assignment

C O N T A C T A N D C O N F L I C T

W I T H N A T I V E A M E R I C A N S

V i e w p o i n t 3 A Indians and Colonists Should Live in Peace (1 609)

Powhatan (ca. 1 5 50- 1 6 1 8)

I N T R O D U C T I O N Powhatan (also called Wahunsonacock) was the leader of a group of Indian tribes that lived in what is now the state of Virginia, and was thus one of the first Indian leaders to have extensive contact with European colonists in North America. The following viewpoint is taken from a 1 609 speech Powhatan made to john Smith, the leader of the English settlement of Jamestown. Smith recorded Powhatan s call for peacefol relations between the two peoples, including his remarks on the importance of the Indians'providingfood to help Jamestown settlers survive. Despite occasional skirmishes and confrontations, the Indians of the Powhatan Con­ federacy and the English settlers maintained a general truce until 1 622 (a truce aided in part by the marriage of Powhatan s daughter, Pocahontas, to English settler john Rolfe in 1 614).

What benefits of peacefol relations for both colonists and Indians does Powhatan list? What dangers does he say might threaten the settlers if they fail to deal peacefolly with him and his tribe?

I am now grown old, and must soon die; and the suc­ cession must descend, i n order, to my brothers. Opitcha­ pan, Opekankanough, and Catataugh, and then to my two sisters, and their two daughters. I wish their experience was equal to m i ne ; and that your love to us might not be less than ours to you. Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have p rovided yo u with food? What can you get by war? We can hide our provisions, and fly into the woods; and then you must consequently famish by wronging your friends. What is the cause of your j ealousy? You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you will come in a friendly manner, and

From Biography and History of the Indians of North America by Samuel Drake. 8th ed. Boston: Antiquarian Bookstore, l 84 1 .

not with swords and guns, as to invade an enemy. I am not so s i mple, as not to know it i s better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and chil­ dren; to laugh and be merry with the English; and, being their friend, to have copper, hatchets, and whatever else I want, than to fly from all, to lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns, roots, and such trash, and to be so hunted, that I cannot rest, eat, or sleep. In such circumstances, my m e n m us t watch, and if a twig should b u t break, all would cry out, " Here comes Captain Smith; and so, i n " t h i s m iserable manner, to end my miserable l i fe ; and, Captain Smith, this might b e soon your fate too, through your rashness and unadvisedness. I, therefore, exhort you to peaceable councils; and, above all, I insist that the guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy and uneasiness, be removed and sent away.

V i e w p o i n t 3 B Indians Should Be Conquered and Exterminated

(1 622) Virginia Company of London/Edward Waterhouse

I N T R O D U C T I O N A few years after the death of American Indian leader Powhatan (see viewpoint 3A), his brother Opekankanough (Opachankana), the new leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, launched a surprise attack on English settlements in and around Jamestown, Virginia. The 1 622 assault, one of the first major conflicts between English colonists and American Indians, was in part a response to continuing seizures of Indian land by the colonists. The attackers killed 347 Jamestown resi­ dents (including John Rolfe, the widower of Powhatan s daughter Pocahontas) and destroyed many houses and farms before they were stopped. The following viewpoint contains an account of the violence and its ramifications for the coumization of Virginia. It was written by Edward Waterhouse, secretary to the Virginia Company of London, the outfit that had sponsored the Jamestown settlement. The document was produced in part to explain why the colony had yet to show any profit for its investors.

How do the Virginia Company officials characterize the Indians? How does this account compare with the company s earlier optimistic writing on Virginia, as presented in Viewpoint 2A?

That all men may see the impartial ingenuity of this discourse, we freely confess, that the country is not so good, as the natives are bad, whose barbarous selves need more cultivation then the ground itself, being more overspread with incivility and treachery, than that with briars. For the land, being tilled and used well by us, deceive not o u r expectation but rather exceeded i t

Reprinted from The Records of the Virginia Company of London, edited b y Susan Kingsbury, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1 933).

