People in \"The Starving Time\"

¶ … people in "The starving time" had to overcome troubles which were more than physical than those from "The great awakening." In demonstrating this however we should think about the great physical pains that they were enduring. They came there in order to conquer a territory. Their dream was one of well being and richness. They had trusted the promises made to them and they had not even taken into consideration the possibility of being put to starvation.

Not only were they unable to cultivate the earth and nourish themselves, but they had to face the attacks from the locals as well. In addition, their attempts to find gold were not successful either. Taking all these aspects into consideration it is easy to understand that their pain was not only physical. People were starving to death, somebody took to cannibalism, others were convicted to die from hunger after having robbed. Out of six English who arrived to colonize the territory only one was most likely to survive. This looked more like slaughter than a positive thing.

Therefore another pain that they surely felt is represented by despair. It is more than fair to assume that they believed god was not with them in their endeavours. There was no sign of his holy grace anywhere. The ships with food would not arrive. The weather was against them and they couldn't cultivate anything.

There was no valuable treasure to be found in the ground and the locals who they thought would have supported them were doing everything in their power to eliminate them. Everything was against them. They were most likely convinced by the fact that god's will was manifest in all the things and that colonizing that territory was his will. However, since everything was against them and their endeavour seemed to fail, they surely lost hope.

In all the things which were contrary to their actions, in all of their failures they must have spotted god's will against them. At this point a strong conflict occurs between their own beliefs. On the one hand they believe that they are doing a good thing. The ethic dimension of their actions derives mainly from the approval that god gives them. On the other hand everything in the new land is against them.

Therefore they reach the conclusion that god is not with them and they do not have his approval. Only two possible explanations come to mind. One is that god is not completely good, but can show himself as completely lacking mercy. The other one is that god is good and wise and those who are making a mistake are themselves. The latter hypothesis is the more acceptable one.