Wahunsonacock (17 June 1545-1618), also known as Wahunsenacawh or as Chief Powhatan, was the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy from the 1590s to 1618, preceding Opitchapam.
Biography[]
Wahunsenacawh was born on 17 June 1545 to the Pamunkey tribe of Virginia, and he adopted the name of his birthplace, Powhatan, as his name. He inherited control of six tribes from his father during the 1590s and added additional tribes to his Powhatan Confederacy through force or intimidation, becoming the most powerful chief in eastern Virginia; he claimed responsibility for the massacre of the surviving Roanoke colonists after they had taken shelter with a rival tribe. Wahunsonacock's confederacy came to include 30 tribes and up to 15,000 people, and, in 1607, he was faced with a powerful new neighbor in the English colonists of Jamestown. Relations were uneasy between the tribes, and a fragile peace was maintained after Wahunsonacock allowed John Smith - an English explorer whose martial prowess he recognized during Smith's capture - to leave his settlement after his brother Opechancanough had captured him. In 1609, however, war broke out between the English and Powhatan, and the English destroyed the Kecoughtan and Paspahegh villages, while holding Henricus against Nemattanew's Indian attack. After the kidnapping of his daughter Pocahontas in 1613, Wahunsonacock was forced to make peace with the English, and he allowed her to marry the English tobacco planter John Rolfe in 1614 to keep the peace. Wahunsonacock died in 1618, and his warlike brother Opechancanough came to exercise control over the chiefdom, even while their brother Opitchapam was formally the new chief.
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