1.2: Opechancanough, Jamestown's "Pamunkey Prince"

John Smith, Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas...Opechancanough?  The second episode of "History: Beyond the Textbook" shifts the focus to England's colonial efforts in North America, and Jamestown is certainly familiar ground.  However, the experiences of Opechancanough, war chief of the Powhatan Confederacy upon English arrival in 1607, provide a glimpse into Indigenous perspectives on these newcomers and allow listeners to examine the origins of what would prove to be numerous conflicts between the two sides.  And there's much more to Opechancanough's life than what occurred in Jamestown...

Key People
Opechancanough, Powhatan leader
John Smith, English military officer
King Phillip II, King of Spain

Key Events
Establishment of Jamestown
Anglo-Powhatan Wars

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Feel free to contact us with feedback or questions by clicking the "Send Us a Text" link or email us at: hbttpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

An individual most commonly associated with Jamestown, he helped the mighty Chief Powhatan build a powerful confederation of Native American tribes on North America’s eastern seaboard, personally captured John Smith during his time in the colony, and waged war against the English on three separate occasions in an effort to expel them from territory controlled by the Powhatan.  But perhaps there’s more to the story…what if, before any of this occurred, this same individual traversed both sides of the Atlantic, traveling from Chesapeake Bay to Spain, then to Mexico and Cuba, back to Spain, and ending his travels back where it all began: in the Chesapeake Bay.  This story includes name changes, baptisms, backstabbing, and a cast of characters that not only features such Jamestown “mainstays” as John Smith, Pocahontas, and Chief Powhatan, but also features King Philip II of Spain and Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Aviles.  You’ve certainly got the makings of a fascinating life that teaches us much about early European interactions with Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere, and the reactions of those same Natives to these explorers and encroachers of their land.  Today, we’ll examine Jamestown through the lens of the so-called “Prince of Jamestown”: military chief Opechancanough.

Act I: The English Establish Jamestown

Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America.  Sure, there had been attempts by the English, not to mention the Spanish, French, and others, to establish a foothold in the region in an effort to exploit the resources of the land and convert the Native peoples to whatever form of Christianity the colonizers felt was “correct.”  The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke certainly comes to mind, and we even learned in our previous episode that St. Augustine, Florida, established by the Spanish, lays claim to being the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the contiguous United States.  However, Jamestown is mentioned in nearly every American history textbook, and it warrants ample attention due to the role it plays in furthering English interests in North America.  So, we’ll begin with some general context: three ships, paid for by the joint-stock venture known as the Virginia Company, left England in December 1606 carrying 144 men bound for North America.  Their authority to colonize Chesapeake Bay came from a charter courtesy of King James I.  Their goals…wealth, similar to the wealth that the Spanish were extracting from Central and South America, and the spread of the Christian faith, namely, the Church of England, or Anglican Church (although inclusion of religious goals in the official charter is believed to have been mere lip-service to those truly wishing to spread the Anglican faith).  The opening song of the 1995 Disney movie referred to these purposes as “glory, God, and gold,” and that part of the film wasn’t too far off the mark, although other plot points were historically off the mark.  Four months after they set sail from England, following a few stops along the way, 104 men landed in what is now known as Chesapeake Bay, and settled on what they referred to as the James River, and the Natives in the region called the Powhatan River.  This location offered additional navigable rivers, plentiful food sources, fertile soil, and a location that was suited to defense purposes in the case of a Spanish invasion.  Hindsight reveals that the Spanish would not make any serious efforts to colonize this region as long as the English remained, but they remained the dominant European power in the Western Hemisphere for the next century and a half, so the English needed to realistically prepare for Spanish threats to their goals.  They understood that there were Natives in the region, but didn’t really consider the potential threats they might pose to their settlement at Jamestown, or to the greater area that they called “Virginia.”

