Opechancanough [oh-peh-KAN-kuh-noh] barely seemed to notice. Because none of that was ever the real story. The real story was patience — the kind that outlasts governments, outlasts a body giving out, outlasts everyone’s guard going down. Today, that patience finally meets its moment. References Verified Historical & Scriptural References 1. William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, Vol. I. Primary compilation of Virginia’s surviving colonial laws. Essential for the October 1644 and February 1644/45 wartime legislation: military expenditures, requirements for dangerous settlements, the tobacco levy supporting Berkeley’s voyage and the purchase of powder, compensation for wounded soldiers, Pamunkey and Chickahominy campaign costs, monthly fasting and prayer, annual April 18 thanksgiving, the one-soldier-per-fifteen-tithables provision, construction of Fort Royal, Fort Charles and Fort James, employment of Accomac and Rappahannock Native assistance, and procurement of powder, shot and lead. Also contains the March 1646 peace/campaign legislation and the October 1646 Articles of Peace. Hening’s Statutes at Large, Volume I (USGenWebSites) 2. General Assembly of Virginia, “Treaty Ending the Third Anglo-Powhatan War” — October 1646. Primary text of the agreement with Necotowance. Verifies acknowledgment of the English Crown, appointment or confirmation of future Native rulers, Virginia’s promise of protection, annual tribute of twenty beaver skins, territory north of the York River, English settlement between the James and York, restrictions on movement by both English and Native people, designated messenger routes and striped-cloth identification. Transcription source: Hening, Vol. I, pp. 323–326. 1646 Treaty — Encyclopedia Virginia primary document (Encyclopedia Virginia) 3. Library of Virginia, “Treaty Between the English and the Powhatan Indians, October 1646.” Independent institutional transcription and historical background for the treaty and its reciprocal obligations, territorial provisions and political consequences. Library of Virginia — 1646 Treaty (Library of Virginia) 4. Danielle Moretti-Langholtz et al., National Park Service, A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century, Chapter 4. Major secondary study grounded heavily in colonial records. Verifies the 1644 war, hardest-hit frontier regions, English countercampaigns, Richard Kemp’s February 27, 1645 report, English reliance on mounted soldiers and Native intelligence, the ammunition shortage, efforts involving Rappahannock and Accomac assistance, the capture tradition, Pamunkey prisoners and their removal to Western/Tangier Island, and the construction of frontier forts. NPS Jamestown Study — Chapter 4 (NPS History) 5. National Park Service, A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century, Chapter 7. Chronological treatment placing Opechancanough’s capture, imprisonment and death in 1646 and documenting the March 1646 Assembly’s attempt to obtain peace before further campaigning. Important because its chronology differs from material associating the capture with 1645. NPS Jamestown Study — Chapter 7 (NPS History) 6. Helen C. Rountree, “Opechancanough (d. 1646),” Encyclopedia Virginia. Key modern scholarly biography. Verifies the early-1640s expansion of English settlement, Opechancanough’s 1644 coalition—including some Nansemond, Chickahominy, Weyanock and possibly others—the approximately 400 English deaths, withdrawal following the assault, Berkeley’s eventual expedition, capture at a fortified position far up the Pamunkey River, removal to Jamestown, the later Beverley spectacle tradition and Opechancanough’s death. Encyclopedia Virginia — Opechancanough (Encyclopedia Virginia) Ot enough space to list all references.
