Matoaka's Story/Part 8 The Powhatan Wars and the End of tsenacomoco

“The manner of their attire and painting them selves when they goe to their generall huntings or at theire solemne feasts.” Watercolor. John White. 1585. Public Domain.

John Rolfe returned to Jamestown a widower for the second time. He soon remarried and became a leading figure in the colony. He is one of the sources who wrote about the first enslaved Africans brought to an English colony in North America in 1619. They were seized from a Portuguese slave ship by Dutch privateers and sold as indentured servants in Jamestown. Rolfe died in 1622 but the cause is unknown. It is possible he was killed in what became known as the “Indian Massacre” of the same year, but that has never been verified.

Wahunsenca abdicated the role of Paramount Werowance soon after learning of Matoaka’s death. The Mattaponi Oral History records that her abduction had thrown him into a deep depression that left him increasingly indecisive about how to proceed against the English. He could no longer lead and died in April of 1618, roughly a year after his daughter. His brother Opitcham became the official Paramount Werowance, but Opechancanough (O-pee-ken’-can-oo), the Powhatan War Werowance, began to take a larger role in the Powhatan Nation’s governance. He maintained the official peace with the English, though disputes over land and trade, as well as violent incidents, continued. But secretly, Opechancanough was planning a concerted assault on nearly all of the colonies. On March 22nd, 1622, multiple parties visited English settlements and forts as usual, but at an appointed time, began executing English men, women, and children. Jamestown itself was secured in time to stave off a direct assault thanks to Native people, some Powhatans, some of other tribes, who warned them just in time. 

The 1622 Massacre killed a quarter of the colonists in Tsenacomoco (350-400). Another 400 would die in the following year as food became increasingly scarce. One of the retaliatory tactics of the English was to burn Native crops and villages. Guerrilla warfare raged on and off for the next 10 years. Opechancanough sued for peace in 1632, citing starvation among the Powhatan. Hostilities officially ended, but Anglo-Native relations were much more tense and micromanaged afterward. Most colonists were forbidden from trading or socializing with the Natives. All communication was to be handled by the governing council and their agents. Native people were required to carry an official pass to travel through English territory.

In 1644, the now elderly Opechancanough launched another concerted offensive against English settlements. Though they inflicted more casualties than in 1622, there were so many more English colonists by this time that it had less of an impact. The fighting went on for a year until the War Werowance himself was captured and brought to Jamestown to be imprisoned in public. He was soon shot in the back by one of his guards. 

In the aftermath of this last war, The Powhatan Nation began to collapse. Famine and disease hastened the process as its member tribes struggled to adapt to a new reality. Some tribes died out altogether, their surviving members seeking refuge with neighbors. Some allied with the English, some maintained hostilities, but eventually all were subjugated to English rule. 

Thomas Rolfe, Matoaka’s son, returned to Tsenacomoco as a teenager in 1635 to take up his father’s lands. He requested permission to visit his Powhatan relatives, including Opechancanough. It is unknown if any such meeting took place. Ultimately, Thomas chose the side of the British. It was the only world he truly knew, and by this time the world of his mother’s people had suffered drastic decline. Thomas was assigned to man and lead Fort James in the Chickahominy territory and fought against various Native tribes. By 1646 he held the rank of lieutenant and was rewarded with more lands surrounding the fort that he spent his life cultivating. He married Jane Poythress and had several children, many who would count among the colony’s future elite. The circumstances of his death are unknown.

The history of the English and the peoples of Tsenacomoco is one of scattered, broken sources, myths, and distortions. It is very much like the history of most colonial encounters. Regardless of the smaller players' intentions and actions, the larger powers behind the colonists were attempting to administer a project of wealth creation that depended on appropriating the land and labor of others. While officially forbidding violence against the Native peoples, they explicitly instructed their colonial agents to aggressively negotiate the Natives’ land from them, make their political leaders vassals of their own monarchs, and subject them to unequal trade and labor relations. The idea that these programs would be implemented without resulting in violence was ludicrous. Once the Powhatan had attacked the English in their homes, outright warfare was authorized and the security of Native people throughout the region, regardless of affiliation, was critically jeopardized. 

Next week, we’ll conclude Matoaka’s Story with a look at the legacy and memory of this most famous Powhatan woman.

