The first settlers of the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia hoped to forge a new life away from England, but life in the early 1600s in Jamestown consisted mostly of danger, hardship, disease, and death.

All the first settlers in 1607 were men and boys, including laborers, carpenters, masons, blacksmith, barber, tailor, mason, and preacher. Within weeks, they built a basic fortification to protect against attacks from the local Powhatan Indians. The reception of the settlers by the Powhatan was mixed: some welcomed them, while others assaulted them.

“As there were often several different tribes in a given area, it was not strange that different indigenous groups viewed Europeans as potential allies against enemies,” explains Stephen Leccese, historian and Ph.D. candidate at Fordham University. “The great diversity among indigenous groups meant that there was rarely widespread cooperation against European colonies.

As the 100 or so settlers settled in, they soon realized that the angry natives were the least of their problems: they were pathetically unprepared to forge a new colony. Daily life soon revolved around survival as famine and disease ravaged them; only about 38 settlers survived the first year.

The winter of 1609 was a disaster, and crude health care did not help.

In January 1608, other settlers arrived, including the first two women and the first doctor. According to Leccese, “The English government of the day had a vested interest in the settlers traveling to the Americas because it was a difficult time in English history… the government concluded that England was overpopulated and wanted a way to get rid of excess population. “

During the winter of 1609, relations between the settlers and the Indians deteriorated and the Indians besieged Jamestown during a terrible famine. To survive, the settlers ate anything and everything they could including, according to recently uncovered (and disputed) information archaeological evidence, some corpses of other settlers. Only 60 settlers survived this “period of famine”.

There is not much written on the specific remedies used by doctors in Jamestown to treat their sick and dying patients. Bleeding is documented as well as the use of herbal remedies. Local Native American medicine practitioners probably had an influence on the treatments used. But as evidenced by the massive number of settlers who died, these early drugs had marginal success at best.

The marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas created stability.

Despite the arrival of more settlers and attempts to improve conditions in Jamestown, it was not until 1612, when the settler John rolfe introduced tobacco into the colony, as the colony became profitable.

In 1613, English settlers captured Princess Powhatan Pocahontas. In 1614, she converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe, which led to a period of peace between settlers Powhatan and Jamestown.

In 1619, a representative general assembly was established to make laws and help maintain order in the nascent colony.

The women showed real courage in the first settlement in Jamestown.

Between 1620 and 1622, over a hundred women arrived in Jamestown. Some were bought by single settlers as wives. Others were indentured servants who endured harsh conditions working in the tobacco fields, as well as physical and sexual abuse.

England hoped that the women would help the men bond with the community and make them less likely to abandon the colony.

Once a woman under contract paid off her debt, she would likely get married, but many were still responsible for field work and household chores. Women are, however, much less submissive in Jamestown than in England and often fight for their rights and those of their children.

In the beginning, some men appreciated the contributions of their wives so much that they asked for the women to receive their own land. This generosity did not last, however. In the mid-17th century, as men’s primary concern shifted from mere survival to consolidating wealth and land, the General Assembly passed a law in 1662 stipulating that quarrelsome wives could be immersed in water. .

VIDEO: Slavery in America

In 1619, the Dutch brought the first captured Africans to America, sowing the seeds for a system of slavery that evolved into a nightmare of abuse and cruelty that would eventually divide the nation.

The Africans came to Jamestown as indentured servants.

By 1619, tobacco was king, and the daily life of almost everyone in Jamestown revolved around the production and sale of tobacco.

In August, the first Africans arrived as indentured servants. Although they were not officially slaves and could eventually gain their freedom, they had been kidnapped from their homeland and forced to live a harsh life of servitude. Their presence opened the door for Virginia to accept the institution of slavery and eventually replace African contract servants with African slaves.

The following decades in Jamestown brought periods of war and peace with the Indians. More and more settlers arrived, spread, and created new towns and plantations. In 1624, Virginia became a royal colony.

The fires, disease, famine and Indian attacks remained, but according to Leccese, “Another big problem was the increasingly stratified society. Over time, the first settlers had taken over all quality land, and the new settlers found fewer opportunities to become independent farmers on their own land. This resulted in a small class of wealthy landowners and a large class of landless peasants or small farmers.

In 1699, there were approximately 60,000 people in the Colony of Virginia, including approximately 6,000 African slaves. Jamestown had started a tradition of slavery that would endure in America for generations.