United States History Student Edition

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B Jamestown’s “Starving Time” The “starving time” occurred during the Jamestown Colony’s third winter, when 400 out of the 460 colonists died. Jamestown's leader, John Smith, had returned to England that summer, and the Powhatan had stopped providing food to the colony. PRIMARY SOURCE: MEMOIR “ Now all of us at James Town, [began] to feel that sharp prick of hunger…. Then having fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermine, as dogs, cats, rats, and mice. All was fish that came to net, to satisfy cruel hunger, as to eat boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by. And, those being spent and devoured, some were enforced to search the woods, and to feed upon serpents and snakes, and to dig the earth for wild and unknown roots, where many of our men were . . . slain by the savages. ” — From A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occurrences of Moment which have happened in Virginia from the Time Sir Thomas Gates shipwrecked upon the Bermudes anno 1609 until my departure out of the Country which was in anno Domini 1612, by George Percy, 1624 EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Identifying What evidence does this excerpt present to support the idea that the winter of 1609–1610 was a “starving time” in Jamestown? 2. Assessing Credibility Do you find Percy’s account credible? Explain. The Pilgrims’ First Winter William Bradford, a founder of Plymouth Colony, wrote a history of the settlement titled Of Plymouth Plantation. He wrote in the third person, using he and they rather than I and we . In this excerpt, he recollects the events of the winter of 1620–1621. PRIMARY SOURCE: MEMOIR “ In these hard and difficult beginnings they found some discontents and murmurings arise amongst some, and mutinous speeches. … But that which was most sadd and lamentable was that in 2 or 3 moneths time halfe of their company dyed, especially in Jan: and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvie and other diseases, which this long vioage and their inaccomodate condition had brought upon them; so as there died sometimes 2 or 3 of a day, in the foresaid time; that of 100 and odd persons, scarce 50 remained. ” — From Of Plymouth Plantation , by William Bradford, 1656 lamentable regrettable wanting lacking inaccomodate distressful EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Identifying What problems did the Pilgrims face in their first winter in New England? 2. Comparing Compare the accounts of the early days of Jamestown and Plymouth. What do they reveal about life for the first colonists?

(t)Percy, George, letter quoted by Conway Whittle Sam in Conquest of Virginia, The Third Attempt, 1610-1624. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939. (b)Bradford, William; William T. Davis, ed. Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, 1606-1646. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908.

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