# Jamestown Necrocannibals **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290 "2013-05-02T04:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/41 "2013-05-02T19:15:29Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > [“Powdered” meat.](http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2012/03/how_to_powder_b.php) Yes, it’s synonymous with “corned” or “salted”. A wife that good, you don’t want to eat all at once.\* \*[For the uninitiated.](http://www.jokesplace.com/joke/famouspig.html) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/42 "2013-05-02T19:28:33Z")
This bit > [@](#): > > Smith wrote. “Now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado’d (barbecued), I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of.” is NOT a FOX reporter (possibly also moonlighting at The Onion)tampering with the original text? ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/43 "2013-05-02T19:30:54Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I just hope we’re better prepared when we start sending people to Mars. They laughed at me for wearing my helmet inside the Dome. Then the Hunger came, and they ate each other’s faces. Well, _who’s laughing now_? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/44 "2013-05-02T19:37:54Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > In grade school we all had to draw pictures of the 1st Thanksgiving. Mine had the Pilgrims murdering the Indians and eating them. Some of the Pilgrims also raped the Indians. You stole this from an old _Calvin & Hobbes_ strip, didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/45 "2013-05-02T19:45:39Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Was there still room to draw a little sun up in the corner? My question is, did his mother hang it on the refrigerator? > [@lieu](#): > > That and at the feast some cannibals weren’t willing to move over a seat so that the cannibal friends could all eat together. And I am pretty sure they didn’t tip their waitress. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/46 "2013-05-02T20:03:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I had to look up Alfred Packer on wikipedia. Interesting story. > > Are the Green Bay Packers named after him? No, but Alpacas are. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/47 "2013-05-02T20:05:31Z")
[insert Zombie Alpaca Lips joke here] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/48 "2013-05-02T20:44:24Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I’m probably going to hell for this, but the fact that Smith pondered what might be better ways of preparing the corpse cracked me up… He was intentionally being funny. Smith was very irreverent. His memoirs would make for a helluva miniseries. In addition to Pocahontas/Jamestown he encountered the Countess Bathory and claimed to have been stripped naked and sold as a slave to a Turkish noblewoman. He absolutely bent the truth all kinds of different ways (among known lies he claimed to be an orphan with a hardscrabble childhood- he was born middle class and his parents lived until he was an adult), but otoh we know for a fact he had adventures in Transylvania and Poland and Virginia, so the winking “maybe he’s lying, maybe not” part could work its way in nicely. There was a NatGeo documentary about a possible murder victim uncovered at Jamestown. Either way, the remains were the first known white GSW fatality in English North America. The death tolls for the first 15 years of Virginia were way higher than Andersonville and probably higher than many concentration camps: starvation, dehydration (they were drinking brackish water that made the victims thirsty, so they’d drink more, and get thirstier), murder, fights with Indians, fights with each other, snakebites, heat strokes, drowning, and then in 1622 an extremely well coordinated massacre that killed hundreds in one day. It’s amazing the colony wasn’t just abandoned long before then. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/49 "2013-05-02T21:25:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Fair warning to all: If I am in danger of literally starving, and your cold, dead corpse is in front of me, I’m chowing down. Ewwwww, that’s gross. You should warm me up first like a civilized man. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/50 "2013-05-02T21:51:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I had to look up Alfred Packer on wikipedia. Interesting story. > > Are the Green Bay Packers named after him? No, but . . . something involving fudge is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/51 "2013-05-02T21:53:25Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > In addition to Pocahontas/Jamestown . . . Which Smith totally misunderstood, by the way. His impending “execution” from which Pocahontas “saved” him was a standard adoption-ritual; that someone should interrupt at some point was simply part of the ritual. “Your life is spared, you’re one of us now!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/52 "2013-05-02T21:55:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Which Smith totally misunderstood, by the way. His impending “execution” from which Pocahontas “saved” him was a standard adoption-ritual; that someone should interrupt at some point was simply part of the ritual. “Your life is spared, you’re one of us now!” If he didn’t make most of it up, which is also possible. While they knew each other in Virginia, he didn’t mention her in his writings at all until after she became famous in London when there’s the elaborate story and showtunes about a wolf singing to new corn moons. ---
**Author:** ![LouLou7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/53 "2013-05-02T22:01:46Z")
Well, I always serve a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner to my family…I suppose this year the menu will be a little different. Anybody know where I can buy a nice, plump, juicy Butterball human? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/54 "2013-05-02T22:10:36Z")
They usually flock at Wal-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/55 "2013-05-03T01:06:59Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I just hope we’re better prepared when we start sending people to Mars. Prepared as in “ready”, or prepared as in “diced”? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/56 "2013-05-03T01:12:48Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Prepared as in “ready”, or prepared as in “diced”? With space travel powered people will take on a whole new meaning. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/57 "2013-05-03T01:14:06Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I’m guessing the OP slept through history class back in high school if he’s never heard of this kind of thing happening. Seriously dude, you’ve never heard of “survival cannibalism?” The Donner party? That Chilean soccer team that crashed in the Andes – they even made a movie about it! > > History is rife with these kinds of stories. 2 movies, and they were Uruguayan. _Alive_ was my favorite book when I was in the fourth grade. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/58 "2013-05-03T02:10:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > If he didn’t make most of it up, which is also possible. While they knew each other in Virginia, he didn’t mention her in his writings at all until after she became famous in London when there’s the elaborate story and showtunes about a wolf singing to new corn moons. In Charles Mann’s _1493_, he claims that in Smith’s memoirs as a whole there are something like four different stories of his life being saved by a love-struck beautiful maiden. He also talks a great deal about the early colony: it’s a great read. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/59 "2013-05-03T02:43:27Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I’ve pitted the eating of other people’s faces, but I never thought I’d temper that with, “but at least the victim was alive.” Yeesh. Sure, the Jamestown settlement was a long time ago, but the evidence has only now been uncovered. If the madness of hunger drove these people into a blameless state, then I pit that. From your link: > [@](#): > > Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head of the girl, who appears to have already been dead at the time. We’d probably all do the same if we were in that situation. 80% of the first settlers died that year. Desperate times call for desperate measures. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/60 "2013-05-03T02:54:32Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I’m confused about the Pitting. So some colonists ate dead human bodies to survive. Fair enough, it happens in emergency situations. > > Some guy killed his pregnant wife and baby and was hanged for it. Again, sounds like a just punishment. > > Who did wrong and where? From the cite in the OP: > [@](#): > > Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a “world of miseries,” that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. Hence, “necrocannibals”. I think digging up graves to eat the contents is going yet one more step. YMMV. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > We’d probably all do the same if we were in that situation. 80% of the first settlers died that year. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I’d go for ‘die fishing’ as a worst-case scenario. I mean, tree bark, hello? I haven’t seen stories of the natives in this area resorting to cannibalism at the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290.md?page=4)