Why did Governor Thomas Gates impose harsh laws on the Virginia colonists? Were these laws successful?

In 1609, 400 more settlers arrived in the Jamestown colony, whose population now topped 500. Because of the colonists' raids on Indian lands, Powhatan stopped assisting the English. In the winter of 1609-1610 the Jamestown settlers were desperate. Food supplies ran out, forcing the colonists to eat rodents, horses, and roots. One settler even killed and ate his wife--a crime for which he was executed. By the spring of 1610 only 60 settlers survived. These settlers were so discouraged that they prepared to abandon Virginia and return to England.

The English government, however, was determined to save the Virginia colony, and sent a new governor in the spring of 1610 to preserve the colony. The new governor, Sir Thomas Gates, and his Marshall, Robert Dale, imposed strict new laws on the settlers. These laws, known as Dale's Laws, established harsh physical punishments for failure to work, for stealing food or other supplies, for unauthorized dealings with local Indians, and for other offenses. Dale's Laws were an attempt to force the colonists to cooperate and do the hard work necessary to build a colony in an unfamiliar land surrounded by potentially hostile Indians. By 1614, the colonists had forced Powhatan to concede defeat and surrender the lands in the immediate vicinity of Jamestown.