History Essay: The Rise of Jamestown and the Role of Women

This essay examines the establishment and development of Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America, sponsored by the Virginia Company of London. The essay highlights the challenges faced by the early settlers, including disease, starvation, and conflict with the Powhatan Indians. It emphasizes the scarcity of women in the early colony and its impact on the settlers' daily lives, social dynamics, and the long-term viability of the settlement. The essay discusses the ratio of men to women, the implications of this imbalance, and the crucial role women could have played in the colony's survival and development, such as providing food and encouraging permanent settlement. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of respecting and empowering women in society, drawing parallels between the historical context of Jamestown and contemporary gender roles and societal structures. The essay also references relevant historical sources and academic research to support its arguments.

Running head: THE RISE OF JAMESTOWN 1
The Rise of Jamestown
Name of the Student
Name of the Institution

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The Rise of Jamestown
According to the World Health Organization, the ratio between male and female at birth
is 105 males to 100 females. This means that the number of newborn males outnumbers newborn
females slightly. When growing up, male species experience a higher death risk from accidents
or natural death than female. This is expected to equalize the male-female ratio. Although
research shows that at the age of 60 years women again outnumber men due to their increased
death rate. This, therefore, shows that women outnumber men in numbers. Although women are
considered more than men in number, men are dominant in most fields. The main objective of
this essay is to show that society requires both men and women to overcome their day to day
challenges. A strong society is built by both male and female.
In society today, women are no longer afraid of being alone with a bunch of strange men.
They can be able to protect themselves from dangers that may arise in such a situation. Also, not
all men want to abuse women sexually therefore even if four women were locked up in a room
full of strange men, there would be nothing to worry about. In such a scenario, no man would
have the courage to call for the shot as he would be afraid of the rest of the men.
Take the scenario where a woman finds herself at a lonely place with four strange men.
She might think that these men wouldn’t want to have sex with her because she is a stranger, but
why not? They are men and they succumb to sexual temptations easily (Tidwell & Eastwick,
2013). According to Buss and Schmitt (2011) men are always eager to have casual sex with
strangers and are often likely to go for a nightstand.
Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in America. It was sponsored by a
joint-stock commercial organization known as the Virginia Company of London. All of the 104
settlers who sailed to James River were men. They consisted of laborers, carpenters, bricklayers,

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a barber, a blacksmith, a tailor, a mason and a preacher (Mapp, 1974). They were not welcomed
lightly by the different tribes that they found. Although some of the local Powhatan Indians
welcomed them. Life in early Jamestown consisted mainly of danger, diseases, hardships, and
death.
The settlers were not well prepared to start a new colony at Jamestown. They were
welcomed by diseases such as malaria from breeding mosquitoes in the swampy areas and
starvation too. Only 38 settlers survived the first year at Jamestown. More settlers came in as
England wanted to get rid of its excess population (Brown, 2000). The first two women arrived
at this period of 1608. The relationship between Indians and the settlers worsened around this
period also due to a terrible famine and the settlers had to find means of surviving the starvation
including a man slaughtering his wife and eating some parts of her body (Perry, 2018). The
Council claimed later that the woman was murdered as a result of hatred.
Before the arrival of English colonialists in Jamestown, the Spanish had already been to
this part as explorers. They attempted to colonize Virginia but they received little support as
Spain was not interested in a colony far north from its other settlements in the New World. They
allowed England to settle at Jamestown in 1607 with no military response.
The scarcity of women in Jamestown affected the settlers greatly in their day to day
activities. The ratio of men to women in the early colony was four men to every one woman.
Women were raped and kidnapped to satisfy the colonialist (Brown, 2000). Settlers in
Jamestown starved to death during their first year of settlement due to lack of women. Women
would have played a great role like Pocahontas who brought food to the settlers.
Lack of marriageable women in the settlement discouraged the settlers from making
Virginia a permanent place to settle it. Men only wanted to make a fortune for themselves and go

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back to their home country. Their intentions were only to remain in Virginia for a long period
that would enable them to become rich. A member of the Majesty's Council of Virginia stated
that "When a plantation grows to strength, then it's time to plant with women as well as with
men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without.” Lord
Bacon.
In conclusion, women should be respected and given a chance to be leaders as they are a
strong pillar in the foundation of the society we are living in as they play an important role of
maintaining peace and building the nation.

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References
Brown, K. M. (2000). Jamestown Interpretive Essays. Virtual Jamestown.
Buss, D., & Schmitt, D. (2011).Evolutionary Psychology and Feminism.Sex Roles, 64(9-10),
768-787.
Mapp, A. (1974). The Virginia experiment. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
Perry, J. (2018). The Formation of a Society on Virginia's Eastern Shore,
1615-1655. Retrieved
from https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1724428
World Health Organization. Sex Ratio. (2018). Retrieved from
http://www.searo.who.int/entity/health_situation_trends/data/chi/sex-ratio/en/
The Indispensable Role of Women at Jamestown - Historic Jamestown Part of Colonial
Tidwell, N., & Eastwick, P. (2013).Sex Differences in Succumbing to Sexual
Temptations.Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(12), 1620-1633.