Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/396

* POWERS. 334 POWHATAN CONFEDERACY. moved to Ohio, where the boy first worked in a clock factory. Later he was employed for seven years to model and repair wax figines in a museum in Cincinnati. This occupation led to the making of wax portrait busts of leading men of the time, General Jackson, Daniel Vebster John 0. Calhoun, Chief Justice Marshall, and others which, being modeled from life, brought him into intimate relations with his famous subjects, especially with Webster at Marshfield. In 18.37 he carried the plaster easts of his busts to Italy, and to superintend their execution in marble," he established a studio in Florence, where he spent the rest of his life. Within a year he had completed a statue, "Eve Tempted," which met with the ajiproval of Thonvaldsen, and m 1843 he finished the well-known nude female statue, the "Greek Slave," of which many dupli- cates were made. A bust of "Proserpine." a statue of a "Fisher Bov" (1846), an "American" (18.54), and a "Californian" (1858), are in the same style as the "Greek Slave." He made also statues of Franklin (1862), in the Capitol at Washington, and "Jefferson" (1862), of Wash- ington for Louisiana, Webster for Massachu- setts, and Calhoun for South Carolina (IS-^O). His best work, however, is in busts. Among the best, besides those mentioned above as modeled in wax, are those of John Quincy Adams, ;Martin Van Buren (18.3.5), Edward Everett and John Preston (1845), Longfellow and General Sheri- dan (1865). He had a strong mind and was a realist by teniiierament, accustomed to face the facts of nature and to represent them in a truth- ful matter-of-fact waj'. Consult Tuckerman, Book of the Artists (New York, 1867). POWHATAN, pou'ha-tan' (c.1550-1618). A famous Indian sachem. His real name was Wahunsonacook. Powhatan being the name of his tribe. Captain John Smith ( q.v. ) described him in 1609 as a "tall, well-proportioned man. with a sower look, his head somewhat gray, his beard so thinne that it seemed none at all, his age neare sixtie, of a very able and hardy body to endure any labor." He was originally a chief or werowance of eight tribes, but gradually gained control over thirty out of the forty tribes in the surrounding country, and, for an Indian, lived with the greatest pomp and ceremony, generally having a guard of 200 warriors about him, and enforcing implicit obedience upon his followers. He lived part of the time at a village, Powhata. near the site of the present Richmond, and part of the time at another village, Worowocomoco, in the present Gloucester County, about fifteen miles from Jamestown. In 1607 he held Captain . John Smith as a prisoner for a time and was said to have condemned him to death and to have spared him on the intercession of Pocahon- tas (q.v,). In 1609 Smith and Captain Chris- topher Newport visited him to secure provisions, and formally crowned him, with much ceremony, as the 'Eniperor of the Indies.' Capt. Smith having attempted to capture him, he planned, in retaliation, the destruction of the English, who •were saved by the timely warning of Pocahon- tas. For the most part lie was very suspicious of the colonists, but during his later years lived on terms of peace with them. POWHATAN CONFEDERACY. A confed- eracy of Algonquian tribes of eastern Virginia, deriving its name from its organizer and ruling chief, Powhatan (q.v.). The territory of the confederacy comprised all of tidewater Virgniia from Chesapeake Bay inland to the falls of the principal rivers, or just west of a line drawn through Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Peters- burg, and may possibly have included also the Virginia counties on the eastern shore, although this may be considered doubtful. The tribes included within the confederacy were some thirty in number, of which the Pamunkey, Chieka- hominy, Nansemond, Nantaughtacund, Potomac, and Vicocoraoeo were the largest. Their t_otal population was estimated by Smith in 1607 at 2400 warriors, possibly 8000 souls, occupymg some 200 villages and small settlements along the streams. The confederacy as it then existed was of recent extension, all excepting those tribes adjoining the site of Richmond and upon the Pamunkey and its branches having been con- quered and annexed by Powhatan during his lifetime. It was not until the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 that continuous intercourse between the whites and the Powhatan tribes began. The first contact was generally friendly, but a hostile feeling soon sprang up between the two races, which was fast leading to open warfare when, on account of the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe, Powhatan was in- duced to make a treatv of peace and friendship with the English. This peace lasted until after his death in 1618, when his successor, Opechan- cano organized a conspiracy to drive the whites from the country. On March 22, 1022, the war began with a general massacre in which 347 persons perished and the majority of the scat- tered settlements were destroyed. A war of fourteen years' duration ensued, until both sides were exhausted, when peace was made in 1636. The greatest event of this war was the battle of Pamunkey in 1625, when Governor Wyatt engaged and defeated nearly 1000 Indi.ni warriors and destroyed the principal town of the confederacy. In 1644 Opechancano organized a second conspiracy, which began, as before, with a general attack" upon the settlements, resulting in the death of about 300 settlers. It was the last efl'ort against the invader. The Indians wore already decimated and impoverished and unable to folfow up their temporary advantage. Within a year the war -vx-as ended by the capture and death of the old chief, and each remaining tribe made what terms it could for itself, and the con- federacy came to an end. In 1069 a census showed" that the 2400 warriors of sixty years ago had been reduced to 528, a diminution from perhaps 8000 to aljout 1000 souls, or hardly one- fiftli the original number. In the war of Bacon's Rebellion. 1675-70. they were again luuited down like wild animals unti'l the fugitives took refuge in a palisaded fort near the site of Richmond. The fort was stormed, and men, women, and children massacred by the whites. Those who escaped were allowed to live on condition of an annual tril)ute from each village. In 1684 four chiefs attended as delegates at the making of a treaty at Albany by which the Iroquois agreed to cease* their attacks upon the Virginia remnants. This is their last prominent appearance in his- tory. In 1705 they had four towns, the largest bei"ng Pamunkey, with aljout 200 souls. There are now about 600 representatives of the old stock, living chiefly in four communities, viz.: Pamunkey, 140 persons, on a small State reserva-