Cannibalism In Jamestown Colony And The Donner Party

Cannibalism is something that has been countlessly embedded in historical and cultural context as something performed or expressed with ritual means(“Cannibalism”);
Although it has also been seen generally as an act of utmost desperation, and at its utmost extent it is the human consumption of one another whether out of extreme situations, or a mentally unstable rationale.(“Dictionary”) Throughout history there have always been textbook example of such occurrences; Such as in the Jamestown
Colony and the Donner Party. Both were horrific accounts of occurrences due to lack of hindsight and a hint of both ignorance and arrogance. Furthermore they were very preventable. Regardless of that there was still legal measures that had to be taken
What little will the englishman had to for survival, was something their leader John Smith attempted to salvage with his “no work, no food” slogan. All of these factors of course lead to disease, starvation, and death of the colonists. Quickly following these obvious signs of desperation came cannibalism. The colony was rapidly failing and it wasn 't until the first two women came in 1609 that any changes occurred. More specifically the winter of 1809-1810 starvation was setting in and unavoidable. Settlers ate dogs, cats horses, vermins, and leather before resorting to cannibalism. There was even a recorded instance of a man attacking and consuminghis thoroughly pregnant wife before chopping her and salting her to be used as a meal.
Of course the gruesome event lead to a public lynching. (“Gardiner”) “When spring came it became apparent that out of the 500 colonists recorded in the fall of 1609 only
60 remained when spring came.” Nothing really changed until september 1610 truly ended when new settlers came, and along with them came the fundamental leadership and skills needed to have a fully functioning colony thus ending the three years of chaos. (“History
(“Mcneese”) Yet one can imagine that torturous methods -often used at the time- were used.(“Nicolles”) Although greatly contrasting those events the events that occurred within the Donner party were dealt in a very different manner. In this instance the survivors of the event were generally forgiven for their acts. The only one whom went through legal adversity was Lewis Keseberg, that of whom was accused with the murder of Tamsen Donner. But even in this case after the charges were relinquished he lived the rest of his life in exile as a pariah.
Another crucial point to look at is how societies views were on both events.
Generally public opinion was not even remotely great considering the controversy the taboo act of cannibalism is. After the Jamestown incident it was apparent that is was not viewed kindly by a social standpoint. Especially considering the thoroughly harsh punishments carried out. Similarly in the Donner party occurrence just the social media’s take on the situation made it obvious that the event was something no one would forget. It even ended up making most of them social parais. Consequently it’sextremely obvious that from a social standpoint there is a negative view