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Introduction
to Topic
Wahunsonacock inherited
6 tribes from his father. At the time of English contact, Wahunsonacock
[Powhatan to the English] and the
Pamunkey tribe to which he belonged had consolidated about thirty tribes
[including the six from his father] and 8,000 persons into the
Powhatan Confederacy , in an area of control that extended from Jamestown
to the Potomac , making the whole stronger than the parts and thus
promoting the general welfare of the tribes involved. This
Confederacy was not alone in the Virginia region, and was well acquainted
with warfare, having several native
enemies. One estimate is that 50,000 people lived in Virginia when
the English arrived. Already when the English arrived, Palisades
surronded Powhatan towns
and the Powhatan had moved inland to protect themselves while they were
constrained as well to the west. Initially, the Powhatan probably saw the
English as adding further protection to their own people, but in short
time became aware the English were in fact just a better armed but
dangerously needy new group amongst their older enemies, vying with the
Powhatan Confederacy for control of the region and sometimes seeking to
utilize the Powhatan enemies to advantage in their struggle to fully subjugate
the Confederacy over which Powhatan reigned while Powhatan attempted to
accomplish the reverse.
Wahunsonacock
died the year before the arrival of our forebears to Jamestown, but his
history is integral to study of the Jamestown
colony to which our forebears arrived. His role and success as Chief
was integral as well to the reign of his succesor Openchancanough
,
who proved most influential on the lives of our first immigrants.
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| Description of
Chief Powhatan by Smith:
"a tall well
proportioned man, with a sower looke" 8
"He is of parsonage a tall well proportioned
man... his head somwhat gray.... His age neare 60; of a very able
and hardybody to endure any labour. What he commandeth they dare not disobey
in the least thing. It is strange to see with what great feare and adoration
all these people doe obay this Powhatan. For at his feet, they present
whatsoever he commandeth, and at the least frowne of his browe, their
greatest spirits will tremble with feare: and no marvell, for he is very
terrible and tryannous in punishing such as offend him. '" 1
Powhatan's
Kingdom on Contact :
It was Wahunsonacock,
having inherited 6 tribes from his father, who brought the
Powhatan Confederacy more, holding sway over about 32 bands involving
but not limited to the Pamunkey
[his
own]
,
Rhappahanock, Mattaponi
[or
Mattapony], Chickahominy,
Nansemond,
and Potomac [Patawomeked ] Indians by the time Jamestown was settled. Loosely
called the Powhatan, these people were known as the Sachdagugh-roonnw
by the Iroquois. Swanton lists the known
subtribes in his work and gives their locale by present Virginia county.
Some say the Powhatan
were driven North to Virginia by the Spanish, where their chief, Powhatan's
father, subjugated five other Virginia tribes. Swanton does not mention
this , and remarks "The Powhatan were visited by some very
early explorers, including probably the
Cabots in 1498.
Their territory was well known to the Spaniards in the latter part of the
sixteenth century and a Jesuit mission was established among them in 1570
though soon extinguished by the Indians. In 1607 the Virginia colony was
planted on James River
and from that time
on relations between the Whites and Powhatans were of the most intimate
character, friendly at first, but later
disturbed by the
exactions of the newcomers."7.
Top
of Page
On toThe
Arrival of The English to The Land of The Powhatan , and King Powhatans
Reign post contact
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Post English Contact:
King Powhatan [Wahunsonacock]
and The Jamestown Colony
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The English
were well aware of the adversity of settling on already peopled land. In
the instruction to the Colonists prior to their departure in 1606, the
London Company advised on the mode of settlement and choice of locale featuring
natural protection and with comment on natives, stating :
"they will
grow discontented with your habitation, and be ready to guide and assist
any nation that shall come to invade you; and if you neglect this, you
neglect your safety." 9
The English arrived
to Jamestown in 1607 and very soon encountered the Powhatan
Confederacy and their Chief Wahunsonacock, viewed as a King , and named
Powhatan by the English, in a style not unlike "France wishes to speak
with England" would be utilized by European royals of the time. Initially
contact was peaceful; The Powhatan had native
enemies, and perhaps initially considered these European newcomers
added protection against them. But relations deteriorated
and small scale raids against the English occured. Despite parlays and
presents [ including an English bed] , and the exchange of European goods
[including coveted tools ] for desperately needed [coveted and vital] food
in the early years of the colony, uneasy testing of each other's stregnth
occured with the English ascertaining the Chief's power and possible enemies
and weaknesses, and the Powhatan Confederacy conducting several small-scale
raids against the new fort. |
"On June 15, 1607, Powhatan...issued
an order to cease the raiding of the English. Peace reigned for a short
period with Powhatan and his brothers occasionally sending gifts of venison
to Jamestown. In September, the summer's first corn ripened enough to eat
and some neighboring chiefdoms contributed to the colony's supplies.
January 2, 1608... a fire destroyed all ...supplies and the remaining corn.
This left the English without food again. Powhatan stepped in and
supplied the English with provisions at regular intervals.......[In the
sping of 1608] Chief Powhatan lost patience with the English when
they began drilling their men outside the fort at Jamestown, appearing
to prepare an attack......Powhatan allowed his subjects to start harassing
the English and stealing tools from the fort. The English took hostages
in exchange for the stolen tools. The Paspaheghs, one of the local Powhatan
tribes,captured a couple of Englishmen to exchange for the Powhatan hostages....By
the time the colony was two years old, the major Powhatan settlements had
been seized. The Powhatans were so fixed on retribution, that the
colonists were safe only when inside the fort."4
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1608 Powhatan's half brother, Openchancanough
[the
King's later and second succesor - a far more militant adversary]
captured Captain John Smith and brought him back to Powhatan's main village.