Act II: Opechancanough and His World

What of these Native Americans of Tsenacomoco, the name the indigenous inhabitants gave the region where Jamestown was located?  The English settled where Chief Powhatan had spent the previous decades consolidating his power and bringing about 24,000 people from about 30 tribes of the region under his control.  Most estimates place Chief Powhatan, whom we will hereafter refer to by his proper name of Wahunsenacawh to avoid confusion with the name of his political confederation, in his late 50’s or early 60’s when the English arrived, and the secretary of Jamestown described him as tall, a bit chubby, and with more than a few gray hairs.  Secretary William Stachey also recounts that in his younger years, Wahunsenacawh was “Strong…sinewy, active, and of a daring spirit.”  This is the man that, along with Opechancanough, spent years building up his base of support along the Powhatan River and its tributaries.  The primary subject of our episode, Opechancanough, has often been described as the brother of Wahunsenacawh, although the specific blood relationship the two may have shared has never been fully determined; they may have been cousins, or simply shared the same mother.  Settler Robert Beverly referred to the intimidating physical presence of Opechancanough, stating that his actions and disposition “caused all the Indians far and near to dread his Name,” as well as submit to his authority.  The two chiefs played a critical role in Powhatan society: Wahunsenacawh was the “peace chief” who handled what would now be called “domestic affairs” and Opechancanough was a “war chief” who handled “foreign policy,” A.K.A. waging war.  Wahunsenacawh had consolidated his leadership through power and force, so it stands to reason that Opechancanough was a critical partner in this process.  He was an exceptional warrior, and feared and respected as a leader with hundreds of Pamunkey warriors under his command (Pumunkey being the tribe to which he belonged).  So when the English arrived and settled on hunting lands that belonged to the Paspahegh (pah-spa-hey), a tribe that paid tribute to the Powhatan Confederacy, Wahunsenacawh and Opechancanough, among other chiefs, were curious as to their intentions.  Spanish Jesuits had attempted to establish a mission along the Powhatan River nearly four decades before, and violence had ended any further attempts at permanent settlement, so perhaps the same  course of action would ensure these newcomers would leave quickly [more on those Jesuits later].  Did these “visitors” intend to remain just that: visitors who would stay temporarily and go along their way?  Or did they have the audacity to think that they would permanently remain on lands that didn’t belong to them?  Opechancanough would soon enough take the lead in getting an answer to this burning question.

Act III: The Prince Deals with Jamestown

It’s time to fuse Acts I and II together and explain the link between Opechancanough and the settlement at Jamestown.  Opechancanough, along with a party of warriors, captured Captain John Smith about eight months after the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607.  One of the more well-known participants in the colony at Jamestown, Captain Smith arrived at age 26 as part of the initial group of settlers; oddly enough, he was scheduled to be hanged upon his arrival in Jamestown, but he wasn’t, and eventually ended up taking control and running the place.  Recognizing the significance of Smith’s position, the “King of Pamaunkee,” as Opechancanough would be referred to in one of Smith’s autobiographies of his time in Virginia, spared Captain Smith and took him to a hunting camp six miles away where Opechancanough and his warriors took part in an elaborate ritual designed to celebrate the capture of Smith and the successful defeat and slaying of two of his men.  According to Smith, he was treated well, and Opechancanough asked the Englishman questions about how they arrived, their ships, and their God, while revealing that in territory under control of the Powhatan Confederacy, there were men “clothed like [Smith].”  This was concluded to be Englishmen who fled the settlement on Roanoke Island to the safety of friendly Native peoples, intermarrying with them and teaching them how to build using European-style architecture.  Unfortunately, these same “survivors” were killed on Wahunsenacawh’s orders in 1607 when the tribe that took them in got on the bad side of the chief.  Smith remained a captive of Opechancanough where, after a series of discussions and rituals, he met Wahunsenacawh, and depending on which of John Smith’s own writings you believe, he either traded goods and was sent on his way, or was the main participant in a ritual in which he was nearly stoned to death, only to be “saved” by the pre-teen daughter of the chief, Pocahontas, or Matoaka.  Either way, it is likely that Wahunsenacawh now believed Smith and the English to be vassals of his Confederation, and he would expect tribute from them.  Powhatan and Opechancanough understood the value of English tools and weapons, and wished to exploit these resources until they could potentially use them to expel these newcomers.

So, Opechancanough entered Jamestown lore via his first interaction with John Smith, but the next interaction wasn’t on Opechancanough’s terms.  In the months following that initial exchange in December 1607, discussions between Smith and Wahunsenacawh broke down, and Wahunsenacawh and Opechancanough resolved to allow the English to starve through their refusal to trade corn with their neighbors.  Understanding that their provisions would only last the next several months, Smith traveled to a Pamunkey village, surprising Opechancanough and eventually challenging him to a one-on-one fight in which the winner would earn the goods of the loser.  Not taking this threat seriously, Opechancanough was then taken hostage by Smith, in full view of hundreds of Pamunkey soldiers, thus deeply embarrassing this proud warrior.  It was this insult, along with additional factors, that led to the outbreak of the first wars between the English and the Powhatan in the spring of 1609.

