Early Settlers

In such a new land, early settlers were bound to make mistakes and go through difficult times, but these tests were what made American colonists aware of problems that surrounded them. It was not the problems they faced that made the settlers able to survive in the new colonies, but they way they faced the problems that got them to succeed in such a diverse area. It wasn’t the difficult times that got the colonists to build empires in the New World, but how the settlers forged through when times were rough that allowed them to thrive in early America. Superb leadership is always needed in times of struggle, as is morale of the public. In the particular case of the newly established English colonies, the ability to get along with natives was needed, although the relationship with said natives was usually sour and unhelpful to both parties. Overall the way early settlers handled problems that arose was effective, otherwise the colonies certainly wouldn’t have lasted long in the Americas.



Perhaps one of the greatest test of leadership of the early American colonies was the Jamestown colony and all of its hardships. After first being founded in 1607, from the start starvation and disease began to doom most colonist that attempted to inhabit the land of Jamestown. Even the survivors of the harsh disease were too rash to realize that panning for gold was not as important   as gathering food for living. Because of the lack of priority management of colonists, many perished of starvation. But of course if   everyone in the world was as mindless as some of the Jamestown colonists the human race would be extinct. Captain John Smith learned from the mistakes of these Jamestown and organized them into effective workers. He regularly preached “He who shall not work shall not eat”, and colonists followed him to the t. Even thought John Smith’s leadership brought change to the Jamestown colony, many colonists still died of disease and starvation.(pg. 28-29- The...