Political Change, Colonial: Powhatan

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Similar content addressed in SOLs: VS.1a-i; VS.2d; VS.2e, VS.3g; USI.1a-h; USI.4b

  • Outina defeats Pontanou with the aid of the FrenchIn this image of a battle, the French colonizers fight alongside one tribe, led by Chief Outina, against another Native tribe in modern-day Florida. European settlers often attempted to create various alliances with Native American tribes. These alliances could often lead to violence when European powers were drawn into pre-existing Native American conflicts. However, Europeans could use these conflicts to further divide Native American communities and create strategic political advantages for their settlers. The English settlers of Jamestown employed a similar strategy with the Powhatan tribe and Monacan Confederacy.
  • The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925In this document, John Smith recounts an official visit to Chief Powhatan. The British crown sent Smith along with a variety of gifts to Powhatan to ask that he become a "proper" King in the English view - in short, to make him a dependent political entity that would become obsequious to the British throne. Smith also makes mention of aiding the Powhatan with their "revenge against the Monacans."
  • The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600-1925Chief Powhatan resolutely declined Smith's offer, showing political acumen: "neither will I bite at such a bait." Powhatan also dismisses the idea of using an alliance with the English to seek vengeance against the Monacans, saying that the Powhatan could "revenge [their] owne injuries."
  • Chief Powhatan*This is a depiction of Chief Powhatan, located in the upper-left corner of a map of the Jamestown settlement made in 1624.
  • earliest known map of the Chesapeake region drawn by English cartographers* This map is the earliest known map of the Chesapeake region drawn by English cartographers. It highlights both English and Native American settlements.