So, what was Opechancanough’s role in this initial phase of war, and the additional two wars that will follow in the succeeding two decades?  Phase one occurred from 1609-1614 and involved a Powhatan strategy of eliminating the food supply of the settlers, namely the supply of corn, which had been scant from the start.  As war chief, Opechancanough would definitely have played a central role in the subsequent siege operations.  Coinciding with this siege, which also involved the destruction of English transportation and domesticated animals, was an event known simply as the “Starving Time,” occurring roughly from winter 1609-spring 1610, and chances are that if you are part of a time frame that posterity has named the “Starving Time,” it wasn’t a positive experience.  Disease, starvation, and acts of outright murder among the settlers contributed to the deaths of hundreds of English, and it was to the point where only about 60 settlers were still alive by the time resupply ships arrived in the spring of 1610.  Once more English arrived, violence between the two sides escalated as the English engaged in their own brutal tactics that included killing women and children, burning Native villages, and making off with their corn stores.  Wahunsenacawh does not appear to have coordinated a response with the subordinate chiefs of his Confederacy, who were left to their own devices to engage with the English.  To that end, the Native warriors continued to engage in hit-and-run tactics that allowed them to strike quickly and use their superior knowledge of the terrain to make a quick exit.  Officially, the war ended with the marriage of Pocahontas to English trader John Rolfe, the same man who had improved the fortunes of Jamestown by introducing a unique strand of tobacco that eventually made the colony profitable.  Pocahontas had actually been captured and brought back to Jamestown, but grew angry when she deduced that her father was more interested in the return of material possessions the English had stolen rather than his daughter, so she refused to return with her two brothers who had been sent to retrieve her.  In the ensuing peace negotiations, Opechancanough served as the primary negotiator on his brother’s behalf.  

So it was that the war ended with the marriage of Pocahontas, now known as Rebecca Rolfe, and John Rolfe, and in the succeeding years, “peace” appeared to be Opechancanough’s main goal.  However, in the years between this first phase and the next phase, thousands of English settlers arrived and claimed tens of thousands of acres of fertile property (belonging to the Powhatan) on which to cultivate the lucrative tobacco crop.  His ability to keep this peace allowed him to not only eventually emerge as de facto ruler of the Powhatan Confederacy upon the death of Wahunsenacawh in 1618 (someone else had formally assumed the leadership position, but the English knew who was really running the show), but also to lure the English into a false sense of security.  Opechancanough first made preparations to attack the English in spring 1621, but those plans failed to materialize when a chief whose tribe paid tribute to Opechancanough betrayed him to the English (he didn’t really like Opechancanough, and wanted to continue trading with the English).  The governor questioned the great chief, who not only denied involvement in a plot, but expressed his wish to convert to the Anglican Church. The operations eventually began in March 1622 when simultaneous attacks by about 1,500 warriors devastated the English settlements along the Powhatan River and resulted in the deaths of nearly one-third of all colonial men, women, and children.  Opechancanogh was long convinced that his people could never live alongside the English as equals, so he resolved to use these attacks to convince them of the same…and it worked, as the settlers’ attitudes towards the Powahatan abruptly altered.

Violence would continue, but not to the extent of those attacks in spring 1622…until 1644, where the war entered its third and final phase.  Opechancanough, nearly 100 years old, blind, and crippled, commenced one final simultaneous assault in April 1644.  There would be large-scale attacks followed by smaller raids, not dissimilar to what occurred nearly two decades prior, and the English were once again unaware of the plot.  Due to this lack of preparation, which included faulty settlement defenses, nearly 500 settlers were killed, yet Opechancanough failed to follow up on this initial success.  The English eventually organized successful counterattacks, and Opechancanough himself was captured and brought back to Jamestown.  The new governor of Virginia, Sir WIlliam Berkely, insisted on treating his prisoner with all the respect due to one of Opechancanough’s exalted position, but he could not completely quell the anger of his men. One soldier, furious at the mastermind of the attacks that resulted in the deaths of so many of his people, shot the great chief in the back…and so the Powhatan resistance to the English, and the Confederacy itself, withered away.  He had spent nearly three decades luring the English into a state of tranquility, only to commence brutal attacks that cost hundreds of lives, yet the ire of one unnamed Englishman ended it all.

Act IV: Life Before Jamestown

So what else is there to the story?  How did Opechancanough develop into such an astute military strategist and statesman all rolled into one?   What about those “name changes, baptisms, and backstabbing” that the beginning of the episode referred to?  To address these, we need to go way back…about four and a half decades prior to the founding of Jamestown…1561 to be exact.  As we learned last week, the Spanish were in the process of establishing a foothold in the modern-day state of Florida, and they had also set up an outpost off the coast of South Carolina known as Santa Elena.  Spanish Captain Antonio Velasquez was en route from Hananna, Cuba to Santa Elena when his ship was blown off course by a hurricane.  His new unintended destination…Chesapeake Bay.  After traveling upriver, Velasquez’s crew met a group of what they considered to be “friendly Native Americans” who were willing to trade (they had previously heard rumors that the numerous tribes in the region were known to trade with the French).  Two of these Natives were boys who either indicated themselves that they wanted to board the ship, were placed on the ship at the request of their father, or were outright captured by the Spanish.  However it happened, one of these individuals went by the name “Paquiquineo,” and was about 12-15 years old when he boarded Velasquez’s ship…and was bound for Spain. Captain Velasquez decided that these two would prove that this region was fit for Spanish settlement, even referring to Paquiquineo as a “princely person…” sound familiar?

