Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The Jamestown Colony in Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The early years of the colony suffered from a notoriously high mortality rate. Their plight became so dire at times that they resorted to cannibalism. While historical records document symptoms of the colonists, no conclusion has been reached as to the cause of the many deaths. It has been suggested that salt poisoning negatively impacted the colonists’ health and increased the death toll. The settlers drank water directly from the James River for their first year in Virginia, even though they complained of its salty taste and filthy appearance. Using the work of Stahle et al. (1998), this study reconstructed the salinity of the James River during the Jamestown settlement’s early years in an attempt to establish if the water of the James River was saline enough to impact colonists’ health. Using regionally calculated average July Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index values for the James River Watershed, the relationship between regional PHDI and conductivity in the James River was established. PHDI values reconstructed by Stahle et al. from bald cypress tree-rings in1998 were applied to the relationship to reconstruct the conductivity of the James River. These conductivities were converted to salinity and plotted in relation to the modern average maximum, mean, and minimum July values. Additionally, the reconstructed data was examined in relation to the maximum salinity of healthy drinking water (1667mg/L). This value was established using the World Health Organization’s recommended daily intake of water and maximum daily intake of salt. According to this model, salinity of the James River at Jamestown exceeded the modern average July maximum by up to 74% in the years following the founding of Jamestown. During the year the colonists drew drinking water directly from the river, salinity levels in the James River surpassed the maximum salinity of healthy drinking water by 286%. This study suggests that increased salinity in the James River, brought on by regional drought, may have played a major role in negatively impacting the colonists’ health; especially during the initial year of the settlement when settlers drew drinking water directly from the James River.
Date Awarded
2014
Department
Geology
Recommended Citation
Raycroft, Shenandoah, "Using tree-ring derived PHDI values to reconstruct James River salinity during the Jamestown settlement" (2014). Geology Senior Theses. William & Mary. Paper 325.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/geologyseniors/325
