4. Women Were Just Slow at Immigrating to Jamestown
While trying to get either English men or women to immigrate to Jamestown was difficult, it was notably hard to recruit the women. Even with all the research historians have done on the Jamestown settlement, they cannot pinpoint a direct explanation on why women drug their feet when it came to Jamestown. Some believe it was because, in England’s society, men were pushed to be more adventurous and take risks. Others feel it was because women thought they were too weak to make the trip, would not be protected as they had to be, and, therefore, would not be able to live a long life in Jamestown. No matter what the reasoning was, the company spent decades trying to recruit enough women.
So few women immigrated to Jamestown colony at first that the male colonists were always after the Virginia Company to recruit more women. Of course, there were plenty of women in the area, but the majority of these women were Native American. The Virginia Company leaders frowned upon the colonists taking Native American women as wives. However, we do know it happened at least once, Pocahontas and an English man, but this was an exception. The trouble was both males and females were necessary to keep the colony going. Therefore, the company came up with the Jamestown brides voyage.