Indian massacre of 1622

Upon the settlement's founding in 1607, the local indigenous tribes were willing to trade provisions to the Jamestown colonists for metal tools, though by 1609 governor of the colony John Smith had begun to send raiding parties to demand for provisions from local indigenous settlements. These raiding parties burned down settlements which refused their demands, and frequently stole provisions, leading to resentment towards the colonists and precipitating conflict.^[3][4] The raiding parties further alienated the colonists from the indigenous tribes, who eventually laid siege to the Jamestown fort for several months. Unable to secure more provisions, many colonists in Jamestown died of starvation during the "Starving Time" in 1609–1610.^[5]

The London Company's primary concern was the survival of the colony. Due to the interests of the company, the colonists would be required to maintain civil relations with the Powhatan. The Powhatan and the English realized that they could benefit from each other through trade once peace was restored. In exchange for food, the chief asked the colonists to provide him with metal hatchets and copper.^[6] Unlike John Smith, other early leaders of Virginia, such as Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates, based their actions on different thinking. They were military men and considered the Powhatan Confederacy as essentially a "military problem."^[7]

The Powhatan peoples concluded that the English were not settling in Jamestown for the purposes of trade but rather to "possess" the land. As Chief Powhatan said:

First Anglo-Powhatan War

In 1610, the London Company instructed Gates, the newly appointed colonial governor, to Christianise the natives and absorb them into the colony.^[9] As for Chief Powhatan, Gates was told, "If you finde it not best to make him your prisoner yet you must make him your tributary, and all the other his weroances [subordinate chiefs] about him first to acknowledge no other Lord but King James".^[8]

When Gates arrived at Jamestown, he decided to evacuate the settlement because he thought the government's plan was not feasible. As the colonists were sailing down the James River towards the open sea they were met by the incoming fleet of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr off Mulberry Island. Taking command as governor, de la Warr ordered the fort reoccupied. He plotted conquest of the surrounding tribes.^[8]

In July 1610, West sent Gates against the Kecoughtan people. "Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance act by his drummer, and then slaughtered them".^[8] This was the First Anglo-Powhatan War. The English, led by Samuel Argall, captured Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, and held her hostage until he would agree to their demands. The English "demanded that all Powhatan captives be released, return all English weapons taken by his warriors, and agree upon a lasting peace".^[8]

While Pocahontas was held by the English, she met John Rolfe, whom she later married. While in captivity, Pocahontas was taught the English language, customs and the Anglican religion. She was baptized as a Christian and took the name Rebecca. Rolfe wrote that the way to maintain peace between the Powhatan and the English, was to marry Pocahontas, not "with the unbridled desire of carnal affection but for the good of the colony and the glory of God. Such a marriage might bring peace between the warring English and Powhatan, just as it would satisfy Pocahontas's desire."^[8] After they married, more peaceful relations were maintained for a time between the English colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy. Edward Waterhouse, secretary of the Virginia Company, wrote:

New governance

In 1618, after the death of Powhatan, his brother Opitchapam, a lame and quiet old man, became paramount chief of the confederacy. Their youngest brother, Opechancanough, was probably the effective leader, with his friend, war-chief and advisor Nemattanew. Neither of the younger men believed that peaceful relations with the colonists could be maintained.

Perhaps in 1620–1621, Opitchapam retired or he was deposed (but possibly he died in 1630), and he was succeeded by his youngest brother. Opechancanough and Nemattanew began to develop plans for the unavoidable war. Having recovered from their defeat commanding Pamunkey warriors during the First Anglo-Powhatan War, they planned to shock the English with an attack that would leave them contained in a small trading outpost, rather than expanding throughout the area with new plantations.^[11] In the spring of 1622, after a settler murdered his adviser Nemattanew, Opechancanough launched a campaign of surprise attacks on at least 31 separate English settlements and plantations, mostly along the James River, extending as far as Henricus.

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Native American tribes in Virginia

Native American tribes in Virginia

The Native American tribes in Virginia are the indigenous tribes who currently live or have historically lived in what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States of America.

John Smith (explorer)

John Smith (explorer)

John Smith was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England, and author. He played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely.

London Company

London Company

The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N.

Powhatan (Native American leader)

Powhatan (Native American leader)

Powhatan, whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time when English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.

Christianization

Christianization

Christianization or Christianisation is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, continued through the Middle Ages in Europe, and in the twenty-first century has spread around the globe.

Mulberry Island

Mulberry Island

Mulberry Island is located along the James River in the city of Newport News, Virginia, in southeastern Virginia at the confluence of the Warwick River on the Virginia Peninsula.

Pocahontas

Pocahontas

Pocahontas was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of what is today the U.S. state Virginia.

John Rolfe

John Rolfe

John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.

Paramount chief

Paramount chief

A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others. Paramount chiefs were identified by English-speakers as existing in Native American confederacies and regional chiefdoms, such as the Powhatan Confederacy and Piscataway Native Americans encountered by European colonists in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America.

Opechancanough

Opechancanough

Opechancanough was paramount chief of the Powhatan Confederacy in present-day Virginia from 1618 until his death. He had been a leader in the confederacy formed by his older brother Powhatan, from whom he inherited the paramountcy.

