Camp Gagnon - Jamestown: Untold Cannibalism of the American Colony

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

What really happened at Jamestown, America’s first permanent English settlement? Today we dive into one of the most brutal and fascinating stories in early American history—from hopeful beginnings to starvation, cannibalism, and chaos. Who were the people that risked everything to build a new world? What went so wrong? And how did Jamestown barely survive long enough to become the foundation of the future United States? This is a story of ambition, failure, survival, and secrets buried in the swamp… WELCOME TO CAMP 🏕️Shoutout to our sponsor: Morgan & Morgan and Bluechew👕🧢 GET YOUR CAMP DRIP HERE: http://camp-rd.com🏕️ Get Today In History Email Here (Free): https://camp.beehiiv.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.comTimestamps:0:00 Intro1:00 The Harsh Reality of Jamestown 4:01 People Arrive at Jamestown + Captain John Smith 7:32 Democracy and Slavery Arrives at Jamestown 12:14 Supply Ship Gets Destroyed + Cannibalism 17:33 The Justice System of Jamestown 18:39 The Sea Venture Crash 21:38 London’s Response To Jamestown 25:34 The Spread of Disease and Starvation 32:26 The Discovery of Cannibalism 34:21 Other Colonies Who Resorted To Cannibalism #Jamestown #HistoryPodcast #TrueHistory #AmericanHistory #ColonialAmerica #CampfireStories #DarkHistory #SurvivalStory #CannibalismInHistory #FirstSettlers #EarlyAmerica #HistoryNerd #HistoricMysteries #FoundingOfAmerica #WelcomeToCamp

You probably heard about it in school. It's a place called Jamestown, where the great American experiment was first kicked off. It was the birth of America. That's not actually what happened. The true story is not what you learned in school. It is much more sinister and is underpinned by death, disease, murder, and even cannibalism. In this little colony known as Jamestown, these colonists face choices that would have been unimaginable. When the food ran out, they had to eat their horses.

When the horses ran out, they had their dogs. And when all else failed, the colony's death record took on. a different meaning, with evidence of cannibalism found in the cut marks on human bones. So what we're about to talk about today isn't your grandmother's little colonial history lesson. It is a story where proper English gentleman went from talking about table manners and drinking tea with their pinkies up to debating who to eat first. What happens to these original settlers? Let's jump in. What's up, people, and welcome back to camp.

My name is Mark Gagnon. Welcome to my tent where I explore the most interesting, fascinating, and controversial stories throughout all time, and throughout all places, throughout all galaxies. And today, oh boy, we got a good one. You probably heard about it in school. This place called Jamestown, right? I learned about it.

It was just like a little place where settlers landed, you know? They got down there, they started a little colony. They got it going. The Brits that eventually became the Americans. It was the birth of America. That's not actually what happened. The true story is not what you learned in school. It is much more sinister and is underpinned by death, disease,

murder, and even cannibalism. Yeah, all the stuff that didn't break down in third grade history. Miss Wilgus never explained this to me. What about you, Christos? What did you hear about Jamestown? It's the birthplace of what we know is America. Right?

And there's a bunch of good guys down there not doing anything crazy. No, not at all, never. Just trying to look for a new life. Trying to start a whole new country. A couple of migrants. Yeah. Refugees, if you will. Getting here and just trying to start a country.

Well, unfortunately it's not, you know, the story of promises and Pocahontas that we've been told. In fact, the truth is much more complex and, in my opinion, much more fascinating. Jamestown is where the great American experiment was first kicked off. In 1607, 104 English settlers popped into this little Virginia Peninsula, and within 12 years, they would establish the foundations of American democracy with, you know, the house of Burgesses, and also begin the American tragedy of slavery by accepting the first enslaved Africans. So I guess that's kind of the story of America, right? Two moments separated by just a few months in 1916 that basically, you know, show the duality of what America is, this place

of, you know, beautiful ideals uplifting the common man where all people are equal. And then also, you know, the greatest atrocity that human beings can do to each other, which is, enslave our fellow kind. And, yeah, it's also just the kind of the story, the duality of humans. And Jamestown is the birthplace in America for where that happened. The settlement's true story is fascinating and recent archaeological discoveries, which is weird to think about archaeology in America. You think about archaeology, you're like, oh, that's Egyptian stuff.

