Chapter Five Contact and Colonization, A.D. 1500 to 1775 Initial European Contacts A.D. 1492 to 1607 Colonial Period 1607 to 1775 1524 1571-1585 1607 1634 1750 1775 |||||| Earliest written Initial attempts Jamestown, Saint Mary’s Colonial Colonial record of at colonization Virginia City, Maryland population population contact established established reaches 380,000 reaches 700,000 AN ECOLOGY OF SIGNIFICANT ▫ 1649–Maryland’s Act ▫ 1700–African Americans of Toleration protects comprise half the region’s PEOPLE AND PLACE EVENTS Catholic, Protestant, workforce and forty ▫ and Quaker worship; percent of its population 1524–Giovanni da Act repealed in1654 Ⅺ PEOPLE Verrazano pens the ▫ 1707–Act of Union joins earliest written record of ▫ 1650–war and disease Scotland with England, As it had been for more than 12,000 contact in the region reduce regional Indian Wales and Ireland as ▫ population to 2,400, one- United Kingdom of Great years, the Chesapeake was an exclu- 1550 to 1575–Susquehan- tenth of pre-contact size; Britain nock immigrants from the Colonial population rises sively Indian world when European upper Susquehanna River ▫ 1717–America’s first thea- from zero to 13,000 ter opens in Williamsburg supplant Shenks Ferry during the same years navigators began making their first ten- culture people in the ▫ ▫ 1729–Baltimore, tative landings on North American lower Pennsylvania 1665–Charles II restores Maryland founded Piedmont royal prerogatives shores in the early 1500s (see Map 6, throughout his domain ▫ 1730–Lancaster, Pennsyl- ▫ 1571 to 1585–early vania established page 52). Unlike their ancestors, who ▫ 1675 to 1676–Susquehan- Spanish and English ▫ colonization attempts fail nocks dispersed and 1738 to 1745–Great Awak- lived at the mercy of the climate and ening religious revival ▫ Jamestown burned during the seasons, Late Woodland people 1600–Powhatan chiefdom Bacon’s Rebellion sweeps region develops along the James ▫ used their abilities to produce food, River Coastal Plain ▫ 1677–Treaty of Middle 1742–Richmond, Virginia is founded develop ever more sophisticated tools ▫ Plantation (now Williams- 1607–first successful burg) reduces Virginia’s ▫ English colony 1748–Petersburg, Virginia and weapons, and organize larger, Native American popula- founded established at tion to tributary status more efficient social and political or- Jamestown, Virginia ▫ 1749–Alexandria, Virginia ▫ 1681–William Penn ganizations to free themselves from ▫ 1612–Demand for Virginia established granted charter for ▫ 1750–colonial population complete dependence on their envi- tobacco grows in Europe Pennsylvania ▫ rises to 380,000 (African ronment. They built their communities 1619–enslaved Africans ▫ 1688–authority of first brought to the region Americans comprise more in clearings, surrounded by dense Commonwealth’s than one-third of ▫ 1634–Maryland founded parliamentary system population); Cooler and forests and bordering fresh and salt at Saint Mary’s City affirmed after James II wetter climatic regime, water wetlands. The larger of these ▫ 1638–Virginian trader deposed during the known as Little Ice-Age, Glorious Revolution begins around this time towns were fortified communities of as William Claiborne forcibly ejected from Maryland ▫ 1690 to 1720–Georgian ▫ 1762–Charlottesville, many as a hundred roundhouses and ▫ 1642 to 1649–Puritan architecture first Virginia founded long houses. These houses consisted of Parliamentarians and becomes model for high- ▫ 1764–first tax levies, style housing bark or grass covered sapling frames Crown fight the English collectively known as Civil War; Charles I is ▫ 1693–College of William Intolerable Acts, arouse (see Figure 17, page 53). executed and England and Mary founded in discontent throughout is declared a Common- Williamsburg region wealth in 1649 All Late Woodland towns were located ▫ 1695–Maryland moves ▫ 1767–survey completed on or close to well-drained, fertile soils. ▫ 1645–Protestant Parlia- capital to Annapolis on Mason-Dixon Line mentarians led by Richard between Maryland and Such soils were required by farmers ▫ 1699–Virginia’s capital Ingles seize and plunder moved from Jamestown to Pennsylvania growing corn, beans, squash, and Maryland during English Williamsburg ▫ Civil War. 1775–regional population tobacco. As in earlier Woodland times, reaches 700,000 their small fields had been slashed and An Ecology of People and Place 51 Map 6: Tribal Locations and Contact Archeological Sites SHENK FERRY CULTURE (1300-1550's) SUSQUEHANNOCKS (1550-1670's) CONOYS (1670-1750's) Middletown "Up" Conoy Town Bashore Island Brand Lancaster County Park Sus Billmyer qu Washington All Saints Cemetery e h