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.
CROATAN!!!
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.
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.
BTTT
One more thing: a movie is being made about the settling of Jamestown: "The New World"...out this year some time. Didn't see it mentioned in this article...Hollywood History, no doubt!!??
Wow! I turned to PBS and it is showing a documentary on this new view of Jamestown history.