Early Jamestown Why Did So Many Colonists Die Essay

Starting over in a new unknown world can be terrifying. The Jamestown colonists had hard trials, some survived these trials, some weren 't so lucky. Poor planning, Indian attacks and lack of medical care are the three main reasons the so many colonists died during the early years of their settlement in the new world.

The colonists were not prepared for their new beginning. They had very little food and no ways to get food so most starved. Why? They brought no farmers to grow their food. They also couldn 't go out to hunt because of the Indians. In 1609, a group of men sailed up the Bay in an attempt to trade goods for grain. However, they betrayed the colonists by returning to England because they knew it wouldn 't be enough to get them through the winter. (Hume) There were also too many gentlemen. Out of the 110 men 47 of them were gentlemen. A gentlemen is a person of wealth who doesn 't work with there hands. (Smith) These men had no skills to assist with gathering any food. The Jamestown colonists planned poorly by not being able to obtain or grow food and by bringing to many gentlemen which was a big reason why a lot of the

WAnother reason why so many colonists died is, the Powhatan Indians. From the time the colonists arrived through August the Indians killed at least 5. (Fausz) At first it seems as though the Indians left the colonists alone. However between 1609-1610, the Indians killed at least 110 colonists. (Fausz) The colonists had Inappropriate clothing and no defense technique. The Indians practice something called gorilla warfare and the colonists could not defend against it. (Nightmare in Jamestown)They were not prepared to fight the natives, they were only prepared to fight against the French with their close range weapons. The colonists wore their traditional clothing which did not serve them well in the winter. The Indians were prepared by wearing fur coats. The Jamestown colonists were not prepared for the weather or the native Indian