Sources:

22nd March 1622- History Pod

Primary Source: De Bry's "A weroan or great Lorde of Virginia"- Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation

Weroansquas and Four Centuries of Female Powhatan Leaders- Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation

Virginia Company- Virginia Encyclopedia

Matoaka's Story/Part 7 The Death of Matoaka

“Princess Pocahontas.” Base of statue by William Ordway Partridge. Memorial at St. George Church, Gravesend, England. Photo: Tracy Jenkins, Art UK. CC.

The Virginia Company’s publicity tour had been a success. Plans were made to send more colonists to Jamestown and to establish schools for religious and English instruction among Native children in Virginia.

Arrangements were made for the party to return to Virginia in the spring of 1617. As the ship set sail, Matoaka and John dined with Captain Argall in his quarters. She became sick soon after. Argall docked the ship at the town of Gravesend. Matoaka died at the Gravesend Inn and was buried at the nearby Church of St. George. Many myths have grown up around her last words, but nothing is known for certain. The party held a funeral for her at the church before setting sail again. Fearing he would not survive the journey, John Rolfe left their son Thomas with relatives.

The Mattaponi Oral History records a different version of the events. It claims that shortly after the dinner with Captain Argall, Matoaka told her sister Mattachana that she thought “the English” put something in her food. Mattachanna tried to care for her, but her condition worsened. She left to get Rolfe and when she returned, Matoaka was dead. The Oral History records that Mattachanna and Uttamatomakkin told Wahunsenaca that Matoaka had been in good health in England, and had not become sick until boarding the ship to return home.

It is impossible to know the whole truth of Matoaka’s final days. Oral traditions were long seen by Western scholars as mere folklore without reliable information. That has changed somewhat, but even scholars who argue for their indispensability point out that they are a different kind of history that, taken out of their oral medium, lose much of their nuance and meaning. As the authors of “The True Story of Pocahontas” state, “There are attributes of oral traditions that are not obtainable in a written format… There is a living connection between the oral historian and his or her ancestors.”

The lethality of eastern diseases to indigenous Americans is well documented and so European and American historians have rarely questioned the circumstances of Matoaka’s death. More skeptical writers have speculated that she may have soured on supporting the Virginia Company’s plans for large-scale conversion of Powhatan children to Christianity, or that her experience in London had not made her the enthusiastic advocate of “civilization” they had expected. Perhaps with her tour of London completed, she was no longer seen as crucial to the company’s plans. Like so much of Matoaka’s life, her death is impossible to be certain about. 

Back in Tsenacomoco, the tenuous peace between the English and the Powhatan would endure for a few more years. But the death of Matoaka left Wahunsenaca stricken with grief. He turned over the leadership of the Powhatan Nation to his brother, Opitchapum. He died in 1618, roughly a year after his daughter.

Sources:

Pocahontas and Gravesend Jamestown/Yorktown Museums

“Indian Princess” sculpture- Pocahontas Archive

Matoaka's Story/Part 6 A Powhatan Lady in London

Inner Court of the Bell Savage Inn. 1889. Public Domain.

The Virginia Company hoped that keeping Matoaka among them would secure some form of peace with the Powhatan until they could increase their numbers in Virginia. However they also had concerns back in England. The company was involved in several lawsuits against past investors over various sums of money. With Rolfe’s latest tobacco crop being favorably compared to the Spanish product, the company was ready to aggressively pursue new investors. To this end, as well as putting a sunny face on Anglo-Indian relations, they planned to send Matoaka and Rolfe to England along with Thomas Dale and other company officials. Approximately 10 other Powhatan people accompanied Matoaka, including her sister Mattachanna and her husband, Uttamatomakkin, a high-ranking quiakro. Company officials were notoriously stingy when it came to expenses, so it seems likely that the additional Powhatans were insisted on by Matoaka, possibly acting on her father’s wishes. Uttamatomakkin was quoted by several sources as declaring he was instructed by Wahunseneca to count the Englishmen he found across the sea and provide information about their country.

The Virginia Company worked to make Matoaka a celebrity in London- a model of the “civilized Indian” they planned to reproduce throughout Virginia. In England, she was paraded before crowds, introduced at numerous homes, and invited to an audience with the King and Queen. She and Rolfe attended a Masque called “The Vision of Delight” where they were “well placed,” meaning their seats were near the King’s, ensuring a superior view of the performance. The Rolfe’s stayed at The Bell Savage Inn in the heart of London, a crossroads of high and low society, where players and performers often gathered and caroused. Uttamatomakkin was also a highly-sought dinner guest among Englishmen interested in the customs of Virginia’s Native cultures. He was described as happy to answer questions and demonstrate some of his protocols, warning his hosts that he was too old to convert, and that their efforts would be better spent on Powhatan children. Captain John Smith wrote about an exchange with him wherein he expressed disbelief that the man he had met was King James, as the sovereign had offered him no gift. Powhatan elites, like many other Native American societies, used the custom of gift-exchange to demonstrate prestige and cement peaceful relations between groups and individuals.

