First Footsteps
May 13, 1607, three English ships named the Susan Constant, Discovery, and the Godspeed landed 100 settlers along the banks of the James river in Virginia in order to establish the first permanent settlement in what would later become the United States. That settlement was called Jamestown and the life of this tiny village on the banks of the James river was precarious at best. This is the same settlement that produced the legendary explorer, Captain John Smith and the famed Algonquian native, Pocahontas. It is from this fledgling village which struggled with starvation, disease, and a hostile indigenous people (the Algonquians), that America was born. Yes, Jamestown wasn’t the first settlement to make a go of it in the new world and, they certainly were not the last but, they were the first English settlement to sustain a permanent population and ultimately survive.
The Virginian Company of London was a venture company incorporated in 1606 with the goal of exploiting the natural resources of the new world in North America. On May 13th of 1607, the first elements landed in Virginia and created the settlement called Jamestown. The settlers were beset by hostilities from the native peoples almost from the start and within that first year, Captain Smith was captured with two other members of the colony while foraging for food. Smith’s two companions were killed but Captain Smith was spared at the request of Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. Pocahontas became a friend of the settlement and later married a man named John Rolfe in 1614 that gave the settlement a brief period of rest from hostilities from the Algonquian people. Starvation and illness still racked the settlement and it was almost abandoned in 1610 but a timely arrival of supplies and more settles saved the little outpost. To give you an idea of the rate of death in the tiny colony, between 1607 and 1624…of the seventy-five hundred people who came to live in the colony, only twelve hundred still lived. You had less than a one in six chance of survival yet settlers still came to the settlement for a chance at a new start.
As more and more people learned how to live in this new wilderness, the local economy started to develop as crops like tobacco started to become an export back to England. Other English settlements tried and failed before Jamestown made it. The Roanoke Colony tried twice, first in 1586 and was abandoned, the second colony founded in 1587 just vanished and is called the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Build upon on the outer banks, it is believed that the colonist moved from their settlement to integrate with the local native tribe and thus left nothing but a cryptic clue. There are theories and ideas as to what happened with them but, nothing concrete has come forth in all the years that have followed. There were several others over the years that tried and failed but in 1620, in what is now called Massachusetts, the Pilgrims landed near Plymouth Rock and established their settlement which became the second to make a permanent go of things. In 1630, the English has 4,646 settlers in the new world and nearly half of that number lived in the Jamestown colony. In ten years, the number of English settlers in the new world would be almost 27,000 people and by 1650, that number would nearly double again. By the year 1700, there would be over a quarter of a million people in the English colonies spread out in cities and towns that dotted the 13 colonies.
May 13th doesn’t get a lot of fanfare from the people of this country, it typically goes unnoticed. But it was a start of a wave of emigration to this continent from the old world to the new that literally has changed the landscape of history. There are many complex social and economic ramifications associated with the arrival of permanent settlers from Europe to the new world…this can not be overlooked. But the 100 brave and hardy souls who took it upon themselves to carve out a new life in an untamed wilderness, we celebrate your courage today! Take it upon yourself to be courageous and get out of your comfort zone…take care of yourself, and each other…remember, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com