You know, that's an old bone you find. Not the case. Archaeology was done in the area and confirmed what historical accounts have long hinted at, is that in this little colony known as Jamestown, these colonists face choices that would have been unimaginable back in the civilized streets of London in the West End. When the food ran out, they had to eat their horses. When the horses ran out, they ate their dogs.

And when those were gone, they boiled their boots and they ate the very leather that their feet were covered in. And when all else failed, the colony's death record took on a different meaning. with evidence of cannibalism found in the cut marks on human bones. And the evidence in those bones, in desperate letters back home, and in the haunting records left by colony leaders who watched their civilized veneer crack and fade away. And they weren't simply tales told to scare Europeans, you know,

they were like, oh, look how terrible Americans. No, no, no. They were desperate records by men who could scarcely believe what it was. they were witnessing. So what we're about to talk about today isn't your grandmother's little colonial history lesson. It is a story where proper English gentleman went from talking about table manners and drinking tea with their pinkies up to debating who to eat first. Where democracy and slavery were sort of uncomfortable roommates. And where America's first politician proved that questionable decision-making has been a part of the American DNA since day one. So let's jump in.

Picture this, May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company, they're standing, right on the shores of their new home. They got their fashionable London boots sinking into this swamp, stepping down into this soil, going knees deep. And these weren't necessarily the hardened pioneers or the seasoned farmers that we may have been told. They were kind of regular people, potentially even high class, investors, gentlemen, goldsmiths, people that considered manual lay. labor, something for the peasants, beneath their station, they would say. And they were now tasked with building a colony from scratch in a foreign land with no access to really anything. And the Virginia company had effectively sent a group of aristocratic influencers to create this civilization in the wilderness. Because who better create civilization than the

civilized men, right? Wrong. So we got this guy, Captain John Smith, he starts surveying James town and he wrote with optimism about the potential of the land but the site that the colonist chose would prove to be a master class you could say in poor real estate decisions i mean this is basically buying a house in 2007 you know like it's it's a tough look if the three rules of real estate are christos location location location these guys fucked up right like this is they needed to talk to a savvy real estate person. You know what I mean? Like a Persian Jew or something.

They should have gone over to, they must have a Jewish neighborhood in London, popped over there and been like, we're looking at this plot of land. Do you think this is good? And they would be like, there's too many swamps, too many mosquitoes.

I would advise someplace, maybe Florida. Maybe go to Val Harbor in Florida. I've heard Fort Lauderdale's amazing. I'm disappointed in the English accent. That's my Jewish accent. Oh. So what do these guys do? they land in a swamp and that's where they decide to build their civilization,

surrounded by, you know, kind neighbors that might be a little bit pissed off, the natives, you could say. And the water was often undrinkable and deadly. And the location that they picked was mainly for its defensibility against Spanish attacks, which ironically never came. Maybe because it was such a good position, but also covered with disease and swamp and potentially unfriendly neighbors. So the first priority of this society,

of this little settlement should have been farming, right? That's what you would think. You've seen the Martian. You land in some place that you're not supposed to be. You're like, all right, how do we eat? Should have been farming. It's not what they did. Instead, these gentlemen spent their early years searching for gold, these greedy sons of bitches. I mean, how funny is that? That's a good lesson, right? You go to some place and you're like, all right, we're here to start a civilization. Then immediately they're like, oh, but the fucking gold. And what do they get? Famine. Yeah. They often refuse to farm. because they considered it beneath their status.

We're gold people. We go and find money. We're not going to farm. And this contributed severely to the colony's devastating early mortality. But despite these challenges, these old folks in Jamestown, they survived. Not without, obviously, almost everybody dying, you know, including the starving time is what they called it. 1609 to 1610. This is a time that they called starving time.

