Jamestown: Would You Have Survived?

In hindsight, it's now known that the early Jamestown colonists did not make the best of choices.

In search of maximum defense against the Indians and other enemies, they settled on a piece of land that was almost completely surrounded by water and located at a bend in the river such that they could look both upriver and downriver for oncoming enemy ships.  Unfortunately, being on land that was nearly an island meant that there weren't as many roaming animals for them to hunt.  There was also limited fresh water access, and the settlers often had to drink brackish water.   The marshy land surrounding them bred mosquitos, and malaria was apparently a huge killer.

There were several other factors that set the colonists up for failure.  Many of the first arriving settlers were "gentlemen," unwilling and unable to do the work required in creating a settlement out of wilderness.   The Indians though at times friendly and willing to trade with the settlers more often were hostile, and the settlers became trapped within their fort.  Tree ring analysis has also recently shown that in the first few years of the colonists arriving, there was a severe drought.

All of these reasons and more led to the deaths of most of the first settlers and their replacements.  The numbers are roughly 50 or so survivors out of around 500 colonists in the first few years of the settlement.  There was a particularly bad time from 1609-10 called "the starving time" when there are reports of the survivors eating excrement, shoe leather and the flesh of those who had died.

Just this past summer, anthropologists revealed evidence of this cannibalism after study of some bones from the Jamestown site revealed cuts and marks consistent with this act.  Analysis further revealed that the bones were from a 14-year-old girl who was English and likely of a higher class due to evidence of a high protein diet.  She is believed to be the daughter of one of the settlers and was probably already dead before she was eaten.

As the girls and I discussed all of the above, we wondered if we would have been one of the few survivors. Indigo immediately said yes.  Phoenix at first said no.  We know that we would not have been of the "gentlemen" class and would probably have been one of the laborers.  We reckon that we are strong and smart enough to have figured out some survival skills.  Definitely my intolerance for clutter and messiness would have been helpful.  In the book Richard of Jamestown we read about how some of the gentlemen were so lazy that they would dump their pee and poop just outside of the doors of their shelter.  When it rained, it got super yucky and when it got hot, it got even stinkier and horrible.

What do you think -- would you have survived?
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WHAT WE DID TODAY:  We motored upriver and anchored just offshore of where the replicas of the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed are located.

Looking through the Susan Constant's rigging to where C.Spirit is anchored

I took this picture of a bosun's chair because it looks exactly like the one I used to go up the mast last week.  Some things don't change even after 400 years.

There is no public access via boat to the National Park Service Historic Jamestowne site or to the Jamestown Settlement grounds.  We rowed the dinghy under the Jamestown-Scotland ferry bridge to the public beach just upriver of the ferry.  Jamestown Settlement was then a short five minute walk up the road.

We had originally planned to walk to the NPS site, view it and then return to Jamestown Settlement, but realized that the girls' interest would probably wane after one site.  We opted for Jamestown Settlement with its "living history" actors and replicas of the boats, Powhatan village and Jamestown fort.  The actors were entertaining, and were able to answer all of our questions.

Sage would definitely have survived

Skye grinding corn

We found out that on the boats, the sailors went barefoot as shoes at that time were treadless and too slippery to wear on deck.  (Sailing in the cold without Gill boots?!!)  One of the actor's interest in history was evident as he talked to me about his own research trying to prove that the Indians did eat a certain type of artichoke.

The inside exhibits and galleries at Jamestown Settlement were less interactive than ideal for the younger girls, but the rest of us found them interesting.

Though we didn't use it this visit, there is a free shuttle that goes between Jamestown Settlement, the NPS Historic Jamestowne site, Williamsburg and Yorktown.

The public beach where we landed our dinghy has nice sand, picnic tables and looks like a great swim area. 

Turkey vultures -- those birds are enormous!

This is what the turkey vultures were crowded around

WHERE WE ARE: We motored back to the same anchorage as last night across the river from Jamestown because it is so peaceful and beautiful.