Indian massacre of 1622
The
Indian massacre of 1622 (also known as the
Jamestown massacre) occurred in the
Virginia Colony on
March 22,
1622. Jamestown was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America in 1607, and was the capital of the Colony of
Virginia, the most important British settlement in New World at the time.
Although Jamestown itself was spared due to a timely last-minute warning, many smaller settlements had been established along the
James River both upstream and downstream from it and were attacked without warning.
Henricus was one of the most progressive of the smaller communities which bore the brunt of the coordinated attacks and many were abandoned in the aftermath. One of the highest death tolls occurred at
Wolstenholme Towne, the site of a recent archeological dig which was 7 miles downriver from Jamestown at
Martin's Hundred, now part of
Carter's Grove Plantation.
After the
First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609-1613), the marriage of
Chief Powhatan's youngest daughter
Pocahontas and colonist
John Rolfe in 1614 began a period of more peaceful relations between the English colonists and the
Native Americans of the "Indian"
Powhatan Confederacy. In 1618, after the death of
Wahunsonacock, better known as the original Chief Powhatan, his half-brother
Opechancanough became leader of the Powhatans. Opechancanough did not feel that peaceful relations with the colonists could be maintained. Having recovered from the defeat of his earlier command of the
Pamunkey warriors at the end of the First Anglo-Powhatan War, he planned the destruction of the English settlers. In the spring of 1622, after the murder of his adviser,
Nemattanew, by an Englishman, Opechancanough launched a campaign of surprise attacks upon at least thirty-one separate British settlements and plantations mostly along the
James River.
Jamestown, the capital and primary settlement of the colony, was saved when an Indian boy named
Chanco, who was due to slay his employer, Richard Pace, woke Pace during the night and warned him of the imminent attack. Pace, who lived across the James River from Jamestown, secured his family and then rowed across the river to Jamestown in an attempt to warn the rest of the settlement. As a result, some preparations could be made for the attack in Jamestown. Outlying settlements, however, had no forewarning.
During the one-day surprise attack, many of the smaller communities, which were essentially outposts of Jamestown, were attacked, including
Henricus and its fledgling college for Native American children and those of colonists. At
Martin's Hundred, over half the population was killed at its principal development of
Wolstenholme Towne, where only two houses and a part of a church were left standing. In all, about four hundred colonists (a third of the white population) were killed and around twenty women captured, taken to serve as virtual slaves to the Indians until their death or ransom years later.
The cultural differences were such that the Powhatans ended hostilities and waited in the days and months after the day of the attacks, apparently in the belief that the colonists would accept the losses as a signal that the Powhatans were more powerful and were to be respected and that conflicts and breeches of agreements were to be avoided. However, this proved to be a serious lack of understanding of the mindset of the English colonists and their backers overseas.
The March 22 attacks destroyed many of the colonists' spring crops and caused some of the settlements to be completely abandoned. Not only in the colony, but also in England, the attacks had the more long-term effect of reinforcing the image of the Native Americans as savages, destroying much of the appreciation of the Indians and their culture which had been accomplished in the years preceding by Pocahontas and others. At
Henricus, one of the most distant outposts from Jamestown, where a well-planned school for Indian boys and college for the sons of colonists was in its infancy, the progress and the new town there were both lost. Another effort to establish such a school would have to wait over 70 years until plans for the
College of William and Mary were successfully presented to the monarchy in England by the rector of Henrico Parish,
James Blair, and a royal charter issued. Apparently taking no chances of the new school being at risk of another devastating attack, in 1693, the new school was established at
Middle Plantation, a well-fortified location a few miles from Jamestown. A few years later, the capital of the colony was relocated there, and the name changed to
Williamsburg.
Many of the colonists who witnessed and survived the March 1622 attacks thereafter despised all Indians and vowed revenge. Their retaliatory raids on the tribes and particularly on the Indians' corn crops in the summer and fall of 1622 were so successful that Chief Opechancanough decided in desperation to negotiate with the colonists. Through friendly Indian intermediaries, a peace parlay was finally made between the two groups. However, some of the Jamestown leaders, led by Captain
William Tucker, poisoned the Indians' share of the liquor for the parlay's ceremonial toast. The poison killed about two hundred Indians and another fifty were then killed by hand. However, Chief Opechancanough escaped.
Virginia became a
royal colony of
England two years later in
1624. The change meant that the English crown had direct authority over the colony instead of through the
Virginia Company of London. The main result was that Royal favorites could now profit from the colonies instead of the members of the Virginia Company. As in most Colonies, the colonists there continued to be exploited for the personal profit of those few in charge, and the interests of the Powhatans were even less considered. Expansion into Indian land and breach of agreements continued to be the general relationship, leading to an increasing level of frustration amongst the tribes.
The next major uprising of the Powhatan Confederacy would occur in 1644 when around five hundred English colonists would perish. By then, this loss represented less than ten percent of the population, and had far lesser impact upon the colonists. This time, Opechancanough who was quite old and had to be transported by litter, was captured. Imprisoned at Jamestown, he was murdered by one of colonists appointed to guard him.
The death of Opechancanough clearly marked the beginning of the continual and increasingly precipitous decline of the once powerful
Powhatan Confederacy, whose members were eventually left to either leave the area entirely, gradually intermix their residential communities with the colonists, or live on one of the few reservations established in Virginia, although even these were subject to incursion and seizure of land by the ever expanding white population.
In modern times, only seven tribes of the original Powhatan Confederacy are recognized in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The two longstanding reservations are those of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi, both located between the rivers of the same name within (but technically independent of)
King William County.
* Steve Rajtar,
Indian War Sites, McFarland and Company, Inc., 1999.
*David A. Price,
Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of A New Nation, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, chapter 14
*
History of Virginia