And this is when the colonists reported, you know, reportedly eight horses. dogs and even we have the evidence that cannibalism has been found. So in 1619, two ships arrived that would shape American history profoundly in different ways. The first one brought the first elected representatives for the House of Burgesses and the first legislative assembly in English America. The other brought the first recorded enslaved Africans, marking the beginning of a system that, you know, perhaps America's original sin, one of the worst to try. that has occurred in our great land. And this system of enslavement went on for centuries in the Americas at this point. And the House of Burgesses, you know, this was a step towards democracy,

you know, a voting office that would, you know, put in people to, you know, uphold the values of the land. I mean, obviously, property owning whites. But it was democratic, nonetheless. And the cruel irony of all in 1916 is that the democracy and slavery, the fact that these two things arrive in the same year, just a few months apart from each other, again, it just captures the contradiction at the very heart, the very beginning of what America is, and just kind of human beings in general. This is not like necessarily an American problem. Of course, it occurred in America, but it is a problem of humans, that on the one hand, we're deeply compassionate and thoughtful and trying to raise up all humankind. And on the other hand, there is the shadow self, as Young would call it,

that is evil and dark and destructive and just wants to, you know, get every last penny out of every last person, even if that means enslaving entire generations of people and separating them from their families. Yeah, it sucks, but it is, unfortunately, the human condition. And like I said, Jamestown is the heart of it. And it's, I mean, it's like, it's sort of morbidly poetic in a way these two events occur within months of each other. So what happens to these original settlers? Of the original 104 who arrived in Jamestown, 36 were listed as gentlemen, and by winter's end,

these gentlemen had the highest mortality rate of any social class in the colony, when compared to the laborers and the craftsmen. I mean, that's awesome. It's nice to see the rich guys dying immediately, right? It kind of warms your heart a little bit. It's also a survival of the fittest. Yeah, it is.

I mean, absolutely. The idea that these guys came out with their high heels thinking, like, oh, yeah, we'll be fine. Nope. compared to old Johnny Cockney living on the docks of London you think that guy's going to die

and there's no way you should have died 20 years ago and he pushed through whereas these aristocrats they just got dysentery immediately

that's sort of funny to me so this guy John Smith he observed with bitter irony he said quote he that will not work shall not eat except of course

by sickness he be disabled it turned out that the gentleman improved far less useful than those of a farmer or a laborer when survival was at stake. I mean, I could have told, right, I could have told you this, you know, I've seen Survivor. Every now and again, you'll watch Survivor and you're like, you know, there'll be like a Girl Scout or something. She's like, I'm the leader of my Girl Scout troop and you're like, this girl's going to be out of here in a heartbeat. Then you know, some guy is like a, you know, like a venture capitalist guy is like working at Goldman Sachs.

She's like, no, no, I understand strategy and da-da-da. Then you get out in these woods, boy, I don't give a shit. know how to make fire. And that's what happened in Jamestown. So this Virginia company that we were talking about before, their records reveal this interesting pattern, right? You have laborers, craftsmen consistently outliving their social betters, quote unquote. And the archaeological evidence shows that even in death, the class distinction remained, at least until, you know, the desperate times that forced colonists to rob the graves indiscriminately. Regardless, The collapse of these social hierarchies was pretty swift.

So by the winter of 1609, the men of, quote, great rank and quality were forced to gather herbs and roots alongside the common laborers. Initially, in this original colony, the food distribution was strict on the social hierarchy. The Virginia Company's record showed that the gentlemen, you know, the aristocrats, they received larger portions and better cuts of meat. but as supplies dwindled, this system fell apart. William Straiti documented how, quote, men of quality were caught stealing from the common store while skilled hunters and farmers. Regardless of social rank became the colony's new elite.

The colony's strict social code meant that, you know, nothing really matters when starvation is on the line. And, oh boy, is starvation on the line. So when the supply ship, known as the Sea Venture, got wrecked in Bermuda in 60909, shut out the Bermuda Trival, respect. Kind of a falling off conspiracy that I always thought, the Bermuda Trival. You remember hearing about it, right? All the time, but it's been debunked, right?

I mean, what is debunked? They attribute it to non-magical forces, I suppose. I don't know about that. I think maybe the forces just stopped once we started looking at it, you know? But it is one of those that I remember as a kid being like, oh, Bermuda Triangle, Amelia Earhart, like, what's going on? But it's like, yeah, it's just a hard place to navigate through. And Sea Venture was one of the victims.

Rex and Bermuda, 1609, and from then on, Jamestown was screwed. The settlement entered winter with 500 people, and by spring, 60, 60, remained. 500 people. Think about that. It's probably, you've been in a theater. It was 500 people. and by the spring 60 people, 6-0 remained.

