Invasion from All Directions—Stolen Lands, Stolen Peoples 1600-1699

1622-1646

Powhatan rebel against Virginia colonists

Coronation of Powhatan. Image: John Gadsby Chapman
Coronation of Powhatan. Image: John Gadsby Chapman

The Powhatan Confederacy and allied Indians burn the Jamestown settlement to the ground in what is remembered by the English as the First Virginia War. Opechancanough, leader of the Pamunkey, and his chiefs declare it time to resist colonial invasion of their lands and kill 347 colonists, one-third of the colony; others are pushed off the lands. The Powhatan Chiefdom fights two wars with English colonists in Virginia, the first in 1622-23 and the second in 1644-46. Both end in treaties between the Indians and the English. Treaties typically are violated, and Virginia’s Native people are eventually forced from their homelands by thousands of English newcomers.

Native Resistance