The winter of 1609-10 has been described through the years as the
“starving time”—seemingly, an accurate description. It saw the
population shrink from 500 to about 60 as a result of disease, sickness,
Indian arrows, and malnutrition. It destroyed morale and reduced the men
to scavengers stalking the fort, fields, and woods for anything that
might be used as food. When spring came there was little spirit left in
the settlement. It would seem unjust to attribute the disaster to Percy,
who did what he could to ameliorate conditions by attempting trade and
keeping the men busy. The “starving time” appears to have been caused by
an accumulation of circumstances.
There was the matter of the third supply which arrived in such poor
condition very late in the season. Bickering prevented measures that
could have been taken to prepare for the winter. Dissension continued
even after Smith’s departure. Then, too, the Indians knew of conditions
at Jamestown, for they actually kept scouts in the fort much of the
time. They were learning the ways of the white man and had come to see
that he was most vulnerable in the winter season. Heretofore they had
supplied him corn—by gift, by trade, or unwillingly through seizure. In
the winter of 1609-10, they had a good opportunity to make him suffer,
and throughout this period the Indians were openly hostile. Perhaps the
increasingly heavy use of force and armed persuasion in dealing with
them had resulted in this attitude which, from their point of view,
proved highly effective. In the fall of 1608, they had forced the
settlers in from Nansemond and the falls. Then, in the winter of
1609-10, Powhatan captured and killed Ratcliffe who had gone to trade
with him. All through that winter it was dangerous to be alone far from
the fort.
Not having sufficient stores set aside, not able to deal with the
natives, and without the use of the resources of the countryside, there
is small wonder that conditions became serious, even desperate, for the
settlers. Those few men fortified on Hampton Roads under Capt. James
Davis (after Captain West, perhaps under threat from the crew, left
Virginia for England in the colony’s best ship) fared far better than
did those at Jamestown. Even the coming of spring failed to restore full
hope and vitality to the survivors, yet certainly it must have been good
to know that winter was over.