THE INDIANS OF VIRGINIA.
When the Europeans began their settlements in what is now the territory of the United States, the whole country was occupied by a great number of separate and independent tribes. Upon the investigation of their languages, it has been found that they consisted of a few great families, or nations, which have been thus distributed by learned writers.
The Algonquins, or Chippewas, were spread over the entire continent east of the Mississippi and north of Cape Hatteras, with the exception of the regions inhabited by the Esquimaux, far to the north, and the territory claimed by the Hurons, or Wyandots. This latter family, which included the Iroquois, or Six Nations, spread themselves over the space now occupied by New York, a part of Ohio, and the whole of Upper Canada. The Mobilian, or Florida nations, included the tribes south of Cape Fear and west of the Mississippi, excepting the Natchez, inhabiting the country around the modern city of that name, and the Uchees, who held the country contiguous to the present town of Augusta, in Georgia. The Cherokees, Tuscaroras, and Catawbas, three considerable nations, occupied the territory of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee. The Sioux, or Dahcotahs, dwelt along the western borders of the Mississippi.
These families, or nations, as we have already said, were broken into a multitude of distinct tribes, each having, for the most part, its particular dialect, and carrying on war against every other tribe. In some instances, several tribes were confederated together, either for the purposes of defence or aggression. Their whole number has been variously estimated, but it probably did not exceed 500,000 at the time of the settlement at Jamestown, in 1607.
When our ancestors came to these shores, they found the Indians thinly scattered over the country, though occasionally gathered in considerable groups in the more fertile valleys, and along the banks of rivers, lakes, and bays. They were in the rudest state of society, without science, without arts, without any metallic instruments, without domestic animals. They raised a little corn, which the women cultivated with a clam-shell, or the shoulder-blade of the buffalo. Devouring this with savage improvidence, they obtained a precarious supply for the rest of the year by gathering nuts and roots, or by hunting and fishing. Half clad in skins, or entirely naked, they roamed from place to place, passing their lives, alternately, in stupid idleness, and the fiercest excitements of war and the chase. Ignorant of the past, and improvident of the future, most of these tribes were sunk in the lowest depths of human degradation.
Such were the occupants of the soil, when the European settlers came to establish themselves here. Throughout the continent, the Indians appear to have been at first disposed to give a hospitable reception to the strangers who visited their shores; but they were soon taught to dread, and then to hate, a people, who shot them down, subjected them to slavery, and robbed them of their property and lands, without mercy or scruple. When the settlements began along our Atlantic coast, more than a century had passed since the discovery of the continent by Columbus, and ample time had elapsed for many of the tribes to experience, and all to know, the oppressive and formidable character of these European invaders.
Though the number of the Indians in this quarter was not great, yet their skill in war, and the deep-seated jealousy and hatred of the white race, which had grown up with them, rendered them a fearful foe to feeble colonies, separated by a wide ocean from the protection and succour of their native land. The contests of our forefathers with the Indians, therefore, were full of the deepest interest to them, and abound in incidents which cannot fail to arrest the attention of every reader.
When the Europeans first planted themselves at Jamestown, according to Captain Smith’s account, the country, from the sea-coast to the mountains, was inhabited by forty-three different tribes. Thirty of these spread over the tract of country south of the Potomac, within a space of about 8,000 square miles. Within sixty miles of Jamestown, it is said, there were 5,000 of these natives. There were several confederacies among them, the chief of which were the Powhatan confederacy, the confederacy of the Mannahoacks, and that of the Monacans. These last two were united in a grand alliance against the Powhatan league. Long and bloody wars were maintained between these rival sovereignties. The Mannahoack confederacy embraced thirteen tribes, eight of whom were under the Mannahoacks, and five under the Monacans. Besides these, there were also the independent tribes of the Nottoways, Meherriks, Tuteloes, and various others.
These tribes, especially the Powhatan confederacy, were not disposed to allow the English to settle down among them unmolested. Though at times preserving a show of peace, feelings of hostility rankled in their hearts, and the colonists were obliged to be always on their guard. Nor can we blame the Indians that they felt inimical to the settlers. Hitherto, they had remained sole lords and proprietors of the vast territory over which they roamed, undisturbed except by the wars which they carried on with each other. To break in upon this supremacy, and to appropriate their lands, the white man came and planted himself down, not only assuming a superiority of intelligence and power, but of right. The means of communication with distant tribes were evidently greater than has sometimes been imagined, and doubtless the story of Cortés, De Soto, and other invaders, had reached the ears of these savages. We shall not be surprised, therefore, to find that Powhatan, the chief of the tribe of that name, soon began to grow hostile to his new neighbours at Jamestown, after their settlement in 1607. The enemy he had to oppose, however, was the undaunted and chivalrous Captain Smith, whose earlier history seems almost like a romance, appropriately followed out by the strange incidents of his residence in the colony.[7]
The Indians, in the course of numerous attacks and skirmishes, learned to regard Smith as a foe by no means to be despised; and when, in one of his expeditions, he was taken captive, their joy knew no bounds. After being led from one chief to another, Captain Smith was finally presented to Powhatan himself. Opechancanough, who was his successor, seems to have cherished strong feelings of dislike to Smith, and had Powhatan felt disposed to spare him, he would have found himself opposed by his chief warriors. Finally, when he had been seen by all the Indians, and experiments had been tried on his courage, it was determined, in a council of chiefs, that he should have his brains beaten out with a club.
