american-holocaust

PESTILENCE AND GENOCIDElOSfered by Indian mothers and fathers when separated from their offspring,Smith and Lane made it a practice to kidnap and hold hostage Indianchildren whenever they approached a native town. 31 As for those Englishmenamong them who might be tempted to run off and live with the Indians,the colonial governors made it dear that such behavior would notbe tolerated. For example, when in the spring of 1612, some young Englishsettlers in Jamestown "being idell ... did runne away unto the Indyans,"Governor Thomas Dale had them hunted down and executed:"Some he apointed to be hanged Some burned Some to be broken uponwheles, others to be staked and some to be shott to deathe." 32This was the treatment for those who wished to act like Indians. Forthose who had no choice in the matter, because they were the native peopleof Virginia, the tone had been set decades earlier in the "lost colony"of Roanoke. There, when an Indian was accused by an Englishman ofstealing a cup and failing to return it, the English response was to attackthe natives in force, burning the entire community and the fields of cornsurrounding it. 33Such disproportionate responses to supposed affronts was to mark Englishdealings with the Indians throughout the seventeenth century. Thus,in Jamestown in the summer of 1610, Governor Thomas West De Ia Warrrequested of the Indian chief Powhatan (Wahunsonacock) that he returnsome runaway Englishmen-presumably to be hanged, burned, "brokenupon wheles," staked, and shot to death-whom De Ia Warr thought Powhatanwas harboring. Powhatan responded in a way that De Ia Warrconsidered unsatisfactory, giving "noe other than prowde and disdaynefullAnswers." So De Ia Warr launched a military campaign against Powhatanheaded by George Percy, the brother of the Earl of Northumberland andDe la Warr's second in command. Here is Percy's own description of whathe did:Draweinge my sowldiers into Battalio placeinge a Capteyne or Leftenante attevery fyle we marched towards the [Indians'] Towne .... And then we fellin upon them putt some fiftene or sixtene to the Sworde and Almost all thereste to flyghte. . . . My Lieftenantt bringeinge with him the Quene and herChildren and one Indyann prisoners for the Which I taxed him becawse hehad Spared them his Answer was thatt haveinge them now in my Custodie Imight doe with them whatt I pleased. Upon the same I cawsed the Indianshead to be cutt of. And then dispersed my fyles Apointeinge my Sowldiersto burne their howses and to cutt downe their Corne groweinge aboutt theTowne. 34With the Indians thus dead or dispersed, their village destroyed, and theirfood supplies laid waste, Percy sent out another raiding party to do thesame to another Indian town and then marched back to his boats with theIndian "queen" and her children in tow. There, however, his soldiers "did