The Paradox of Sagadahoc: The Popham Colony, 1607–1608

This article focuses on the failed colony at Sagadahoc, also called the Popham Colony, which existed on the coast of Maine between the autumn of 1607 and the autumn of 1608. Although plagued with a striking list of shortcomings and defects, including poor planning and support from England, lack of immediately profitable resources in the region, incompetent leadership and factionalism, and a historically brutal winter, the colony's most important failure was its settlers' troubled dealings with the local Etchemin Indians. Unfortunately, the colonists needed good relations with the Indians in order to engage in the fur trade, which could have been the foundation of economic success for the colony. That tension produced the paradox of Sagadahoc.