Jamestown Colony: A Landscape of Death and Disease

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Why did so many Jamestown colonists die? The colonists settled in the middle of a swamp which had little to no water and the little water that there was was brackish and full of diseases. This swamp had mosquitos which brought deadly diseases with them. This land also had very little to no farm land. The area didn’t have a good clean source of water for the colonists to drink. These aren’t even the worst of what the colonists in Jamestown had to worry about. The water in Jamestown was not drinkable to say the least. Jamestown had already been at a major loss when it came to their water. When the colonists arrived this area had already been in a century of drought. This caused many problems for the natives and the colonists when they arrived. The very little water that was in this area was horrible. Even though the water was not clean the colonists drank it anyway. This water had many diseases and chemicals in the water that were very bad for human consumption. The water had salt, lead, and arsenic in it. The salt would dehydrate you, the lead would poison you, and the arsenic can cause cancer and other life threatening diseases. One disease called Typhoid fever was a major issue in Jamestown. The settlers had very little immunity to this disease so it killed many people. This disease caused stomach aches, head …show more content…

Settling near a swamp was not a great idea. There was very little water. The little water that there was was brackish and full of diseases.. The settlement had very little good farmland and water to grow crops even if there was. Even the bugs in Jamestown killed of many. The mosquitoes spreaded many diseases and caused a lot of trouble for the settlement. These were all the reasons that Jamestown did not succeed. If the colony was settled in a better location with good farmland, a good supply of clean water, and fewer mosquitoes than the settlement could have

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