What group of people is passage MOST likely referring to? Demographic conditions also shaped Chesapeake society during the seventeenth century. For one thing, life was short. A substantial number of immigrants died soon after they arrived, victims of a now vague complex of diseases that contemporaries called "seasoning." How many failed to live through the first year is unknown, but the figure was high enough to provoke frequent comment. And, although the chances of survival increased as the seventeenth century progressed, the Chesapeake colonies were considered dangerous to new arrivals as late as 1700, particularly during late summer. Many. who survived seasoning, furthermore, did not live to complete their terms. - Carr and Menard, "Immigration and Opportunity,"