The “Starving Time” took place during the winter of 1609 to 1610 where nearly three-quarters of the English colonists died. The food supply diminished as they colonists focused more on finding gold to keep their wealth. The colonists had many disagreements with each other during that time. They also lacked skilled craftsmen because the rich refused to do any physical labor. During their time at Jamestown, the English colonists had suffered through a massive food shortage, due to their lack of skilled craftsmen, and proper use of firearms, which resulted in many of their deaths.
During the winter months at Jamestown, the colonists went through what was later called the “Starving Time.” They were faced with a major food shortage. When the colony was established the idea was to receive food from two different places. They were expecting to receive periodic supply ships and trade with the Native …show more content…
Many of the colonists were English noblemen who had no military or manual labor training. This left the colony without skilled craftsmen and many who refused to engage in any physical activity that did not relate to finding gold. The men spent countless hours searching for gold trying to make a profit they were failing. Due to the lack of food and fresh water supply diseases ran ramped. There was little to no work done to establish their industrial base. Little work was done because the rich men did not want to do any work. They expected everything to be done for them instead of learning how to do it themselves. A solution to this problem would have been to find men that were skilled craftsmen to properly train the noblemen who did not want to work. John Smith proposed the idea “Work or Starve” which meant the men had to farm for at least four hours a day or they starved. Their lack of interest in farming caused the food shortage and also lead to their