5. Virginia Company Early Failures of Building Jamestown with Criminals
However, another reason the women ended up coming from a variety of backgrounds might be because of the early failures of the company. Before the advertisements went out for decent English women to become brides to Jamestown colonists, the company sent a particular group of people to Jamestown. After most of the colonists of Jamestown died from disease or a hard winter, the company had to figure out how to build the population back up again. The company decided to send England’s convicted criminals to Jamestown, specifically the women to do so. The Virginia Company decided to send convicted criminals because European people began to believe that Virginia was a dangerous place.
After a large number of deaths on the colony, many English people began to view Jamestown as a place to go if they wanted to die. Therefore, few people wanted to immigrate to Jamestown. However, the company was feeling pressure from the Jamestown colonists who survived the harsh winter and disease to build up the population, especially the female population. The way to do this was to give the European criminals a choice. They could either decide to go to prison and mostly be executed or go to Jamestown. Of course, most of the criminal chose Jamestown because, to them, it was the better choice. Over time, the colonists in Jamestown told the company to stop sending England’s criminals. They further said to them that if the company could not find better females to send to Jamestown to stop trying altogether.