Thunder, lightning, and torrential rains gave us just the smallest taste of the hardships the Jamestown settlers endured in the Virginia climate.
Three ships, the Godspeed, the Discovery, and the Susan Constant, arrived here in 1607, bringing 144 men whose passage meant 144 days in the hold living on hard tack (pictured, below) and salt pork. Their mission, the Virginia Company's first and extremely risky North American venture, was to establish a port and to begin harvesting the resources of the New World.
"Find out a safe port in the entrance of some navigable river . . . as runneth furthest into the land . . . that you may make election of the strongest, most fertile and wholesome place . . ." Virginia Company, "Instructions by Way of Advice," 1606.
The real hardships began when they came aground. They were gentlemen, not trained for hard work, and nothing could have prepared them for the rigors of living off an unknown land. Drought led to starvation and wars with the Indians, while "cruel diseases as swellings, fluxes, [and] burning fevers" (George Percy, 1607) threatened to wipe them out.
But in time, and thanks to the diplomatic interventions of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, the colonists learned to work the land and negotiate with the Indians.
"The mildness of the fire, the fertility of the soile, and the situation of the rivers are so propitious to the nature and use of man as no place is more convenient for pleasure, profit, and man's sustenance." John Smith, 1612.
The Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, brings to life each of the three cultures present on the James River during this pivotal time: the Powhatan Indians, the English colonists, and the African-American slaves.
