The Women of Jamestown: Pioneers, Not Prostitutes

The early years of Jamestown, Virginia (founded 1607), were marked by extreme hardship, disease, starvation, and a critical demographic problem: a severe lack of women. This absence threatened the colony’s very survival, as there was no prospect for family life, natural population growth, or social stability. To address this, the Virginia Company of London devised a plan to recruit and send unmarried English women to the struggling settlement. While sometimes sensationalized or misunderstood in later retellings, labeling these women as “prostitutes” is a profound historical inaccuracy that obscures their true significance as essential founders of American society.

Who were the women sent to Jamestown, and why are they called “prostitutes”?

The label “prostitutes” applied to the Jamestown women is a persistent historical myth, not fact. This misconception likely stems from later Victorian-era sensibilities misinterpreting the transactional nature of their passage and the social conditions of early Jamestown. The women were not sent as sex workers; they were recruited specifically as potential wives to establish families and create a stable, reproducing population essential for the colony’s long-term viability.

The Virginia Company, the joint-stock company that founded and governed Jamestown, recognized early on that the colony’s future depended on more than just male adventurers and laborers. Without women, men were less likely to settle permanently, social order was harder to maintain, and natural population growth was impossible. Chronic instability and high mortality rates plagued the colony’s first decade (“the Starving Time”). Sending women was a calculated strategy for survival and permanence. While their passage was indeed paid for through a system involving tobacco (as payment to the Company) or service (to their future husbands), this was a common practice for indentured servants of both genders, not an indication of prostitution. Records indicate the Company sought women of “good character” – young, healthy, skilled in domestic tasks, and deemed suitable for marriage.

What was the “tobacco bride” system?

The “tobacco bride” system refers to the method used by the Virginia Company to finance the passage of women to Jamestown and incentivize marriage. Prospective husbands in the colony reimbursed the Company for the cost of transporting a wife. This payment was typically made in pounds of tobacco, the colony’s emerging cash crop. The amount, often around 120-150 pounds of tobacco, covered the transatlantic fare. While framed as “buying” a wife, it was essentially reimbursing the Company’s investment, similar to how employers paid for indentured servants’ passage. The woman herself was not sold; the transaction was between the Company and the settler covering her transportation debt.

Why did the Virginia Company send women to Jamestown?

The Virginia Company sent women to Jamestown for fundamental, pragmatic reasons crucial to transforming the failing military outpost into a sustainable colony. Their primary motivations were rooted in demographics, social stability, economic viability, and long-term survival.

Demographic Imbalance & Population Growth: Jamestown began as an almost exclusively male venture. High mortality rates from disease, malnutrition, and conflict further skewed the gender ratio. Without women, there was no possibility of natural population increase through births, dooming the colony to perpetual reliance on risky and expensive new immigration. Women were essential for creating families and raising children born in Virginia.

Social Stability & Permanence: The Company believed the presence of women would encourage men to put down roots, invest in homes and farms, and adopt a more settled, orderly lifestyle. It was thought women would act as a civilizing influence, reducing idleness, vice, and conflict among the predominantly young, single male population. Stable families were seen as the bedrock of a functional society.

Economic Diversification & Household Production: Women brought essential domestic skills often lacking among the male settlers. They were expected to manage households, prepare food, make and mend clothing, tend gardens, raise poultry, and care for the sick – all vital contributions to the colony’s day-to-day survival and economy beyond just tobacco cultivation. Some women also possessed skills like brewing, dairying, or midwifery.

Moral & Religious Justification: Establishing families aligned with English social norms and Christian ideals of marriage and community. The Company could frame the venture as building a proper English society in the New World, not just a commercial enterprise or military garrison.

Did the Company have trouble recruiting women?

Yes, recruiting women willing to make the perilous journey to Jamestown presented significant challenges for the Virginia Company. Life in early Jamestown was notoriously dangerous and harsh, with reports of starvation, disease, and conflict with the Powhatan Confederacy widely circulating in England. The prospect was daunting. To overcome this, the Company employed several tactics:

• Promotional Literature: Pamphlets and broadsides emphasized the opportunities in Virginia – the chance for marriage, land ownership (eventually), and a potentially better life than as a servant or laborer in crowded, impoverished England.
• Character References & Screening: While seeking women of “good character,” recruiters often focused on those with limited prospects in England: daughters of the working poor, orphans, or women seeking a fresh start. Parish records and interviews were sometimes used, though rigorous vetting was difficult.
• Financial Incentive (for Recruiters): Agents received a commission for each woman they successfully enlisted and sent.
• Emphasis on Marriage: The primary pitch was the promise of marriage to planters who, by the 1620s, were beginning to establish successful tobacco farms and could offer relative security.

