There were many key factors that made early life in Virginia miserable. Many of these unfortunate events began before the settlers even arrived at Virginia, and many died on the four month long expedition through the Atlantic Ocean. Once the remaining crew arrived at the New World, conditions did not improve and due to many different aspects. Lives of early Virginia settlers were made miserable due to consistent high death rates and food shortages.
Hardships began even before the settlers first arrived on Virginia’s shore. Many traveler’s died on the four month voyage such as in April 1607 when only 105 of the original 144 settlers arrived to Chesapeake Bay. The hard times continued that summer when 46 more settlers died and even still in the winter months when by January, only 38 men were still alive. The death toll was still shocking even 15 years later in 1622 when roughly 3,500 Virginians went missing. There are some theories that account for some of the missing people, but cannot rationalize the whole sum of people. Some theories include the immune system being weakened by the voyage, diseases including malaria and typhoid fever, and poor diet.
Another reason life in early Virginia was miserable was because of food shortages. The lack of food especially hit hard during the winter months when farming did not occur. During the winter of 1609, the food supply they had including sheep, goats, hens and hogs dwindled, so the settlers had to switch to eating “doggs catts ratts and myce.” One settler became so desperate that he salted and ate his wife until he was caught by the authorities. One thing that baffles historians is the lack of corn the settlers had. Corn was relatively easy to plant and tend to, the Indians only catered to corn a few days out of the year and produced copious amounts. The lack of corn became so bad that in Governor Argall’s proclamation of 1618, he created a law that required farmers to grow corn. Why should a starving man be forced to grow food? Well, most settlers wanted to grow tobacco instead, hoping to generate a profit. Growing tobacco took a lot of time and effort, so the settlers spent all of their time tending to it, instead of corn. Although there were many factors that contributed to an overall miserable life in early Virginia, none made it worse than the staggering death rates and the lack of food. Men were dying by the thousands, death counts beginning before the ships even arrive on the shores of Virginia. Food shortages also made life in Virginia unbearable due to surprising the lack of food, even corn, which wouldn’t have taken much work to grow. All of the factors added up to the unhappy life of the early Virginia settlers.