Contact and Co nflict with Native Ame1·icans

far, being so thankful as to return a hundred for o n e . B u t t h e savages, though never a nation used so kindly upon so small desert, have instead o f that harvest which o u r pains merited, returned nothing b u t b r i ars and thorns, pricking even to death many of their benefactors. Yet doubt we not, but that as all wickedness is crafty to undo itself, so these also have more wounded themselves than us, God Almighty making way for severity there, where a fai r gentleness would not take place. The occa­ sion whereof thus I relate from thence.

The last May there came a letter from S i r Francis Wiat [Wyatt) Governor i n Virginia, which did advertise that when i n November last [ 1 62 1 ) he arrived i n Virginia and entered upon his government, he found the country settled i n a peace (as all men there thought), sure and unviolable, not only because i t was solemnly ratified and sworn, but as being advantageous to both parts; to the savages as the weaker, under which they were safely sheltered and defended; to us, as being the easiest way then thought to p u rsue and advance our proj ects o f b u ildi ngs, plantings, and effecting t h e i r conversi o n by peaceable and fair means. And such was the conceit [con­ ception) of firm peace and amity as that there was seldom or never a sword worn . . . . The plantations o f particular adventurers and p l a n ters were p l aced scatteringly and straggingly as a choice vein o f rich ground invited the m , and the further from neighbors held the better. The houses generally set open to the savages, who were always friendly entertained at the tables o f the English, and commonly lodged i n the i r bedchambers. The old planters (as they thought now come to reap the benefit o f the i r l o ng travels) placed with wonde rful conte n t upon their private lands, a n d their familiarity with the natives, seeming to open a fair gate ·for their conversion to Christianity.

A SURPRISE ATTACK

The country being in this estate, an occasion was minis­ tered o f sending to Opachankano, the King of these sav­ ages, about the middle of March last [ 1 622) , what time the messenger returned back with these words fro m h i m , that he held the peace concluded so firm a s the sky should sooner fall than it dissolve. Yea, such was the treacherous dissimulation o f that people who then had contrived our destruction, that even two days before the massacre, some of our men were guided through the woods by them i n safety . . . . Yea, they borrowed our own boats to convey themselves across the river (on the banks of both sides whereof all our plantations were) to consult of the devilish murder that ensued, and o f our utter extir­ pation, which God o f His mercy (by the means of them­ selves converted to Christianity) p revented. And as well on the Friday morning (the fatal day) the twenty-second of March, as also i n the evening, as on other days before,

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Part 1: Colo nial America (1582-1750)

they came unarmed i n to o u r h o uses, witho u t bows o r arrows, or other weapons, w i t h deer, turkey, fi s h , fur, and other provisions to sell and trade with us fo r glass, beads, and other trifles. Yet i n some places, they sat down at breakfast with o u r people a t the i r tables, whom immediately with their own tools and weapons either laid down, or standing i n their houses, they basely and barbarously murdered, not sparing either age or sex, man, woman, or child, so sudden i n their cruel execution that few or none discerned the weapon or blow that brought them to destructi o n . I n which manner they also slew many of our people then at their several work and husbandries in the fields, and without their houses, some in planting corn and tobacco, some in gardening, some i n making brick, building, sawing, and other kinds o f husbandry, they well knowing in what places and quarters each of our men were, in regard o f thei r daily fam iliarity and resort to us for trading and other negotiations, which the more willingly was by us contin­ ued and cherished for the desire we had o f effecting that great masterpiece of works, their conversion. And by this means that fatal F r iday morning, there fel l under the bloody and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhu­ man people, contrary to all laws of God and men, o f na­ ture and nations, three hundred forty seven men, women, and children, most by their own weapons. And not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making as well as they could, a fresh mur­ der, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying some parts away in deri­ sion, with base and brutish triumph . . . .

