Next only to the arrival of the English in 1607 and their departure in 1781, the months of the winter of 1609â€"10, known as the Starving Time, rank atop the memorable events of Virginia's history. Hundreds of settlers died for want of food. Some were reduced to cannibalism.
Since the first English fleet dropped anchor in the river they named for King James, off the island where they raised Jamestown, there had been a stream of arriving colonists to hew a living out of the relatively benign Virginia environment. Crops grew easily and readily ripened, fish were plentiful, game abounded in the forests, and if one was careful, wild plants, fruits, and nuts were edible. To transported Londoners this would have been as close to Eden as they could have imagined. So what went wrong?
Since the first English fleet dropped anchor in the river they named for King James, off the island where they raised Jamestown, there had been a stream of arriving colonists to hew a living out of the relatively benign Virginia environment. Crops grew easily and readily ripened, fish were plentiful, game abounded in the forests, and if one was careful, wild plants, fruits, and nuts were edible. To transported Londoners this would have been as close to Eden as they could have imagined. So what went wrong?