A look at the settlement of Jamestown and its hardships with a focus on the acts of cannibalism that have been brought to light recently. It has been adapted from another previous presentation.

1. Adapted from:
http://www.slideshare.net/carlgreer/history-of-
jamestown?qid=5903f209-ce4c-4e53-83c5-
d8d01412b71f&v=default&b=&from_search=3

3. King James I
 Was king of Scotland beginning in 1567
 Became king of England and Ireland in 1603
 Son of Mary, Queen of Scots
 James believed that colonies could prove profitable to
the Crown
 Viewed North America as the most likely place for
settlements
 Only one problem…

4. The Treaty of Tordesillas

5. Virginia Company
 Collection of businessmen and investors
 Granted a charter by King James I in 1606
 Charter was for 6 million acres (Vermont: 5.9 million
square acres, Massachusetts: 5 million)
 Purpose: To establish colonies in North America that
would prove financially beneficial to the Crown
 London and Plymouth Companies

7. Plymouth Company
 Colony is placed at the mouth of Kennebec River in
Maine, near present day Bath
 Survives for one year before being abandoned
 Area is ignored as a colonization target until 1620

8. Jamestown Settlement
 First colonists arrive April 1607
 104 men and boys
 Combination of gentry, military men, craftsmen/
artisans, unskilled laborers
 Upon arrival, secret orders from the Virginia Company
listing who was in charge were opened. Mix of gentry
and military men.

10. Jamestown: After the Arrival
 Attacked by Algonquian Indians, led by Powhatan, on
first night
 Sought refuge onboard ships
 Construction of a fort begins after a month
 An Algonquian attack exposes vulnerabilities & leads
to construction of a second, stronger fort
 Why did they settle at the Jamestown location?
1. Water depth (good for ships to access inland)
2. Defendable

12. Jamestown: After the Arrival
(cont.)
 Captain Newport returns to England for supplies one
week after fort is finished
 The Colony started to slide towards extinction
 Why?

13. Problems at Jamestown
 Famine
 Less than 50% of population was still alive less than six
months later
 Lack of farmers
 Lack of proper equipment
 Disease
1. Typhoid (fever, usually caused by the ingestion of
food or water contaminated by the feces of an infected
person)
2. Dysentery (gastro infection that causes diarrhea
and more, lack of nourishment)
 Indian attacks

14. Divine Intervention…or Pure Dumb
Luck?
 Powhatan intervenes
 January 1607: Captain Newport returns
 Brings supplies AND 120 colonists
 Only 38 members from the original group are still alive
(36.5%)
 Colonists accidentally burn fort, spend winter months
living in the ruins
 High death rate continues for decades

15. Jamestown (non)Survivability Rate
 First colonists: 38 of 104
 1609: Population declines from 600 to 60 in SIX
MONTHS.
 WHAT HAPPENED?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGQ5lFck19
 1619-1622: Virginia Company sends 3570 people to
Jamestown to join 700 already there. 3000 die.
 1607-1625: Virginia Company sends 6000 people to
Virginia. By 1625, only 1200 remain.

16. Jamestown Jane

17. Detail of cut marks found on the girl’s jaw, or lower
mandible in a stereo-microscopic photo. (Smithsonian
Institution / Don Hurlbert)

18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHGI5
0ebhA0

20. John Smith: Savior of Jamestown
 Adventurer (aka: mercenary)
 Captured and sold as slave to Turkish nobleman
 Escapes, returns to England. Joins Jamestown
expedition
 Clashes with shipmates, clapped in irons, threatened
with execution
 Named by Virginia Company to Jamestown Council

21. James Smith (cont.)
 Explores and maps Virginia
 Captured by Algonquians during exploring trip
 Disappearance allows Captain Newport and another
colonist to assume control of colony
 Summer 1608: Leaves settlement to further explore
Virginia
 Reelected to the colony council in September

22. John Smith (cont.)
 Captain Newport returns to England (Fall 1608)
 Colony still struggling to survive
 Smith emerges as leader of the settlement
 Pressures Powhatan
 No work, or food to eat
 Newport returns in 1609 with supplies and colonists
 Smith loses power struggle, departs colony October
1609, dies in 1631

23. John Rolfe
 Departed England for Jamestown in May 1609
 Onboard is his pregnant wife, Sara
 Sea Venture was captained by Captain Newport.
 John Smith’s angry letter to the Virginia Company
leads them to make their third supply mission their
biggest and best equipped

24. John Rolfe (cont.)
 Rolfe and other survivors are shipwrecked for 9
months
 Using the remains of the Sea Venture, the survivors
build two ships, Deliverance and Patience in May 1610
 Rolfe’s wife and infant daughter die in Bermuda

25. John Rolfe (cont.)
 Does not begin growing tobacco until 1611
 By 1617, Virginia colony produces 20,000 pounds of
tobacco annually
 In 1618, tobacco exports jump to 40,000 pounds
 Rolfe marries Pocahontas in 1614

26. End of the Virginia Company
 Rolfe’s marriage to Pocahontas results in uneasy peace
between Algonquian and the English settlers
 Death of Powhatan in 1618 ends peace
 1622: Slaughter of settlers by Indians. Loss of more
than 25% of the settlers results
 Investigation by Crown places blame for deaths of
colonists on mismanagement

27. End of the Virginia Company(cont.)
 Charter is revoked
 Virginia colony survives. Why?

29. Year
Colonial Tobacco Imports
to England
(includes Virginia from 1612
and Bermuda from 1615)
European Tobacco
Imports to England
1616 2,300 52,673
1617 19,388 50,906
1618 41,728 42,871
1623 134,607 66,877
1624 202,962 63,497

30. A Counterblaste to Tobacco
 King James hated the use of tobacco by subjects.
Forbids use of it in his presence.
 Issues a treatise in 1604
“A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose,
harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in
the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the
horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.”
Due to its popularity and the ability to tax it, tobacco
continued to be a cash crop for the British

31. 1620: Women Arrive in Jamestown