Despite these efforts, the number of women arriving was always modest compared to the male population, and recruitment remained a persistent challenge.

What was the journey and arrival like for these women?

The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean for the Jamestown women was a long, dangerous, and uncomfortable ordeal, typically lasting 6-12 weeks under the best conditions.

The Voyage: They traveled in cramped, unsanitary conditions aboard small, crowded ships. Food was often spoiled or scarce, water was rationed and could become putrid. Disease, particularly typhus (“ship fever”) and dysentery, spread rapidly in these conditions. Storms were terrifying and could cause shipwreck. Mortality rates during such crossings were significant for all passengers.

Arrival in Virginia: Upon arrival (primarily between 1619 and 1622), the women faced a harsh reality. Jamestown was still a struggling frontier settlement. While conditions had improved slightly since the “Starving Time” (1609-1610), life remained precarious. The settlement was vulnerable to disease outbreaks (like malaria), food shortages could still occur, and tensions with the Powhatan Confederacy periodically erupted into violence (notably the devastating 1622 uprising which occurred shortly after one group arrived). Housing was crude, sanitation poor, and the environment unfamiliar and challenging.

Initial Reception: The women were initially housed together, likely in Jamestown or nearby settlements. Prospective husbands would come to meet them. While the Company aimed for orderly courtship, the gender imbalance meant women likely had significant choice and bargaining power in selecting a partner, despite the transactional framework of their passage. Marriage usually followed quickly after an agreement was reached.

How were the women treated upon arrival and after marriage?

Treatment varied, but the evidence suggests they were generally valued and respected as essential contributors to the colony’s survival and future, not as commodities or laborers.

Valuation & Choice: The high cost of their passage (reimbursed in valuable tobacco) and the critical need for wives meant planters had a strong incentive to treat them well. Records indicate women often had considerable agency in choosing their husbands from among the suitors. Refusals were possible.

Legal Status & Rights: Once married, these women became femes covert under English common law, meaning their legal identity was subsumed under their husband’s. They could not own property independently, make contracts, or sue in court in their own name. However, within the household, their roles as managers and producers were vital and respected. Widows gained significant legal autonomy (feme sole status), often inheriting and managing their husband’s estates.

Life as a Planter’s Wife: Life was arduous but offered opportunities largely unavailable to women of their social class in England. They managed complex households: cooking, preserving food, gardening, raising livestock, making textiles and clothing, caring for children, and often assisting with tobacco processing. Their labor was indispensable to the farm’s economic success. While demanding, marriage offered relative security and the chance to establish a family legacy in a new land.

Who were some specific women who came to Jamestown?

While records are incomplete, several women who arrived in these early shipments are known by name, offering glimpses into their lives:

• Cecily Jordan (Farrar): Arrived circa 1620-1621. Married Samuel Jordan and, after his death, famously became involved in a legal dispute (Ferrar v. Jordan) over the inheritance of Jordan’s Point plantation. She later married Reverend William Farrar. Her case highlights the legal complexities and agency widows could possess.
• Temperance Flowerdew: Arrived even earlier, possibly with the first group in 1609/10, enduring the “Starving Time.” Married Governor George Yeardley, one of the wealthiest men in Virginia. After Yeardley’s death, she married Governor Francis West, demonstrating the social mobility possible for women connected to the colony’s elite.
• Joan Pierce: Arrived in 1620. Married Captain William Pierce, who became a prominent planter and burgess. Their daughter, Jane, married John Rolfe (after the death of Pocahontas).
• Anne Burras (Laydon): Arrived as a maidservant in 1608, one of the very first two women. She married laborer John Laydon in what was likely the first English marriage in Jamestown (1608). They survived the “Starving Time” and had four daughters, becoming founding members of a growing colonial family.

These women, and others like them, became the matriarchs of some of Virginia’s earliest and most established families.

What was the historical impact of sending women to Jamestown?

The arrival of women in Jamestown marked a pivotal turning point with profound and lasting consequences:

Foundation of a Permanent Society: Their presence signaled the transition from a transient, extractive venture to a true colony designed for permanent habitation. Families could now be formed, children born (the first known English child born in Virginia was Virginia Laydon in 1610), and generational continuity established. This was essential for long-term survival.

Social Stabilization: The establishment of families fostered greater social cohesion, reduced lawlessness, and encouraged investment in homes, farms, and community institutions. It created the nucleus of a self-sustaining population.

