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We start with a brief history of Jamestown and of the Powhatan confederacy, and the relationship between them. The famous John Smith appears here as a key figure in the early survival of Jamestown, although ironically because he was captured and then considered to be a subordinate chief by Chief Powhatan, giving the English a brief period of stability where they were seen as part of the confederacy. This ended when Smith left, and the new English leaders stopped reacting to Chief Powhatan’s instructions. It was this that triggered the first war, seen by Chief Powhatan as the punishment of a wayward tribe.
The limits of our sources are demonstrated in the sections on opposing commanders, where we get three main Powhatan leaders and a whole series of English commanders. This did represent something of a weakness on the English side, with the colony’s leadership changing far too often.
The first Powhatan War is a one of many examples from the Americas of a conflict where the Europeans appeared to be doomed, outnumbered and outfought, but still managed to survive. In this case things went as far as the entire population of Jamestown leaving, and spending two days on their ships waiting for the tide, before a new commander with reinforcements arrived and forced them back to land. These are two brutal if small scale wars, although by the start of the second war the English colony had expanded significantly, and was spread out along the James River, instead of being largely confined to Jamestown. We see the impact of that in the opening act of the war – a coordinated massacre of English settlers across the colony on 22 March 1622. This triggered an unsurprisingly brutal war but one which eventually faded away before ending in a peace in 1632.
This is a useful history of the first two major conflicts between the new English settlers and their settled American neighbours, in this case a large, organised agricultural society with strong leadership and a tradition of raiding, but that was still unable to eliminate the unwelcome newcomers in their midst.
Chapters
Origins of the Campaign
Chronology
Opposing Commanders
Opposing Forces
Opposing Plans
The Campaigns
Aftermath
Author: Cameron Colby
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2024