It is early spring 1644, and Europeans are fighting Indians in New Netherland and Maryland. In Virginia, though, it is quiet. It has been twelve years since the Second Anglo-Powhatan war ended after a decade of fighting that began the day the sky fell, March 22, 1622.  On that date Opechancanough sprung his colony-wide ambush of the English settlements along the James.  Indian soldiers loyal to the Powhatan confederacy killed almost four hundred English and other European settlers on that day, and many more in the years that followed. But peace had come in 1632, and despite occasional crises that might have triggered war, the old chief had kept that peace.  We covered Opechancanough and the Second Anglo-Powhatan War in three episodes more than a year ago, “Who Was Opechancanough?,” “Opechancanough’s War,” and “After the Sky Fell,” which are definitely useful background if you have not listened to them, or haven’t listened to them in some time.

The peace would end on April 18, 1644, and that is the story of this episode.

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Selected references for this episode

James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America

Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown

Robert Beverley, The History & Present State of Virginia