Imagine waiting weeks at a time not eating and having severe stomach pains. That's how most of the colonists felt and perished. The main reason that so many colonists died is because of hunger and starvation. One way so many colonists died from starvation is that “in the awful winter of 1609-1610 two thirds of settlement died.” (Background Essay). Another way the colonists died from starvation is that there were about a dozen droughts, one of them lasting up to 6 years, (Document B). As seen here droughts and winter time can be a time with little to no rain, which means no crops and food which led to starvation. Some people think that hunger may have been a problem, but the brackish water could make people die of dehydration, (Document A).
