The Jamestown Colony
“Such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of…”
In 1607, England officially entered the empire-building race. The Virginia Company of London had scored a royal charter granting them land in what was then the southeastern U.S. Their mission? Profit. Spain had already proven the New World was brimming with wealth, thanks to all that Aztec and Incan gold and silver. England wasn’t about to sit this one out.
The Virginia Company sent 105 colonists aboard three ships: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. The passenger list told you everything you needed to know about their priorities—and how unprepared they were. It included 50 “gentlemen,” 4 carpenters, 1 blacksmith, 1 tailor, and 2 surgeons. What it didn’t include? Farmers. Or women. These guys had no plans to build a permanent settlement nor did they have a clue how to survive in the wilderness. They assumed gold and riches would be lying around waiting to be claimed. Instead of bringing supplies to grow their own food, they instead decided that they would just trade trinkets with the locals for food, a risky bet that would turn out to be a colossal failure.
After two weeks of scouting, they chose a site in May 1607 and named it Jamestown. Strategically, it was a great choice—high ground and tricky waterways made it easy to defend against potential attacks. But as a place to live, it was about as smart as putting a screen door on a submarine. The settlement was surrounded by mosquito-infested swamps, the water was brackish and undrinkable, and the soil was useless for farming. Instead of building a future, they built a ticking time bomb.
The Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan Confederacy, a group of about 30 villages led by Chief Powhatan, first thought the English might be useful allies against their enemies. They were open to swapping corn for metal tools and weapons. The English had a different idea. Jamestown was to be the beginning of a vast English empire that would be built on native land and hopefully in time with native slave labor. It was only a matter of time before the two sides clashed.
At first chief Powhatan tried to play nice and suggested that the English relocate their fort to a less mosquito infested location. The English not only refused to abandon Jamestown but instead made plans to build two additional forts. When the Powhatan refused to give them land to build these additional forts, the English responded by destroying a sacred burial ground. So far, not off to a good start.
Fed up with the English invaders, the native people began picking off lone colonists who strayed too far from the fort. One unlucky guy got sniped by an arrow when he snuck outside the fort to pee. After that, the rest of the group wisely chose to spend their entire time inside the palisades. Surrounded by hostile Indians the colonists were trapped like a politician wired to a polygraph. But things kept getting worse....the water in the river had turned brackish and nearly undrinkable as summer arrived and the tides shifted. The supplies dwindled. There was no gold. And even if they had found gold it probably wouldn’t have done much for the whole starvation problem. They could only wait and hope for the early arrival of the promised supply ship. Then Malaria stopped by to kill off a few more colonists.
Captain John Smith: The Unlikely Hero
Immediately, arguments broke out and the colony descended into chaos. Captain John Smith, a soldier with a colorful past, had been appointed by the Virginia Company take control of the situation. More importantly, he was one of the only white men who could peacefully negotiate with the Indians for food and supplies.
Captain Smith led small groups of armed men out of the fort to try to trade with nearby natives. He believed that establishing diplomatic ties with the native people was the only way his people would survive the coming winter. He did eventually meet with Powhatan but it was not in the manner that he intended. Smith had gotten himself separated from his companions and was captured. Like all captives, Smith had the glorious prospect of a very lengthy torture ordeal to look forward to. But according to legend the twenty-eight-year-old John Smith was saved by the daughter of Powhatan, Pocahontas, who threw herself on him and proclaimed “Father! I love him”. At which point they fell madly in love and lived happily ever after. But this bit of fiction was the creation of Disney who should never be trusted in telling a historically accurate story. In reality, our brave heroine was most likely about eleven-years-old at the time. But on the bright side Captain John Smith was able to talk his way out of certain death and broker a peace treaty with the Powhatan Confederacy. Limited trade would begin. Now the colony of Jamestown only had to deal with Malaria, polluted water, the Spanish, and a miserable profit margin.
In January of 1608, the "First Supply" ship arrived. One hundred new settlers were greeted by thirty-eight men--the rest had died. With more food and manpower, they quickly added new fortifications and established armed guards who patrolled the area outside of the fort. This allowed a new dictate to come from Captain John Smith. "Work or starve." The colonists were put to work establishing farms to stockpile food for the next winter.
It was around this time that a gunpowder accident nearly killed John Smith. Some claim that someone had set fire to the gunpowder store intentionally to get rid of the demanding captain. The homes could be re-built, but the broken body of the captain would need more time. Smith was shipped back home to England. Many were happy to see Smith go. After all, who had time to dig for gold if they were being forced to farm like a peasant. Good riddance to the only tie to friendly native people they had. Without John Smith, trade with the Powhatan came to an end.
