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At 11 am on Saturday, September 7, Buck Woodard, Ph.D. will present on “Cosmological Considerations of the 1622 Indigenous Attack in Tidewater Virginia”.

“In the spring of 1622 Chief Opechancanough organized a massive, coordinated attack against the English colonials entrenched at James Fort and settled across nascent plantations along the Powhatan [James] River. Mingling amongst the settlers and servants, the Algonquians pretended friendship and alliance, waking with Englishmen for breakfast, arriving with fresh game for the household, and preparing to work in the fields or alongside the colonials with their livestock. In the morning hours, the Algonquians surprised the hamlet residents, attacking and killing over 300 men, women, and children. No farm was spared. Survivors retreated to James Fort. Questions emerge about the impetus for the massive culling and how so many warriors were able to coordinate simultaneous attacks along the 100 miles of riverfront settlements. This paper examines the Indigenous cosmology that justified the English slaughter as well as the Native cultural logic that directed the appropriate timing for the annihilation.”

Buck Woodard, Ph.D.
William & Mary