Somehow, when we think of the earliest settlers from Europe coming to America, this is probably a likely image that comes to mind (well, absent the modern day, jean-clad travelers in the bottom right hand corner...) But take a step even farther back than that:
Standing on the shores of the North American continent are a group of Powhatan's. They are watching these incredibly huge watercraft cruise the shore as if they were looking for some way to beach their enormous canoes! Curiosity overwhelms their desire for action.
It's the year 1607, by European calendars anyway. The approximately 14,000 Algonquian-speaking Powhatans tribal groups (about thirty of them) were all under a single chief, Wahunsonacock, but each tribe also had a chief or "werowance." They valued both men and women as evidenced by the fact that, while most chiefs were men, they inherited that position through the female side of the family.
So it may have been a werowance that was first told of the mysterious monsterous canoes. Did he wonder if they were sent by one of their gods, maybe Ahone, their supposed creator and giver of good things? or perhaps Oke to whom they prayed for safety?
What might this mean for his many wives, the safety and lifestyle of the tribe as a whole? They almost lived in a Garden of Eden. They harvested wild plants for seasoning, probably wild onions and herbs. Perhaps they had salt ponds where they gathered salt as the water evaporated. The men hunted deer and fished. They grew corn, beans and squash. They lived in houses built with sapling frames and clad in bark or woven reed mats. (Tipi's are something the Plains native Americans used because their society was mobile, followed the bison.)
The Powhatans lived on a peninsula of what is now the state of Virginia and therefore had natural protection from outside tribes. There was probably great peace because of how much room native Americans had in which to live and the abundance of a natural food supply.
If you ask me, my first thought, had I been on the shore watching those ships come in, would have been, "Here comes trouble." Not that the English on those ships meant to cause trouble. It was their curiosity that caused them to come here, just like it was the Powhatan's curiosity that caused them to stand there and watch them come. But two great civilizations were about to collide - and sometimes folks get hurt when there is a collision.
Ultimately the English do land, and set up Jamestown right on the shore of a very close-in island in what is now the James River. The Powhatans kinda move over and let them have their lil' piece of land, never once understanding how many of those monster canoes might come their way - and keep coming.
By the time ol' Chief Wahunsonacock dies in 1618, his brother, Opechancanough, had just about had enough of the growing, pushy Englishmen. In 1622, Ope (as I call him) begins large-scale attacks. By 1630, the English decide to build a defensive palisade across the width of the peninsula and create an inland settlement first known as Middle Plantation. Fighting continues off and on through 1644, and, between the superior weapons of the English and the new illnesses they bring that native Americans don't have immunity to, the Powhatans are pretty well decimated.
In 1676, Jamestown burned down during Bacon's Rebellion, and while it was being rebuilt everyone moved the twelve miles inland to Middle Plantation. The "tidewater aristocracy" discovered then that it was a far more pleasant environment than Jamestown due to the lower humidity and much lower incidence of mosquitoes! Even so, when the Statehouse was rebuilt, the members of the House of Burgess relocated back to Jamestown.
However, in 1698, Jamestown's Statehouse burned down again, and again they relocated to Middle Plantation. This time though, not only was the climate better but the College of William and Mary (named after the then king and queen of England) had been established at Middle Plantation, and the aristocrats enjoyed the access they had to the books of learning found there. So, in 1699, they agreed to permanently move the colonial capital to the Middle Plantation area, laid out a township, named it Williamsburg, after King William III, and commissioned the construction of a Capital Building.
Is that a colonist wearing a tri-corn hat at the left of the photo?
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