Tsenacommacah “Densely Inhabited Land”

• 1607 Virginia Company expedition to Chesapeake

  • 100 men

  • built “Jamestown” an uninhabited swampy peninsula (bad choice)

• the Powhatan confederacy: paramount chiefdom under wahunsenacah

  • 24,000 people

  • 30 tribes paying tribute

England Invades Tsenacommacah

• Jamestown was a disaster

  • gentleman colonists were unwilling to work

  • brackish, disease-infested swamp

    • water from wells had salt in them (salt poisoning)

• at first, wahunsenacah treated Jamestown as a neighboring village to incorporate

  • sick, starving colonists posed little danger

  • traded abundant food for more rare euro goods

  • a way of creating ties/obligations

• Jamestown’s’ misery continued

  • disease, starvation, even canniballism

  • relations sour with native neighbors

  • 80% of all colonists died before 1616