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Article: Unsteady foothold in the new world: four hundred years ago, Jamestown endured hardship and near ruin before succeeding as the first permanent English settlement in America.
- Article from:
- The New American
- Article date:
- May 14, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 American Opinion Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The men of the Virginia Company had been in Virginia less than 10 weeks, having settled on a marshy spit of land along the Powhatan River they called Jamestown, when things began to go badly. Two of the three ships under the command of Christopher Newport, the Susan Constant and the Godspeed, had sailed for England on June 22, 1607, taking with them most of the colony's labor force. They left behind a completed fort but with a garrison made up mostly of unmotivated "gentlemen" and a few others equally disinclined to build homes and gather food. Scant daily rations of a half a pint of barley and wheat were not enough to move them to action. Instead of building homes, many ...