That the slaughter had been u niversal, i f God had not put it into the heart o f an Indian belonging to one Perry to disclose it, who living in the h o use of one Pace, was urged by another I ndian his brother (who came the night before and lay with him) to kill Pace. Tell­ ing further that by such an hour i n the morning a number would come from different places to finish the execution, who failed not at the time, Perry's Indian rose out of his bed and revealed it to Pace, that used him as a son. And thus the rest o f the colony that had warning given them by this means was saved. Such was (God be thanked for it) the good fruit of an i n fidel converted to Christianity. For though three hundred and more of o u rs died by many o f these pagan infidels, yet thousands o f o u rs were saved by the means of one of them alone which was made a Christian. Blessed b e God fo rever, whose mercy endureth forever. . . .

LESSONS OF THE MASSACRE

Thus have yo u seen the particulars o f this massacre, wherein treachery and cruelty have done their worst to us, o r rather to themselves; for whose understanding is so shallow, as not to pe rceive that this m us t needs be

for the good of the plantation after, and the loss o f this blood to make the body more healthful, as by these rea­ sons may be manifest.

F i rst, because betraying i n nocence never rests unpunished . . . .

Secondly, because our hands, which before were tied with gentleness and fair usage, are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence o f the savages, not untying the knot, but cutting it. S o that we, who hitherto have had possession of no more ground than their waste, and our p urchase at a valuable consideration to their own content­ ment gained, may now, by right of war and law of nations, i nvade the country, and destroy them who sought to de­ stroy us. Whereby we shall enjoy their cultivated places, possessing the fruits of others' labors. Now their cleared grounds i n all their villages (which are s i tuated in the fruitfulest places o f the land) shall be inhabited by us, whereas heretofore the grubbing of woods was the greatest labor.

The way of conquering them is much more easy than of civilizing them by fair means,

for they are a rude, barbarous, and naked people.

Thirdly, because those commodities which the Indi­ ans enjoyed as much or rather more than we, shall now also be entirely possessed by us. The deer and other beasts will be in safety, and infinitely increase, which heretofore not only i n the general huntings of the King, but by each particular Indian were destroyed at all times o f the year, without any difference o f male, dame, or young.

There will be also a great increase o f wild turkeys, and other weighty fowl, fo r the Indians never put differ­ ence of destroying the hen, but kill them whether i n sea­ son or not, whether in breeding time, or sitting on their eggs, or having new hatched, it is all one to them . . . .

F o urthly, because the way o f conquering them is much more easy than o f civilizing them by fa i r means, for they are a rude, barbarous, and naked people, scat­ tered in small companies, which are helps to victory, but h i ndrance to civility. Besides that, a conquest may b e o f many, and a t once; but civil i ty i s i n particular and slow, the e ffect o f l o ng time, and great i n d ustry. M o reover, victory o f them may be gained many ways: by force, by surprise, by famine in burning their corn, by destroying and burning their boats , canoes, and houses, by breaking the i r fishing wares, by ass a i l i ng them in the i r huntings , whereby they get the greatest part of their sustenance in winter, by p u rs u i n g and

O P P O S I N G V I E W P O I N T S I N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

Contact and Conflict with Native Americans

chasing them with our horses and bloodhounds to draw after them, and mastiffs to tear them.

FOR FURT HER REA D I N G

F rederic W . Gleach, Powhatan 's World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest. Chapel H i l l : University of North Carolina Press, 1 97 5 .

Karen O rdahl Kupperman, Settling with the Indians: The Meeting of English and Indian Cultures in America, 1580-1640. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1 98 0 .

Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed By Jamestown. Richmond: University Press of Virginia, 2 0 0 5 .

Bernard W. S heehan, Savagism & Civility: Indians and Englishmen in Colonial Virginia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1 98 0 .

Camila Townsend, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: H i l l and Wang, 2 0 0 5 .

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