Jamestown Case

The colony of Jamestown, Virginia was founded in April 1607, by a group of 105 people who came from England. These people were sent by the Virginia Company in a search to find gold and strike it rich. As a result, the colonists were more focused on finding gold and silver rather than growing food.

While the colonists had several problems in Jamestown, starvation was only one of them. Jamestown happened to be in the middle of territory belonging to the Powhatan Indians. The two groups were not fond of one another, and fought often. The war only worsened when Captain John Smith went back to England in 1609, and the year that followed was called ‘The Starving Time’.

There was very little to no food during this time, and most of the colonists died due to hunger or disease. Several people were burned at the stake for resorting to cannibalism, and hope seemed lost for Jamestown. However, right when settlers were ready to abandon the colony, a ship of men and supplies arrived under issue of King James I and the Virginia Company.

Taking a different approach than the original Jamestown settlers, these new arrivals turned to tobacco, which turned out to be highly profitable. Jamestown became a boomtown. Over in Europe, tobacco was in high demand, and Jamestown was prosperous. So prosperous, that they had to bring over slaves from Africa in 1619.

However, after a turn of events, and a war with the Powhatan Indians, the Virginia Company disbanded in 1624 by order of the king. After that, Virginia became a royal colony until 1699, when the seat of government went to Williamsburg, and Jamestown ceased to exist by the mid-1700s.

But thirteen years after the colonization of Jamestown, a group of around 40 Puritan separatists had landed in Massachusetts, in September, 1620. In a place that would come to be known as Plymouth.

Seeking religious freedom, the pilgrims first fled to the Netherlands, but then set their sights on the

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