Why did the Jamestown settlers learn to grow corn?

Answer 1

Corn was a staple New World food that was important to the Native Americans. "Corn was the staff of food, upon which the Indians did ever depend," wrote an English settler. When the men of Jamestown first arrived they were not interested in planting any crops and were only there to look for gold. The 106 men were sent there by investors to come back with gold so all of them could make a profit. They also settled on a site that was the poorest land in the area. The Native Americans in the area had fertile fields and when the yields fell in that field they would leave it, let the forest regrow and go on to new parcels. They also had mixed crops of corn, squash, and beans together. They lived on the riverfront land that held the richest soil and the marshes around them also had foodstuffs that they could use in lean times. The Spring that the Jamestown settlement was begun was a time of multi year drought for the area and they moved into an area containing 14,000 Native Americans that was rapidly expanding. Because of the drought the Native population wasn't going to share the crops they had planted or stored. Within six months of arriving in the area only 34 of the 106 men were still alive. They had died due to typhoid, dysentery and bad water and when John Smith arrived in 1609 he was able to get some corn from the Native Americans to survive the next winter. As the English adapted to the landscape their arrival set off changes. They brought in animals, insects, and plants that changed the area. Tobacco was their main crop but when it exhausted the soil they planted corn. The colonist found unfenced land when they arrived and one of the first things they began to do is fence the plots of land where they placed cattle, goats, sheep, and planted the corn and tobacco. Once the tobacco proved profitable they planted large stretches of land and also brought in non native fruit trees and grapevines. Creating an "English" landscape they took possession of the land with fences and houses. The pigs were the worse of what arrived with the English. They ate everything and anything. The nuts, corn, and edible roots were devoured by them. The Native Americans found themselves competing with the pigs for food.