I mean, that's pretty stark. What is that, 8%. George Piercy, the colony's president during this period, left the haunting account where he says, nothing was spared to maintain life as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and eat them. Piercy's words written with, you know, sort of a blunt horror,

were later confirmed by archaeological discoveries that would shock any scientist. This guy, Dr. William Kelso, which is a funny name for a doctor. Kelso, dude, Dr. Kelso. That 70s show, I mean, that's crazy. His team at the historic Jamestown unearthed evidence that survivors had resorted to

eating their very countrymen. As one colonist, John Smith, recorded in his general history, there are not past 60 men, women, and children, most miserable and poor creatures and those were preserved for the most part by roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries,

and now and then a little fish, ye, even the very skins of our horses. That's a direct quote from the Smithsonian on, yeah, what these people had to do in order to survive. I mean, I mean, that's, you would think they would fish more. Like, how is it hard for these people to fish?

Like, there's all this fish. Go catch a squirrel. Like, is there a lot of fishing in Jamestown going on? Why not? You're on the water. Do they have the technology? It's a line with, it's a spear. Get out there.

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Powhatan, who had previously traded with the colonists, withdrew his people from the area as relations with the English soured, and their demands kind of grew. Contemporary English accounts describe how Powhatan and his people stopped trading food and sometimes attacked isolated colonists. While some colonial records portray the Powhatan as hostile, sometimes describing them, you know, as violent, there's no necessarily historical evidence.

And modern historians suggest that Palatans' people were primarily seeking to protect themselves and maintain a safe distance from this settlement that was descending into chaos and desperation. And the true scope of the desperation is revealed in a letter from William Strachey describing the starving time of Jamestown. He recounted that some colonists, driven by famine, resorted to theft, and because of their theft, they were executed. Others fled actually to live with the native peoples

and some of those that didn't make it out. They were pursued and killed. He also recorded a notorious case in which a man, driven by hunger, killed and ate his wife, for which he was executed. I mean, crazy, right? The type of desperation you need to eat your wife. Maybe she was just being annoying.

Who's to say, right? It's difficult to really understand what was happening in history at this time. But there's this guy. Secretary Ralph Haymore, he later referred to the winter of 1609 to 1610 as the starving time. This was a phrase that, you know, captured the desperation of the colonists. And contemporary accounts, including those by a gentleman named George Piercy and William Strachey that we mentioned before, they described the horrors as too vile to say and scarce to believe. I mean, everything from the famine to the disease, the cannibalism.

I mean, that winter of 60909, that shit sucks. I can, you got to think, like, that's probably, I mean, Virginia in the winter is probably colder than London at any point, right? I mean, it's crazy these people who chose to do this. And these guys go in there thinking like, oh, we're going to find gold, nope. I don't even, I wonder what they were even told. What's fascinating about Jamestown is not only the desperation of the starving time that these early settlers went and dealt with, but the justice system where stealing a biscuit would get you hung. But cannibalism might be like, all right, just don't do that. Which makes sense. sense, right? If some guy stole a biscuit, I'd be like, yo, you stole my biscuit, you got to die. But if some dude's got a femur in his mouth, I'd be like, no, we can talk about it. Right. So the Virginia company had this laws, divine, moral, and martial, basically spelling out the punishments in detail. Thief to food is punishable by death, while saying mean things about the colony's management would get your tongue pierced with a rod. Obviously, the real crime here was, you know, complaining about people who brought up these punishments, you know?

I mean, that's crazy that you can't even complain. I mean, at the very least, you should be able to talk shit a little bit, you know? At the very, like, if you're going to bring me to some colony and I got to eat acorns all day, you should let me be like, yo, fuck these acorns. But not the case. These people got their tongues basically cut out if they would say anything bad. Colonists would even, apparently, dig up graves for food, but did not mention any punishment for these acts. When Sir Thomas Gates arrived as governor, he found that the colony was in chaos and enforced this new code of strict discipline, executing some of the colonists that were stealing food, and again, kind of looking at their eye for some of the other acts that they didn't necessarily deem as, you know, punishable cannibalism, etc.

Maybe the saddest part is this ship I told you about the sea venture that crashed in Bermuda. Basically, there was a hurricane that came through in 1609 and shipwrecked. This boat in Bermuda, leaving its passengers stranded for months on an island with abundant resources, while the castaways, including William Strachie himself, survived on wild hog, fresh fist. Fresh fist, fished, not fist. He didn't eat any fist. He was not getting fisted at any point. He was eating fish, and he built new ships to try to continue their journey. The colonists in Jamestown endured a brutal winter, those that survived at least, resorting to these desperate measures of having to eat their own shoes.

