Watts 1
Why did so many colonists die?
In 1607 many English colonists came to America in order to look for gold and find new land. They sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and worked their way up the James River and found a spot they thought would suit what these new settlers needed to survive. When they first came to America, King Henry I and a very strong group of English investors funded the settling of the James River colony. The people these investors put their money into , to survive in a brand new world were gentlemen that would look for gold and for prisoners or criminals. By the end of the year only 40 settlers of these original 110 were left. In 1607 many of the original Jamestown settlers perished because of disease, conflict with Native Americans, and starvation. To begin with, When the colonists of Jamestown decided on Jamestown they didn’t consider that they would become sick by dirty water. They also must have forgotten that water freezes and that means no fishing. Back then fish were a very big part of what colonists ate. Back to tide rising and falling, these people had no where to put their waste. When they went to the rest room they only had a bucket to put it in but they would then have to put what ever was in the bucket into the river. There is also no showers so when they did bathe they had to bathe in the same water that they dumped their waste into. The river water was also brackish because it was connected to ocean. Because Jamestown was only 3 feet above sea level when the tide rose and fell the brackish and dirty water would go into their wells that they had. This could easily cause sickness and spread disease. Back then being sick would more often than not end up fatal.
To continue, the colonists didn’t realize there would be other