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Powhatan attack on the English colony of Virginia

The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English colony of Virginia on 1 April 1622 [O. S. 22 March 1622]. English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his History of Virginia that warriors of the Powhatan "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us"; they then grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Opechancanough, chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, led a coordinated series of surprise attacks that ended up killing a total of 347 people — a quarter of the population of the Colony of Virginia. Founded in 1607, Jamestown, Virginia, was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America, and served as the capital of the Colony of Virginia. The town's tobacco economy, which quickly degraded the land and required new land, led to the settlers' constant expansion and seizure of Powhatan lands, ultimately provoking the massacre.

Upon the settlement's founding in 1607, the local indigenous tribes were willing to trade provisions to the Jamestown colonists for metal tools. By 1609, Colony of Virginia governor John Smith began sending raiding parties to demand provisions from local indigenous settlements. These raiding parties burned down settlements that refused their demands, and frequently stole provisions, leading to resentment of the colonists and precipitating the conflict. The raiding parties further alienated the colonists from the indigenous tribes, who eventually laid siege to the Jamestown fort for several months. Unable to secure more provisions, many colonists in Jamestown died of starvation during the "Starving Time" in 1609–1610. The London Company's primary concern was the survival of the colony. Due to the interests of the company, the colonists would be required to maintain civil relations with the Powhatan. The Powhatan and the English realized that they could benefit from each other through trade once peace was restored. In exchange for food, the chief asked the colonists to provide him with metal hatchets and copper. Unlike John Smith, other early leaders of Virginia, such as Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates, based their actions on different thinking. They were military men and considered the Powhatan Confederacy as essentially a "military problem." The Powhatan peoples concluded that the English were not settling in Jamestown for the purposes of trade but rather to "possess" the land. As Chief Powhatan said:

In 1610, the London Company instructed Gates, the newly appointed colonial governor, to Christianise the natives and absorb them into the colony. As for Chief Powhatan, Gates was told, "If you finde it not best to make him your prisoner yet you must make him your tributary, and all the other his weroances [subordinate chiefs] about him first to acknowledge no other Lord but King James".

In 1618, after the death of Powhatan, his brother Opitchapam, a lame and quiet old man, became paramount chief of the confederacy. Their youngest brother, Opechancanough, was probably the effective leader, with his friend, war chief and advisor Nemattanew. Neither of the younger men believed that peaceful relations with the colonists could be maintained. Perhaps in 1620–1621, Opitchapam retired or he was deposed (but possibly he died in 1630), and he was succeeded by his youngest brother. Opechancanough and Nemattanew began to develop plans for the unavoidable war. Having recovered from their defeat commanding Pamunkey warriors during the First Anglo Powhatan War, they planned to shock the English with an attack that would leave them contained in a small trading outpost, rather than expanding throughout the area with new plantations. In the spring of 1622, after a settler murdered his adviser Nemattanew, Opechancanough launched simultaneous surprise attacks on at least 31 separate English settlements and plantations, mostly along the James River, extending as far as Henricus.

Jamestown was saved by the warning of an Indian youth living in the home of Richard Pace, one of the colonists. The youth woke Pace to warn him of the planned attack. Living across the river from Jamestown, Pace secured his family and rowed to the settlement to spread the alarm. Jamestown increased its defenses. The name of the Indian who warned Pace is not recorded in any of the contemporary accounts. Although legend has named him "Chanco", this may be wrong. An Indian named "Chauco" is mentioned in a letter from the Virginia Council to the Virginia Company of London dated April 4, 1623. He is described not as a youth but as "one who had lived much amongst the English, and by revealinge yt pl[ot] To divers appon the day of Massacre, saved theire lives " "Chauco" may be the same person as "Chacrow", an Indian mentioned in a court record of 25 October 1624 as living with Lt Sharpe, Capt. William Powell, and Capt. William Peirce "in the tyme of Sir Thos Dale's government"—that is, before 1616. It is possible that the older Indian, Chauco, and the youth who warned Richard Pace have been conflated.

During the one day surprise attack, the Powhatan tribes attacked many of the smaller communities, including Henricus and its fledgling college for children of natives and settlers alike. In the neighborhood of Martin's Hundred, 73 people were killed. More than half the population died in Wolstenholme Towne, where only two houses and a part of a church were left standing. In all, the Powhatan killed about four hundred colonists (a third of the white population) and took 20 women captive. The captives lived and worked as Powhatan Indians until they died or were ransomed. The settlers abandoned the Falling Creek Ironworks, Henricus, and Smith's Hundred.