The vivid account of the storm and the sort of Bermuda shipwreck would later inspire Shakespeare's The Tempest, although the play kind of omits the grim reality faced by those left in Virginia. That is wild to think. Shakespeare was like cooking up stories and plays around the time that this was all happening.

When was The Tempest written? You can look that up? That's fascinating to think that he was reading these letters being like, yo, this is fire. This right here? I mean, that really is. is all art, right? Art is inspired by reality and then art inspires reality.

1611, wow. Yeah, there you go. And the Sea Venture, this great ship that, you know, wasn't so great, it wasn't alone in its failure to reach Jamestown. Records from the Virginia company show that they sent a fleet of nine vessels, many of them, Sea Venture, Blessing, Diamond. No, these are not strippers. These are actual ships they got sent carrying hundreds of colonists and the needed supplies. But during this Atlantic crossing, the fleet was scattered by powerful hurricanes

and the Sea Venture, wrecked in Bermuda, while the other ships had their own hard ships. Seven ships eventually made it to Jamestown, but they arrived with most of their supplies

ruined by seawater. Also, these ships are so small. Could you look up a picture of what the sea venture of one of these ships look like? I mean, they're like shockingly small. Now, that boy little right there,

but that's like a catamaran. That thing is tough. And you got sails, I mean, yeah, that everything gets destroyed on that you're trying to come to america i mean that's a long that's a long journey how long do they have to go on on boat and that's another thing i'd love to know i mean so you get there and these people are like finally a boat's here with all the supplies we're going to be saved nope everything's destroyed by saltwater and many of the passengers are sick and probably bring in their

own disease and all sorts of stuff 13 days two weeks at sea in a tiny little boat floating through the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. So the loss of these ships and the cargo combined with, you know, the Sea Ventures leadership provisions, all that stuff, leaves the colony in dire straits and sends them into the starving time. It's fortunate that a couple of ships actually completed their mission and saved the whole thing from just going down altogether. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because you need to rebrand your crotch.

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right? So you send all your countrymen, all these Londoners, some of them aristocrats, some farmers and, you know, blue-collar guys. And they go there and, you know, 400, what is it, 440 of them die. But back in London, they're trying to balance the public perception. So the company, the Virginia company, they start, you know, continuing to raise funds. They're selling shares, running lotteries, and publishing these pamphlets and these, you know, beautiful broadsides that promote the promise of Virginia to potential investors.

Meanwhile, they're just tanking internally. I mean, this is like Theranos. This is like, what is it, FTX? Just like, oh, everything's fine. Everything's good. Just keep on buying. We're all fine. Meanwhile, people are eating each other.

I mean, just crazy. And the marketing efforts, oftentimes outpaced the company's ability to, you know, provide the sufficient supplies to this struggling colony. So the surviving company records made it, many of them were destroyed. The later analysis of them show that despite the desperate need for resources, the Virginia company,

invested heavily in these promotional campaigns and public appeals back in England. So instead of buying a boat, send some more supplies, they were just like buying marketing on a podcast somewhere, being like, hey, this episode is brought to you by the Virginia company, invest today. And as a result, you know, this gap between the optimistic image of this venture and the harsh reality faced by the colonists only widened. So everyone back in England was like, oh, my uncle's having a great time. He's finding gold, me and natives having, you know, Thanksgiving.

Life's good. Life was not good. The final irony was when the survivors of the Sea Venture finally reached Jamestown in May, 1610, and they found the colony in such a desperate state that their initial impulse was to abandon the settlement altogether. Historical records show that Thomas Gates and other Bermuda castaways arrived expecting to bring relief, but instead only discovered 60 emaciated survivors clinging to life amid this tiny little fort. The supplies and the fresh provisions of the Sea Venture Group had carefully preserved, you know, that were preserved during their months in Bermuda,

were exhausted almost immediately lasting less than two weeks. Facing starvation themselves, these new, you know, Bermuda castaways that showed up in Jamestown, They decided to evacuate. They left Jamestown and headed downriver, only to be met by the timely arrival of the gentleman named Lord de la Ward and his fleet, which forced the colonists to return and attempted yet another new beginning. In the end, the long-awaited rescuers found themselves now in need of rescue. So the first year is met by famine and death, and there's more death to come. The English settlers who make it to Virginia bring with them, you know, all sorts of different microscopic pathogens in, you know, stowaways such as, you know, bacteria, viruses, all sorts

