Existing comment:
Living & Dying in America
Life in the 1600s was hard in England but even harder in the Chesapeake.
Brutal summer heat and humidity taxed the colonists' endurance. Until the settlers began to plant corn, they suffered spells of hunger. Heavy labor and outbreaks of conflict could grave injure them. No one escaped illness. Along with the usual maladies, diseases for which they had no immunity ravaged newcomers. Limited medical knowledge and lack of larger family support made their lives even more precarious.
Bone and burial data reveal the rigors of life in the Chesapeake. A high death rate of young people and the chronic shortage of women forced the settlers to rely on recent immigrants to renew their population. Not until the 1700s could American-born colonists increase their numbers. |