Diaspora Facts đ“Šť
You could buy a ticket to America that didn't include meals.
Imagine paying for passage and then being responsible for bringing weeks' worth of food and your own bedding onto the ship.
People really had no idea what they were getting into.
This 1622 broadside was printed in London to warn potential emigrants about the items they would need to survive in unfamiliar Virginia. It lists the goods deemed essential for life in the New World and their cost in pounds, shillings, and pence.
The list is organized into five categories: apparel, food, arms, tools, and household implements. The combined cost of necessary supplies and passage to Virginia was estimated at twenty pounds.
It addresses criticisms the Virginia Company faced: "The inconveniences that have happened to some persons which have transported themselves from England to Virginia, without provisions necessary to sustain themselves."
Once tobacco became a profitable export, the Virginia Company sent ships to Virginia laden with men rather than with necessary supplies. Between 1619 and 1622, an estimated 3,000 people died amid inadequate food and shelter, disease, and the hazards of the Atlantic crossing.
1622 broadside about the journey from London to Virginia (VMHC Broadside.1622.1)
For Your Reference;
Virginia Museum of History & Culture — “Broadsides” (1622 Inconveniences broadside) — the museum holding the original broadside and the source for the £20 estimate and the discussion of the “inconveniences.”
ANCHOR / Library of North Carolina — “Supplies for Virginia Colonists, 1622” — full transcription of the original broadside, including the clothing, food, arms, tools, household goods, passage and freight costs.
Original primary source: “Needefull Things” for a Virginia Immigrant, printed by Felix Kingston [Kyngston], London, 1622. The surviving broadside is held by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture; another copy/transcription is associated with the Library of Congress.
