Wahunsonacock's Gambit: Powhatan Foreign Relations and the Success of Virginia, 1570-1622

Abstract

In an effort to explain the speed with which a small band of English colonists was able to supplant the expansive and powerful Chesapeake Algonquian paramountcy of Tsenacommacah, this work asks why the leaders of the expanding and growing Powhatan Paramountcy allowed English colonists to settle within their borders at all in 1607. By situating this question within the native ground of Tsenacommacah in the early-contact period, instead of focusing on the Anglo-Powhatan Wars of the early seventeenth century, this dissertation seeks to foreground the role of indigenous decision making, politics and economics in the eventual success of Virginia. While previous works have attributed characterized the Powhatans tolerance of hostile outsiders as an indicator of Powhatan curiosity, hubris or ignorance, this work argues the decision to allow the English to stay was based in indigenous political considerations more than anything the English represented or offered.