New England

Jamestown: Why did so many colonists die? It was not an easy beginning. English settlers began arriving on the James River in Chesapeake Bay, region of Virginia, in the spring of 1607.They hoped to make the first permanent English settlement. But, there were many things that almost wiped out the whole settlement. There were three main causes of death; disease, starvation/dehydration, and attacks. Most of the available water supply was brackish and contaminated by the settlers themselves. The American land was new to the settlers, and gave them a harder time with unskilled workers. Obviously, there would be Indians (most likely were Jamestown is located because it is nearing water) crossing paths. I think that they thought too confidently about the conditions of Jamestown. Who would want to drink dirty, salty water? The water caused death in three ways; it was trashed and filthy, it was salty from the Atlantic, and the drought limited the clean water. The waste from the colonists festered and lied there endlessly. It also said that they dug wells for clean water, but the drought and salt intrusion made the immaculate water scarce. That states that lots of colonists died from disease, sickness, and dehydration. The colonists would get sick because the bacteria from the unhygienic water. Dehydration is caused by the brackish (salty) water (the sodium retains water from your body). They could also become dehydrated because they run out of drinkable water (caused by drought). The brackish water isn’t good for planting and growing crops either leaving them to starve. That shows that the water was a big disease to Jamestown itself. If you need somebody to work for you, would you want an unskilled 7 year old girl to do the job? Unskilled workers were a second cause that left Jamestown hanging. Because it was American land, it was far too different from European circumstances. There were more gentlemen than laborers (the gentlemen weren’t used