Before Plymouth, there was… Jamestown (04-28-13)

  How many places do you know that qualify for a Quadricentennial Plaza? Jamestown, VA does.  This town became the first permanent English settlement in North America when 104 men and boys arrived in May of 1607. The first few years were extremely difficult.  They didn’t realize they had arrived during one of the worst droughts ever.  The first year they were here they did ok because they had brought enough food to last until the first harvest.  Unfortunately the harvest didn’t provide enough food and by early 1610, two thirds of the settlers had died from starvation, sickness or Indian attack. Still, more settlers were sent, with some women in the mix now, and families were started in Jamestown.

Jamestown is the site of an ongoing archeological dig and one of the things they found was the footings for the original fort, so they know exactly where it stood.







There are actually two sections to modern day Jamestown- the National Park, which is the part we went to, and the Living History Museum, which charges a higher admission.  We decided to pass on that until we toured the national park- then we’d see if we wanted or needed more information (we didn’t).


 

The national park has rangers giving tours and we went on a tour with “Rebecca”. She was one of the best interpretive rangers we have ever seen. She was funny, and informative, and played quite a character, complete with accent.  Her “role” was essentially the town busybody, and we, as a group, were the latest batch of indentured servants getting off the ship. She taught us the ropes- what to expect for our daily lives, what the work would be like, working in the tobacco fields, and explained how much better life is there “now” compared to a few years ago. 

After describing the life, and how people literally drop dead in the field, she asked why we had come, and why did we sell 7 years of our lives to get here?  By asking questions and cleverly answering them herself, she taught us that England is a land of “haves” and “have nots” and we all came from the “have not” side of the equation.  There would never be any hope of ever having more, of even ever owning a house, in England. 

America was the land of opportunity.