The Virginia Company commissioned an engraved portrait of Matoaka that they mass produced and circulated as widely as possible. This portrait remains the most credible likeness of the adult (19-21) Matoaka, as most other depictions of her were crudely Europeanized. The artist, Simon Van de Passe drew her with high cheekbones, dark hair and dark eyes. She wore a felt hat, long-sleeved gown, and lace collar, epitomizing the Puritan English middle-class wife. Most English Lady’s portraits depicted them looking to the side or down. In Van de Passe’s portrait, Matoaka stares boldly out of the frame to meet the viewer’s gaze. In a ribbon surrounding the portrait, the engraved words translate to:

“Matoaka als [alias] Rebecca, daughter to the mighty Prince Powhatan, Emperour of Attanoughskomouck als [alias] Virginia, converted and baptized in the Christian faith and wife to the worthy Mr. John Rolfe” (Attanoughskomouck was likely a mispronunciation of Tsenacomoco).

Engraved portrait of Matoaka. Simon Van de Passe. 1616. Public Domain.

After spending several months in crowded London where the air did not agree with Matoaka, the Virginia Company relocated her lodgings to a country setting in nearby Brentford. It is here that Captain John Smith called on her. In response to his greeting, Matoaka “turned about, obscured her face, as not seeming well contented.”* Smith, Rolfe, and a few unnamed others excused themselves for 2-3 hours, after which Matoaka rejoined the party and addressed Smith directly:

“You did promise Powhatan what was yours should bee his, and he the like to you, you called him father being in his land a stranger, and by the same reason so must I doe you.”*

Smith interrupted to say he could not allow her to address him as such, being that she was the daughter of a “King,” referencing the strict class culture of Europe. Matoaka scoffed in reply:

“With a well set countenance she said, Were you not afraid to come into my fathers countrie, and cause feare in him and all his people (but mee) and feare you here I should call you father, I tell you then I will, and you shall call me childe, and so I will bee for ever and ever your Countrieman.”*

Smith did not comment on this exchange with Matoaka in his publication; he briskly moved on to describe his conversation with Uttamatomakkin. Though it supported some of the claims made in his Virginia stories, it did not cast him in the favorable light of most of his writings. And yet it was long held up as evidence of Matoaka’s romantic infatuation with him. Modern readers, less likely to buy into the colonial mythology, tend to see it as a clear rebuke of a man she believed had broken an oath to her father. Her parting words suggest her time in London may have left her less than enthused about English intentions towards her homeland.

“They did tell us alwaies you were dead, and I knew no other till I came to Plimoth, yet Powhatan did command Uttamatomakkin to seeke you, and know the truth, because your Countriemen will lie much.”*

Sources:

Images of a Legend- PBS

The Virginia Company of London- Encyclopedia Virginia

*Circular of “A Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles…”- John Smith, HathiTrust

Matoaka's Story/Part 4 War and Peace in Tsenacomoco

The Abduction of Pocahontas, copper engraving by Johann Theodore de Bry, 1618. Public Domain.

Not everyone remembered John Smith as fondly as later generations. George Percy, Smith’s successor as president of the colony, described him as an “Ambityous unworthy and vayneglorious fellowe” who tried to “ingrose all authorety into his owne hands.” Percy’s report of his time in office, “A Trewe Relacyon of the Proceedings and Ocurrentes of Momente which have happened in Virginia from …1609, until…1612,” remains one of the most examined primary resources regarding the colony’s early years. In it he recounts some of the more macabre incidents of “the Starving Time” in Jamestown. 

Soon after Smith’s departure, the English found Werowocomoco deserted, just as Wahunsenaca had threatened. A succession of Virginia Company governors took a heavy handed approach in trying to restore communications. The Paramount Werowance did not take kindly to being treated as a subject by immigrants and made it clear that the English should either leave his country or confine themselves to Jamestown. He warned that any Englishmen found beyond the fort were not safe. This did not discourage the English from raiding and often confiscating the cleared fertile lands along the rivers, which in turn sparked more attacks from the Powhatan and other tribes. 

