A 1972 New York Times article referred to Jamestown as “the blunder that started America.” The author, H.H. Morris, certainly had a lot of fodder to support his claim that Jamestown was a complete and utter failure. Between the 1607 founding of Jamestown and 1624, the colonists faced a staggering mortality rate. From waterborne illnesses to malaria, from drought to the Starving Time, Jamestown seemed doomed to follow in the footsteps of the failed venture at Roanoke Island that became the “Lost Colony.” But Jamestown did not disappear. In fact, it survived to remain as the capitol of the Virginia Colony for 92 years. Can Jamestown really be deemed a blunder and a failure? What was it that kept the colony going in the face of disease, famine, and warfare? The evidence seems to offer more questions than answers.
A continued influx of new English settlers is certainly one of the answers to how Jamestown survived, but new arrivals also created a strain on the already limited resources that kept the site alive. The winter of 1609/10 saw the number of colonists drop from 300 to 90, 60 of whom were at Jamestown. This was the beginning of the Starving Time. Hundreds more arrived in June of 1610 along with the leadership of Lord De La Warr, but the mortality rate continued to climb with each ship carrying new arrivals. Why would people keep coming to Jamestown given the staggering odds against survival?