Economic Development: Women’s labor diversified the economy beyond tobacco monoculture. Their management of households and subsidiary activities (gardening, dairying, poultry, cloth production) made plantations more self-sufficient and contributed significantly to the overall colonial economy.

Cultural Transmission: Women were crucial in maintaining and transmitting English customs, domestic practices, language, and religious traditions within the family unit, shaping the emerging colonial culture.

Demographic Transformation: While immigration remained vital for decades, natural increase gradually became a significant source of population growth, fundamentally changing the colony’s demographic trajectory.

Precedent for Colonial Development: Jamestown’s model of encouraging female immigration (often through similar passage reimbursement systems) became a template for other English colonies seeking stability and growth.

How does modern scholarship view these women?

Modern historians emphatically reject the “prostitute” label as a harmful anachronism. Scholarship focuses on:

• Correcting the Myth: Clearly distinguishing the historical reality (marriageable women recruited for settlement) from the later sensationalized misconception.
• Recognizing Agency: Acknowledging that while their options were constrained by the era and their social class, these women made active choices (embracing the risks of migration, selecting husbands) that shaped their destinies and the colony’s.
• Highlighting Contribution: Emphasizing their indispensable role as pioneers, not passive figures. Their labor, resilience, childbearing, and community-building were foundational to Jamestown’s survival and the establishment of English America.
• Understanding Context: Placing their experiences within the broader frameworks of early modern English society, transatlantic migration, indentured servitude, colonial gender roles, and the harsh realities of frontier life.

They are increasingly recognized not as a footnote or a scandal, but as essential founders whose courage and contributions were vital to the birth of the United States.

Where does the “prostitutes” myth come from, and why is it persistent?

The persistent myth labeling Jamestown’s early women as prostitutes stems from a confluence of historical misinterpretation, cultural bias, and sensationalism.

Victorian-Era Sensibilities: In the 19th century, historians projecting Victorian moral standards onto the past misinterpreted the transactional nature of the women’s passage (reimbursed via tobacco) and the often chaotic, male-dominated environment of early Jamestown. They conflated the reimbursement system with prostitution, unable to conceive of women migrating for marriage under such terms without moral compromise.

Misreading Primary Sources: Some contemporary accounts, particularly those critical of the Virginia Company or Jamestown’s chaotic early years, used derogatory language or focused on instances of misconduct (which certainly existed, as in any society). Later writers sometimes took these comments out of context or applied them broadly to all the women.

Sensationalism & Popular Culture: The idea of “bride ships” or “tobacco brides” easily lends itself to lurid storytelling. Popular histories, novels, and films have often amplified the “prostitute” narrative because it’s more dramatic and scandalous than the complex reality of pragmatic colonization and women seeking opportunity. This trope persists in some non-scholarly accounts.

Lack of Focus on Women’s History: Traditional historical narratives often marginalized women’s experiences. The specific, well-documented purpose of the Virginia Company’s recruitment efforts – securing wives for settlers – was overlooked or downplayed, allowing the more sensational myth to fill the void.

Combating this myth requires emphasizing the clear documentary evidence of the Company’s intent, the social context of indenture and passage reimbursement, and the vital, respectable roles these women played as wives, mothers, household managers, and pioneers in establishing a permanent society.

How can we accurately honor these women’s legacy?

Honoring the true legacy of the women of Jamestown means moving beyond the myth and recognizing their profound historical significance:

• Recognize Them as Founders: Acknowledge them not as scandalous figures, but as essential pioneers alongside the men. Jamestown could not have succeeded as a permanent colony without them.
• Highlight Their Resilience & Courage: Emphasize the immense courage it took to embark on a perilous journey to an unknown, dangerous land. Celebrate their resilience in facing hardship and building lives in a challenging frontier environment.
• Understand Their Complex Roles: Study and teach about their multifaceted contributions: as wives and mothers establishing families, as skilled domestic managers crucial to household economies, and as individuals navigating a new society.
• Use Accurate Terminology: Consistently use terms like “early female colonists,” “marriageable women,” “tobacco brides” (with explanation of the context), or simply “the women of Jamestown.” Avoid the inaccurate and derogatory “prostitutes.”
• Incorporate Their Stories: Ensure historical interpretations at Jamestown and in educational materials accurately reflect their experiences and central role in the colony’s survival and transformation.

These women were not merely passengers in history; they were active participants and architects of the first enduring English society in America. Their story is one of determination, survival, and foundational contribution, deserving of respect and accurate remembrance.