In 1607 the colonists from England came to Jamestown, Virginia not thinking to grow their own food or to raise their own animals for meat, instead they were thinking of gold.  One hundred and forty-four English men and boys came to Jamestown to find gold.  Gold, gold, gold, that’s all they thought of.  The men kept the gold and traded other items with the Indians, until they couldn’t trade anything else.  Soon there was a drought and they couldn’t grow anything. 

John Smith was the leader and started Jamestown.  During an accidental gun powder incident, he was forced to return to England for medical care in 1609.  This meant he had to leave his colony without a leader or food. 

Shortly after he left, a supply ship was on its way delivering colonists and food.  Unfortunately, a hurricane emerged, causing the supply ship to sink.  All colonists and food on board sank in the middle of the ocean.  When the Indians found out about this, they no longer traded with the colonists in their plan to starve them out.  The Indians were tired of trading their food with the colonists.  The colonists didn’t have anyone to trade with, and they didn’t have their own food supplies, leaving them to starve to death.  This lead one man to cannibalism, killing and eating his own wife!  Two other colonists stole from a market and got caught.  Their punishment was to be tied to a post, leaving them to starve to death. 

During this starving time, four hundred and forty colonists actually starved to death out of 500 colonists.




Resources:
www.beyondbooks.com/ush72/2c.asp
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/starving_time_(jamestown)