, Kupperman wrote. This colony was located in what is now the Outer Banks area of North Carolina, and the colonists may have left to live with local Native American people, a number of scholars have suggested.

In addition to the Roanoke colonists, other European adventurers had sailed along the eastern coast of North America, some of whom ended up living with the Native Americans they encountered, Kupperman wrote. So it's possible that England's Jamestown colonists met the generations of Europeans who came before them.

"It does not seem too fanciful to assume that some colonists in Jamestown, founded twenty years after the last Roanoke colony, might have encountered descendants of earlier transatlantic migrants without knowing it," she wrote.

Jamestown's disastrous early years

The founding of Jamestown had the blessing of England's King James I , and the settlement and nearby James River were named in his honor. However, the settlement was financed and run by the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company that King James I chartered. This company, in turn, was financed by private investors, who expected the colonists to discover a valuable commodity, or a route to East Asia, which would make the enterprise profitable and offer a return on their investment.

The investors in London hoped that some of the "vanished" Roanoke colonists (or their descendants) were still alive and, with knowledge they gained about the area, could guide the Jamestown colonists to minerals and a passage to East Asia, Kupperman noted.

Unfortunately, the company chose to build its settlement on "a disease-ridden, bug-infested swampy island with no source of fresh water," Jerome Bridges, a park ranger and Historic Jamestowne tour guide, told Live Science. Located about 60 miles (94 kilometers) up the James River from the Atlantic Coast, the site was chosen because the settlers had orders from their investors not to take any land that was occupied by the Indigenous people, Bridges said. This policy did not last for long as Jamestown expanded after being established, creating tensions with the Indigenous people living in the area.

Additionally, the colonists' selected spot may have been considered more defensible than other locations that had been scouted, Joseph Kelly, professor and director of Irish and Irish American studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, wrote in the book " Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America's Origin " (Bloomsbury, 2018). 

The Indigenous people in the area were the Powhatan and were led by Wahunsenacawh, whom Europeans often called "Chief Powhatan: His realm was known as "Tsenacommacah" and it encompassed about 15,000 people who lived in several communities, Historic Jamestowne noted .

When the English landed there in May 1607, they divided themselves into three groups: One group was to build fortifications, a storehouse and some simple houses; the second group was to plant crops; and the third party was to explore the area in search of minerals and a passage to East Asia.

It did not take long for the colonists to run into trouble. Within a few weeks, a force of several hundred Powhatans attacked the settlement. The colonists had not even unpacked their muskets, and so they relied on naval gunfire from the ships that were still off the coast to repel the attackers. "Had the ships not fired their ordnance, the colony would have been overwhelmed," Kupperman wrote. 

In the following few weeks, the settlers focused on building a fort, which was a triangular palisade with three bulwarks, or raised platforms, for cannons.

Before long, the colonists started dying. Of the 104 men and boys who landed, only 38 were still alive by January 1608, according to the National Park Service . Research revealed that the colonists' drinking  water was salty and contained arsenic . Additionally, food ran out, famine set in, and a particularly harsh winter compounded the misery of the colonists.

"Our men were destroyed with cruel diseases as swellings, fluxes [also called dysentery], burning fevers, and by wars, and some departed suddenly, but for the most part they died of meer famine," wrote George Percy, one of the survivors, in a report on the colony. "There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia."

In that first year, the bodies were buried in unmarked graves to prevent the Powhatans from finding out that so many of the settlers had died, according to Bridges. Excavations by William Kelso, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery at Historic Jamestowne, and his team revealed 29 burial shafts close to the west palisade wall inside the fort. The team thinks these graves likely hold many of the colonists who died in 1607.

Two of the excavated grave shafts contain two bodies each. According to the Historic Jamestowne website, the colonists likely resorted to double burials because so many men were dying in a short timespan. Twenty individuals died in August 1607 alone, and multiple burials saved energy and time. 

The body of a boy, who was around 14 years old, was found with a small arrowhead next to his right leg, which suggests he had been shot shortly before he was buried. Percy recorded that a boy was slain during combat with Powhatans in the first month of the settlement, and it's possible that these remains belong to that boy.

The well-known story of how Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saved Captain John Smith's life very likely did not happen, at least not the way most people have heard it (and most certainly not the way the 1995 Disney animated movie told it), Bridges said. 