of stuff that have a profound impact on the native population and the settlers themselves. So in the early year of Jamestown, the colonists suffered all sorts of losses, dysentery, typhoid, fevers, malnutrition, all that stuff. Contemporary accounts, including those from William Strachie, like I mentioned before, described how men, women, and children died in large numbers, often succumbing to these, you know, plague, starvation, violence. And oftentimes, the agents of these diseases were just found in, you know, the various supplies that they were bringing. And as a result, they were more dramatically impactful to the colonists than any type of conflict or any weapon that they would find in Jamestown. Now, of course, the impact of these diseases was impactful on the colonists, but more so on the native population.

So some of the colonists had inherited immunity from these illnesses like smallpox, measles, typhus, etc. The indigenous people of the Americas had no exposure. So as a result, when epidemics spread through the native communities, the mortality rates were even higher than they were for the colonists. Observers in the 17th century described entire villages decimated, with so many deaths that survivors were often unable to even do anything for their dead. I mean, it's like just truly so morbid. Like, historians estimate that 90% of the native population along with, you know, along the Eastern Seaboard died within a century of the first sustained contact with the Europeans, fundamentally just shaping the demographics of North America forever. It's interesting that,

you know, this is one of those things that I looked at. I remember back in the day, like, basically the Europeans due to the amount of domesticated animals, pigs, things like that, just kind of naturally occurring in the region, they were able to domesticate all this livestock, and as a result of living with livestock, they get a lot of diseases, cholera, things like that. And many of them die, but many of them get immunity.

So when they come to America, where there's less domesticated animals, and many of these people lived in tribal bands and would hunt and gather, they had no protection. at all. So, well, these colonists, you know, many of them who had at least some reality to the harshness of frontier life, they lived in cramped, you know, brackish, stagnant waters, and they didn't have any sanitation and they contaminated their own drinking sources, and this

created more illness, more dysentery, etc. And then to make matters worse, the land that they had chosen for this fort was, you know, a marsh. And it was prone to mosquitoes and waterborne diseases. And in these conditions, even common illnesses could be completely deadly. So like a fever or a cold that you might be able to pass, you know, for a couple of days in London, without any type of food, sustenance or, you know, amenable, you know, housing would just kill even the toughest people. So the domesticated animals that the English brought over also played a role in this unfolding biological crisis. The livestock, like I mentioned before, pigs, cattle, chickens, intended to provide food often carried all sorts of diseases, and these animals

transmitted these pathogens both to the native wildlife that then brought new illnesses into the local environment, and as a result, the European livestock spread almost even more disease than the settlers themselves. So a Spanish officer, Don Diego de Molina, was captured and held in Jamestown in the early 1610s right after the starving time, and during his imprisonment, he went his first hand the colony's conditions and later reported to Spanish officials on the settlement's vulnerability and just how shitty it was to be in this English settlement. Molina described Jamestown as a place, quote, plagued by disease malnutrition in the constant need for resupply,

suggesting that the colony's survival depended on continuous shipments from England and that its prospects were pretty bleak. The irony with this new world imagined by the English as this land of opportunity, instead was just, you know, a battleground. Not only with the Spanish and the native population, but primarily with disease and famine. They basically threatened their very existence altogether. What's interesting is that the Powhatan people saw these English newcomers

and we're kind of curious but also apprehensive. But they noticed that despite the settlers claiming to be smarter, more intelligent, more civilized, these colonists lacked any type of knowledge of local medicinal. plants and typically relied on these super ineffective borderline medieval medical practices such as bloodletting. Literally bloodletting where if someone's sick and they have like a fever, they would just let out blood thinking that the bad blood is the thing that was making them sick in the first place. So the English were struggling to maintain any type of safe water supply and this again

leads to more outbreak of disease. The historical accounts, including those by Thomas Harriet and many other early observers noted that the Powhatan had effective treatments for many of their own ailments. However, the new diseases brought over by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, that were completely unfamiliar to the Powhatan. Their traditional remedies offered much less protection, if any at all, against these types of illnesses. So for the region's native healers and the medical people of their time, the arrival of these diseases was a turning point, as their medical knowledge was suddenly powerless in the face of these new epidemics. So there was now a cultural clash in the medical practices in Jamestown, where the native healers were skillfully able to use plants such as sassafras and jimson weed to treat fevers and pain.