The Starving Time
In a state of war and with dwindling food supplies the colony began to suffer again. By a stroke of bad luck, poor preparation, and more bad luck, Jamestown was about to face a time of horror that would nearly destroy the colony. Apparently, waging war on the only people who could provide you with food was not such a smart idea after all. By late autumn food supplies were nearly exhausted because rats had gotten into their warehouses. Some English resorted to stealing from the Indians which as you can imagine went over as well as a death metal band in a Baptist church. With Smith gone, the Powhatan decided to get rid of the English trespassers once and for all. The Powhatan stopped all trade with the English and put the colony under siege to prevent anyone else from supplying them with food.
The winter of 1609-10 was known as the Starving Time. There would be no supplies and no one to force them to farm. When the food finally ran out the people were forced to eat cats, dogs, horses, and rats. The colonists were forced to stay within the fort. "...the natives killed as fast without if our men stirred but beyond the bounds of the blockhouse." They could only sit and hope. Two men were caught raiding the storehouses and were tied to posts and allowed to starve.
Archaeologists have discovered remains of the early colonists and found suspect chopping marks on the bones of one girl who had died at the age of fourteen. The chop marks were similar to those found on butchered animals. One man was found to have killed his own wife in a fit of hunger and then had, "...cut her in pieces, powdered her, and fed upon her." This led John Smith to quip, "Such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of."
Smith was back in England by this time and writing down his story for future publication. In a particularly gruesome instance, a few of the colonists decided that Native Americans might have another use and one that had been killed in a skirmish was"...digged by some out of his grave after he had laid buried three days, and [they] wholly devoured him." It seems that the people of Jamestown had turned to cannibalism.
Seriously, not even Wes Craven could not have written a better B grade horror film. Jamestown was not going to recover easily. On June 7, 1610, the surviving colonists were done. They had enough and boarded a ship. Where were they going? Presumably, England, but before they even reached the Ocean, a supply ship intercepted them and turned them back towards Jamestown. By the time the fourth relief ship arrived, only 60 settlers were still alive out of the original 500.
After analyzing her bones, archeologists were able to conduct a facial reconstruction of "Jane". This is what they believe she likely looked like when she was alive.
Archaeologists unearthed the skull of a young girl with mysterious cut marks on her skull...indicating that she may have been a victim of cannibalism.
A close up of the skull shows that these cut marks were made by a knife or sharp object to remove the skin from the bone.
Archaeologists unearthed the skull of a young girl with mysterious cut marks on her skull...indicating that she may have been a victim of cannibalism.
The Tobacco Boom
Jamestown’s salvation came from an unlikely source: tobacco. In 1610, as the remaining settlers prepared to leave, a new governor, Lord De La Warr, arrived with supplies and reinforcements, ordering them to stay. But it was John Rolfe who turned the colony’s fortunes around. In 1612, Rolfe illegally imported Spanish tobacco seeds and cultivated a strain that thrived in Virginia’s soil. Tobacco quickly became the colony’s cash crop, earning the nickname “Virginia’s gold.”
By 1617, Jamestown exported its first shipment of tobacco to England. Within a decade, the colony was shipping 20,000 pounds annually. Tobacco required vast amounts of labor, leading to the introduction of indentured servitude. English men and women agreed to work for 4–7 years in exchange for passage to the New World. By the mid-1600s, tens of thousands of indentured servants had arrived in Virginia.
But the labor demands didn’t stop there. In 1619, the first African captives were brought to Jamestown aboard the White Lion, marking the beginning of African slavery in English America. While initially treated as indentured servants, these individuals soon became the foundation of a racialized system of slavery that would define the colony’s labor force for centuries.
Indentured were little more than slaves with a seven year shelf life.
Virginia tobacco plantation
Why it Matters
The tobacco boom transformed Jamestown and the Virginia colony created England’s first foothold in North America that would spread in all directions. The colonies of Maryland and North Carolina followed. By 1675, the total tobacco exports to England exceeded 10 million pounds. The taxes collected by this trade brought in 100,000 pounds per year, more than even the sugar colonies in the Caribbean. Virginia tobacco planted the seeds of the southern plantation culture. And with it, African slaves were soon after being imported to work the fields leading to one of the darkest chapters in American history. But the survival of Jamestown set the English on a path to colonization of the entire eastern seaboard. As the population expanded America began to transform into a mini England. From this struggling colony, the seeds of the United States were planted and history changed forever.
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