Smith, who was elected president of the colony's council in 1608 after most of the councillors died or became incapacitated, wrote that the colony depended on trade with friendly Powhatan tribes to survive. Powhatan's people often visited the settlers when they weren't fighting the colonists, according to Bridges. The chief's daughter, about 10 years old at the time, was a frequent visitor to Jamestown, delivering messages from her father and bringing food and furs to trade for hatchets and trinkets, Bridges said.

She also liked to play, and would spend time turning cartwheels with the boys of the colony. Her name was actually Matoaka, and Pocahontas was a nickname meaning "Little Wanton" in Algonquin, according to Historic Jamestowne's website . 

Smith later wrote in his book "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles," published in 1624, that at one point during an expedition in December 1607, he was captured and brought to Powhatan. He was first welcomed and offered a feast. Then he was grabbed and forced to stretch out on two large, flat stones. People stood over him with clubs as though ready to beat him to death if ordered. Suddenly, Pocahontas rushed in and took Smith's "head in her arms and laid her owne upon his to save him from death," Smith wrote .  The girl then pulled him to his feet. Powhatan said that they were now friends, and he adopted Smith as his son, or a subordinate chief. 

Smith's tale has become legend, and he romanticized it in later writings, Historic Jamestowne noted. Smith told the story only after Pocahontas converted to Christianity in 1614. And if Smith's story is true, this mock "execution and salvation" ceremony was traditional with Powhatan tribes, and Pocahontas' actions were probably one part of a ritual, according to Historic Jamestowne . 

Jamestown's "starving time"

Although the colony had been resupplied, along with 100 new settlers, in January 1608, the settlers hit another low during the winter of 1609 to 1610 — a period that became known as the "starving time," according to Historic Jamestowne. By this time, Smith had been forced to return to England due to gunpowder injuries, and the colony's new governor, Thomas Gates, had been shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda along with essential supplies.

By this point, relations with the Powhatans had deteriorated to the point where trade was impossible and the Jamestown fort was under siege. When the colonists ran out of food, they "fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin, as dogs, cats, rats and mice," Percy wrote. Recent research has confirmed that dogs were eaten at Jamestown and that these dogs were at least partly native to North America . Historical records indicate that boots, shoes and leather were also consumed, and archaeological evidence confirms that some colonists resorted to human cannibalism to survive. 

In May 1610, Gates made his way from Bermuda to the colony on makeshift ships made partly from wood found on Bermuda. Finding only 60 survivors at Jamestown, he gave the order to abandon the settlement but not to burn it. As the group set out to sea, however, they encountered a fleet led by English merchant and politician Lord De La Warr, with fresh supplies and new colonists, so they returned to Jamestown and repaired the fort. (The state of Delaware was later named after De La Warr.)

During the colony's early years, it was difficult to convince new settlers to go to Jamestown; as a result, some people, including prisoners and those living on the streets, were sent against their will, British writer Jennifer Potter wrote in her book " The Jamestown Brides: The Story of England's 'Maids for Virginia '" (Oxford University Press, 2019). The city of London even raised money to send London's homeless to Virginia, wrote Potter, noting that King James I was in favor of it. Many of the homeless sent were males. 

In 1618, the Virginia Company became particularly interested in getting homeless children to the colony as children were believed to be "more pliable than adults," Potter wrote. Instructions were issued to London's constables to apprehend street children and take them to a place where they would wait to be taken overseas. Poor families were also coerced to send children they couldn't support to Jamestown, Potter noted. 

Jamestown's improving fortunes

In the following decade Jamestown's situation improved. Martial law was imposed, solving, however harshly, some of the discipline problems — such as people ignoring orders — experienced during the first three years of the colony, according to Historic Jamestowne.

Until this point, the colonists had failed to find a marketable commodity that would help fund the settlement and develop its economy, but this problem was solved in 1612, when a settler named John Rolfe experimented with tobacco seeds ― possibly from Trinidad ― and developed a marketable crop that could be exported to England. King James I later gave the Virginia Company a monopoly on tobacco, making the trade even more profitable. He even allowed the company to set up a lottery to provide additional funds for the Jamestown venture, according to Historic Jamestowne.

In April 1613, Pocahontas was captured and brought to Jamestown. Although her captors intended to use her to barter for English prisoners, she turned into a catalyst for peace. She married Rolfe in April 1614 in the Jamestown church, converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca Rolfe. Her father, Powhatan, reached a peace agreement with the English that allowed the colony to expand its cultivated territory and set up new settlements, including Henrico and Bermuda Hundred.

Now, "after five years' intestine [frequent] war with the revengeful, implacable Indians, a firm peace (not again easily to be broken) hath been lately concluded," Gov. Thomas Dale wrote in 1614.

