Module 3 Assignment
Read the following and answer the questions (in bold) below. You must use good grammar and spelling, and your answer must be at least 200 words.
GEORGE PERCY ON “THE STARVING TIME” (from your textbook section 3.3)
George Percy, the youngest son of an English nobleman, was in the first group of settlers at the Jamestown Colony. He kept a journal describing their experiences; in the excerpt below, he reports on the privations of the colonists’ third winter.
"Now all of us at James Town, beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger which no man truly describe but he which has tasted the bitterness thereof, a world of miseries ensued as the sequel will express unto you, in so much that some to satisfy their hunger have robbed the store for the which I caused them to be executed. Then having fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs, cats, rats, and mice. All was fish that came to net to satisfy cruel hunger as to eat boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by, and, those being spent and devoured, some were enforced to search the woods and to feed upon serpents and snakes and to dig the earth for wild and unknown roots, where many of our men were cut off of and slain by the savages. And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which has fallen from their weak fellows."
—George Percy, “A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occurances of Moment which have happened in Virginia from the Time Sir Thomas Gates shipwrecked upon the Bermudes anno 1609 until my departure out of the Country which was in anno Domini 1612,” London 1624
How would you describe the situation in Jamestown according to George Percy? According to your textbook, how did Jamestown managed to survive this terrible experience?
(Note): You are being graded on your ability to analyze the primary source above in light of what you learned in your textbook about English settlement and to come up with convincing answers to the questions above. Make sure to mention factors discussed in the textbook about colonization at Jamestown. You also must use good grammar and spelling, too.
(WARNING: ANY ASSIGNMENT COPIED DIRECTLY FROM YOUR TEXTBOOK OR ANY OTHER SOURCE WILL BE TREATED AS PLAGIARISM. PUT THIS ASSIGNMENT INTO YOUR OWN WORDS OR YOU WILL FACE VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.)
Objectives:
This writing assignment aligns with course level objectives 1, 2, and 3 located here and module level objective 3 and 5.
George Percy, the youngest son of an English nobleman, was in the first group of settlers at the Jamestown Colony. He kept a journal describing their experiences; in the excerpt below, he reports on the privations of the colonists’ third winter.
"Now all of us at James Town, beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger which no man truly describe but he which has tasted the bitterness thereof, a world of miseries ensued as the sequel will express unto you, in so much that some to satisfy their hunger have robbed the store for the which I caused them to be executed. Then having fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs, cats, rats, and mice. All was fish that came to net to satisfy cruel hunger as to eat boots, shoes, or any other leather some could come by, and, those being spent and devoured, some were enforced to search the woods and to feed upon serpents and snakes and to dig the earth for wild and unknown roots, where many of our men were cut off of and slain by the savages. And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which has fallen from their weak fellows."
How would you describe the situation in Jamestown according to George Percy? According to your textbook, how did Jamestown managed to survive this terrible experience?