1622 onward
Destruction of Powhatan food supplies
Virginia; Powhatan peoples
After the Powhatan attacks of March 1622 killed hundreds of English colonists, colonial forces repeatedly raided Powhatan settlements and took or destroyed food supplies. Harvest-time attacks and the burning of fields made subsistence a target of the Second Anglo-Powhatan War and supported English expansion along the James River.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
This entry focuses on the war of 1622–1632. Colonial advocacy of famine and dispossession is evidence of proposed policy; reports of particular raids establish actions. Powhatan communities retained territory and political power after the 1632 peace, and later wars require separate dating.
Sources
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 4
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 1, pp. 12–13; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- James Douglas Rice, Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632), especially “The War That Followed” and “Aftermath” ↗
- Edward Waterhouse, A Declaration (1622), policy passages quoted and contextualized by Encyclopedia Virginia ↗