Bedsole - NCGenWeb

The captain ordered the rowboat lowered and again three crewmen were sent ashore to determine a
satisfactory anchorage location for the ship which would allow the passengers to unload. Shortly, the three
men returned with the news that the anchorage was satisfactory where the ship had stopped and its
passengers would have to be unloaded a few at a time, and carried ashore in the ships two small rowboats,
because of shallower water near shore. Already with inadequate supplies, especially foodstuffs, these
additional settlers just meant increased suffering and hardship for all concerned, for those already in the fort
were desperately short of food and clean, fresh water. In addition, many among them were seriously sick,
with nothing left in the way of medicine.
The paying passengers were unloaded first, with all their belongings. The ships Captain, knowing that there
were some among those already on shore who had money furnished by The London Company, a private
english business, and that they desperately needed able, manual laborers and helpers, offered the remaining
passengers and their children to the highest bidder on shore, who would pay their fares.
Upon striking a bargain, the hapless victims of this auction, were required to sign a twelve-month contract, to
perform free labor in return for the highest bidders payment, as the bidder should see fit. The “Sheriff” at the
fort was also present to enforce the contracts. Families of men who had died or were killed during the
overseas trip, were then offered to the highest bidder as “Servants”.
Most such families had to be separated and split up, because the winning Bidder could not provide and care
for another family of a mother and children and his own too. Therefore, many families were thus destroyed at
the fort, as those children and mothers were split up and assigned to several different bidders.The heartache
of the mothers watching their children being divided up among different, unknown and unfamiliar families and
as learned later, to have them leave the fort for parts unknown, never to be seen again by her or each other,
must have been horrible.
Within the fort, life was a living hell. It was cold at the time and it rained just often enough to keep the
grounds of the fort and the floors of the cabins in a swirl of nasty, sloppy, sticky mud almost knee deep from
all the activity and people constantly moving about inside the fort. Over the next few weeks, sickness from
the lack of adequate food and nourishment, contaminated water, exposure to the weather and contagious
diseases, steadily decimated the population. Restful sleep was out of the question, due to the constant noise,
sickness, misery, hunger, cold, Indian attacks and worry. With no medical care, these luckless people could
only pray for their loved ones and themselves to get well, with no hope of a better life in the future.
By now, they all realized they were helplessly lost in the situation and that they had no choice but to go
forward and hope for the best. As time went on, a few brave men ventured away from the fort and settlement,
sometimes traveling a few miles and back, looking for a route to move their families southward so they could
obtain their own land as they had heard could be done. They wanted desperately to get out of that hellish fort
and start their own lives, for they considered it certain death to remain there. So, in early spring a few and
sometimes several in a group would leave the fort and seek their own future.
Later, oxen, mules, carts and wagons would be available to travel, but at that time, walking was the only way
to travel, so the trip they made, looking for their own land, and carrying all they owned on their backs was
another long and difficult trial, having only animal and Indian trails to follow, which lead in the southerly
direction desired. They traveled in daylight and camped at night, cautiously avoiding all contact with the
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Indians if at all possible. Many Indians were murderous and would kill any and all white people on sight, no
questions asked. When Indian contact could not be avoided, all in the settlers groups, held their breaths,