Pocahontas, Rolfe and their infant son traveled to London in 1616, where she became something of a celebrity. However, she died of an unspecified illness in 1617 while the three of them were preparing to return to Virginia. Rolfe headed to Virginia alone, leaving their son in the care of an English family.

In August 1619, a Dutch ship arrived at Jamestown and traded food supplies for the ship's cargo of around 20 enslaved people, who were originally from Angola. "Slavery as it was later defined did not yet exist in the Chesapeake, and some of these Africans lived to achieve their freedom," Kupperman wrote. They worked as indentured servants (as many English newcomers did), but were forced to labor for longer terms. Indentured servants normally had to work for the company for a certain time to pay for their passage and goods given them. 

While people from Africa had been brought to the Americas as slaves to work in Central and South America in the 16th century, 1619 marked the first time that Africans were brought to North America to work as slaves at an English colony. 

Today, 1619 is regarded as the beginning of a new period in American history. "The unequal social status of African Americans begins with the 246-year period from 1619 to 1865, when slavery was a critically important economic and social institution in American life," a team of researchers wrote in a 2019 paper published in the American Journal of Public Health . As the colony expanded, more slave were brought into Virginia. 

In 1619, Sir George Yeardley, a former colonist who had been appointed governor in 1618, returned to Jamestown from England with instructions from the Virginia Company to create "a laudable form of government" that would create "just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there," according to historical documents that can be accessed on Encyclopedia Virginia. 

In July of that year, 30 men met for the first time in Jamestown to discuss issues facing the growing colony. "This assembly was the first expression of English representative government in North America," Kelso wrote in his book, " Jamestown: The Buried Truth " (University of Virginia Press, 2006).

In 1619, the Virginia Company created a program that encouraged single women to travel to Jamestown, which in its early years had been a predominantly male settlement. The company hoped that more women in the colony would encourage the Jamestown men to settle down, rather than return to England after making some money.

The Virginia Company set a "bride price" of 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of tobacco to be paid by a man to the company who married one of the women, Potter wrote in her book. 

Potter tracked down the origins of the women who traveled to Jamestown in 1621 and found that 1 in 6 of the women were daughters of gentry (members of the aristocracy). The rest "represented a microcosm of 'middling' England, with fathers, brothers, uncles, working in respectable trades," Potter wrote, noting that people who knew the women had to attest to their good character, and the women had to go voluntarily, although some may have been coerced by relatives. 

After the death of the peacemaker Chief Powhatan in April 1618, war seemed inevitable, Kupperman wrote. With the English colony growing, and the settlers using more land and making more aggressive attempts to convert Powhatan people to Christianity the stage was set for a showdown.

Opechancanough, Chief Powhatan's successor, felt threatened by the growing English presence, which by that time consisted of more than 1,000 people on several plantations. In 1622, he launched a surprise attack in an attempt to wipe out the colony.

The Virginia Company claimed the attack killed 347 people, Kupperman wrote, although the actual death toll was likely higher. The English were forced to abandon some plantations and cluster closer together.

Although the attack succeeded in killing many English, it failed in its aim of pushing them out of the region. More settlers arrived to work on the plantations, and the attack gave the English an excuse to wage war against Opechancanough's people, sparing only the children so that they could be converted to Christianity and forced to work on the English plantations, according to Kupperman.

This war was a take-no-prisoners affair, Kupperman wrote. "In [May] 1623 they [the colonists] invited Indian leaders to a peace parley where they served poisoned wine and then fired on the disabled Indians." 

From the start of the Jamestown colony, the settlers held a number of military advantages over the Native American tribes in the region. They had gunpowder weapons, equipment made of steel and iron, as well as armor that could offer some protection from arrow hits, Kelly wrote in his book. The Powhatans, on the other hand, had bows and arrows and melee weapons that may have included clubs, knives and spears.

As the Virginia colony grew, Jamestown developed into a thriving port town. Thousands of colonists either passed through to start tobacco plantations farther inland, or settled in Jamestown, which expanded by developing a suburb of sorts called New Towne, situated east of the original fort.

Representative government took hold in the 1620s, and inns and taverns were soon established. The tobacco trade, meanwhile, required warehouses and piers along the shore. Jamestown's well-to-do residents built English-style cottages and houses along New Towne's main road.

