Powhatan and His Wives

Many Children of the Chief

Apr 5, 2006

Powhatan has many wives but only keeps each wife until she bears him a child. All of his wives are temporary. He also retained a large group of bodyguards.

Powhatan was a man well into his sixties when the first of the Jamestown settlers made their appearance into his world. What these Englishmen saw when meeting this bronze leader was a tall man, still well muscled in spite of his age. His hair was long and gray. There were wisps of a beard covering his chin. His clothing was no different from that of the men who served under him, consisting of a plain breechcloth made of deerskin. His moccasins, too, were constructed of undecorated hide. Over his shoulders would be a mantle of raccoon.

However simply this chief might be attired, when the whites visited him at his town of Werowocomoco they would encounter a ruler seated on his elevated throne, not unlike the crowned heads of Europe. He would be surrounded by his chief councilors as well as his bodyguard, which numbered some 40 bowmen. Also not unlike some kings of other lands, Powhatan would also have at his side the best and most attractive of his 100 wives.

Powhatan had numerous children by many different wives but the strange situation was that all of his children were half brothers and sisters. No two, it is believed, were full siblings. Powhatan married each wife only temporarily, as did the chiefs below him. He would keep a wife until she bore him a child. When this was accomplished that wife and her child would be sent back to her own people. At a later date the child would be sent back to Powhatan's court and the woman would no longer be Powhatan's wife. She was then free to remarry. And it was not a matter of one temporary wife gracing his home at a time. He would have many of these temporary wives in his court at one time, most of them in one stage or the other of pregnancy.

Debelius, Mary. The American Indians: The European Challenge. Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1992.

Hoxie, Frederick E., Editor. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1996.

The copyright of the article Powhatan and His Wives in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Powhatan and His Wives in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.