“Jamestown and triumphs”

Julie Atkinson

Reconstructive US History
Professor Brumbaugh
December 20,2014

Before the settlers landed in Jamestown, The Indians occupied the land and lived there for centuries. They were the first people to arrive in Jamestown. Some say there were 25,000 Indians; others say around 50,000 of the American natives, who lived on the land. There were about thirty different tribes whom the powhatan chiefdom took charge. However, each tribe had their own chief. In time there would be a change; King James 1 of England granted for another colony to be established under the Virginia Company of London which consisted of many wealthy Englishmen who wanted to invest their money into the company. They expected to open new lands for financial and patriotic explorations and use the resources of the new world. They wanted to establish English shipbuilding industries and to convert the Indians to Protestant Christianity. The Spanish were aggressive to convert the Indians to Roman Catholicism. Since there were already Spanish colonies in America, the English needed to develop new employment opportunities for the English. For this reason, English people wanted their own colonies. Around the time of 1607, there were three ships sailing from England: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery. They held around hundred and fifty English men, and boys who sailed four months before they reached Jamestown. During their voyage they encountered crowded conditions below the decks, the men were dirty and they reeked of fowl body odor of their unwashed bodies, even animal waste was on board. There was bickering and fighting, snorting, coughing, spitting every chance they got. In addition it was cold and damp below the decks, in which they became sick from one of many storms they encountered. There was a shortage of food and later as a result,