With new settlers flowing in, the English gained control of the Chesapeake Bay area and launched new colonies (including Plymouth in 1620) along the Eastern Seaboard of the future United States. In May 1624, the Virginia Company was formally dissolved, and Jamestown became a crown colony with a governor appointed by the king.

With the growth of new settlements in Virginia, and the English colonists' improving military situation in the region, the original Jamestown fort site became redundant. Jamestown remained the capital of Virginia until 1699 — a fire destroyed Jamestown's statehouse in 1698, so the capital moved to Williamsburg, according to Historic Jamestowne .

In 1994, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) began archaeological work to look for ruins from the original Jamestown fort, Kelso told Live Science. It was widely believed at the time that the fort had been washed away into the James River.

Excavations revealed holes where the triangular palisade had once stood, along with the remains of three bulwarks used to strengthen its defenses. The archaeologists also found the remnants of five churches (one built on top of the remains of the preceding church); row houses, including a structure that appears to be the governor's house; a blacksmith shop; and barracks, among other features. 

In 2015 archaeologists uncovered the  burial sites of four Jamestown leaders who had been buried in one of the churches. In 2018, archaeologists digging in a church in Jamestown found a  headless body that might be that of Yeardley. They are hoping to match DNA from the skeleton and teeth found nearby with DNA from Yeardley's living descendants.

To help visitors learn more about what Jamestown was like, replicas of the triangular fort, a barracks and the original church have been built on their original plots. Some reproductions have been built using similar bricks. 

Originally published on July 24, 2018. Additional reporting by Tim Sharp. 

Historic Jamestowne's website contains a sizable amount of information about the settlement's artifacts and records. Jamestown is part of a national historical park, and the National Park Service has information on how to visit it . Slavery in the United States has a long history, and recent research has revealed more information about the Underground Railroad that led some people to freedom. 

Jamestown timeline

May 1607 : Jamestown, named after King James I of England, is founded and consists of 104 men and boys.

August 1607 : In this month alone, 20 of the colonists die.

December 1607 : John Smith is captured and brought to Chief Powhatan. Smith claims that Pocahontas saves his life, although this is likely not true.

January 1608 : Only 38 of the 104 original colonists are still alive; poor water and food shortages contribute to the high mortality rate. 100 new colonists are brought in from England during this month. 

Winter 1609-1610 : The "starving time" sees some colonists resort to human cannibalism. 

May 1610 : Governor Gates, who had been shipwrecked on Bermuda, makes his way to Jamestown on makeshift ships. Finding only 60 colonists alive, he gives orders to abandon Jamestown. But while leaving, the settlers encounter a relief fleet led by Lord De La Warr that has fresh supplies and new colonists.

1612 : While experimenting with tobacco seeds, John Rolfe finds that tobacco grows well in Virginia, giving the colony a marketable product.

April 1613 : Pocahontas is captured and brought to Jamestown.

April 1614 : Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, and the two leave for England where Pocahontas becomes something of a celebrity. A peace agreement of sorts is reached between Jamestown and Chief Powhatan.

March 1617 : Pocahontas dies in England at around age 21.

April 1618 : Chief Powhatan dies; relations between the Powhatans and Jamestown's colonists decline.

1619 : A program is launched encouraging women to migrate to Jamestown and marry colonists. 

July 1619 : First meeting of the colony's assembly

August 1619 : A Dutch ship brings more than 20 enslaved people from Africa to Jamestown.

1622 : Opechancanough, the successor of Powhatan, launches a surprise attack on Jamestown; more than 300 English people are killed and all-out war breaks out.

May 1623 : After agreeing to a peace parley, several Native American leaders in the area are killed after drinking poisoned wine.

May 1624 : The Virginia Company is dissolved and Jamestown becomes a crown colony. English settlement in Virginia continues to expand, with Jamestown as the legislative center. 

1699 : After a fire burns down the legislative building at Jamestown, Virginia's capital moves to Williamsburg. Jamestown itself becomes abandoned. 

Kelly, J. (2018) "Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America's Origin" Bloomsbury,

Kelso, W. (2006) "Jamestown: The Buried Truth" University of Virginia Press

Kupperman, K. (2007) "The Jamestown Project" The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

LaVeist, T. A., Fullilove, M., & Fullilove, R. (2019). 400 Years of Inequality Since Jamestown of 1619.  American journal of public health ,  109 (1), 83–84. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304824  

Potter, J. (2019) "The Jamestown Brides: The Story of England's 'Maids for Virginia'" Oxford University Press

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Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and humans' past. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. 

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The Importance and Significance of Jamestown as an American Colony

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