Within a few decades, and against their will, his people would be subjects of the British Crown. Despite their roles as senior politicians in these watershed events, no biography of either Powhatan or Opechancanough exists.
And while there are other "biographies" of Pocahontas, they have for the most part elaborated on her legend more than they have addressed the known facts of her remarkable life. Writing from an ethnohistorical perspective that looks as much to anthropology as the written records, Rountree draws a rich portrait of Powhatan life in which the land and the seasons governed life and the English were seen not as heroes but as Tassantassas strangers , as invaders, even as squatters.
The Powhatans were a nonliterate people, so we have had to rely until now on the white settlers for our conceptions of the Jamestown experiment. These contacts ended by shooting Indians. Needless to say, the start of Jamestown was hard, and involved conflict with the Indians. It is almost like the Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy and their Chief Wahunsonacock, knew what the English wanted. This wealth was based on New World Gold and Silver.
So what did he do to become the Most Important Person? I will tell you the four most important events now, then fill in a little detail. He then released Smith. He was shot in the back by a guard and killed before his trial. Many settlers wrote and believed he was over years old at his death.
Opechancanough had spent almost 40 years trying to stop English settlement of Virginia land which belonged to the Indians. How did he know, as an Indian, that the English had planned to exploit the Indians and their lands?
This cannot be proven, but some facts, and recent historians merging of Spanish and English records make it possible. Opechancanough was probably born about , perhaps at the Indian village of Kiskiackia, on the York River about 15 miles from Jamestown. In a Spanish ship, a caravel, under command of Antonio Velazquez was exploring the Chesapeake Bay.
A tall, young 17 year old, Kiskiack Indian, son of the chief was taken or given by the chief to be educated in Spain and returned in 3 years. Well, 3 years quickly became almost 10 years. A settlement was started, but all ended quickly. Opechancanough left the settlement , found his family and Indian tribe, and took several wives.
The English continue upriver to visit Opechancanough at the latter's request. In January, the paramount chief Powhatan attempts but fails to have Smith killed. Opechancanough then disappears from English records until the year April Powhatan's favorite daughter, Pocahontas, is captured and held hostage by the English, bringing a truce in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. The fight goes out of Powhatan, and during his apathy over the next year, his daughter is converted by the English.
March While negotiating with Powhatan over ransom for his daughter Pocahontas, the colonist Ralph Hamor records his impression that Opechancanough has quietly achieved "command of all the people" of Tsenacomoco.
He, and not the ill Powhatan, finds a resolution to the stalemate. Around the same time, the Reverend Samuel Purchas describes Opechancanough as "a man very gracious, both with the [Indian] people and the English. April The death of Powhatan, paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, is reported to the English colonists. Autumn The redisposition of Powhatan's bones is to be the occasion for a massive attack against the English, but Opechancanough calls it off when his plans are revealed. Summer Opechancanough requests from Esmy Shichans, the Accomac weroance , large quantities of the poisonous plant cowbane to be used against the English in an attack.
Shichans, a trading partner of the English, informs the colonists of Opechancanough's plans. January The Jamestown colonists report that Opechancanough has expressed interest in converting to Christianity.
They also note that Opitchapam Otiotan and Opechancanough have changed their names to Sasawpen and Mangopeesomon, respectively. The change may suggest some kind of military preparation. March 21, Chauco is one of several Virginia Indians who saves the lives of some English colonists by warning of Opechancanough's plans to attack their settlements the next day.
The assault was originally planned for the fall of , to coincide with the redisposition of Powhatan's bones, suggesting that the attack was to be part of the final mortuary celebration for the former chief. September After their major assaults in March, Opechancanough and his forces resume guerrilla attacks on the English colonists. Spring Opitchapam and Opechancanough launch a failed attack on the colonists, after which they invite the English to talk peace in Opitchapam's capital on the Pamunkey River.
April Early in the month, Chauco and another man serve as emissaries of Opitchapam, the paramount chief. They travel to Jamestown to work out the details of a proposed meeting with the English colonists. A year before, Chauco betrayed the Powhatans by informing the English of an imminent attack. May 22, Opitchapam and Opechancanough host the English on the Pamunkey River, but they are treated to tainted wine and then ambushed.
Opechancanough is apparently seriously injured and disappears from English records for seven years. He is apparently working to convince the English of his peaceful intentions while perhaps already planning another large-scale assault.
April 18, Opechancanough and a force of Powhatan Indians launch a second great assault against the English colonists, initiating the Third Anglo-Powhatan War. As many as colonists are killed, but rather than press the attack, the Indians retire.
His successor, Necotowance, surrenders to the colonists, and Opechancanough is shot and killed while in English custody at Jamestown. The people at Jamestown were prepared to meet the assassins, and so averted the blow which might have extinguished the colony. Those at a distance, who survived the carnage, beat back the Indians and then fled to Jamestown. In the course of a few days, eighty inhabited plantations were reduced to eight.
But a large part of the colony was saved. Opechancanough is relevant to the J. Younger brother and successor to Chief Powhatan Wahunsonacock. Half brother to Wahunsonacock [known to the English as Chief Powhatan ] Openchancanough was responsable for the abduction of Captain Smith in and for both the massacre of [which Abraham Piersey, and both John Woodson and his wife survived] and the massacre of [in which John Woodson was killed]. More militant than his older brother, Opechancanough is a complex, historically fascinating charactar and brilliantly adept strategist responsable for what is arguably the most succesful attack against white incursionists by any Native Americans in all of American history.