In 1609 George Percy sent Captain John Ratcliffe to trade for corn with the Powhatan. This incident is most often portrayed as a trap set by an invitation from Wahunseneca, however that is not entirely clear from Percy’s account, which also mentioned that Radcliffe had “Powhatans sonne and dowghter [no names mentioned] aboard his pinesse [small boat].” Percy commented that Radcliffe unwisely let these supposed hostages flee too early, resulting in the death of most of his company. Radcliffe himself was bound to a tree and tortured to death. This method was generally used to execute enemy warriors, giving them the opportunity to display their bravery before death. 

Battles with the Natives outside of the forts, and theft and murder within them, marked the next year of the colony’s existence. Percy’s report recorded several instances of cannibalism as well.

In 1610 Sir Thomas Gates arrived from Bermuda where he had been shipwrecked on his way to take over the governorship of the colony. Finding Jamestown’s population drastically reduced and the survivors malnourished, they resolved to abandon the colony and return to England. On their way down the river they were intercepted by a ship carrying Lord De La Warr, yet another new governor for the colony, as the Virginia Company had believed Gates dead. De La Warr brought enough new men and supplies to replenish the colony, so it was decided to reclaim Jamestown. The remainder of Percy’s “Relacyon” recounts numerous acts of revenge on neighboring villages led by Percy, Gates, and others. The English burned the crops and homes of any tribes they felt had wronged them. Native people who visited the fort under the guise of trade were subjected to closer scrutiny, the colonists suspecting them of being sent as spies. One Native man found guilty had his hand severed as a warning to others. 

Mattaponi Oral History recorded that the intention of the English to capture royal hostages became known to the Powhatan. For this reason, Matoaka’s marriage to a Patawomeck warrior named Kakoum was a far more discreet affair than it would have been normally. They had a son together and lived in a Patawomeck village. 

In 1612 Captain Samuel Argall, a Virginia Company rising star, discovered Matoaka was living in a Patawomeck village on one of his many trading expeditions. In his own words he recorded that he became committed to capturing her “by any stratagem.” 

Argall told the village werowance, Japazaw, that he knew “Pocahontas” was in his village and that he demanded his help in getting her on his ship. Japazaw refused initially, stating that such an act would incur the wrath of Wahunseneca and his people would be destroyed. Argall replied that that he and the English could protect him from Wahunsenaca, and furthermore, would destroy Japazaw’s people themselves if he refused again. Japazaw was resigned to play his part in the charade. He enlisted the aid of his wife, who pretended the next day to want to visit the English ship docked outside the village. She, Japazaw, and Matoaka all boarded and dined with Captain Argall. When Matoaka excused herself to leave, Argall informed her that she was his prisoner. 

Japazaw and his wife feigned surprise and Argall directed him to send a message to Wahunsenaca demanding the release of all English prisoners and arms, with a shipment of corn in return for his daughter. 

The Paramount Werowance responded that he would submit to the demands and invited Argall to bring his ship to the Pamunkey River to collect the ransom. Confident in having the upper hand, Argall instead sailed to Jamestown to deliver his prisoner to Thomas Gates. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that Argall sent men to kill Matoaka’s husband and son before departing, and without her knowledge. 

When the ransom arrived, Gates still declined to release his hostage, sending her instead to the nearby colony of Henrico. Gates intended to keep her prisoner to wring concessions from the Powhatan, or at least stave off a full-on attack on the English colonies, which they continued establishing, largely by confiscating land the Natives had already cleared for their own crops. 

Numerous Virginia Company men reported to their superiors in England that Matoaka’s capture had secured a solid peace and that the colony had since flourished. This was only the first concern the colonists needed to lay to rest- they had still not found minerals or crops that could be cultivated to produce a profit for their investors.

Sources:

Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma- Kirkus Reviews

Powhatan War Clubs- Jamestown Yorktown Museum

Jamestown: Primary Source Set- Library of Congress

Matoaka's Story/Part 1

Pocahontas’ real name was Matoaka (Mat-oh-ah-ka). She was the daughter of Wahunsenaca (Wah-hoon-sen’-ah-ca), the leader of a nation of indigenous Virginia tribes that the English came to call the Powhatan (Pow’-ah-tan) Confederacy or Powhatan Chieftainship.

