Jamestown Famine and Abandonment

The settlement survived a severe famine during the harsh winter of 1609, forcing colonists to resort to eating leather and cannibalism. In 1610, survivors abandoned Jamestown but returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

When this happened

Jamestown Famine and Abandonment occurred in harsh winter of 1609, during the colonial period period of American history. The event spanned from 1609 to 1610.

Where this happened

Jamestown Famine and Abandonment took place in Virginia. Explore the full history of Virginia and primary source records from this era.

European colonization of North America accelerated after 1600, with England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands establishing competing settlements along the Atlantic coast, the St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Valley. The first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia (1607) struggled with starvation and conflict; the Plymouth colony (1620) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) followed. By the mid-1700s, thirteen English colonies stretched along the Atlantic seaboard, governed through a mix of royal charters, proprietary grants, and elected assemblies. The colonial economy depended on tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, rice and indigo in the Carolinas, and maritime trade in New England — all increasingly reliant on enslaved African labor after 1619. Conflict with Indigenous peoples over land was continuous, punctuated by major wars including King Philip's War (1675–1676) in New England and the Yamasee War (1715–1717) in the South. The French and Indian War (1754–1763), part of the global Seven Years' War, ended French power in North America and left Britain deeply in debt — triggering the taxation disputes that would lead to revolution.

Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia: History of Virginia (introduction).