Nemattanew

Nemattanew

Nemattanew was a war leader of the Powhatan during the First Anglo-Powhatan War. At the time he served as a close adviser to paramount chief Opchanacanough (1554-1646).

Pamunkey

Pamunkey

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribal governments recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribal governments, the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan, and the Nansemond, were similarly recognized through the passage of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 on January 12, 2018. The historical people were part of the Powhatan paramountcy, made up of Algonquian-speaking nations. The Powhatan paramount chiefdom was made up of over 30 nations, estimated to total about 10,000–15,000 people at the time the English arrived in 1607. The Pamunkey nation made up about one-tenth to one-fifteenth of the total, as they numbered about 1,000 persons in 1607.

Jamestown was saved by the warning of an Indian youth living in the home of Richard Pace, one of the colonists. The youth woke Pace to warn him of the planned attack. Living across the river from Jamestown, Pace secured his family and rowed to the settlement to spread the alarm. Jamestown increased its defenses.

The name of the Indian who warned Pace is not recorded in any of the contemporary accounts. Although legend has named him "Chanco", this may be wrong. An Indian named "Chauco" is mentioned in a letter from the Virginia Council to the Virginia Company of London dated April 4, 1623. He is described not as a youth but as "one...who had lived much amongst the English, and by revealinge yt pl[ot] To divers appon the day of Massacre, saved theire lives..."^[12] "Chauco" may be the same person as "Chacrow", an Indian mentioned in a court record of 25 October 1624 as living with Lt Sharpe, Capt. William Powell, and Capt. William Peirce "in the tyme of Sir Thos Dale's government"—that is, before 1616.^[13] It is possible that the older Indian, Chauco, and the youth who warned Richard Pace have been conflated.^[14]

During the one-day surprise attack, the Powhatan tribes attacked many of the smaller communities, including Henricus and its fledgling college for children of natives and settlers alike. In the neighborhood of Martin's Hundred, 73 people were killed.^[15] More than half the population died in Wolstenholme Towne, where only two houses and a part of a church were left standing. In all, the Powhatan killed about four hundred colonists (a third of the white population) and took 20 women captive. The captives lived and worked as Powhatan Indians until they died or were ransomed. The settlers abandoned the Falling Creek Ironworks, Henricus, and Smith's Hundred.^[16]

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Martin's Hundred

Martin's Hundred

Martin's Hundred was an early 17th-century plantation located along about ten miles (16 km) of the north shore of the James River in the Virginia Colony east of Jamestown in the southeastern portion of present-day James City County, Virginia. The Martin's Hundred site is described in detail in the eponymous book of Ivor Noel Hume first published in 1979.

Wolstenholme Towne

Wolstenholme Towne

Wolstenholme Towne was an English settlement in the Colony of Virginia, 7 miles (11 km) east of the colonial capital, Jamestown. One of the earliest English settlements in the New World, the town existed for roughly four years until its destruction in the Indian massacre of 1622. The Wolstenholme Towne site was later built upon by the Carter's Grove plantation in 1750, and is located within the present day community of Grove, Virginia, United States.

Falling Creek Ironworks

Falling Creek Ironworks

Falling Creek Ironworks was the first iron production facility in North America. It was established by the Virginia Company of London in Henrico Cittie (sic) on Falling Creek near its confluence with the James River. It was short-lived due to an attack by Native Americans in 1622.

Henricus

Henricus

The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. It was named for Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612), the eldest son of King James I.

Smith's Hundred

Smith's Hundred

Smith's Hundred or Smythe's Hundred was a colonial English settlement in the Province of Virginia, in the modern United States of America. It was one of the original James River plantations named after the treasurer of the Virginia Company, Sir Thomas Smith. It was settled by the English in 1617 and after 1620, was known as Southampton Hundred in honor of the Earl of Southampton. The site was originally home to a village of the Paspahegh Indians. They were located along the north bank of James River.

After the attack the surviving English settlers worked on a plan of action. "By unanimous decision both the council and planters it was agreed to draw people together into fewer settlements" for better defense.^[17] The colony intended to gather men together to plan a retaliatory attack, but this was difficult. Of the survivors "two-thirds were said to have been women and children and men who were unable to work or to go against the Indians".^[18]

Opechancanough withdrew his warriors, believing that the English would behave as Native Americans would when defeated: pack up and leave, or learn their lesson and respect the power of the Powhatan.^[19] Following the event, Opechancanough told the Patawomeck, who were not part of the Confederacy and had remained neutral, that he expected "before the end of two Moones there should not be an Englishman in all their Countries."^[20] He misunderstood the English colonists and their backers overseas.

