In our first revisit to Early Colonial era 1600-1763, we begin with Powhatan in Virginia part one. The “Powhatan Landscape” describes what would become Virginia from 500 B.C.E. to the early 1600s. “Commoners, Tribute and Chiefs” explains the Algonquin civilization focusing on the Potomac Valley Chicagoan tribe.
“Nature and History in the Potomac Country” looks at both native and English settlers from the migrations of the Algonquin to that of the English, and their subsequent interactions after contact into the 1700s. The culture of the Powhatan tribe, its culture, politics and religion are described in “Powhatan Indians of Virginia” “Powhatan Lords”, and “Before and After Jamestown” takes the story to the present.
For more book reviews at TheVirginiaHistorian.com in this historical era addressing other topics, see the webpage for Early and Late Colonial Era (1600-1763). General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Powhatan Landscape
Martin D. Gallivan wrote The Powhatan Landscape: An Archaeological History of the Algonquian Chesapeake in 2016. It is now available online new. Powhatan the cheiftan appears in the next-to-last chapter. This book is about tying the pre-colonial past and the immigration of the Algonquin Powhatans into the Chesapeake region (Tsenacomacoh) to the onset of the Euro-American world. Early beginnings around 500 B.C.E. brought lasting place names chosen from the vantage of a canoe, the forager-fishers of the coastal estuary system occupied a “waterscape”.
Algonquin speakers migrated into the region about 200 C.E., bringing a reorientation of Native American culture toward the estuaries and an expanded agriculture. Those of the Chickahominy River Basin never fully became a part of the Powhatans who developed a paramount chieftain style of colonial rule over many adjacent tribes. Chief “Powhatan” (Wahunsenacawh) at the end of the 1500s moved the Powhatan capital to the sacred site of Werowocomoco. When the English arrived at Jamestown in 1607, he sought to incorporate the English into his trading polity as he had with others previously.
Learn more to buy “Powhatan Landscape” at Amazon.com.
*Gleach, Frederic W. Powhatan’s World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures (1997). It is out of print but available online new and used. Learn more to buy “Powhatan’s World” at Amazon.com.
*Keith Egloff and Deborah Woodward wrote First People: The Early Indians of Virginia, 2d ed. in 2006. It is now available online new in paperback. Learn more to buy “First People” at Amazon.com.
*Gallivan, Martin D. James River Chiefdoms: The Rise of Social Inequality in the Chesapeake (2003). Learn more to buy “James River Chiefdoms” at Amazon.com.
Commoners, Tribute and Chiefs
Stephen R. Potter wrote Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs; The Development of Algonquian Culture in the Potomac Valley in 1993. It is available at the University of Virginia Press and online new and used. The Algonquins settling in the Northern Neck of Virginia along the Potomac River about 200 C.E. were called Chicacoans. They lived in modern Northumberland County between the Piscataway (Conoy) paramount chiefdom centered at modern Washington DC, and the expanding Powhatan paramount chiefdom centered in the Lower Peninsula on the James River.
Potter describes the pre-contact Potomac River Valley of Late Woodland Native American culture, and then turns to integrate it with an account of the rise of complex societies. Intimidation, warfare and tribute to paramount chiefs were important elements to building more complex societies after 1500. The narrative of pre-contact environment, technologies and social framework is followed by an explanation of the complex interactions occurring between native and European cultures following 1607 contact. The earlier developments among pre-contact groups set the expectations for the natives about how to relate to the newcomers from across the Atlantic.
Learn more to buy “Commoners, Tribute and Chiefs” at Amazon.com.
Nature and History in the Potomac Country
James D. Rice wrote Nature and History in the Potomac Country: From Hunter-Gatherers to the Age of Jefferson in 2009. It is now available on Kindle and online new and used. Rice studies both Native American and European economies, land use patterns and conceptions of the natural world. The narrative encompasses geological time, sociopolitical and economic developments, and historic moments for both natives and European settlers. With the introduction of agriculture, natives moved upland from the tidewater towards better soils. The “Little Ice Age” in the 1500s to 1700s found themselves in a middle zone between the Iroquois hunters to the north and Cherokee farmers to the south.
Complex and ever-changing alliances and conflicts developed not only among native groups but then on their arrival, among various European groups of Catholic, Puritan and Anglican, among Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Not until the 1700s did Europeans attempt substantial settlement above the Fall Line into the Piedmont, when Virginia and Maryland encouraged the non-English Swiss, Germans and Scots to settle as a frontier buffer against Indian attacks.
Learn more to buy “Nature and History in the Potomac Country” at Amazon.com.
Powhatan Indians of Virginia
Helen C. Rountree wrote The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture in 1989. It is now available on Kindle and online new and used. Roundtree describes Powhatan culture as it existed at the emergence of English colonization between 1607 and 1610. It includes the familiar such as housing, clothing, weapons and ornaments, as well as cultural practices, social structure, and descriptions of legal, political, military and religious life.
The Powhatan Indians occupied the middle of a cultural spectrum along the east coast, just as they lived in a natural environment that was “middle ground” in its climate and ecology. While Rountree’s focus is on the Powhatan, it is inevitable that much is revealed about the early English settlers at Jamestown.
Learn more to buy “Powhatan Indians” at Amazon.com.
*Rountree, Helen C., and Thomas E. Davidson, Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland (1997). It is out of print but available online new and used. Learn more to buy “Eastern Shore Indians” at Amazon.com.
Powhatan Lords
Margaret Holmes Williamson wrote Powhatan Lords of Life and Death: Command and Consent in Seventeenth-Century Virginia in 2003. It is now available on Kindle and online new and used. Williamson examines the dual sovereignty among the Powhatan Indians from the perspective of socio-political and religious organization. Among them was a reciprocal relationship between power and authority; they were not equal to one another, but reciprocal, each was dependent upon the other for legitimacy. Mundane werowance war chiefs and cockarouses peace councilors were complemented by spriritual quiyoughcosough priests and shamans.
Most adults among the Powhatan attained some status in the community for both religious authority and political power, the right to say what was to be done, and the ability to act on what is authorized. In understanding Powhatan hierarchies, neither power and force, nor power and authority were necessarily the same thing. Interpretations from17th century English accounts of the Powhatan must be interpreted from an understanding of the English author’s culture.
Learn more to buy “Powhatan Lords” at Amazon.com.
Before and After Jamestown
Helen C. Rountree and E. Randolph Turner III wrote Before and After Jamestown: Virginia’s Powhatans and Their Predecessors in 2002. It is available online new in paperback. Anthropologist Helen C. Rountree and archaeologist E. Randolph Turner III collaborated in writing a general history of Virginia’s Powhatan Indians from 900 C.E. to the late twentieth century. Their habitat centered on an area one hundred miles-square, south of the Potomac River and east of modern I-95 to the Atlantic Ocean. Their cultural history is described in their housing, furnishings, dress, diet, occupations, warfare and religion.
The history of the tribe’s conquest by the English and its population decline from 25,000 to modern 1,500 enrolled members is a poignant one. Early English diplomatic contacts with great politeness were misconstrued as agreement, and subsequent Indian attacks took the English by surprise. Following their conquest, Powhatans in the 19th and 20th century struggled against racism and in the late 20th century they were determined to achieve official tribal recognition.
Learn more to buy “Before and After Jamestown” at Amazon.com.
Note: Insights for these reviews are used from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.