Why Did Jamestown Struggle to Survive?
The most common explanation for the settlers’ failure was that they were simply lazy. The Virginia Company report of 1610 said as much in describing the almost universal ‘idleness and bestial sloth’ of Jamestown’s population. George Sandys, the company treasurer, offered a similar, albeit more poetic summary in 1623: ‘A more damned crew hell never vomited.’8 Historians have refined this explanation by emphasizing the sorts of settlers the company delivered to the colony in its early years. Because of its complex ambitions, the Virginia Company sent to North America in 1607 and 1608 a diverse batch of skilled craftsmen, including two goldsmiths, six tailors, a jeweler, and a perfumer. The list of immigrants also included apothecaries, metal refiners, coopers, and even a pipe maker. In future years the company would recruit an even more exotic crew of specialists—glassblowers from Italy, saltmakers from France, and metal workers from Germany and Poland. In addition to these highly specia