The story of Smith's salvation from death sentence through the intervention
of Pocahontas falling over his body in protection is felt perhaps to have
been contrived by Smith as it mimicked his other stories of salvation
by beautiful women in other parts of the world and was not mentioned in
Smith's " A True Relation " of 1608 when it was most pertinent, This
story was first told in his "General Historie" of 1616.3
Some
historians state that this experience was part of a native ritual of subjugation
experienced by all tribes brought under Powhatan sway; Whether Smith
understood this and later turned the experience to fair advantage is not
known. It does not seem unlikely that Chief Powhatan, with his history
of succesful subjugation and consolidation of alliances, would have
chosen not to perform a ritual of subjugation on the captive leader of
the English to cement this experience in the minds of his people and to
establish the relationship he desired with the English themselves. |
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During The
Starving Time of 1609-10, which threatened the Powhatans as much as
the colonists, the Powhatans remained eerily elusive, hoping their
own people would survive, and Jamestown colony would just starve to death,
which was very nearly the case. Boats barely existed and trade, even if
it could be had, was not accesable. Early in this worst of its history,
the English sold all their tools to neighboring tribes, who after getting
the tools wouldn't provide food. When the English tried to leave the fort
to hunt or gather, they were ambushed. 4
The English became
aware the Powhatan intended to starve them out; In fact, both the
Powhatan and English were threatened with starvation. "In September 1609,
Captain John Ratcliffe was invited to Orapax, Powhatan's new capital. When
he sailed up the Pamunkey River to trade there, a fight broke out between
the colonists and the Powhatans. All of the English were killed, including
Ratcliffe, who was tortured by the women of the tribe."4
The effect of the following winter's hunger is hideously described
in contemporaneous accounts of the Starving time of winter 1609/10.
Introduction
to the 1st Anglo Powhatan War
The experience of
the Third Supply's flag ship in Bermuda where it had been shipwrecked
[overcome through the building of a new boat which subsequently limped
into Jamestown] is felt the basis of Shakespeare's final play "The
Tempest" which work gives response to Bermuda as perceived by two of the
shipwrecked: Gon: ' Here is everything advantageous to life. Ant:
'True; save means to live' . Similar words no doubt were exchanged in Jamestown
among the colonists of the Third supply and those of the colony left
to meet them.
In May 1610 [ after
the arrival of the survivors of the Third Supply] . the Jamestown
colonists remained without hope for survival and Gates decided to
evacuate the colony. Once they were on their way out to sea, they met the
remainder of Lord de la Warr's lost fleete and were ordered to return to
Jamestown. They had travelled only 10 miles and one day."4
The return led to the beginning of the First Anglo Powhatan
War.
With the arrival
of Lord de la Warr's fleet and the return of the colonists to the
fort, " Powhatan continued to attack the fort and ambush stray colonists,
de la Warr became aggressive and ordered Gates to punish the Kecoughtans
for killing the settlers the year before. After Gates lured the Kecoughtans
out of their town and ambushed them, the surviving Kecoughtans fled
and the land was claimed by the English. On July 15, Lord de la Warr
sent a message to Powhatan giving him a choice of peace or war. The choice
of peace would require the return of any stolen goods and captives. Powhatan
sent back a message to warn the English to either stay in the fort at
all times or to leave Virginia. Powhatan also demanded that if de la Warr
wished to talk to him again, he needed to send a coach and three
horses. (Powhatan had learned that this was the mode of transportation
for great lords in England and felt he deserved the same consideration.)"4
Greater
detail on the experience and ultimate resolution of the 1st Anglo Powhatan
War is discussed in detail at dedicated page: Military
Actions, 1st War
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SOURCEs for PAGE:
1 Chief
Powhatan page from The Association for the Preservation
of Virginia Antiquities , The Home of Jamestown Rediscovery webpages
2.
Chief Powhatan to Captain Smith From History
Matters
3.
Powhatan
Page of The Virtual Jamestown Website
4.
Native
Americans Post
Contact from the Mariners Museum Webpages
5.
Internet School Library Media Center,
Monacan
Indians page.
6. From
the Blue Ridge to The Chesapeake, A Brief History of Virginia's Indians,
from The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
7. The
Indian Tribes of North Americaby John R. Swanton Virginia Tribes
Manahoac through Tutelo.
Presented by the website
Searching
for Saponi Town"
8.
Powhatan
Page of the Jamestown Society's Jamestown Pages.
9.Instructions
for the Virginia Colony from the London Company (1606) presented in
the American Studies portion of the
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Website.
"Cruelty to the Indians" is a depiction of
the Spanish and Native Americans. Its image , although not involving the
Powhatan, was felt worthy of inclusion on this page.
"017. (Print) De Bry, Theodore. 1594. Petri de Calyce: Grausamkeit
gegen die Indianer. English title translation: Petri de Calyce: Cruelty
to the Indians.
Image size 8 x 6 1/2 on a page of text 9 1/4 x 12 7/8. Black and white.
Foxing in the margins. When he had come to Ameracapana, Petrus de Calyce,
the commander of the soldiers, brought four thousand live Indians. He would
have brought more had their numbers not been reduced through exhaustion,
lack of food, and grief during their journey. The Indians had been worked
to exhaustion and additionally burdened with the equipment and baggage
of the Spaniards. Those who failed to keep pace were stabbed and killed.
MB 75 (125-175). HP PASS." Image and Description from Heritage
Map Museum's Auction Catalog September 2000
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