Virginia's Early Relations with Native Americans

Throughout early American colonies, especially in Virginia, New England, and Pennsylvania, the colonists had a very interesting relationship with the Indians. While there was a period of conflict, there were also periods where trading was highly successful. Indian relations in Virginia and New England had some similarities with Pennsylvania, but, for the most part, Indian relations were vastly different.

In New England and Virginia, Indian relations were at an all-time low throughout the seventeenth century. From events like King Philip’s War in 1675 to Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, the new colonists tried, by any means necessary, to remove the Indians from society.

New England originally held many Indian tribes such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, and the Pequot. King Philip’s War was an armed conflict from 1675-1676 in New England between the colonists and the Wampanoag and their allies. King Philip’s War was the last major effort by the Indians to stop the flow of European development on their homelands.

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The war ended when Metacorn, also known as King Philip, was captured and beheaded. Some of the other Wampanoags were able to escape to Canada while the others were sold off as slaves to the West Indies. Through this war, 5% of the Native population was killed, 2,500 Natives were sold as slaves, and this war ended up being the costliest war in terms of percentages in American history. Bacon’s rebellion in the Chesapeake area further emphasized the terrible Indian relations as opposed to Pennsylvania. When Governor Berkeley refused to attack the Indians, Bacon took it upon himself to attack.

Bacon rallied up around twelve hundred farmers and the Occaneechi people to attack a Susquehannock base where he ended up murdering most of the village including men, women, and children.

Pennsylvania, on the other hand, had a very different approach on how to deal with the Indians. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, believed in the Peaceable Kingdom where the Natives and the colonists could live interdependently. In this Peaceable Kingdom, there were low taxes, no military, and was a center of trade. The reason there was very little conflict as opposed to the New England and Virginia colonies was because of a treaty between William Penn and the Iroquois Covenant Chain which allowed for free trade. The Iroquois Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and agreements between the colonists and the Iroquois. Since mainly Quakers moved to Pennsylvania from England, they had this idea of Quaker Pacifism which meant that they wanted to avoid war at all costs and find peaceful approaches to conflicts. Because the New England colony and Virginia colony were either atheists or non-Quakers, they did not have the same ideas of avoiding war and promoting pacifism. Rather than simply taking the Indian's land like the other colonies were doing at the time, Penn bought land off the Indians instead. This allowed for greater trust between the colonists and the Indians and allowed for free and fair trade.

While Pennsylvania had peaceful relationships with the Indians during this time, it didn’t always stay like that. Virginia and New England maintained consistently low relationships with the Native Americans and around the late 1700s after William Penn died, Pennsylvanian relationships with the Indians began to deteriorate as well. While both colonies had different approaches with Native Americans, they shared the similarity that they both ended up having bad relationships later. This can be shown during the Seven Year’s War where it ended up being one of the costliest wars in America ever in terms of percentage of the population. The colony that had once been a peaceful destination for both Indians and colonists became a front of a deadly war.

Overall, even though the Virginia/ New England colonies and Pennsylvania colony ended up having conflict-filled relationships with the Indians, throughout the 1600’s and early 1700’s they were quite different. The Virginia and New England colonies had conflict with the Indians the whole time. Due to the Quaker beliefs of the Pennsylvanian colonists, they were able to form a well-working and well-respected relationship with the Indians that lasted for a while. The Peaceable Kingdom ended up being full of bloodshed that mirrored the Virginian and New England colonies.