TB+Why+Jamestown+Settlers+Endured+the+Hardships

//Why Jamestown Settlers Endured the Hardships //  In May of 1607 the first settlers landed on the James River in Virginia; where they setup a small settlement named Jamestown. These were English gentlemen who were expecting to find as much gold as Spain had found in its Central and South American colonies. However, these men had found nothing but disease and hunger. For nearly 30 years, the Jamestown colonists died in droves from diseases and starvation. //The colonist stayed in Jamestown through the roughest years because of social status and greed.//  The Jamestown settlers were from England were social standing was just about everything to gentlemen. No settlers were exceptionally wealthy because the really wealthy stayed in England and just financed the trip, they all were of the upper middle class. The only way to increase status is to become wealthier. This was reason why each family was given hundred acres. These large landholdings were huge signs of wealth and power which was clearly seen by voting stipulations of the time that required white men to own land. Also, the settlers who felt that they could no longer stand the winters of starving and summers of disease, they could go back to England. However, their land would probably be snatched up by other land grubbing settlers. There for they would loose his original investment in the company, his land, and the social status that came with it.  Greed was the other reason that influenced settlers to stay. Tobacco was a cash crop introduced to the Chesapeake Bay by John Rolfe in 1612 and highly prized by Europeans. Tobacco had brought the settlers wealth as it was exported by the Virginia Company of London back to England. Soon, almost all farming of Jamestown was focused on growing tobacco. The mass growing of tobacco caused a food shortage. If it was not for tobacco Jamestown would not gone through as many hardships, but without it most settlers would have returned to England and rest would have died.  The English settlers of Jamestown endured a lot in the name of wealth and status. Nearly 9,000 settlers died from illness and starvation. The settlers persevered because they wanted great amounts of money.