When a new group of colonists ventured to the New World, none of them could have predicted the difficulty the first few years would bring. For those in Jamestown, that difficulty would turn them to cannibalism to survive.
In 1606, after the failure to colonize in Roanoke, King James I of England, granted a charter for a new venture. The Virginia Company was to form a settlement in North America. Their goals included searching for gold and silver deposits, and locate a river route to the Pacific Ocean, which would allow them to establish trade with the Orient.
The Virginia Company, under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport, arrived on April 26, 1607. They quickly formed a governing council which included the captain, as well as John Smith, a former mercenary. Together, they searched for a suitable settlement site, and on May 14, 1607, they landed on a narrow peninsula along the banks for the James River. The river proved to be a defensible strategic point due to a curve in the river. It was close to the land, which made it navigable, and offered enough land for piers or even wharves to be built in the future. Perhaps the best aspect of this area was that it was not inhabited by native Indian tribes, as they considered the site poor for agriculture. It was swampy and isolated. The tidal river water was brackish, and unsuitable for drinking, and swarming with mosquitos. This settlement would come to be known as Jamestown.
A group of approximately 100 settlers quickly established a fort, built in a triangle around a storehouse for weapons and other supplies. They built a church, and several houses. Things were tough; they had arrived during a severe drought, and too late in the year to plant crops. Even worse, the gentlemen settlers were unaccustomed to hard labor, having always had manservants do it for them.
In just a few months time, 80% of the party were dead, several others deserted to live among the natives. Captain Newport set off up the river and back to England with two ships and 40 crew members to gather more colonists, and more supplies.
In the area surrounding Jamestown there were an estimated 14,000 natives who were the Powhatan Confederacy, ruled by Wahunsenacawh, or Chief Powhatan. They spoke Algonquian, and were very hospitable to the English. They were welcomed with dancing, feasting, and tobacco ceremonies. The Powhatan tribe even sought to resettle the colonists from Jamestown, which was considered part of native Paspahegh territory, to another location known as Capahosick, where they would make metal tools for them as part of Powhatan’s Confederacy. They, however, did not move.
The Paspahegh, Weyanock, and other groups took Captain Newports absence as an invitation to attack, and another two-thirds of the settlers died before the return of Newport with supplies in 1608. The addition of supplies also added an addition of hungry settlers, leading to more defecting and joining the native tribes (and conspiring against the colonists with plans of an attack).
While investors of the Virginia Company of London expressed their frustrations and disappointments in the Jamestown settlement, John Smith traveled back to England to deliver a bold message: They were in need of practical laborers and craftsmen, not just the gentlemen who didn’t know how to work. Without this, they would have a very difficult time becoming self sufficient.
The colony was left in the hands of George Percy, who was incompetent when it came to negotiations, leaving the colonists without. John Smith was successful, however, and England sent him back with a seven-ship fleet, much larger supply and 214 settlers. Unfortunately, on the return trip, the ships ran into a storm, and while some ships made it to Jamestown, most of the supplies and leaders had been among the flagship, which ended up on the reefs of Bermuda. There, they were stranded for 9 months.
Back in Jamestown, things were growing dire under poor leadership, and poor conditions. Known as the “Starving Time” of 1609-1610, the settlers were starving. George Percy wrote that some colonists went so far as to eat their boots, shows and any other leather they could find. Those that ventured outside the fort to search for roots were killed by Powhatan warriors.
Percy continued, “And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpse out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which hath fallen from their weak fellows.”
Another written account tells of a man who killed his pregnant wife and chopped her into pieces. He salted and ate her for food, and was subsequently executed for murder. By the time the ships arrived with supplies and more settlers, only about 60 remained.
Backing up the claim of cannibalism, is the discovery of “Jane” discovered by Archaeologists in 2012. The remains of a 14 year old girl from England were unearthed in a 17th century trash deposit in the cellar of a building built in 1608, inside the Jamestown Fort site.
Doug Owsley, head of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History was asked to examine Jane’s remains. He described multiple chop marks and cut marks on the skull that appear to have been made by one or more assailants after she died. “They were clearly interested in cheek meat, muscles of the face, tongue, and brain,” he said. Jane’s hair was not removed.
Four closely spaced chop marks in her forehead indicated to Owsley that there was a failed attempt to split her skull open. He also believes that the close proximity of the unsuccessful blows, indicates that she was already dead at this point. However, the back of her skull was cracked open by a series of chops by a light-weight axe or cleaver. Upon examining cleaver blades and knives excavated from the Jamestown site were compared to the marks on the skull. Owsley believes it was a cleaver used to crack open the skull.
Further examination showed numerous cuts, saw marks, and gouges along her lower jaw, made by the tip of a knife. This was likely the result of trying to get to the meat and remove throat tissue as well as the tongue.
Although only part of the skull was found intact, researchers were able to produce a facial reconstruction of Jane by digitally creating a 3-D skull.
It is unknown how many were cannibalized during this dark time, but it was clear that Jane was not an isolated case. When Lord de la Warr, Jamestown’s first governor, arrived, he ordered a clean up of the fort. Trash, including Jane’s remains were deposited in cellars and pits throughout the settlement.
Still interested in America’s beginnings? Check out the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
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