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Starving Time
The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter; by spring only 61 people remained alive. The colonists, the first group of whom had originally arrived on May 13, 1607, had never planned to grow all of their own food. Their plans depended upon trade with the local Powhatan to supply them with food between the arrivals of periodic supply ships from England. Lack of access to water and a severe drought crippled the agricultural production of the colonists. The water that the colonists drank was brackish and potable for only half of the year. A fleet from England, damaged by a hurricane, arrived months behind schedule with new colonists but without adequate food supplies. On June 7, 1610, the survivors boarded ships, abandoned the colony site, and sailed downstream to the Chesapeake Bay. There, another supply convoy with new supplies, headed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Smith (explorer)
John Smith ( – 21 June 1631) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely. Following his return to England from a life as a soldier of fortune and as a slave, he played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colonial empire, English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England. Jamestown was established on May 14, 1607. Smith trained the first settlers to work at farming and fishing, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated, "He who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is called a hurricane (), typhoon (), tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone. A hurricane is a strong tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean or northeastern Pacific Ocean. A typhoon is the same thing which occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, comparable storms are referred to as "tropical cyclones". In modern times, on average around 80 to 90 named tropical cyclones form each year around the world, over half of which develop hurricane-force winds of or more. Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water. They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Strachey
William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 16 August 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter of the 1609 shipwreck on the uninhabited island of Bermuda of the colonial ship ''Sea Venture'', which was caught in a hurricane while sailing to Virginia. The survivors eventually reached Virginia after building two small ships during the ten months they spent on the island. His account of the incident and of the Colony of Virginia, Virginia colony is thought by most William Shakespeare, Shakespearean scholars to have been a source for Shakespeare's play ''The Tempest''. Family William Strachey, born 4 April 1572 in Saffron Walden, Essex, was the grandson of William Strachey (died 1587), and the eldest son of William Strachey (died 1598) and Mary Cooke (died 1587),. the daughter of Henry Cooke, Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Gates (governor)
Sir Thomas Gates (died 1622) was the governor of Jamestown in the English Colony of Virginia (now the Commonwealth of Virginia, part of the United States of America). His predecessor, George Percy, through inept leadership, was responsible for the lives lost during the period called the Starving Time. The English-born Gates arrived to find a few surviving starving colonists commanded by Percy, and assumed command. Gates ruled with deputy governor Sir Thomas Dale. Their controlled, strict methods helped the early colonies survive. Sir Thomas was knighted in 1596 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex for gallantry at the Capture of Cadiz. His knighthood was later royally confirmed by Queen Elizabeth I. Third Supply and Bermuda Gates was appointed by the Virginia Company of London, which had established the Jamestown settlement under a Royal Charter for the colonisation of Virginia. He had sailed for Jamestown in 1609, aboard the '' Sea Venture'', the new flagship of the Virg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Somers
Sir George Somers (before 24 April 1554 – 9 November 1610) was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company of London. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston that plundered Caracas and Santa Ana de Coro in 1595, during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. He is remembered today as the founder of the English colony of Bermuda, also known as the Somers Isles. Career Somers was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1554, the son of John Somers and his wife. From a young age he became a skilled and well-known seaman and owned at least one ship, the ''Julian'', whose home port was Lyme Regis. Somers' first venture in command of the ''Flibcote'', in company of three other vessels during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War, on a raid to Spain; he brought home Spanish prizes worth more than £8,000. Preston Somers Expedition Somers then joined up with another seaman Amyas Preston who ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Venture
