9. During the Starving Time at Jamestown, Virginia, the colonial settlers were forced to eat each other or die
Founded May 24, 1607, Jamestown, in the Colony of Virginia, was from the outset a troubled settlement. Chosen for defensive location, in spite of limited hunting opportunities and a shortage of available drinking water, the early settlers possessed limited experience in manual labor of farming. Surviving entirely dependent on trade with the Natives and supply ships from England, the colony miraculously grew to approximately 500 residents by late-1609, when, for a variety of factors, the “Starving Time” began.
Unable to leave the fort due to a Native campaign to drive the English from the continent, and learning of the delay of the supply ship Sea Venture by storms in Bermuda, Captain Samuel Argall sailed with haste to England to beg assistance for the beleaguered colony. Few records exist from the winter of 1609-1610, but it is known that the colony rapidly descended into a state of anarchy. In desperation, valuable tools were traded for scraps, houses were burned for firewood, and any living creature within the settlement became prospective food including cats, dogs, horses, rats, and even people. The remains of a teenage girl, believed to have been killed by arsenic, has revealed upon forensic examination signs consistent with the butchering of meat, whilst other accounts equally record the alleged cannibalism of the town’s inhabitants. On May 23, 1610, the remnants of the supply convoy arrived from Bermuda expecting to find a thriving New World colony of 500; instead, they found just 60 living colonists.