The appointed day arrived. Powhatan and his warriors were present, exulting in the scene. The captive was brought forth; two large stones were placed in a suitable position, and he was laid upon them. At this moment, the compassionate Pocahontas, the darling daughter of Powhatan, sprang forward, and, clasping Smith in her arms, shielded his head with her person, and declared that he should not be killed, unless she, too, fell beneath the same blow. So strange an event appears to have made a deep impression on the father. His daughter persisting in her determination to die with the captive, the chief yielded, Smith was saved, and sent home to Jamestown. This striking event took place in 1607.
Still, Powhatan, for a considerable time, remained the foe of the whites, and at various times designed evil against the colony; but his schemes were frustrated by the vigilance of Smith, aided by the cautions of Pocahontas, who proved herself, on many occasions, his friend. The heroic girl herself was afterwards taken prisoner, and during her residence at Jamestown was married to Mr. Rolfe, a gentleman of great respectability. Powhatan was then induced to relinquish his hostility, and become the friend of the whites. His daughter and her husband went to England, where she was admitted to see the queen, but she died as she was about to return.
Opechancanough, the successor of Powhatan, was said to be originally from the south, and some have conjectured that he was of Mexican descent, as his appearance is described to have differed from that of the other Indians of the Powhatan confederacy. He was a man of more than ordinary abilities, and burned with a desire to rid his country of those whom he viewed as invaders of her soil. In 1622, he concerted a plan for a general massacre, hoping even to effect the entire extermination of the colony. The plot was deeply laid, and planned with great skill. All the members of the confederacy had their several parts assigned them. At the time the plot was formed, many of the Indians mingled with the whites for the purpose of ascertaining the avenues by which to gain access to the town, and the means of striking the blow with most effect.
On the appointed day, the 22d of March, about noon, while the people were at work, and mostly unarmed, the Indians rushed upon them, and at once massacred three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children. So well devised was the plan, that, but for its being betrayed, the whole colony, including Jamestown, must have been cut off at a blow. A Christian Indian, who had been solicited by his brother to kill a Mr. Pace, with whom he then lived, informed him of the plot, and, though not in season to save hundreds from falling victims to the savage enemy, yet intelligence was sent to Jamestown, and the people, in many instances, were seasonably put upon their guard. The Indians, finding they were betrayed, did not attempt an attack upon the town, but plundered and burned the undefended houses, the mills and iron works, and whatever else came in their way.
The next autumn, the Virginians, in their turn, attacked the Indians, burned several of their towns, and took many thousand bushels of corn, which they found stored up for the winter. The consequence of this was, that the Indians were greatly distressed, and suffered much for want of food and the necessaries of life. The succeeding July, the war was carried on with still more vigor; four or five separate parties were appointed to attack the Indians at different points, and many were slain, among whom were some of their kings and war-captains. These disasters at once disheartened and weakened them. Still, they continued to seize upon every advantage that offered, and, in 1630, Opechancanough, observing that the colony was in a state of disunion and anarchy, formed a plan for another surprise and massacre.
The experience they had so dearly bought should have made the colonists vigilant, and put them upon their guard at all times. But they seem, at this period, to have relapsed into a state of fatal confidence or indifference. The Indians fell upon the settlers, principally on the south side of James River, and at the head of York River, and so carefully had they concealed their design, so well was it arranged, and so resolutely executed, that they cut off five hundred of the colonists at a blow. This was a dreadful event to the infant settlement, and seems, at first, to have almost entirely disheartened the survivors. A long and bloody war followed, with various results, till, finally, the Indians being defeated, and tired of the strife, a peace was once more made, which continued unbroken for many years. The death of Opechancanough, the master spirit of the savages, and the implacable foe of the colony, doubtless contributed to this end. Every contest also taught the Indians the power of European discipline, and they at last learned that the field of battle was the grave of their warriors, and that even a successful war always resulted in a diminution of their strength.
No very striking event succeeded, in the history of the Virginia colony, till the year 1675, when the Indians again began to rob and murder the colonists. Intestine divisions raged, and they seemed, in their broils, to forget that an enemy lurked around them, who might take fatal advantage of their unguarded and feeble condition. Although the Indians dared not appear, as they had formerly done, in the very heart of the settlements,—for these had increased, and the tribes had been driven back into the interior,—yet they attacked those who dwelt on the frontiers, wasted their fields, burned their houses, and committed other ravages. The colonists were in no condition to avenge themselves of these outrages. Had the Indians, indeed, known the full extent of their weakness, they might have been emboldened to still more daring invasions; but, being successfully attacked by the whites, after a brief conflict, they were glad to accept of peace. The ascendency of the English being once established, the tribes gradually wasted away, and it would now be difficult to find a remnant of the once powerful people by which the eastern portion of Virginia was formerly inhabited.