These English physicians relied on purging and bloodletting and all sorts of treatments that were even less effective. The colonists were unfamiliar with any of these medicinal plants or anything and oftentimes dismissed any type of indigenous remedy, seeing it as unsophisticated. And so they struggled with all these different illnesses they themselves couldn't keep. cure. Some modern historians claim that the herbal knowledge of the native people could have actually offered a better outcome than the aggressive interventions that was favored by the colonists. Even when the Powhatan people attempted to help the English with their illness, there was a cultural misunderstanding and it often complicated these interactions. So these Powhatan leaders would come over with their healing people and their medicine men and use these ceremonies

and chanting and herbal remedies, drawing on a deep knowledge of these lives. local plants that they used to treat sickness. And instead of, you know, incorporating these, you know, these elements into their healing practice, the colonists basically interpreted these ceremonies as witchcraft and said that the Powhatan were not welcome to try to heal their own people. So instead, they were like, hey, let's just do prayer and let the blood out. Which, again, bloodletting historically had done nothing. I think George Washington died of bloodletting.

Is that true? If you can Google that, I'm almost positive. That's the case. I mean, it's so funny that these guys would come in. They're like, no, no, we can heal you. And they're like, nope, not going to risk it. That's witchcraft. And then they died anyway.

I mean, it's crazy. I don't know. Maybe that's not the case. Wait, his doctors following common practices, bled him five times from removing 40% of his blood volume. The most likely cause of his death was an upper respiratory infection. So it might not have been the bloodletting necessarily, but likely exacerbated his condition. I mean, that's crazy. So some of the colonists actually invited the use of like herbs and local, you know, plantology.

And they had some success, but generally the lack of understanding often cause higher mortality that neither side could cure. So in May 2013, archaeologists at Jamestown made a discovery that changed fundamentally what they thought about colonial America. A trash pit dating back to the starving time is again the winter of, 1609, they found a fragment of a 14-year-old girl's skull, and the marks on her bones would confirm what historical accounts had long suggested that they had resorted to cannibalism. Dr. Douglas Owsley, the Smithsonian's lead forensic anthropologists, he conducted a detailed analysis of the remains of this teenage girl, who they referred to as Jane. And his examination revealed this clear evidence of cannibalism during this time.

The skull and the shin bone showed multiple cut marks in chop. made by metal tools consistent with the butchering techniques used by on animals at the site. And the pattern of tentative cuts followed by more forceful blows suggested a progression from hesitation to a more methodical effort, you could say, reflecting the desperation that the colonists had in this time. Here's an image of the fragment of her skull. I mean, just great. She's 14. Like, what the hell?

So this forensic evidence, again, proved for the first time this confirmation that, many people had suggested and many contemporary accounts at the time had suggested that there was cannibalism that occurred in Jamestown. So Jane's remains tell us more than just how she died. Isotope analysis of her bones revealed that she was from southern England, likely from a wealthy family given her diet, and that she had survived this Atlantic crossing and nearly three months in Virginia before the winter of 609 eventually claimed her life. Dr. William Kelsey. Also, the Jamestown's chief archaeologist, says again that the cuts on her bone suggested that it was someone who had experienced butchering animals. It wasn't some type of frenzied act. It wasn't just murder. It was survival. And Jamestown was not the only European colony to experience such extreme desperation. The French expedition to Florida in 1562, led by Jean-Riebeau and René Lé-Donnais-Dunier, faced severe shortages at Charles Fort. When supplies ran out and the settlers attempted to return to Europe in an open boat, they were eventually forced to resort to cannibalism in order to survive the Atlantic crossing.

