Early Jamestown Research Paper

The time from 1609-1610 is called the starving time in Jamestown. In Jamestown, during this time period, there was little food, meager leadership, and the native people were killing as many of the settlers that they could get their hands on. King James I was aware of all the problems that the settlement was facing and so he sent nine ships to the settlement. The nine ships were carrying food and more settlers, due to the amount of settlers that were there dying. But due to bad weather, many of the ships were separated from one another and impaired. The largest ship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on the Island of Bermuda with most of the supplies and leaders such as Captain Christopher Newport, Sir George Somers, and Sir Thomas Gates and
finally in mid-August some of the ships arrived at Jamestown with 300 colonists and few supplies’("The Starving Time | Historic Jamestown" 2016.) Because ships were damaged and run off of course, the settlers were continuing to starve and suffer. Many resorted to looking for food in the woods and some even resorted to cannibalism. In May of 1610, after winter had pass, the Sea Venture, got to Jamestown. Out of all the settlers who had been there, only sixty survived the unforgiving winter. The ones who didn’t survive suffered from starvation, dysentery, and typhoid. Because there were barely any settlers left, Thomas Gates decided that instead of continuing to die off, that the remaining settlers would go back to England. Unfortunately, before they could be on their way back to England, their new governor, Lord De La Warr had arrived.