Ship From Jamestown example essay topic

Life in Jamestown was much different than it was advertised in the newspaper. Everyone wanted to go to Jamestown because they wanted to get rich. They thought there would be gold and diamonds everywhere, but when they got there, there was nothing. Newspaper ads promised people in England wealth and happiness. "Why man all their dripping pans and their chamber potter are pure gold". (Doc.

1). Everyone wanted to go to Jamestown because they thought that when they got there, the roads would be paved in gold and there would be enough diamonds, rubies and gold waiting there for everyone. When people got to Jamestown they were disappointed. It was much different than they expected. The ship rides to Jamestown were horrible for the white indentured servants.

The ship was very dirty and many different diseases were being passed around throughout the ship. "Various kinds of sea sickness, fever, dysentery, headaches, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and similar afflictions" (Doc. 3). many people died, women were raped and people were whipped and beat often. When a ship from Jamestown arrived in North America to trade, people saw how horrible it was. "Probably no ship in modern history has carried a more portentous freight". (Doc.

5). But it was just as bad in Jamestown as it was on the ships. There was barely any food and nowhere to live in Jamestown. The first colonies there barely ate and lived in holes in the ground. During the winter, there was no food. People ate whatever they could, even other people. "to eat those things which nature most abhorred, the flesh and excrement's of man as well of our own nation as of an Indian".

(Doc. 2). people were scared that they would be killed and eaten by another person. One man even killed his own wife while she was sleeping and ate her. The indentured slaves in Jamestown were treated badly. The white teenage girls would pretend they couldn't work good, to make it harder for their masters. Their masters would think they were just stupid and lazy.

"Trying to do as little work as possible and to create difficulties for their masters". (Doc. 4). Black slaves in Jamestown brought good profit to their masters. They had to live in small cottages and grow crops for their masters. "The Negroes live in small cottages called quarters, in about six in a gang".

(Doc. 7). The slaves weren't really cared about. Pregnant black women were left to give birth chained to dead bodies.

"I saw pregnant women give birth to babies while chained to corpses which our drunken overseers have not removed" (Doc. 9) Women and men didn't have equal rights. Anything the woman got belonged to their husband. When a woman got paid, she had to give her husband the money.

A woman's husband was like her master. .".. To a married woman, her new self is her superior; her companion, her master". (Doc. 8). Life in Jamestown was much different than the newspaper advertised it.

When the people got there, they were very disappointed. Instead of becoming rich, they became poorer than they already were. They were forced to live in horrible conditions and regretted ever wanting to go to Jamestown.