''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, ''Sea Venture'' encountered a tropical storm and was wrecked, with her crew and passengers landing on the uninhabited Bermuda. ''Sea Venture''s wreck is widely thought to have been the inspiration for William Shakespeare's 1611 play ''The Tempest''. The Virginia Company The proprietors of the London Company had established the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, and delivered supplies and additional settlers in 1608, raising the English colony's population to 200, despite many deaths. The entire operation was characterized by a lack of resources and experience. The company's fleet was composed of vessels that were less than optimal for delivering large numbers of passengers across the Atlantic Ocean, and the colony itself was threatened by starvati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ratcliffe (governor)
John Ratcliffe (born John Sicklemore; 1549 – December 1609) was an early Jamestown colonist, governor, and sea captain. Ratcliffe became the second president of the colony of Jamestown. He was tortured to death by the Pamunkey (indigenous Native Americans) in the winter of 1609–1610. Biography John Sicklemore was born in Lancashire. In early life, he changed his name to Ratcliffe as an alias. He served as a seaman before going to Virginia, and he may be the Captain Ratcliffe taken prisoner with Sir Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland and Captain Piggot, at Mülheim, in 1605. Virginia colony Ratcliffe commanded ''Discovery'' and became a councillor of the Jamestown Colony. ''Discovery'' was the smallest of all three ships; it had a crew of only 21 men. He became president of the colony upon the deposition of Edward Maria Wingfield on 10 September 1607. Ratcliffe fell out of favour with many colonists after enlisting men to build a governor's house. Many colonists also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Powhatan (Native American Leader)
Powhatan (), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock, or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time when English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607. Powhatan, alternately called "King" or "Chief" Powhatan by English settlers, led the main political and military power facing the early colonists, and was probably the older brother of Opechancanough, who led attacks against the settlers in 1622 and 1644. He was the father of Matoaka ( Pocahontas). Name In 1607, the English colonists were introduced to Wahunsenacawh as Powhatan and understood this latter name to come from Powhatan's hometown near the falls of the James River near present-day Richmond, Virginia. Seventeenth-century English spellings were not standardized, and representations were many of the sounds of the Algonquian language spoken by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of what is today the U.S. state of Virginia. Pocahontas was captured and held for ransom by English colonists during hostilities in 1613. During her captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca. She married the tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at the age of about 17 or 18, and she bore their son, Thomas Rolfe, in January 1615. In 1616, the Rolfes travelled to London, where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the " civilized savage" in hopes of stimulating investment in Jamestown. On this trip, she may have me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opechancanough
Opechancanough ( ; – ) was a sachem (or paramount chief) of the Powhatan Confederacy in present-day Virginia from 1618 until his death. He had been a leader in the confederacy formed by his older brother Powhatan, from whom he inherited the paramountcy. Opechancanough led the Powhatan in the second and third Anglo-Powhatan Wars, including the Indian massacre of 1622. In 1646, the aged Opechancanough was captured by English colonists and taken to Jamestown, where he was killed by a settler assigned to guard him. Name The name Opechancanough meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquian Powhatan language. It was likely derived from a Powhatan original phonemically spelled as /a·pečehčakeno·w/ < ''a·pe'' "white" + ''čehčak'' "soul" + -''en'' "inanimate verb ending" + ''-o·w'' "3rd person transitive inanimate subject". This would have the reconstructed pronunciation or perhaps with [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsenacommacah
Tsenacommacah (pronounced in English; also written Tscenocomoco, Tsenacomoco, Tenakomakah, Attanoughkomouck, and Attan-Akamik) is the name given by the Powhatan people to their native homeland, the area encompassing all of Tidewater Virginia and parts of the Eastern Shore. More precisely, its boundaries spanned by from near the south side of the mouth of the James River all the way north to the south end of the Potomac River and from the Eastern Shore west to about the Fall Line of the rivers.Rountree, Helen C. and E. Randolph Turner III. Before and After Jamestown: Virginia's Powhatans and Their Predecessors. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. The term ''Tsenacommacah'' comes from the Powhatan language, and means “densely inhabited land.” History Origins and contact The Powhatan were part of a powerful political network of Virginia Indian tribes known as the Powhatan Confederacy. Members spoke the Powhatan language. The paramount chief of the Powhat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
