Early Jamestown Settlers

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Starting in the early 1600s, with the founding of Jamestown in 1607, settlers began to move to North America, part of the giant New World discovered a couple centuries before. What induced these people to leave the established civilization in the Old World for a wilderness, brimming with unknown and known threats, must have been a strong reason indeed. In fact, there are three primary reasons. Settlers boarded ships bound for North America in order to obtain freedom, whether it be the freedom to own land, freedom to partake in a more democratic government, or freedom of religion. This common desire for freedom has persisted and is a major part of our nation today. Many migrated to the New World with hopes to obtain land. The Old World's pie…show more content…
Having complete ownership and control over one's land and income, compared to being dependent on an official or noble, gave settlers a taste of freedom that would develop the colonies' palate later on. The isolated and fresh area also contributed to this sense of freedom and individuality. All in all, a settler becoming an indentured servant for a number of years in order to acquire land was an extremely worthwhile investment in more ways than one if their family was able to survive in the wilderness. But survival was not easy; disease, weather, and native opposition were all dangers the settlers had to face. In Jamestown, the first permanent New World settlement, only half of the population survived the first winter due to sickness. Then, in the winter of 1609-1610, over ninety percent of the colony starved to death! Starvation never took such a great toll of lives as during the aptly-named Starving Time, but malaria, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and dysentery claimed more and more lives as the colonies expanded and living conditions became more crowded. Another problem that arose as the settlers took increasing amounts of land for themselves was conflict with the natives. While there were times when settlers and Native Americans…show more content…
Though the Magna Carta defrayed some abuses of royal power, there were still many dissatisfied with the ease with which monarchs could become tyrants. Though the colonies did not allow total escape from English rule, monarchs' grips weaken when they have to reach across a sea, and the political dimension of life in the colonies was more lenient. The form of sub-governance depended on what sort of colony it was. Proprietary or royal colonies had proprietors or governors appointed by the king, and thus enjoyed less autonomy from the Crown than charter colonies, which only required authorization from the king. Otherwise, they were owned and governed by a trade company. With increased freedom from the monarchy, individual colonies were able to experiment with more democratic forms of governance. Jamestown's governor, for example, formed the House of Burgesses, a representative assembly with an advisory role. The pilgrims on the Mayflower wrote the first self-governing document in the New World, the Mayflower Compact, because they had been blown by a storm outside their trade company's jurisdiction. Self-governance was experimented with in many other colonies as well, as a macroscopic extension of the individuality the isolation and greater freedom living in the New World
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