Voices from the Garden: The Virginia Women’s monument in Richmond VA
Randy Duchaine, Voices from the Garden: The Virginia Women’s monument in Richmond VA, 2022. Randy Duchaine / Alamy Stock Photo.
Cockacoeske grew up in the Pamunkey community on the banks of the Pamunkey River in the area known today as Virginia. No surviving records confirm her date of birth and there is no recorded information about the early decades of her life.
The Pamunkey people were members of the powerful Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom, which included thirty member communities. The first half of the 1600s brought significant changes for these allied Native American communities. The English founded the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. Colonists needed to establish peaceful ties with members of the Chiefdom to navigate and survive their new environment. The Pamunkey were skeptical of the English’s intentions and attacked Jamestown in 1609 and 1610. In 1614 Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief, married John Rolfe, a leader in the Virginia colony. This led to a brief peace between the two communities, which ended when the colonists expanded their tobacco plantations into Pamunkey territory.
Cockacoeske’s family were leaders of the resistance to colonization. In 1618 Opechancanough, who may have been her father, became the new chief of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. He led multiple attacks on English settlements. In 1646 the leader of the Virginia colony retaliated with an attack on Pamunkey Village. Opechancanough was captured and killed, ending the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. Other Pamunkey leaders, along with leaders of the other chiefdom communities, signed a treaty agreeing to end hostilities and pay annual tribute to the Virginia colony.
Cockacoeske’s husband Totopotomoi became the leader of the Pamunkey community around 1649. This is the first time Cockacoeske appears in the historic record. English settlers continued to intrude on Pamunkey lands, but Totopotomoi feared that the Pamunkey could not successfully fight back. Instead, he established diplomatic ties with the colonists and supported them in conflicts against other Native American communities.
In 1656 the English asked the Pamunkey for help driving out the neighboring Westo. Totopotomoi and one hundred Pamunkey warriors answered their call. In the violent battle that followed, Totopotomoi and nearly all the Pamunkey warriors were killed.
After Totopotomoi’s death, Cockacoeske became the leader of the Pamunkey. She continued her husband’s policy of maintaining a strong alliance with the English. Cockacoeske even entered a relationship with an Englishman named John West. John’s father and grandfather had both served as governor of Virginia, so this relationship gave Cockacoeske access to the upper levels of the colonial government. In 1656 or 1657 she gave birth to a son also named John West.
Cockacoeske’s diplomacy allowed the Pamunkey to live in peace for the next twenty years. But not all English colonists supported peaceful coexistence with Native American communities. In the spring of 1676 Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the governor after he refused to drive all the Native American people out of Virginia. This revolt is now called Bacon’s Rebellion.
Cockacoeske’s strong ties to the colonial government made her a target of the revolt. Nathaniel led a group of rebels to capture her in September of 1676. Cockacoeske anticipated the attack and fled upriver. Her life was saved, but her village was plundered.
Cockacoeske’s diplomacy allowed the Pamunkey to live in peace for the next twenty years.
To appease the rebels, the governor agreed to meet some of their demands. The General Assembly passed several laws that allowed for the enslavement of Native American people. They then asked Cockacoeske to appear before them to confirm her status as an ally. This put Cockacoeske in a difficult position. The General Assembly could provide protection but coming out of hiding would risk capture by Nathaniel’s supporters.
Cockacoeske appeared before the General Assembly in the early summer of 1676. She wore a crown made of wampum and a floor-length deerskin coat, clothing that projected her status to anyone watching. She was accompanied by her son John and an interpreter. She initially refused to sit down and speak, to show her displeasure. The all-male assembly tried to speak to her son instead, but he replied that they should direct all comments to his mother.
When Cockacoeske finally spoke, she emphasized the strong alliance between the Pamunkey and the English. She reminded the assembly that her people prized their alliance with the English so highly that she had lost her own husband in a fight alongside the colonists two decades earlier. During her passionate speech, she repeatedly cried out, “Tatapatamoi Chepiack,” Pamunkey for “Totopotomoi is dead.” She reminded the assembly that the English had failed to protect her husband and the hundred Pamunkey warriors, and that the Pamunkey community never received compensation for their loss.
The General Assembly was not swayed by Cockacoeske’s speech. They demanded she provide Pamunkey warriors to aid the colonists in their fight against other Native American communities. Cockacoeske reluctantly agreed. But she also understood that she could not count on the General Assembly’s protection any longer. She returned to her hiding place and prepared for another attack.
Cockacoeske and the Pamunkeys retreated with other Powhatan communities. When the English rebels found them, Cockacoeske held off an attack as long as she could, still hoping to preserve her alliance with the English. The rebels attacked and took several captives. Cockacoeske escaped. Nathaniel pursued her for several days, yelling out for Cockacoeske to surrender. Cockacoeske was still in hiding in October when she learned that Nathaniel had died, and that King Charles II wanted to resume their alliance. He invited Cockacoeske to make a new treaty.
Cockacoeske participated in extended treaty negotiations with the king’s representatives. She fought for protection against the enslavement of the Powhatan people. The English agreed to not imprison the leaders of Powhatan communities, return the lands they had taken from the Pamunkeys, and release the members of her community that were still held captive.
On May 29, 1677, Cockacoeske signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation on behalf of the Pamunkeys and several other Powhatan communities. The signing was celebrated with cannon shots and fireworks. Cockacoeske knelt to kiss the treaty as a sign of respect and celebration. She successfully kept her people safe and restored the alliance with the English colonists. She continued to lead the Pamunkeys until her death in 1686.
Vocabulary
- captive: A person who has been taken prisoner.
- diplomacy: The management of relations between different countries or communities.
- General Assembly: The governing body in the Virginia colony.
- Pamunkey: An Indigenous community in Virginia that was the largest member of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. Today, there is a Pamunkey community in Virginia.
- Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom: A political alliance of Algonquian-speaking Indigenous communities in Virginia.
- treaty: A written agreement between different countries or communities.
- tribute: Payment made to a ruler.
- wampum: Small beads made from quahog shells and whelk shells. The beads had important symbolic significance in many Indigenous communities in the Northeast region of North America, and European traders used them to facilitate the fur trade with those communities.
- Westo: An Indigenous community that spoke Iroquoian and lived in the southeastern United States. Today there is a Westo community in South Carolina.
Discussion Questions
- How did Cockacoeske protect her community? What challenges did she face?
- How did Cockacoeske assert her authority during negotiations with the English?
- What does Cockacoeske’s story reveal about the relationships between Native American communities and English colonists in the 1600s?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 2.5 Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans
- Include this life story in a lesson about the early years of the Virginia Colony. Cockacoeske’s story highlights the experiences of Native American communities during English colonization.
- Pair this life story with Depictions of Pocahontas, another well-known Powhatan woman. How were both women’s lives changed by the arrival of the English in Virginia? How and why do their stories differ?
- Explore how other Indigenous women led their communities during early colonization by teaching this life story alongside any of the following:
- Combine this life story with Life Story: Elizabeth Key Grinstead and Life Story: Lady Frances Berkeley to consider the varying experiences of women of different racial backgrounds in colonial Virginia.
- Indigenous people across the Americas had a variety of responses to the arrival of European colonizers. Combine this life story with any of the following for a broader view of Indigenous women during colonization:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS
