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. The Virginia Company of London's primary concern was the survival of the colony. The interests of the company required the colonists 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. Unlike John Smith, other early leaders of Virginia, such as Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates, based their actions on a different way of thinking. They were military men and considered the Powhatan Confederacy as essentially a "military problem." The Powhatan were skeptical of the European settlers and hostile to outsiders, who they claimed had the purpose to "possess" the land. As Chief Powhatan said: First Anglo-Powhatan War In 1610, the Virginia Company of London instructed Gates, the newly-appointed colonial governor, to Christianise the natives and absorb them into the colony. As for 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." In the spring of 1622, Nemattanew, one of Opechancanough’s favorites, was shot, about a fortnight before the massacre, for the murder of a man named Morgan, whom he enticed from home on pretence of trade. This was the supposed motive for the Indians’ simultaneous surprise attacks on at least 31 separate English settlements and plantations, mostly along the James River, extending as far as Henricus. == Jamestown forewarned ==

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," that 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...." "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," before 1616. The older Indian, Chauco, and the youth who warned Pace may have been conflated. == Destruction of other settlements ==

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. 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 Falling Creek Ironworks, Henricus, and Smith's Hundred. == Aftermath ==

After the attack, the surviving English colonists 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. 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." Opechancanough withdrew his warriors, believing that the English would behave as Native Americans did when defeated: pack up and leave, or learn their lesson and respect the power of the Powhatan. After 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." 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. From May to November that year, armed colonists attacked Powhatan settlements in the Tidewater region and targeted in particular their corn crops, which the Powhatan had planted "in great abundance." The raids not only led to the near collapse of Powhatan society but also provided enormous profits for corn profiteers in Jamestown. In England, John Smith believed after the massacre 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" 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." 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 seize them, driving them to flee within reach of their enemies among other tribes, and 'assimilating and abetting their enemies against them." The company controlled all types of communication leaving the colony. Indian decline and defeat In May 1624, Virginia lost its royal charter and was transformed into a crown colony by King James I. That meant that the Crown took direct authority, rather than allowing guidance by the Virginia Company of London. 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 that were 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 and resulted in the deaths of several hundred 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. 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 them 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 of which is between the rivers of the same names within the boundaries of present-day King William County. ==Notes==