The Contact Period

The English were not the first Europeans to trade with the Indians in Virginia. Even before the English explored north from their colonial beginnings at Roanoke, the Native Americans had already acquired metal and glass objects from Spanish and other ships. We can date archeological excavations through such objects, but some villages were probably affected by the European arrival even before they acquired European artifacts.

reconstruction of Native American dwelling at Henricus Historical Park

The contact period lasted perhaps a century, from those early explorations until after Jamestown was settled. At the end, Powhatan sought to control the English primarily through diplomacy rather than try to repel the colonists by force. That failed, and his brother Opechancanough then tried force - equally unsuccessfully.

As the Europeans then settled Tidewater and the Piedmont, the various tribes in Virginia struggled to maintain their land and cultural integrity. However, within 50 years of Jamestown, the English population reached 14,000 (including 500 blacks imported from the Caribbean islands or Africa).¹ The immigrants displaced the Native American societies in Tidewater through land seizures and military action, while disease apparently reduced substantially the number of Native American further inland.

After Opechancanough's second attack in 1644, the Powhatans were restricted to the territory between the York and the Rappahannock rivers. This was just the start of the westward march of the English and the retreat of the Native Americans. In some cases, official negotiations led to clarification of "property rights" through various treaties - though the two cultures viewed the negotiations through very different perspectives.

In 1686, a French traveler noted that the Native Americans still maintained much of their original lifestyle (and the traveler showed his cultural biases as well):

"These savages have rather pretty houses, the walls as well as the roofs ornamented with trees, & so securely fastened together with deer thongs that neither rain nor wind causes them inconvenvience. These people are darker than the Egyptians we see in Europe. They brand their faces with scars in the shape of snail-shells, into which they put powder & so are marked for life. The women, in the house wear only a deer skin to cover the less mentionable parts In winter they wear the fur against their skin, & in the summer the skin against their skin. They build their fire in the center of the house, their beds are made all around. They interweave a kind of strong, coarse grass that grows along the river to make a sort of mat, held up by four little forks. They use these as seats. The men of the village wear only a shabby shirt of blue or white linen, & from the time they put it on they do not remove it until it falls in rags, for they never wash anything. Except for this fur, the women have the rest of their bodies nude. The little children are always entirely naked, however cold it may be. The men do nothing but hunt, & fish, while the women plant Indian corn. The crop belongs to the community, each taking what he needs. The women also make pots, earthen vases, & smoking pipes... They all smoke, as do the men, but as they grow no tobacco, they give game or fish in exchange for it."²

Portobago Bay, on the Rappahannock River downstream of Fredericksburg -
former home of the Nanzatico community
(Source: US Geological Survey National Map)

The conflicts between English settlers and Native Americans continued long after the Powhatan paramount chiefdom was disrupted after the 1644 uprising. In 1704, local English settlers usurped land of the Nanzaticos, a group of Native Americans that included remnants of earlier tribes in the area. After complaints to colonial officials produced no results, the Nanzaticos killed one Englishman that they viewed as a trepasser, plus his family. In response, the colonial militia captured the Nanzaticos. After a trial, the colony hung 7 Nanzatico men, sold all the others over the age of 12 into slavery in the West Indies, and forced the children to work as servants for colonial officials. ³

Through negotiations and warfare, the English and other Europeans who settled Virginia took ownership of the lands once controlled by different tribes. Compare even a rough sketch of the Indian territories in Virginia in 1600 and today, and you can see clearly the shift in power.

John Smith and Virginia

The Anglo-Powhatan Wars

Treaties Defining the Boundaries Separating English and Native American Territories

Links

• Bruce, Philip A., Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records
• "Aboriginal Virginia - It's Physical Character," Chapter II
• "Aboriginal Virginia - Indian Economy," Chapter III
• Chronology of Indian Activity
• "The Virginia Indian Trade to 1673," by Morrison, A. J. (1921)
• The WPA Guide to the Old Dominion
• Indians

References