Within the history of Spain is the remarkable story of a young American Indian abducted in the s by the Spanish along the Virginia coast, found as Don Luis de Velasco in contemporaneous Spanish records. He was well educated in Spain and travelled in Mexico. On return to his native peoples in the s, and in the company of missionaries under Fray Segura [Father Juan Baptista de Segura] he assumed the position of power which was his birthright within the tribe.
What is certain is that this Don Luis de Velasco gave to the Powhatan Confederation some background regarding the European civilizations, power and intent. The period of sleepy understanding that the natives around Jamestown were subservient was torn asunder by Opechancanough's suprise attack of igniting the Second Anglo Powhatan War and known in white history as The Good Friday Massacre. This expertly mounted suprise attack was partially but substantially mitigated through intelligence recieved the night before from a Christianized Indian present in the colony-If not for the intelligence the entire colony would surely have been destroyed.
After retaliatory forays and brittle relations, an uneasy peace ensued with the signing of the treaty of One decade later this treaty was shattered with Openchancanough's last meaningful act as Chief , involving the action of , likewise known as the massacre of that year, which action was the cause for his capture, imprisonment and death as a very old man.
It also marked the beginning of the third and final Anglo Powhatan War. Table of Contents This Page: 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Opechancanough and the Massacre igniting the 2nd Anglo Powhatan War 5. What the Treaty Sought B. The Lands Involved in the Treaty C. Effects of the Treaty and later legislation 7. The Natives of Va. Pages: The Powhatan Confederacy and its Tribes.
The Pamunkey Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy. Tributary Indians of a census of sorts. Openchancanough, Chief of the Pamunkey , and King of The Powhatan Confederacy [after the death of his half brother Wahunsonacock known to the English as Chief Powhatan] , was responsable for the abduction of Captain Smith in and for both the massacre of , occuring shortly after his ascendancy [which both John Woodson and his wife survived] and the massacre of in which John Woodson was killed.
Within the history of Spain is the remarkable story of a young American Indian abducted in the s by the Spanish along the Virginia coast. On return to his native peoples in the s, and in the company of missionaries under Fray Segura [Father Juan Baptista de Segura] he assumed the position of power which was his birthright within his tribe. The period of sleepy understanding that the natives around Jamestown were subservient was torn asunder by Opechancanough's suprise attack of igniting the Second Anglo Powhatan War and known in white history as The Good Friday Massacre [the suprise being partially but substantially mitigated through intelligence recieved the night before the attack from a Christianized Indian present in the colony in absence of which the entire colony would surely have been destroyed].
An uneasy peace ensued with the signing of the treaty of , followed one decade later by Openchancanough's last meaningful act as Chief with the action of , likewise known as the massacre of that year, which action was the cause for his capture, imprisonment and death, a very old man, and the beginning of the third and final Anglo Powhatan War.
Martin's Hundred [ The abducted women of Martin's hundred bartered in return for peace ] About Martins Hundred. References to Opechancanough. The Powhatan within John R. The Treaty of and its purpose ; the staging of the Massacre. The language recorded by John Smith [deep within the page presented]. Pamunkey Tribe Homepage.
Openchancanough as Don Louis de Velasco While we have come to believe that Powhatan was the holder of the native power in Virginia, Carl Bridenbaugh in his book published and entitled " Jamestown " reveals his younger half brother Opechancanough as the formidable force behind the throne. A prince of "large Stature, noble Presence, and extraordinary parts, " Opechancanough's own history is fascinating and informative.
Like his famous neice , Opechancanough travelled to Europe, having been taken there in by a Spanish ship appearing on the Chesapeake, and he remained 5 years in Spain. Apparantly homesick for his people, he was sent instead to Mexico where he remained three years and from which he returned to Spain for another three.
In all he received 8 years of education from priests, and invaluable insight into the intent , methods and stregnth of the European powers. On his return to his people, and in company of Jesuit Missionaries under Frey Juan Baptista de Segura, he became again more Indian, taking on "multiple wives for which he was reprimaded and humiliated by the Jesuits. He eventually denounced Christianity, led a raid, and killed the priests.
After that, he terminated all contacts with Europeans and Christianity" 1. The Jesuits involved are currently being petitioned to sainthood. On the death of his brother in , Opechancanough soon became chief and was already an ageing man. Bridenbaugh discusses Opechancanough's strategies before his accension Footnote 3 , but, once chief, intent on halting both cultural deconstructionism and loss of his homeland, he found in the english killing of a young brave [Menatanou] for the alleged murder of a Jamestown resident the incident to ignite his plans.
He soon orchestrated the Good Friday Massacre of in which colonists, men women and children, were victims Footnote2. It was only through the intelligence offered by a Christianized Indian residing in the home of an Englishman and revealed on the eve of the attack that the entire plan to destroy the fort and all of the Jamestown colony was averted.
Employing both Indian and European methods of deception and surprise, [Opechancanough] won a victory that elicited reluctant praise from many leaders across the sea All things considered, the 'massacre' of was probably the most brilliantly conceived, planned, and executed uprising against white aggression in the history of the American Indians' End of Bridenbaugh quotation " 1 The English retaliated; attacks and reprisals continued for the next decade.
He was soon captured and " shot in the back by an English soldier [ed note, some accounts say by a colonial not a soldier] in the streets of Jamestown in , at the approximate age of His executioners remained unaware that their prisoner was a literate and well traveled man.
Opechancanough never revealed his past to the English. It was only much later that historians learned of it from Spanish records and pieced the account together.
In , Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia forced the Indians to accept conditions under which they ceded much of their land to the English.
0コメント