Boro Complex Wrightsville an n Schultz-Funk a Conestoga Frey-Haverstrick Strickler Oscar Leibhart Roberts Shenks Byrd Leibhart R i v Ferry er r n i e a t v Long Green Creek S i Arrowhead n H u R and Sweathouse Farm G r o e y Branch O M c v W i a P Natural Area h K R t c a Catoctin Ridge t C er u o a O st o n ps T e o c h S o Riv e C M r er v Harper's Ferry Gap Heater's i Island Burle Kent R Sugar Loaf Island k Mountain Broadneck n a Thomas S t WICOMISSESp K o N h A C T NACOCHTANKS P iver Potomac River O Manassas Gap H ke R Nacochtank C in a NottinghamP t tico S n a n E u t a o u N K x M Thorofare Chicone O Belt Woods e n Gap n IC u t PISCATAWAYS Locust Neck T R R ll N r Little Marsh Creek i u v A e Piscataway v B Lazy Point e Battle Creek N i Complex NHL r S R Cypress Swamp Thornton Gap Taft O h C a I o Port Calvert Cliffs Preserve iver d M n Tobacco O a Jefferson-Patterson C n s P I oke R S e n Posey/Indian O Compton h i TO W E a M Cumberland S t Head Complex A K n R C ocom C P O u a H o p IE p Potomac Creek FD M M a O O h M e DeShazo C MANAHOACS annock Caledon g Yoacomaco- O d R i State Park Potomac Ri P R Germanna i ver St. Mary’s R a ver pi e r City NHL e da Ri v White Oak u n l B RA Point PPA Smith Montpelier H Island Camden A Chicacoan Complex S Forest NN C NHL OC O R Mt. Airy K Downing Tangier N ap S Island A pa H M ha Woodbury C O at nn Farm C ta o h C po ck Owings A ni R e R i s iv ve Virginia Rockfish Gap er r a Pa Indian Town Farm Coast m P p un A k M e Reserve ey S U a C Ri Pamunkey Indian N A v k er Reservation K OM EY e CC s B n Jame Wright Powhatan/ S A i s River ta Tree Hill Farm P O a n W u H y o AT M A N Yo e C rk g H R id Maycock's IE i Cape iver FD v e r R Point O Charles e M lu B MONACANS Kiser Jordan's Flowerdew Chickahominy attox R Journey Hatch Hundred Complex James River Gap Pasbehegh J ppom Fort Christanna am Governor's Land Cape A Charles es Henry Riv C. Steirly er Seashore Natural Area Natural Area Great Dismal Swamp LEGEND Archeological Site © National Natural Landmark ■ Natural or Cultural Feature National Historic Landmark Bay Plain 0 5 10 25 50 miles Piedmont 0 5 10 40 80 kilometers North 52 CHAPTER FIVE: CONTACT AND COLONIZATION KEY LOCALES (MAP 6) CONTACT Nottingham Roberts Jordan’s Journey ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES Piscataway Complex Schultz-Funk Kiser District of Columbia Port Tobacco Shenks Ferry Lazy Point Posey/Indian Head Complex Leedstown Bead Cache Nacochtank Strickler St. Mary’s City Washington Boro complex Little Marsh Creek Maryland Thomas Wrightsville Maycock’s Point Arrowhead Farm Mount Airy Broadneck Pennsylvania Virginia Owings Burle Billmyer Chicacoan complex Pamunkey Indian Reservation Chicone Brand Chickahominy complex Pasbehegh/Governor’s Land Compton Byrd Leibhart DeShazo Potomac Creek Cumberland Conestoga Downing Taft Ferguson Conoy Town complex Flowerdew Hundred Powhatan/Tree Hill Farm Heater’s Island Frey-Haverstick Hatch White Oak Point Jefferson-Patterson Lancaster County Park Indian Point Woodbury Farm Locust Neck Oscar Leibhart Indian Town Farm Wright burned from the forest floor. Groups of and York Rivers and the Potomac chief- families and friends from these towns dom in the Rappahannock and Potomac moved periodically to smaller camps to Valleys. Supported by priests and war- fish, hunt game, and gather shellfish and riors, these chiefdoms held sway over ter- wild plants in season. And entire com- ritories measuring many hundreds of munities relocated every ten or twenty square miles. Farther west in the years to new lands, when they had used Piedmont, Iroquoian speaking Susque- up the resources at their former site. hannock people moved south from the Concentrated within strictly defined upper Susquehanna River. By the late areas and surrounded by vast, uninhab- 1500s, they occupied the lands of a ited borderlands, these Native American nation known to archeologists as Shenks heartlands were widely separated islands Ferry people. To the south of these lands, of settlement in the otherwise unbroken Monacans, Manahoacs, and other expanses of the northeastern woodlands. Piedmont people found themselves increasingly at war with expanding Along the coast, many of these settle- Coastal Plain chiefdoms and the newly ments were linked into political units arrived Susquehannocks. These wars held together by powerful chiefs. Among came about when coastal chiefdom and the more influential of these units were Susquehannock warriors and hunters the Powhatan chiefdom along the James pressed into upland Piedmont forests in search of white-tailed deer, black bears, and other game animals far less numer- ous in their own homelands farther east.