Culminating Project Title
Date of Award
Culminating Project Type
College of Liberal Arts
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
Colonial Virginia, Economy, Powhatan, Anglo-Powhatan War, Treaty
This paper explores the economic developments in colonial Virginia between 1622 and 1646 and argues that various economic developments within colonial Virginia pushed the colony toward greater integration with the larger Atlantic economy and that these developments altered the nature of trade between the English colonists and the Powhatan in such a way that formal separation per the 1646 treaty was an attractive option to both parties. During this time frame, which encompassed both the Second and Third Anglo-Powhatan Wars, economic interactions between the English colonists and the Powhatan chiefdom became less frequent and focused largely on small-scale exchange of high-value goods. The treaty ending the Third Anglo-Powhatan War in 1646 formalized the growing divide between the English colony and the Powhatan chiefdom by establishing clear geographic boundaries and restricting trade to two border forts. Although both the Second and Third Anglo-Powhatan Wars began with a large massacre of English colonists by the Powhatan, followed by violent reprisals from the English, the former dragged on for ten years and ended without serious reorganization of the political situation. The latter conflict was over within two years and resulted in the formal separation of the two societies. It was the economic developments that occurred throughout this period that led to the vastly different outcomes for these two conflicts that began in such similar fashion.
Schroeder, Steven J., "“Not with Sword and Spear”: The Evolution and Disintegration of the Anglo-Powhatan Economy, 1622-1646" (2016). Culminating Projects in History. 6.