Newmark's Door

The Washington Post runs an article by an NYU history professor that explains why Jamestown ultimately succeeded:

In fact, martial law did stabilize the colony (although many ran away to take up life with the Chesapeake Algonquins). But it couldn't foster true community development or create a thriving economy. Yet over the next several years, some colonists and backers came up with a different approach -- and laid the foundations for what America is today. They substituted incentives for iron control. [italics added] The land was divvied up among the colonists; a representative assembly gave landowners control of taxation; women were recruited as wives for planters; and the professional soldiers were removed.

And voila. The colony began to grow.

True then, true now, true always.