In May 1623, plans were made with Opechancanough to negotiate peace and the release of the missing women. He released Mistress Boyse as a good faith gesture, with the implied message that he would negotiate for the release of the remaining women.^[21] Captain Tucker and a group of musketeers met with Opechancanough and members of a Powhatan village along the Potomac River on May 22. In preparation for the event, Dr. John Potts prepared poisoned wine. Captain Tucker and others offered ceremonial toasts and 200 Powhatans died after drinking the wine. Another 50 people were killed. Opechancanough escaped, but a number of tribal leaders were killed.^[21][22] The English retaliated by attacking and burning down Powhatan villages. Tribal members and the captive women fled the English attacks. They also were hungry due to lost corn crops. Three of the women included Jane Dickenson and Mistress Jeffries, the wife of Nathaniel Jeffries, who died in the massacre.^[21]

In England when the massacre occurred, John Smith believed that the settlers would not leave their plantations to defend the colony. He planned to return with a ship filled with soldiers, sailors, and ammunition, to establish a "running Army" able to fight the Powhatan. Smith's goal was to "inforce the Savages to leave their Country, or bring them in the feare of subjection that every man should follow their business securely."^[18] Smith, however, never returned to Virginia.

The colonists used the 1622 massacre as a justification for seizing Powhatan land for the next ten years. Historian Betty Wood writes:

Wood quotes a Virginian settler:

The colonists, in revenge for the massacre, attacked the Powhatan through "the use of force, surprise attacks, famine resulting from the burning of their corn, destroying their boats, canoes, and houses, breaking their fishing weirs and assaulting them in their hunting expedition, pursuing them with horses and using bloodhounds to find them and mastiffs to seaze them, driving them to flee within reach of their enemies among other tribes, and 'assimilating and abetting their enemies against them".^[18]

Indian decline and defeat

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In 1624 Virginia was made an English royal colony by King James I. This meant that the Crown took direct authority rather than allowing guidance by the London Company. The Crown could exercise its patronage for royal favorites. Settlers continued to encroach on land of the Powhatan tribes, and the colonial government tended to change or ignore agreements with the natives when no longer in the colony's interest. The tribes felt increasing frustration with the settlers.

The next major confrontation with the Powhatan, the Third Anglo-Powhatan War, occurred in 1644, resulting in the deaths of about 500 colonists. While similar to the death toll in 1622, the loss a generation later represented less than ten percent of the population, and had far less impact upon the colony. This time, the elderly Opechancanough, who was being transported by litter, was captured by the colonists. Imprisoned at Jamestown, he was killed by one of his guards.^[25]

His death marked the beginning of the increasingly precipitous decline of the once-powerful Powhatan. Its member tribes eventually left the area entirely, gradually lived among the colonists, or lived on one of the few reservations established in Virginia. Most of these were also subject to incursion and seizure of land by the ever-expanding European population.

In modern times, seven tribes of the original Powhatan Confederacy are recognized in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi still have control of their reservations established in the 17th century, each located between the rivers of the same names within the boundaries of present-day King William County.

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Patawomeck

Patawomeck

Patawomeck is a Native American tribe based in Stafford County, Virginia, along the Potomac River. Patawomeck is another spelling of Potomac.

Powhatan

Powhatan

The Powhatan people may refer to any of the Indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan may refer to one of the leaders of the people. This is most commonly the case in historical records from English colonial accounts. The Powhatans have also been known as Virginia Algonquians, as the Powhatan language is an eastern-Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 Powhatan people in eastern Virginia, when English colonists established Jamestown in 1607.

Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States that flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of 14,700 square miles (38,000 km2), and is the fourth-largest river along the East Coast of the United States and the 21st-largest in the United States. Over 5 million people live within its watershed.

John Pott

John Pott

John Potts was a physician and Colonial Governor of Virginia at the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century.

Betty Wood

Betty Wood

Betty C. Wood was a British historian and academic, who specialised in early American history, Atlantic history, social history, and slavery in eighteenth and early nineteenth century. She was a Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge (1971–2011) and taught in the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, rising to become Reader in American History.

Crown colony

Crown colony

A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by the Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Council. In some cases, this Council was split into two: an Executive Council and a Legislative Council, and was similar to the Privy Council that advises the Monarch. Members of Executive Councils were appointed by the Governors, and British citizens resident in Crown colonies either had no representation in local government, or limited representation. In several Crown colonies, this limited representation grew over time. As the House of Commons of the British Parliament has never included seats for any of the colonies, there was no direct representation in the sovereign government for British subjects or citizens residing in Crown colonies.

London Company

London Company

The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N.

Pamunkey

Pamunkey

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribal governments recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribal governments, the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan, and the Nansemond, were similarly recognized through the passage of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 on January 12, 2018. The historical people were part of the Powhatan paramountcy, made up of Algonquian-speaking nations. The Powhatan paramount chiefdom was made up of over 30 nations, estimated to total about 10,000–15,000 people at the time the English arrived in 1607. The Pamunkey nation made up about one-tenth to one-fifteenth of the total, as they numbered about 1,000 persons in 1607.

Mattaponi

Mattaponi

The Mattaponi tribe is one of only two Virginia Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns reservation land, which it has held since the colonial era. The larger Mattaponi Indian Tribe lives in King William County on the reservation, which stretches along the borders of the Mattaponi River, near West Point, Virginia.

King William County, Virginia

King William County, Virginia

King William County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,810. Its county seat is King William.