“We Should Sowe and Reape in Peace”: Algonquian Foundations of Colonial Insecurity in the Correspondence of the Virginia Company

This article explores a case study in the history of writing about violence and destruction by examining early seventeenth century English reports concerning colonization in the Algonquian territories of the Chesapeake Bay region. An analysis of archival and printed documents from the Virginia Company of London shows that moral insecurity plagued the company members as they tried to use natural law and Roman law to justify colonization. These documents also reveal that the actions of the Powhatans and other Algonquian nations shaped this atmosphere of insecurity, doubt, and ambiguity. This article argues that from the first Anglo-Powhatan meetings in 1607 to the dissolution of the company in 1624, the company approached colonial governance and its relations with Algonquian-speaking peoples in the context of Roman law and natural law based on the principles of conquest, commerce, and occupation. These three concepts both reinforced and caused profound uncertainty for English expansionism in Algonquian territories, contributing to a tradition of scepticism toward imperial violence.