Anglo-Powhatan Wars

When English settlers arrived on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay in 1607, they found a confederacy of around 30 Algonquian-speaking Native American tribes who took their name from the powerful Powhatan, the paramount chief. While the English were establishing Jamestown, Powhatan was expanding his area of dominance. From July 1607 to 1609, a policy of accommodation generally governed the relationship between the settlers and the Powhatan natives. The English needed the corn grown by the Powhatan-controlled tribes, and the Native Americans were interested in English goods. Trade between the two groups was disrupted only occasionally by outbursts of violence. By 1609, Powhatan was no longer satisfied with copper and beads; he wanted to trade maize for muskets.

It was also becoming clear that the Powhatans’ view of land as communal was at odds with the English view of land as private property that could be claimed by walls and fences. The English, unwilling to trade in arms and stirred by a new charter that challenged them with converting the natives to Christianity, obtained the corn by force. For the next quarter century, except for brief periods of peace, Powhatan's confederacy and the English settlers were at war with each other. Three Anglo-Powhatan wars left the Powhatan chiefdom successively weaker until, by the end of the third war, it was destroyed.

Conflicts between the English and Powhatan's forces intensified in the fall of 1609, beginning the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610–14). As the colonists encroached on Algonquian land, it became clear to Powhatan that the English would not be content with Jamestown as a trading post. Powhatan laid siege throughout the following winter, leading to what came to be called the Starving Time. Rather than attacking the settlers directly, the Powhatans cut off their food supply. They slaughtered their hogs penned on an island a short distance down the river. They penned the settlers inside the fort, making it impossible for them to hunt, fish, or bargain for food.

As settlers began dying of malnutrition, survivors resorted to eating horses, rats, and snakes. According to some accounts, some even resorted to cannibalism. The English were at their most vulnerable at this point, but rather than attacking, Powhatan ended the siege in May 1610 so that the Native Americans could begin their spring planting. On May 24, survivors of the Sea Venture wreck arrived after a year marooned in Bermuda. They found only 60 of the Jamestown settlers alive.

With the arrival in June 1610 of a ship from England bearing reinforcements and a year's supplies, the English were reinvigorated. They attacked, burning Powhatan villages and executing women and children. They defeated the Nansemonds and Kecoughtans at the mouth of the James and the Appamattucks near the falls. In April 1613, Captain Samuel Argall captured Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan. Pocahontas converted to Christianity, and in April 1614 the English brought the message to Powhatan that his daughter planned to marry John Rolfe. The marriage sealed the peace.

Three years after the English victory in the First Anglo-Powhatan War, Powhatan abdicated his position of principal chief in favor of his brothers Opitchapam, the peace chief, and Opechancanough, the war chief. Pocahontas died in England in 1617, and Powhatan died the following year. The English used the years of peace to expand settlements and establish tobacco plantations along the James River. The English grew complacent. Then on March 22, 1622, Opechancanough's warriors attacked the colony and killed about one-third of the settlers. The Second Anglo–Powhatan War (1622–32) had begun.

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