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The
Starving Time
by Emmy
The starving of Jamestown occurred during the winter of 1609-1610. When John Smith, the previous leader of Jamestown, returned to England, the Algonquin Indian Tribe stopped trading with the settlers and would even shoot the settlers with poisonous darts if they came out of their fort to hunt. The Indians did these things because they did not want the settlers to take over their land. The colonists didn’t think they would have to grow their own food because they thought they could depend upon the Native Americans. The settlers ate animals like cows, horses, dogs and cats, and even ate the leather off their shoes. It was a hard, long winter. Two ships, the Deliverence and the Patience, unexpectedly arrived with more colonists who had crashed in the Bermuda Islands. The people on the ships thought that the Jamestown Peninsula would be filled with colonists who had lots of food, but they found only a few settlers and the skeletons of other settlers who had starved. All the Jamestown colonists that were left got on four small ships to abandon Jamestown. But on their way back to England they found three ships commanded by Thomas West, the Baron de laWarr. Thomas West told them they had to go back to Jamestown. West brought 150 new settlers and had orders from the London Company that he was to be Governor and Captain/General of Virginia. West sent a message to Chief Powhatan saying that he must return stolen English weapons and tools. Powhatan did not agree to the message, and he kept the colonists starving. After a while, John Rolfe arrived on a ship called the Sea Venture. John Rolfe began to grow tobacco in Jamestown to make money. He sent the tobacco to London to be sold. He made a lot of money and bought some plantations, including one on Mulberry Island. The tobacco business started to get bigger. More people started to sell tobacco from all over Jamestown. Soon Jamestown was a thriving colony. Later, John Rolfe married Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan’s daughter. Soon she was given the name Rebecca. After the marriage, Powhatan gave more food to the settlers and eventually the starving of Jamestown came to a final close. John Rolfe and Rebecca had one son born in 1615. Works Cited
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