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The history of Richmond, Virginia, as a modern city, dates to the early 17th century, and is crucial to the development of the colony of Virginia, the American Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. After Reconstruction, Richmond's location at the falls of the James River helped it develop a diversified economy and become a land transportation hub. ==17th century== Until 1609, Parahunt, the ''weroance'' of the Powhatan tribe, had his main capital on a high hill overlooking the falls of the James, shown as a "king's house" on the 1608 John Smith map. The Powhatan "proper" were one of the main constituent groups in the confederacy of the same name, and the river, in their language, was likewise known as the ''Powhatan''. The village where Richmond is now also went by the name of Powhatan (transcribed by William Strachey as Paqwachowng), as well as Shocquohocan. Soon after settling on Jamestown Island, a party of English under Captain Christopher Newport, during their next exploration up the James, first learned of the existence of this important site from the natives upon reaching Turkey Island on May 22, 1607. The falls marked the western frontier of the confederacy with its enemies, the Siouan Monocan tribe, and Newport soon became obsessed with this location and the idea of assisting the Powhatans against them militarily. The next day, while being entertained by a ''weroance'' at Arrahatec, the explorers were visited by Parahunt, whom by his title (''weroance Powhatan''), they mistook for his father, the paramount Chief Powhatan (Wahunsunacawh, who actually resided at Werowocomoco). Gabriel Archer, who wrote the fullest account of the visit to Parahunt’s village later that day, gave a vivid description of this inhabitation, which he called Pawatah's Tower. He reported that there were 12 houses on the hill, with various crops growing on the plain between the hill and the islands in the river, such as wheat, beans, peas, tobacco, pumpkins, gourds, hemp, and flax. The islands were planted with maize, and had six or seven families living on them. After meeting with the two ''weroances'' while the women provided them strawberries and mulberries, the Englishmen decided to visit the nearby waterfalls, found they could pass no farther in their pinnace, and anchored for the night between the islands and the village. The following day, Newport shared some of his ship's provisions, pork and peas, with Parahunt, and learned what he could of local geography and politics from him. As they were particularly eager to proceed beyond the falls, Parahunt agreed to meet them there, where he dissuaded Newport from going into Monacan country. Returning downriver, the Captain erected, on one of the islands, a cross reading ''Jacobus Rex, 1607'', declaring the country to be the possession of James I of England; however, he told his guide, Navirans, that the cross signified an alliance between himself and the ''weroance'' of Powhatan. Meeting Parahunt one last time, Newport presented him with a gown and an English hatchet, and returned to Jamestown. The English did not visit the falls again for a year and a half, although during this time they continued attempting to negotiate with the paramount Chief Powhatan for an assault on the Monacans. After Newport’s return from England in September 1608, he unilaterally took a party of 120 soldiers to the falls and explored the country beyond. This upset Chief Powhatan, and the natives at Powhatan village hid their corn, refusing to sell it. By a year later, in September 1609, Powhatan's people seemed in such awe of the colony’s then-President, Captain John Smith, that Smith felt emboldened to send another force of 120 men under Francis West to settle at the falls, in the district known as Rockett's.〔"(Richmond, Virginia )." ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.'' Retrieved on July 9, 2007.〕 Smith then personally came to "West Fort" and arranged to purchase the entire Indian village (about from the fort) from Parahunt for an amount of copper and an Englishman named Henry Spelman. Even so, the Powhatans did not fully appreciate that the English were now actually in possession of their fortified town (which Smith had renamed Nonsuch), and thus they began to harass the settlers, eventually forcing West to abandon the project and return to Jamestown. In fall 1610, Lord de la Warre (West’s brother) made a second attempt to build a fort at the falls, which managed to last all winter, but was then likewise abandoned. Following this, the English made no attempt to settle any higher than Henricus (in modern Chesterfield County), which lasted from 1611 until the Indian massacre of 1622. Following the Second Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644-45, the Powhatan tribes signed a peace treaty in 1646 ceding the settlers all territory below the Fall Line, from the Blackwater River to the York River. At this time, the colony built Fort Charles at the falls of the James, near where the legal frontier was for over half a century. After two years, the site of Fort Charles was relocated to ''Manastoh'' on the South Side of the river (later known as Manchester, Virginia), where the ground was considered slightly more fertile.〔Francis Earl Lutz, 1954, ''Chesterfield: An Old Virginia County'', p. 49.〕 In 1656 several hundred Nahyssans and Mahocks (Siouan groups) and Rechahecrians (possibly Erie) threatened both the Powhatans and the English by settling near the falls; a combined force of English and Pamunkeys was sent to dislodge them in a bloody battle near Richmond, where the Pamunkey ''weroance'' Totopotomoi was slain. Col. David Crawford, a Virginia Burgess 1692-94, owned much of the land in the latter 17th century that would become Richmond. By around 1699 or 1700, the Monacan had abandoned their closest settlement, ''Mowhemencho'', above the falls at Bernard's Creek — which was then repopulated with French Huguenot pioneers, to serve as a further buffer between the downriver English plantations and the native tribes. The name of the Huguenots' village survives today in that of the Richmond suburb of Manakin-Sabot, Virginia. In 1673, William Byrd I was granted lands on the James River that included the area around Falls that would become Richmond and already included small settlements. Byrd was a well-connected Indian trader in the area and established a fort on the site. William Byrd II inherited his father's land in 1704. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Richmond, Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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