Special Report: The Jamestown Story
Posted 1/22/07
Four hundred years ago, a band of high-born but ill-prepared settlers arrived in Virginia seeking gold and a route to the South Seas. What they found were hostile natives, famine, and disease. It was only by cultivating a potent plant that the struggling colony managed to survive, making it the first permanent English settlement in America.
GUN CONTROL: The settlers were advised not to give novices guns, lest the Indians realize the weapons were more loud than they were accurate. The James Fort in Virginia regularly offers historical re-creations, including this one.
JIM LO SCALZO FOR USN&WR
More on the 400th anniverary of the Jamestown settlement:
- The Birth of America: The Jamestown Settlers Planted the Seeds of the Nation's Spirit
- A Conqueror More Lethal Than the Sword
- The Princess Wild: Pocahontas Was Not Who You Think She Was
- John Smith: A Young Captain Who Sought Adventure and Found It
- A Group of Enslaved Africans Changed the Future of a Nation
- As the Ground Shares Its Secrets: An Archaeologist Challenges Old Beliefs
- In 1607, There Was Too Much Else Going On to Notice Jamestown
- A Trip Back in Time: What to See and Do at the Jamestown Settlements
- A New World: Digging at the Roots of Modern America (PDF)