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68 PERIOD 2 Colonial America amid Global Change: 1607–1754

Fort James at Jamestown,
Virginia, 1607 This image,
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created by Jamestown
colonist John Hull, portrays
the earliest iteration of the
settlement.
What does this image
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reveal about how the
English perceived their
colony in relation to the
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
land, sea, and people they
encountered?

Art Resource, NY

On top of these rising tensions, a severe drought between 1606 and 1612 limited
the Powhatan Indians’ surpluses of food, and they became less willing to trade food to
the English as a result. For their part, the English settlers’ fear of their Powhatan neigh-
bors led them to resist an exchange the Powhatan likely would have accepted: guns for
food. The food shortage in Jamestown was worsened by several other factors: Some col-
onists refused to do manual labor; an injury forced John Smith to return to England in
late 1609, thus severing the strongest link between the colony and Powhatan; nearby
water was tainted by salt from the ocean; and diseases that festered in the low-lying area
of Jamestown had killed more than half of the original settlers.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Company devised a new plan to stave off the collapse of its
colony. It started selling seven-year joint-stock options to raise funds and recruited new
settlers to produce staple crops, glassware, or other items for export. Interested individ-
uals who could not afford to invest cash could sign a contract for indentured servitude
in Virginia. After seven years, these indentured servants would gain their freedom and
receive a hundred acres of land. In June 1609, a new contingent of colonists attracted
by this plan — five hundred men and a hundred women — sailed for Jamestown.
The new arrivals, however, had not brought enough supplies to sustain the colony
through the winter. Chief Powhatan did offer some aid, but American Indians, too, suf-
fered from shortages in the winter of 1609–1610. A “starving time” settled on James-
town. Some settlers resorted to cannibalism. By the spring of 1610, almost all settlers
who had arrived in Jamestown since 1607 were dead.
That June, the sixty survivors decided to abandon the settlement and sail for home,
but they changed their minds when they met three English ships in the harbor that were
loaded with supplies and three hundred more settlers. Emboldened by fresh supplies and
an enlarged population, Jamestown’s new leaders adopted a more aggressive military
strategy, attacking native villages, burning crops, killing many American Indians, and
taking others captive. They believed that such brutality would convince neighboring
tribes to obey English demands for food and labor.

REVIEW

■ What factors shaped early English encounters with American Indians in
Virginia?

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