Background
At first, the natives had been more than happy to trade provisions to the colonists for metal tools, but by 1609 the English governor, John Smith, had begun to send in raiding parties to demand food. This earned the colonists a bad reputation among the Native Americans and precipitated conflict. They isolated the Native Americans, burned down houses, and stole their food supplies. The English violence merely served to alienate the natives further; besieged within Jamestown fort for several months and unable to secure more food supplies, many colonists died during the "starving time" in 1609-10.
The London Company's primary concern was the survival of the colony. In England's best interest, the colonists would have to remain civil 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 acted on a different notion because they were military men and saw the Powhatan as essentially a "military problem.”
The Powhatan had soon realized that the Englishmen did not settle in Jamestown to trade with them. The English wanted more; they wanted control over the land. As Chief Powhatan said,
“Your coming is not for trade, but to invade my people and possess my country.” Chief Powhatan wanted peace among the English and Indians; he also said, “Having seene the death of all my people thrice… I knowe the difference of peace and ware better than any other Countrie., he would be so haunted by Smith that he can neither rest eat nor sleepe, but his tired men must watch, and if a twig but breake, everie one crie, there comes Captain John Smith; then he must flie he knowe not whether, and thus with miserable fear end his miserable life”.
In 1610 the London Company instructed Gates, the newly appointed colonial governor, to Christianize the natives and absorb them into the colony. 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 about him first to acknowledge no other Lord but King James”. When Gates arrived at Jamestown in 1610, he decided to evacuate the settlement because he thought the government's plan was not feasible. As the colonists were about to leave the Bay and head out into the open sea, they were met by the incoming fleet of Lord de la Warre. Taking command as governor, de la Warre ordered the fort reoccupied. He plotted conquest of the surrounding tribes. In July 1610 he sent Gates against the Kecoughtan. “Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance act by his drummer, and then slaughtered them”.
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. “English demanded that all Powhatan captives be released, return all English weapons taken by his warriors, and agree upon a lasting peace”. It was while Pocahontas was held by the English that she met John Rolfe, whom she later married. While in captivity, Pocahontas was taught the English language, manners and 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.” After they married, there were more peaceful relations for a time between the English colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy. Edward Waterhouse, secretary of the Virginia Company, wrote,
“uch was the conceit of firme peace and amitie, as that there was seldome or never a sword worne, and a Peece seldomer, except for a Deere or Fowle....The Plantations of particular Adventurers and Planters were placed scatteringly and straglingly as a choyce veyne of rich ground invited them, and the further from neighbors held the better. The houses generally set open to the Savages, who were alwaies friendly entertained at the tables of the English, and commonly lodged in their bed-chambers.”
In 1618, after the death of Powhatan, his brother Opechancanough became paramount chief of the confederacy. Opechancanough did not believe peaceful relations with the colonists could be maintained. Having recovered from his defeat commanding Pamunkey warriors during the First Anglo-Powhatan War, he planned the destruction and expulsion of the English. 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.
Read more about this topic: Indian Massacre Of 1622
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