Posted on 01/25/2005 3:12:35 PM PST by PhilipFreneau
Rethinking Jamestown
America's first permanent colonists have long been considered lazy and incompetent. But new evidence suggests that it was a prolonged drought—not indolence—that almost did them in
To the English voyagers who waded ashore at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on a balmy April day in 1607, the lush Virginia landscape must have seemed like a garden paradise after four and a half months at sea. One ebullient adventurer later wrote that he was "almost ravished" by the sight of the freshwater streams and "faire meddowes and goodly tall trees" they encountered when they first landed.
Fifty miles upstream, they set about building a fortress and clearing land for the commercial outpost they had been sent to establish and which they called "James Cittie." They were eager to get down to the business of extracting gold, timber and other commodities to ship back to London.
But Jamestown proved to be neither paradise nor gold mine. In the heat of that first summer at the mosquito-infested settlement, 46 of the colonists died of fever, starvation or Indian arrows. By year's end, only 38 remained. Were it not for the timely arrival of British supply ships in January 1608, and again the following October, Jamestown, like Roanoke a few years before, almost certainly would have vanished.
It is little wonder that history has not smiled on the colonists of Jamestown. Though recognized as the first permanent English settlement in North America and the setting for the charming (if apocryphal) tale of Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith, Jamestown has been largely ignored in colonial lore in favor of Massachusetts' Plymouth Colony. And what has survived is not flattering, especially when compared with the image of industrious and devout Pilgrims seeking religious freedom in a new land.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.si.edu ...
They got what they deserve, trying to push Native Americans off their land. Those European white guys deserved that arrow. The fever was a bonus.
:) Denote sarcasm.
FTR, the Indians killed my ancestor, Capt Samuel Maycock, during the 1622 Jamestown Massacre.
CROATAN!!!
See what happens when you invade another country.
Sarcasm off! It's kind of neat that you can trace your lineage back to Jamestown.
If the Puritans had landed in Virginia, they'd have been laid low from disease, too. Plymouth is usually put forward as the founding of America. That's right, for the Yankee section. Jamestown is the birthplace of the South, and Southerners are proud of it and haven't forgotten it.
My Jamestown ancestor, Thomas Graves, went back & forth between the colony and England. Every time he was gone, he escaped some epidemic, disaster, or Indian attack.
>> My Jamestown ancestor, Thomas Graves, went back & forth between the colony and England. Every time he was gone, he escaped some epidemic, disaster, or Indian attack.
Graves was captured by the Indians on one occasion. He was rescued by Thomas Savage.
I found some of my relatives on the gallows record for horse stealing.
When I visited Jamestown Fort in 1998 in July those were my first thoughts. Like many Americans growing up outside of Virginia the American History taught in my school barely mentioned the Jamestown Colony and gave the impression that the colonists had trouble surviving the winter.
As I stood on the banks of the James River in stifling heat being attacked by mosquitos as the tour guide spun his tales, all I could lthink is ,"How did they survive the summers?"
It was far too hot to work the fields -- especially in all the clothes that they wore. And if you waited until evening, you would soon lose the light. The heat just took your breath away.
My ancestor came on the First Supply at the end of 1607 -- Edward Gurganoy, classified as "gentleman". (I think that is how it was spelled.) I don't know how long he survived, but the next mention of the name is when his daughter arrived a few years later from England to claim his estate (I think it was 1614). She married another settler and died in childbirth, or shortly thereafter, but the child survived. My family has managed to keep a toehold here ever since.
My relatives were perfect...they never did anything wrong...they were just watching the land for a while until the natives returned...no onwe ever asked for it back...we can't find the ones who left it for us...they were disease free...they grew there own food without help from anyone and even gave some away...they picked up all of their trash and a bit more...they dusted...they vacuumed...(just trying to avoid the lawsuit for anything that happened before I was born).
The other names in my family besides Gurganey, or Gurganay, are Harris and Ligon and ultimately Bedford -- but the Bedford's married into the family later.
My mother's family settled new Sweden up in Philadelphia, arriving on the Kalmar Nyckle.
LOL. I love the sound of your relatives. Do you think you could get them to come to my house which needs a good vacuuming?
The Maycock plantation is at Jamestown then?
I was in Williamsburg last summer, but didn't make it over to Jamestown. Haven't been there in years, & I know there's more to see and appreciate there now...another trip.
You know you're full of it. They probably terrorized the countryside, driving Native Americans like they were cattle. :)
Just admit that you come from a long line of white European terroists and that you'll do all you can for minorities in the future, including hiring practices that show preference to minorities first. We don't want to catch you discriminating. :)
Once you're done that, you're on your way to recovery.
You're got to wash that mean-sprited, nasty conservatism out of your system. It's unhealthy for the country. :)
Denote sarcasm. :)
Another thing that fascinates me about some of these earliest colonists is how frequently they went back & forth across the Atlantic...in those ships!!
The ancestor of Robert E. Lee...the first Lee here...was the same...back & forth.
I took a college course in the French Colonization of North America. It is a broad generalization, but a good number of the French came to the New World to make their fortunes, and then return to La Belle France...fits, right??
There were Englishmen like that, too...conducting trade & business, maintaining their ties all the while, but to a much lesser extent than the French.
BTTT
I know...I'm really trying...I'm working my program, but my sponsor doesn't seem to want to help me through the rough times anymore...Every day I need to start with Step oine all over again!
Maybe I can find a lawsuit brought against my relatives 60 or 70 years ago, and the claim has already been paid...
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