Some survivors were later rescued in English waters and, again, recounted the horrors that they had faced. Similar accounts of starvation and cannibalism appear in the records of other early colonial efforts, such as the French Huguenots at Fort Carolina and various Spanish expeditions, though direct physical evidence outside Jamestown is difficult and rare to really conclusively draw any type of cannibalistic claim. These incidents, again, just underscore that the struggle for survival in the new world was not at all what we were taught in school. This is not some type of walk in the park where people just landed. and set up a fort. It was brutal death, famine, disease, and destruction for everybody. Perhaps the most strange or morbid detail about the finding of Jane's remains, this young girl

that had ostensibly been eaten, is in the trash pit where they found her remains were animal bones, pottery shards, and other elements of kitchen waste that had kind of just been tossed away. And this detail is kind of easy to overlook, but more than, any other it speaks to how completely the structures of civilization that they had clung to back in England were completely thrown out the window and that human remains were just tossed away in the garbage not given a proper burial no type of signing off just destruction and death so seems like jamestown has been framed in the uh you know the classroom setting as some type of tale of heroic beginnings, but the reality, in my opinion, is much more, you know, much more morbid and

kind of illustrates how ill-prepared these settlers, many of whom were these, you know, gentlemen were when they were thrust into the wilderness. I mean, yeah, this is not the story of Jamestown that I was taught at all grown up. Chris, Christos, did you hear about Jamestown when you were a kid? I actually only, like, completely heard about Plymouth Rock, never even heard James Town. Yeah, Plymouth Rock was a little later, right? That was, uh, what is it? say 1620. Yep. Yeah, and Plymouth Rock is always the one that people kind of point to.

They're like, no, that's when we really got here, right? And Jamestown, you're like, we don't need to even look into that. And then what was the other one, Roanoke? You remember Roanoke? And that one completely disappeared. There's a sign that was left in Roanoke. Can you look up what the sign was? Yeah, Roanoke disappearance.

And so there is basically this, that was one of the other settlements that I, think just basically vanished. Everyone that was in there just died off from disease or war. People try to be like, oh, they disappeared. Something happened to them. I don't think so. I think they're known as the lost colony. So yeah, they had left the sign Croatowan or Crow on a nearby tree,

basically indicating that they'd gone to a different place. They were like, fuck it, we're out. We're not doing this. But yeah, that's the story of the early colonials, colonial, the colonists that landed in America, not a walk in the park. I mean, if you think it was bad for them, I mean, the slaves they brought over probably had a much worse time, right? It's shocking that anyone survived at all. But it is kind of interesting that that's not at all what was taught. And even more so, the fact that these people back in London were like, no, everything's great, everything's fine. No, it's fine. Just keep on investing. Don't look at it. Which is such a typical human response. You try to cover up all the terrible shit that's going on the outside just to or on the inside and put on these good appearances on the outside. Like, no, we're fine. the money's good, keep it flowing in, and they didn't even try to help the people, and they were spending more money on marketing

than they were on trying to actually send supply ships. The British. I don't even identify with these people. We're Americans, all right? And that is the morbid and unfortunate story of Jamestown. In a way, you kind of got to be like, oh, I'm grateful, you know. This is America, right?

These people had to die so that Plymouth Rock could happen so that we could have this, you know, great country. But then also the terrible stuff with the natives and slaves. Yeah. Sometimes you don't want to know the truth. No one gets it right on the first try, though. Yeah, it's a good point. Got to crack a few eggs.

Whoops. So, if this is the Jamestown that you were taught in school, I'm sorry. I see why they don't tell us the children. I like that they just tell us like, oh, no, it was Thanksgiving. They had a dinner with some natives. Everything's fine. Because the reality of any type of colonial conquest is that it's probably brutal and disgusting and shows the atrocities of, you know, humankind that they would even resort to eating a 14-year-old

girl. I mean, ugh, what is going on? Right? Freaking Diddy's dream. Allegedly. Allegedly. I don't even know if I'm allowed to say that. Anyway, this has been another episode of Camp. Thank you all so much for joining us here in my tent to explore the dark, morbid world that surrounds us. We'll be doing many more episodes. Please subscribe. You're dropping these twice a week, diving deep into the strange corners of the world. I got merch up on the website. You can check out Camp Goods. Also Religion Camp. Check out that channel. We've many more camp. on the way. And I'm also on the road. Mark Agon Live. Come see me. I'll be doing one hour of stand-up comedy.

I would love to see you guys. Come hang out. Talk to me after the show. And I'll see you guys there. What's up, people? Quick announcement. If you are a fan of Camp Gagnon or Religion Camp, I have great news because we're dropping history camp. That's right. This is the channel we're going to be exploring the most interesting, fascinating, controversial topics from all time throughout all history. Right? You probably know about Benjamin Franklin. I don't know Thomas Jefferson, and Nikola Tesla. Interesting figures from history, and you probably learned about it in school

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