The History of the Americans #65 Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 7: The Starving Time
In this episode we look at the gruesome “starving time” in Jamestown and the resurgent Powhatan war during the seven months after John Smith’s departure in October 1609. The mortality rate at the colony was close to 80% in just that winter, and the incompetence that led to it is breathtaking. Relief comes only with the arrival of two ships from Bermuda carrying the castaways from the Sea Venture shipwreck. The Powhatans almost eject the English from Virginia, but the aptly named Lord de la Warr fatefully arrives just in time with much-needed reinforcements and supplies. If a few things had gone even slightly differently, Jamestown would not have survived, and English North America would be very different.
[Errata: “De la Warr” was pronounced closer to “Delaware” than my own pronunciation in this episode.]
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Selected references for this episode
David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation
James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America
All That’s Interesting/Starving Time (Story about archeology at the Jamestown site that I came across after I had recorded the episode)
United States state-level population estimates: Colonization to 1999