Matoaka is believed to have been 10 or 11 in 1607 when the Virginia Company colonists established Jamestown. Her mother’s tribe was the Mattaponi (Mat-ah-pō-nī’). The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that Matoaka’s mother, Pocahontas, died in childbirth. That is why her people referred to her as Pocahontas, the name the English would make famous. According to the Oral History it means “Laughing and Joyous One.” It was most often translated by non-Native writers as “mischief,” “Little mischief,” and “little playful one.” 

The legend of Pocahontas claims that she saved an early colonial leader, John Smith, from execution because she instantly fell in love with him, and that she convinced her father to provide the colonists of Jamestown with food. Even with scarce historical sources, it is easy to see through such a fairytale. No child in any society would have wielded such influence over such a crucial decision. Europeans were not unknown to the Powhatan. Wahunsenaca offered the English colonists membership in the Powhatan Nation in order to access their weapons and contain their spread throughout his country. 

Matoaka frequently visited Jamestown along with the Powhatan delegations that brought food and other trade goods to Jamestown. Several primary sources recorded her as an outgoing child who was fond of playing with the English children she met there. John Smith wrote that he learned many Algonquian words from her and shared English ones in return. Smith continued as the colony’s representative in military and trade matters with the Native population for its first 2 years, but he had many enemies in Jamestown and struggled to maintain authority. After suffering serious burns in a gunpowder accident in 1609, he returned to England for treatment, never to see Virginia again. His fellow colonists told Wahunsenaca that Smith was dead.

From this point on, relations between the English and the Powhatan deteriorated. Although Smith had repeatedly acted outside of his agreements with Wahunsenaca by raiding for more food than the Powhatan had gifted, he had also tried to limit these excesses to maintain the alliance as long as he could. After he departed, the English colonists and his diplomatic successors tried to take a harder line with their hosts. Raids increased and fertile land along the river banks was taken by force. As a result, Wahunsenaca put an end to the gifts of food and attempted to starve the English out by moving Powhatan villages further inland. He sent word that the colonists should leave his country or confine themselves to Jamestown. He would no longer guarantee their safety beyond the fort.

The colonists of Jamestown experienced many struggles over the following years, but Matoaka did not reappear until she was kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall in 1612. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that before this she had married a Patawomeck (pat-ah-ow-mek) warrior named Kakoum and had a son. She was living with her family in a Patawomeck village when Argall found her. The colony’s governing council used her as leverage against Wahunsenaca to secure food, land, and stave off any direct attacks on their growing settlements. 

In 1614 Matoaka converted to Christianity, was renamed Rebecca, and married the colony’s secretary, a tobacco planter named John Rolfe. She gave birth to a son named Thomas soon after. In 1616, the Virginia Company brought Matoaka, her family, Captain Argall, and the colony’s governor to London in order to promote the venture and secure more investment. Matoaka’s sister, Mattachana, also accompanied her. It was Mattachanna’s testimony after her return from England that informed the Mattaponi Oral History about what happened there. Matoaka spent a year in England where she learned more about the English and their intentions in her country. In the spring of 1617 the party set sail to return to Virginia, but Matoaka became sick before they reached the sea. She died and was buried in Gravesend, England. 

Some European and American histories claim she fell ill days before setting sail, and others only after boarding the ship. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that she only became sick after dining with her husband and Captain Argall on the ship, and that she told her sister that she believed “the English” had put something in her food.

In the following weeks I will explore these stories and sources in more detail. Why would Matoaka consent to marry an Englishman after being kidnapped? Was Wahunsenaca unwilling to attack Jamestown for fear of her safety, the English guns, or some other reason? Why would the Virginia Company want to murder Matoaka after having used her so successfully to wring concessions from her father and to present the image of a successful colonial project to the English public, royalty, and prospective investors?

There are no easy answers to any of these questions. I will explore them through several primary and secondary sources. The Mattaponi Oral History regarding Matoaka, published for the first time in 2007 as “The True Story of Pocahontas” is an invaluable resource that previous generations had no access to. It adds a much needed perspective from Matoaka’s own people to a story that has been told and retold by European and American authors with little or no regard for the woman behind the myth.

Sources:

The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History, From the Sacred History of the Mattaponi Reservation People.

Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star.” Fulcrum Publishing: Golden, Colorado, 2007.

Video interview with Angela L. Daniel and Linwood Custalow- Book TV, C-Span

Book Review- The One Feather