Powhatan

Powhatan people (/ˌpaʊhəˈtæn, ˈhætən/) are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia.

Their Powhatan language is an Eastern Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. In 1607, an estimated 14,000 to 21,000 Powhatan people lived in eastern Virginia when English colonists established Jamestown.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a mamanatowick (paramount chief) named Wahunsenacawh forged a paramount chiefdom consisting of 33 tributary tribes through inheritance, marriage, and war. The chiefdom's territory included much of eastern Virginia, which they called Tsenacommacah ("densely inhabited Land"). English colonists called Wahunsenacawh (c. 1545–c. 1618) The Powhatan. Each tribe within the confederacy was led by a weroance (leader, commander), all of whom paid tribute to the Mamanatowick who solely governed the executive tribe Powhatan (Proper) The only Royal crown he could pass on to his son Parahunt after his death due to tribal succession laws requiring the title of Mamanatowick the Paramount Chief Position be passed to his next eldest living brother and not one of his sons. Strategically they used a loophole in the Confederacy law that did allow for a Waroance Sub chief of A Sub Tribe could be inherited by their Wariances eldest son. ).

After Wahunsenacawh died in 1618, hostilities with colonists escalated under the chiefdom of his brother, Opchanacanough, who unsuccessfully tried to repel encroaching English colonists. His 1622 and 1644 attacks against the invaders failed, and the English almost eliminated the confederacy. By 1646, the Powhatan paramount chiefdom had been decimated, not just by warfare but from infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, newly introduced to North America by Europeans. The Native Americans did not have any immunity to these, which had been endemic to Europe and Asia for centuries. At least 75 percent of the Powhatan people died from these diseases in the 17th century alone.

By the mid-17th century, English colonists were desperate for labor to develop the land. Almost half of the European immigrants to Virginia arrived as indentured servants. As settlement continued, the colonists imported growing numbers of enslaved Africans for labor. By 1700, the colonies had about 6,000 enslaved Africans, one-twelfth of the population. Enslaved people would at times escape and join the surrounding Powhatan. Some white indentured servants were also known to have fled and joined the Indigenous peoples. African slaves and indentured European servants often worked and lived together, and while marriage was not always legal, some Native people lived, worked, and had children with them. After Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the colony enslaved Indians for control. In 1691, the House of Burgesses abolished the enslavement of Native peoples; however, many Powhatans were held in servitude well into the 18th century.

English and Powhatan people often married, with the best-known being Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Their son was Thomas Rolfe, who has more than an estimated 100,000 descendants today. Many of the First Families of Virginia have both English and Virginia Algonquian ancestry.