1609-1610 — Winter, Starvation, Disease, Attack, Jamestown Colony, VA –400-440

—   440  PBS. “Death at Jamestown,” Secrets of the Dead, 2016.

— >400  Carter. “1609-1610: Starving Time at Jamestown.” In Campbell, Disasters…, 2008, 7.

 

Narrative Information

 

Carter: “On May 13, 1607, 104 English colonists established the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown. By the following spring, only 38 settlers remained alive. The next two years would be no less devastating, with more than 400 colonists dying during the winter of 1609-1610.  Beset with disease, hunger, and antagonism from Algonquian tribes, the first European settlers at Jamestown faced tremendous adversity.  Only a handful survived what became known as the ‘starving time’.

 

“Embarking on their journey to North America in December 1606, 144 intrepid colonists were instructed by the Virginia Company of London, which held the colony’s charter, to establish kind relations with the Natives in order to facilitate trade and to secure a steady supply of food. Forty of the would-be settlers died at sea, leaving 104 colonists to establish the Virginia Company’s colony in the Americas….

 

“In 1608, after barely surviving their first winter…the colonists were resupplied twice with people and provisions.  When an additional 400 colonists arrived in August 1609, however, the population increase proved to be an unbearable burden for the burgeoning colony.  Short on food, the colonists already at Jamestown were unprepared to support the additional settlers, who arrived starving and without provisions.  The stage was set for the starving time of the winter of 1609-10.

 

“During the course of the winter, the settlers ate dogs, cats, horses, rats and other vermin, even leather from their shoes and boots.[1] When this proved insufficient, settlers turned to cannibalism, eventually eating the corpses of their fellow colonists….[2] On June 7, 1610, Jamestown’s residents abandoned the hapless town, but the next day their ships were met by a convoy led by the new governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord De La Ware, who ordered the settlers back to the colony.” (PBS. “Death at Jamestown,” Secrets of the Dead, 2016.)

 

“In the spring of 1610, a ship from England arrived to find 60 emaciated colonists.[3]  Resolving to rescue these famished souls, the crew took the Jamestown settlers aboard the ship, abandoned the colony, and set sail for England.  Their boat crossed paths with that of Captain Brewster and Lord De La Warre, who were on their way to Jamestown with provisions for the colonists.  The departing vessel reversed course, returned to the colony, and set to the business of reestablishing a settlement in Jamestown.” (Carter. “1609-1610: Starving Time at Jamestown.” In Campbell, Disasters…, 2008, pp. 7-8.)

 

PBS: “….The following winter,[4] disaster once again struck Jamestown.[5] Only 60 of 500 colonists survived the period, now known as ‘the starving time.’ Historians have never determined exactly why so many perished, although disease, famine (spurred by the worst drought in 800 years [?], as climate records indicate), and Indian attacks took their toll.

 

Sources

 

Campbell, Ballard C.  Disasters, Accidents, and Crises in American History:  A Reference Guide to the Nation’s Most Catastrophic Events. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2008.

 

Carter, Allison D. “1609-1610: Starving Time at Jamestown.” In Ballard C. Campbell, Disasters, Accidents, and Crises In American History (NY: Facts on File, 2008), pp. 7-8.

 

PBS. “Death at Jamestown,” Secrets of the Dead, 2016. Accessed 1-5-2018 at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/death-jamestown-background/1428/

 

 

[1] “Those who had finer clothes from England even boiled out the starch from their lace and stiff collars.  But roots, berries and laundry starch could no feed 500.”  (Mountford. “Lessons from Jamestown 1609-1610” Starving in the Land of Plenty,” Bay Journal, May 2000.)

[2] “There was an accusation of one colonist killing and eating his wife, his confession extracted under torture by George Percy after “having hung by the thumbs with weights at his feet a quarter of an hour, before he would confess the same.” He was put to death for the deed which later appeared to have simply been a matter of butchering her body and dispersing the parts to hide them from discovery. Even if all accounts are disputed, the trash pit contains fragments from a human cranium, source and mode of arrival unknown.” (Mountford, 2000.) Another account: “There was one of the companie who mortally hated his wife, and therefore secretly killed her, then cut her in pieces and hid her in diuers parts of his house: when the woman was missing, the man suspected, his house searched, and parts of her mangled body were discouered, to excuse himselfe he said that his wife died, that he hid her to satisfie his hunger, and that he fed daily vpon her. Vpon this, his house was againe searched, where they found a good quantitie of meale, oatemeale, beanes and pease. Hee therevpon was araigned, confessed the murder, and was burned for his horrible villainy.” (“A True Declaration of the Estate in Virginia,” 1610, Lib. of Congress.)

[3] “Dr. Simmons [William Simmons, Doctor of Divinity] reported: ‘…of five hundred, within six months after Captain Smith’s departure there remained not past sixty men, women and children (most miserable and poor creatures).”  (Mountford 2000)

[4] Had just noted that Captain John Smith left the colony to return to England in September 1609.

[5] Had lost 66 settlers to disease and starvation during its first year — landed May 13, 1607 and by time another ship arrived in January 1608, 66 of 104 had died.