Jamestown: Why Did So Many Die?

Jamestown: Why Did So Many Die?
Jamestown was the first successful settlement established by England. It was first built in 1607 and lasted until about 1614. On the first ship, 100 male settlers set off for a new settlement in the New World. Life there at times was hard for various reasons. They did, however, become 7 7 trading partners with the Indians. 80% of Jamestown’s more than 500 settlers that had arrived had been dead by 1611. The reason for this is because of sickness and disease, lack of resources, and where they chose to build their settlement.
For starters, there was many illnesses and diseases that went around multiple times in Jamestown’s history. In Document E, it says between August and October of 1607 “Summer sickness kills half the colonist”. This supports my claim because half of the original

For example, in Document A, it states “Fish are present in local streams, but only in the spring and early summer are they there in impressive abundance”. This means that there was only lots of food limited times per year and there would not have been much food in fall and winter time. Also, they had just experienced failure of a colony nearby who all of the colonists of Roanoke Island mysteriously disappeared. This could have had an affect on the number of people who died because they might not have been ready to build another colony and might have benefited from waiting a few more years to build a new colony. Disease would spread quickly among all of the colonists. This is because Jamestown was not huge meaning that if one person or a few people had a disease of illness, it would spread around quickly.
In sum, many colonists were killed for various reasons. These reasons include sickness and disease, lack of resources, and where Jamestown was chosen to be built. This analysis was important because it included most of the main reasons why many Jamestown colonists