Velasquez’s ship landed in Seville, Spain, which, served as the de facto economic capital of Spain due to the fact that all customs and duties on goods from Spain’s maritime empire were taxed here.  The party arrived in Madrid in fall 1561, and King Philip II had only recently moved his entire royal court to this new capital, so he was in the process of transforming it into a grand European city to rival those of the rest of the Continent.  During the fall and winter of 1561, Paquiquineo met with Philip II multiple times…yes, a Native American from across the ocean met with one of the most powerful men in Europe to discuss…well, we’re not exactly sure.  We do know that this was when the “name change” occurred as a result of his interactions with the king: he was given the name Don Luís de Velasco after the Viceroy of New Spain, meaning that this Viceroy was also to serve as his godfather.  Now known as Don Luís, this Native youth made quite the impression on Philip II.

Now for the “Baptism.”  After about seven months on the Iberian Peninsula, Don Luís was granted his request to return to his home across the Atlantic…but after a 10-week voyage, his ship landed instead in New Spain with orders to transport him to the capital: Mexico City.  Built atop the remains of the mighty Mexica, or Aztec, city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City is currently the second-largest city on the planet.  In the mid-1500’s, there were about 85,000 residents in a Spanish-controlled city that still featured architectural, spiritual, and ethnic remnants of the city’s founders.  Shortly after his arrival, Don Luís became gravely ill and eventually recovered under the care of the local Dominicans.  Accounts indicate that he requested baptism as a Catholic when he was near death…a request that the Dominicans granted, and after which, Don Luís recovered.  Given the position that his godfather held, he was allowed to live in a central area of Mexico CIty that was officially off-limits to Native peoples. 

We’ve got the name change from Paquiquineo to “Don Luís,” and we’ve addressed his baptism into the Catholic faith.  So, what about the “backstabbing?” Our previous episode taught us that Pedro Menéndez de Aviles became governor of Florida in 1565, which is when he established the city of Saint Augustine, Florida.  The conquistador had designs on expanding Spain’s territory in the Western Hemisphere while simultaneously rebuffing potential attempts by the French to colonize the region.  Don Luís was part of a voyage of Spaniards that would establish an outpost in the Chesapeake region that could provide reconnaissance of the local Native Americans…except the weather was bad and the captain decided to return the ship to Spain.  So, Don Luís returned to Spain in 1566, five years after his first arrival, and he was reunited with Menéndez the following year, eventually passing through St. Augustine en route to Havana, on the island of what is now Cuba, in 1570 because the Jesuits in the city were removed there to provide “spiritual guidance” for the Spaniards on the island.  Here, Don Luís received the additional sacraments of Communion and Reconciliation, convincing the Jesuits that he would be an excellent addition to a proposed expedition back to the Chesapeake (especially since it was his homeland).  So, Don Luís accompanied a group of Jesuits that left Havana in summer 1570, arriving after several weeks’ voyage.  It is unclear exactly where the mission was located, but nine years after leaving with the initial Captain Valesquez’s crew, Paquiquineo, now Don Luís, had returned home…and promptly abandoned the Jesuits upon return.  He requested permission to reestablish relations with his people to better supply the Jesuits, and failed to return…all after the ship that carried the Jesuits had left the region.  Four months after his escape, Don Luís returned…with warriors and hatchets.  All eight Jesuits at the mission were killed, burned, and their material possessions were confiscated.  Without getting into too much graphic detail, the Jesuits never saw it coming, and one ran into the woods, only to be finished off the next day.  One Spanish boy, Alonso, was spared, and his account helped convince the Spanish to abandon all permanent designs on the region (although we know that Menendez did return to slaughter all those he believed to be involved with the massacre).  Afterwards, Don Luís seemingly disappeared without a trace…until the arrival of the English in 1607.

So how does Paquiquineo/Don Luís become Opechancanough?  Again, the work of several scholars have connected these two figures; both were born around the same time, both fought the Europeans, and the accounts of the Spanish and English have led to the conclusion that they were the same man.  Some argue that Don Luís was actually the father of Chief Powhatan or another relation to Opechancanough, while others believe it is coincidence.  The detective work by historian James Horn, in his recent book on Opechancanough, lays out compelling evidence that the two are one in the same.  His story is certainly gripping: he crossed the Atlantic twice, personally interacted with Spain’s most powerful men on the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, was shrewd enough to lure two nationalities of Europeans into his confidences, only to turn on them violently.  And his tale allows us to examine the path by which European settlers and Native Americans treated one another upon contact, and the process by which they arrived at the same conclusion: living side-by-side, while each maintaining their own ways of life, was going to be unsustainable in the long-term.

Join us next week on History: Beyond the Textbook as we turn our attention to French efforts at North American settlement, through the lens of the Negotiator of New France: Jean Nicolet.