History
In 1607, Captain John Smith, one of the Jamestown settlers, sailed up the Chickahominy in the hope that it would prove to be a passage to the Pacific. There, he was captured by warriors of the Chickahominy tribe and taken to meet Chief Powhatan, an event that led to his legendary rescue by Powhatan's daughter, Matoaka (Pocahontas).
In the 19th century, the Chickahominy was bordered in many places by swampy forests, which during heavy rains and spring thaw were covered with water as to be almost impassable. At such times, the river's normally narrow path could grow to be as much as a mile wide. This small river became a major obstacle and natural force to be dealt with during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Read more about this topic: Chickahominy River
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“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)