Life in the colonies

Though emigration from England began as a mere trickle, it resulted in a quarter of a million colonists in the New World by 1620(Dodson 21). The journey to England's first colony began on April 26, 1607. Three ships--the Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Susan Constant landed on what is today Virginia Beach. The arriving British emigrants on May 15, 1607 began construction of the fort known as Jamestown (Dodson 8).
For the first few years, England's first colony suffered numerous setbacks. Early Jamestown settlers were made up of former peasants, townsmen and adventurers. Though Captain John Smith emerged as a strong leader, the colony succumbed to anarchy when Smith returned to England just two years after Jamestown was founded. Tensions mounted with the native Powatan Indians, as in Smith's absence, settlers opted to raid Indian food supplies when staples ran out and British ships failed to arrive to replenish supplies (Taylor 127). Disease struck most of the first settlers between 1...