Jamestown (Chérie 25): did the heroines of the series really exist?

In Jamestown, the historical series broadcast on Chérie 25, Alice (Sophie Rundle), Verity (Niamh Walsh), and Jocelyn (Naomie Battrick) landed in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Each was forced to marry the man who paid her passage. But instead of being submissive, these newcomers fight to build a future for themselves in the New World. What was life like for women in Jamestown?

Who are the real heroines of Jamestown?

The real colony of Jamestown was founded on May 14, 1607, by an expedition commanded by the Virginia Company of London. An all-male group was sent on a mission to explore the territory and determine its resources. To bring stability to the colony, the treasurer of the Virginia Company established a conjugal immigration program. Women are offered free transportation to the colony, clothing, linens, furniture, and land to reach Jamestown. The first arrived in 1608 on a supply ship. Unlike the characters in the series, women arriving in Jamestown could choose their husband. The latter reimbursed the Virginia Company and covered the cost of transport to the New World with 150 pounds of "good leaf" tobacco. Reason why, for the record, they earned the nickname of "tobacco wives".

Leaving England allows working-class English women to escape a life of servitude. The colonists enjoyed freedoms that women in England did not have at the time. Life in the New World also offered opportunities unavailable to most English women at the time. They have the possibility of becoming landowners. Widows are allowed to inherit shares of land, making them financially independent and preventing them from having to remarry. While the series tells the story of three fictional characters, Jocelyn (Naomi Battrick), Alice (Sophie Rundle) and Verity (Niamh Walsh), real women have changed the history of this colony. success and lasting legacy of Jamestown, England's first permanent settlement in America.

Meet the real women of Jamestown history

Jamestown (Honey 25): Heroines of the series really existed?

Anne Burras, the first Mother

A former maid, Anne Burras was the first English woman to marry in the New World, to carpenter John Laydon. She gave birth to the colony's first English settler child, a girl named Virginia.

Pocahontas

Native American Pocahontas, of the Powhatan people, was the daughter of Chief Wahunsenacawh. Aged 11 when the first settlers arrived in Jamestown, she would have, according to him, saved the life of explorer John Smith. When relations between the Powhatan tribe and the colony escalate, Pocahontas is captured and held prisoner in Jamestown. A year later, she was indoctrinated into the Christian faith, baptized Rebecca, and married to businessman and tobacco grower John Rolfe. This union for a time sealed peace between the tribe and the colony. In 1616, Pocahontas and John Rolfe traveled to England with their son, Thomas, to promote Jamestown. A year later, Pocahontas and her young boy fall seriously ill and the young woman succumbs to his affection. She is buried in Gravesend, England.

Temperance Flowerdew

Temperance Flowerdew is one of the housewives who appears in the series. This young woman in her twenties landed in Jamestown in August 1609. When she was already married in England, she boarded a ship heading for Jamestown. If his journey was rough, the hardest was yet to come. She arrives in the midst of a conflict between the Powhatan and the settlers. Cut off from food, Jamestown saw a period of terrible famine during which nearly 90% of the settlers died of starvation. It is said that some desperate people resorted to cannibalism. As one of the 60 survivors, Temperance will welcome a boat of new settlers with on board was a certain John Rolfe, who will later marry Pocahontas.