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Jamestown Fiasco

Hist. 1301, Fall 2018

Jamestown Fiasco

December 6th, 1606, a journey to Virginia with the hope of discovering new land begun. Three ships namely Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery embarked on a voyage that would almost take them a year. In 1607, 104 English men and boys docked in North America ready to start a settlement. May 13th, they picked Jamestown as the location where they would begin their settlement. This town was named after their king James I, and this settlement would mark the first permanent settlement by the British in North America. Most of the explorers had just sited these places and reported to their Kings and queens back home on the possibility of a new land that was full of resources. It was for these reasons that boats in England started voyages to North America to create settlement on large vast of lands where they could obtain raw materials for their industries back home, farm and get minerals.

Jamestown was picked because of several factors. It met the criteria that had been set by the Virginia company who had founded the settlement. The criteria for choosing a spot where the settlers would settle included that the location should be surrounded by water on the three sides. This was meant to ensure that the location was easily defensible especially by the Spanish troops who had also began voyages to North America in search of new locations to also settle. The waters in Jamestown were deep enough and thus the English were able to tie their ships at the shore line. This site did not also have Native population. By1607, June 15 the fort had been completed thus the settlers were protected from imminent attacks. Relations had also been established between powhatan Indians and the newcomers. On June 22, Captain Newport went back to England in order to get more supplies for the settlement without knowing that this would be the last time he would see his people.

It was the violent savages, confusing world that was full of diseases as well as starvation that resulted in the hardship that Jamestown was going through. Edmund Morgan tries to give the reasons why it failed as well as how the colonist were in position that could help them change their fate. During exploration of the new world, England set out ships that was filled with colonist who wanted to explore the new world. However, they somehow forgot to carry their basic needs such as food or plan on ways to acquire food and shelter. One would really wonder how a team of colonist who were equipped with knowledge starved to each while their subjects, native Indians fed their people for an entire year. Edmund Morgan who wrote “Jamestown Fiasco” believed that the colonist failure was due to: poor leadership, lack of laborers and having a strained relationship between the Indians and colonists. The settlers had suffering from disease as they did not have a source to clean water. Their source of water was the salty slimy river that may have contributed to the death of several settlers.

Governor Newport portrayed bad leadership that contributed to the fiasco in Jamestown. He planted a cross that was symbolic of England dominion but these angered several Indians who almost destroyed Jamestown. While he was trying to please the queen back at home that he had conquered a colony, he placed his soldiers in danger. It was events like these that distracted the colony from achieving its purpose such as gathering basic commodities that they I would require to live. The act of aggression and domination confused the Indians so they attacked the governor. The governor portrayed poor organization and was unable to lead the colony to the right direction. Jamestown was constantly meddling with things that did not help in their survival. The native Indians saw the settlers as a threat as they had already begun changing rules such as ownership of land. Most Indians believed in communal ownership of land and when the settlers begun taking possession of huge chucks of lands that belonged to the Native Indians they became aggressive towards the. Captain Newport should have ensured that his people forged a good relationship with the native Indians who may have helped them settle.

Jamestown also lacked willing laborers who would work in farms or mine. Most of the people who came to these new colonies were craftsmen and individuals who belonged to a certain social class back in England, most of them could not become laborers. The settler’s colonist had not planted any crops and because of their hostility with the native Indians, they were not willing to show them how to plant crops. Most colonist believed that after conquering a town most though everything would be provided to them. They had been made to believe that the place had plenty of food and was fertile, however they did not seem to understand that in order to get food they needed to plant them. Back home there were slaves who would work in the farms but they had not travelled with them. Most of these skilled laborers: goldsmith, jewelers and perfumes, were not needed in Jamestown and they slowly became useless as the colony began to starve. With no food, Newport though that the best thing would be to sail back to England and get more produce but this was not a very good idea as he left the town without a leader. The settlers were also uncertain if captain Newport would make it to England considering how the sea was unpredictable with the waves. With the uncertainty on whether they would get food, it may have led to them moving to another town where they could get food.

Jamestown was nowhere near producing exports or even raw material for England as they could not even grow corn to feed themselves. This was sad as part of the reason why the voyage was sent to North America was so that they could provide raw material for their industries back home. The colonist had poor and strained relationship with the Indians. They fell into many altercations with Indians, they attacked the colony with guerrilla tactics which ended up distracting the colony rom its intended goal. Morgan states that “the settlers have fallen into an easy truce with Indians…have had plenty of time which they could have grown crops.” In this statement he is arguing that instead of the constant altercation, they would be instead planting crops. It was ironical that the colonist was highly dependent on Indian’s food yet they kept fighting them constantly. The colonist in Jamestown should have taken the John smith like approach thus benefitting from the surplus instead of fostering bad Indian relations leading to failure of the town.

Although we may put the blame on leadership and poor organization, it is important to also recognize that Jamestown was not a gold mine. This was a new location that had different climatic conditions than they were used to. The heat during summer was too much and the mosquitos also infested the camp. Some colonist died from diseases including malaria and fever. They had not anticipated this forms of disease and thus lacked the necessary drugs that would have helped them. Lack of fresh and clean water was also a problem and they got diseases such as typhoid and dysentery that also contributed to the death of some colonist. The diseases and starvation reduced number of settlers significantly.

In trying to create peace among the natives and colonists, there was a marriage that was forged between John Rolfe who was a tobacco farmer and the daughter to Chief Powhatan. With tobacco farms, Jamestown economy had begun to grow, however in 1917, Pocahontas died on his trip to England and the next year the chief died straining the relationship between the natives and the settlers and Powhatan people were mounting resistance as they had been made to sign peace treaties that would see them loose huge chunks of land and were also forced to pay tribute to colonial governor. In 1975, Doeg tribe would attack and in retaliation three tribal chief were murdered and the colony declared war on the hostile communities. This marked the end of Jamestown as it was turned down and Williamsburg replaced this colony

In conclusion, it is clear that the settlers were not ready for what would follow in the new environment. They had not carried enough food, they did not have willing people to work in the fields to produce crops for them, they had poor relationship with the Indians who would have helped them settle quite easily. The colony was on a suicidal impulse as they decided not to grow food and instead of fostering good relationship with people who could help them they decide to fight. The three concepts stated above were for sure the underlying reasons why Jamestown failed.

Bibliography

Blanton, Dennis B. “Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1607–1612.” Historical Archaeology 34.4 (2000): 74-81.

Fausz, J. Frederick. “An” Abundance of Blood Shed on Both Sides”: England’s First Indian War, 1609-1614.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 98.1 (1990): 3-56.

Gleach, Frederic W. “Pocahontas at the fair: crafting identities at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.” Ethnohistory 50.3 (2003): 419-445.

Morgan, From Edmund S. “” The Jamestown Fiasco.” American Slavery, American Freedom (1975): 71-91

Nash, Gary B. “The image of the Indian in the southern colonial mind.” The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History (1972): 198-230.