The tract of country first called Virginia embraced more than is now comprised in the limits of the State; and as a part of North Carolina was included in its boundaries, it may be proper, in this connection, to notice the history of the Indians who occupied this region.
North Carolina was first discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584. In the account given by him, it seems the Indian name of this region was Wingandacoa, the king being called Wingina. His chief town was six days’ journey from Wococon. His brother, Ganganameo, resided at a village on the Roanoke. The third day after the English arrived, some natives appeared, and one of them went on board of the ships. The English gave him a shirt, some wine, and plenty to eat. He paddled away, and, having laden his boat with fish, returned, and divided them into two parts, meaning one portion for one ship, and the rest for the other. The next day Ganganameo came to see them, with fifty men, spread out his mat on the point, without any apparent fear, and, sitting down, made signs to the English to sit down with him. He then stroked his head and breast, and theirs also in a gentler manner, thus signifying, that, henceforth, their heads and hearts should be one. He made a long speech, and they presented him with some toys, which greatly pleased him. They then opened a trade, and he gave them twenty deer-skins for a pewter basin; a sample of the dealings between the English and natives. The chief made a hole through the basin, and hung it about his neck for a breastplate. He also gave fifty more skins for a copper kettle.
Some days after this interview, Ganganameo came again with his wife and children. They were of a low stature, but quite handsome. His wife wore a coat and short apron of leather, and a band of white coral about her forehead, with ear-rings of pearls as large as peas, and hanging down to her waist. He was himself dressed in the same manner, except that his hair was long on one side, and cut short on the other. The English, in return, went to see him; but, as the chief was absent, his wife ran to meet them, and, as they approached the shore, ordered her people to take them on their backs to the land. The season being rainy, she had their boat drawn up on the bank. Her visiters were then taken into her house, where she washed their clothes and feet. After they had warmed and dried themselves by a fire, she took them into another room, where a dinner was prepared, consisting of various dishes,—boiled venison, roots, melons, and other fruits. When they returned to their boats, she gave them mats to shield them from the rain. Well might these voyagers say, as they did, “A more kind and loving people cannot be.”
Notwithstanding this favorable view, it appears, that, subsequently, the North Carolina Indians were more or less enlisted in the various enterprises of the natives against the colony of Virginia, of which an account has already been given, and, to some extent, shared the fortunes of their countrymen. In 1712, a part of them, the Corees, Tuscaroras, and others, formed a league for the purpose of expelling the colonists, who had now encroached upon their territories. Their plan was arranged with great secrecy and cunning. To secure their own families, they surrounded their principal town with a breastwork. Here the warriors of the different tribes met, to the number of twelve hundred bowmen. The plan was matured, and the time fixed for the massacre. When the fatal night came, small parties went out by different roads, and, under the mask of friendship, were admitted to the houses of the colonists. Rising at a preconcerted signal, they slaughtered men, women, and children, without distinction. To prevent discovery or alarm, they ran as speedily as possible from house to house, hastening the bloody work.
In the vicinity of Roanoke, they thus butchered one hundred and thirty-seven persons in a single night. A few escaped and gave the alarm, by which means the settlements were preserved from extinction. Nearly one thousand troops were immediately raised in South Carolina, by whom the Indians were pursued. On coming up with them, a severe battle was fought, in which three hundred Indians were slain, and one hundred taken prisoners. It was supposed that nearly one thousand of the Indians were finally killed, wounded, and captured. After this event, the remnant of the Tuscaroras fled to the Five Nations, with whom they became incorporated. From this period, the northern confederacy assumed the title of the Six Nations.
In Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and the part of New York below the Highlands, there were likewise numerous tribes of Indians. It is said that there were not less than thirty kings within these limits, and the whole number of Indians is computed by Dr. Trumbull to have been about 10,000, and the warriors 2,000. The principal tribes were the Manhattans and the Delawares, or, as they are often termed, the Lenni Lenape. The peaceful policy of William Penn prevented any Indian wars in the early settlement of Pennsylvania, though another cause doubtless contributed to this result. The Five Nations had subdued the Lenni Lenape, obliged them to put themselves under their protection, deprived them of the power of making war, and confined them to the raising of corn, hunting, and fishing. To use the Indian phrase, they had been thus reduced to the state of women. The interior portion of Virginia had also been subjected to the same sway.
Many of the Indians of whom we are now speaking were greatly benefited by the missionary labors of David Brainerd, who instructed them in Christianity. Numbers became professors of religion, and were bright examples of the power of the gospel even over the savage heart. The Moravians, also, at a still later date, were not less successful, and the account of their residence among the Indians, as related by Heckewelder and others, deserves a careful perusal. The history of these Indians, however, is similar to that of the tribes in other quarters, when brought in contact with the whites. They wasted away in the competition with a master race, and not a vestige of them is left upon their original domains.
