Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough

by Rountree, Helen C.

• ISBN13: 9780813925967
• ISBN10: 0813925967
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-15
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr

Summary

Pocahontas may be the most famous Native American who ever lived, but during the settlement of Jamestown, and for two centuries afterward, the great chiefs Powhatan and Opechancanough were the subjects of considerably more interest and historical documentation than the young woman. It was Opechancanough who captured the foreign captain "Chawnzmit" -- John Smith. Smith gave Opechancanough a compass, described to him a spherical earth that revolved around the sun, and wondered if his captor was a cannibal. Opechancanough, who was no cannibal and knew the world was flat, presented Smith to his elder brother, the paramount chief Powhatan. The chief, who took the name of his tribe as his throne name (his personal name was Wahunsenacawh), negotiated with Smith over a lavish feast and opened the town to him, leading Smith to meet, among others, Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas. Thinking he had made an ally, the chief finally released Smith. Within a few decades, and against their will, his people would be subjects of the British Crown. Despite their roles as senior politicians in these watershed events, no biography of either Powhatan or Opechancanough exists. And while there are other "biographies" of Pocahontas, they have for the most part elaborated on her legend more than they have addressed the known facts of her remarkable life. As the 400th anniversary of Jamestown's founding approaches, nationally renowned scholar of Native Americans, Helen Rountree, provides in a single book the definitive biographies of these three important figures. In their lives we see the whole arc of Indian experience with the English settlers -- from the wary initial encounters presided over by Powhatan, to the uneasy diplomacy characterized by the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, to the warfare and eventual loss of native sovereignty that came during Opechancanough's reign. Writing from an ethnohistorical perspective that looks as much to anthropology as the written records, Rountree draws a rich portrait of Powhatan life in which the land and the seasons governed life and the English were seen not as heroes but as Tassantassas (strangers), as invaders, even as squatters. The Powhatans were a nonliterate people, so we have had to rely until now on the white settlers for our conceptions of the Jamestown experiment. This important book at last reconstructs the other side of the story.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(7)
Setting the Scene	8	(8)
The VIP Lifestyle	16	(9)
Introducing the Chiefly Family	25	(14)
Expanding His Dominions	39	(14)
Watching from a Distance	53	(14)
Meeting a Captive Englishman	67	(19)
The Alliance's Creaky Beginning	86	(14)
Allies Who Did Not Behave like Allies	100	(16)
The Breakdown of the Alliance	116	(18)
Contain Them, Then Let Them Starve	134	(14)
Return with a Vengeance	148	(10)
Hostage Situation, with an Unusual Denouement	158	(10)
Interview with a Wily Old Man	168	(8)
Pocahontas in England	176	(11)
Unofficially in Control	187	(21)
The Great Assault of 1622	208	(8)
A War of Attrition, Including an English Massacre	216	(10)
Running Out of Time	226	(10)
Epilogue	236	(3)
Appendix A. Annual Comings and Goings of Powhatan People	239	(2)
Appendix B. Leaders Who Dealt with One Another	241	(2)
Notes	243	(28)
Bibliography	271	(10)
Index	281