Jamestown

JAMESTOWN

Written by: Barry P. Foley
Copyright © 17 Mar 2023

Just the mention of the word Jamestown and every American is transported back the 4^th Grade when they had a history class. Unlike the lies still taught about Columbus discovering American in 1492, what we were taught about Jamestown was mostly factually true. The dates, the names of the ships and so forth. We just were not taught all the truth.

Jamestown was chartered by the investment group Virginia Colony in 1606. Its fundamental purpose was to go to America and rape and pillage the land of all of its gold and silver, before the Spanish got there and beat them to it. The Spanish had done exactly that in Caribbean.

The dreams of becoming rich was one reason so many “gentlemen” were on the first ships arriving in Jamestown on 13 May 1607. Of the first 104 English men and boys that first landed on Virginia soil, there were 50 members of the Gentry Class. A rude awaking for the faint at heart, when they were ordered to do manual labor in order to eat.

The Gentleman that was secretly chosen by the Virginia Colony to be the leader, Capt John Smith, was charged with mutiny and they planned to execute him, until just before they sat foot on Virginia soil and opened the secret envelope, announcing the leader. That had to be interesting!!!

Neglecting the more pressing need of survival, groups went out right away, hunting for Gold and Silver and began their mission with earnest, coming up empty handed, except for the Iron Pyrite, known as Fools Gold which they took back to England.

From the beginning, Chief Powhatan provided greatly to feed the Colony, all in a matter of trade of course. If it had been up to some of the war mongers of the original group and many who came after, they would have killed every Native American on sight and burned every village to the ground. Luckily, several in the initial leaders where a bit smarter and had to concern themselves with survival.

The winter of 1609-1610 was known as the Starving Time in Jamestown. A population of 500 when winter began resulted in only 61 surviving by springtime. Many factors played a part, but one was simply ignorance on how to farm and the Gentry Class thought physical labor was beneath them. Yet 40 miles down the river at Port Comfort, the food was so excess, they fed it to hogs!!

I’m proud to learn that my 10^th Great Grandfather, Captain Christopher Newport was captain of the Susan Constant and overall in charge of the two other ships, Godspeed and Discovery. He made numerous successful resupply missions, yet he never immigrated, although is daughter Margie did.

No less than 20 ancestral immigrants were the among the settlers of Jamestown, before the Mayflower found American soil. Including the first Chaplin and the first Doctor

Many question whether or not Jamestown Expedition was a success. Not my call