The Role Of Chief Powhatan's Contribution To The Death Of James Smith

Fifteen days after he was taken hostage, the Powhatan’s released him. Chief Powhatan wanted to make a statement: he could have killed Smith, but refrained because he has the power to do so. Jamestown immediately tried Smith for the death of his fellow colonists. However, he was never sentenced to death and his popularity rate shifted rapidly. By September 10, 1608, Smith assumed position of President in the Local Virginia Council King James I created the Royal Charter. Smith’s leadership saved Jamestown in its first two years, but was unable to make the Virginia company money. Nonetheless, he increased proficiency and work ethic in the colonies by enforcing the no work, no food policy. Towards the end of 1609, Smith suffered a bullet wound and sailed back to England never to return to North America. Arguably, his untimely contributed to the ultimate downfall of the Virginia Company because shortly after, the colony …show more content…
Many white men recruited natives to hunt for their family’s meat and supplied Natives with both weapons and ammunition to efficiently complete the task. Supplying Natives with weapons of any sort was outlawed, but order succumbed to greed. Unknowingly, the men who enlisted and supplied Native hunters contributed to the Indian Massacre of 1622 that ultimately ended with the King’s revoke of The Virginia Company’s Royal Charter. The Indian Massacre of 1622, led by the late Powhatan’s brother, Opechancanough, eventuated from tensions that existed before the death of Powhatan. Justly theorized, historians concluded that the Powhatans detested the white invaders from the beginning of English colonization in the Chesapeake Bay region. The Powhatan Confederacy out-numbered the invaders and could have demolished the population back in 1607, but Powhatan decided against it. Historians believed they feared the unknown: mechanized