Pocahontas Island, VA: Black–Indigenous Roots, War Captives, and the First Escapes from Enslavement

@Ronicaronica
21 hours ago
3 min read

Pocahontas Island—actually a peninsula along the Appomattox River in Petersburg, Virginia—holds one of America’s oldest African-American communities, with layers of Indigenous history entwined from prehistoric times through European colonization.

Indigenous Presence & Early Conflict

Archaeological evidence indicates Native occupation of the area dating back to 6500 B.C., inhabited by the Appomattoc and Powhatan peoples.

With the arrival of English settlers in the early 17th century, Native Americans—including prisoners of war—were enslaved and even exported to British colonies in the Caribbean.

These Indigenous captives represent the first people forced into bondage in English North America—predating the importation of Africans in 1619.

Pocahontas Island: From Tobacco Warehouses to Freedom Colony

Originally platted in 1749, Pocahontas Island became an economic hub, where tobacco warehouses employed enslaved labor starting around 1732.

Over time, a community of free Black residents emerged—by 1860, more free African Americans lived on the island than any other neighborhood in Petersburg or the South.

The island also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, thanks to its geography on the river.

Today, the Pocahontas Island Black History Museum preserves artifacts including shackles and trade records; its founder Richard Stewart—a lifelong island resident—is recognized as its modern-day griot.

The Best Part of Virginia

Indians as America’s First Slaves—and First Escapees

The Indigenous peoples enslaved in early Virginia—often captured in warfare—were effectively the first enslaved in the colonial Southeast. For more than a century in the south Indigenous slavery surpassed that of imported African enslavement. Some of these captives—lost to historical memory—were likely absorbed into Black-Indian mixed lineages as African chattel slavery expanded.

Native slavery formally ended in Virginia by 1705, but intermarriage, assimilation, and shared resistance blurred lines between Black and Indigenous identity by the slavery era.

Those Indigenous captives were also among the first to flee bondage—escaping into familiar terrain or crossing waterways like the Appomattox, which later served as escape routes for enslaved Africans.

Nas, Pocahontas, and the Legacy of Captive Ancestors

In a memorable appearance on Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., rapper Nas learned that his third-great-grandmother was named “Pocahontas,” a young Indian girl sold in 1859 for $830. Viewing the actual bill of sale, he described it as “a receipt for a human being,” visibly shaken.

While Nas’s Pocahontas is presumed "African" American, the name echoes Indigenous ancestry—raising the possibility that, like many Southern families, her genealogy carried intertwined Black (Africa) and Black Indigenous American descent, especially given the common colonial practice of enslaving captured Indians as laborers or domestic servants.

Comparing Communities & Histories

Community parallels: Pocahontas Island, like Nas’s family’s ancestral experience, shows how slavery did not fall neatly into separate categories. Many enslaved communities included Black, mixed-race, and Indigenous peoples.
First enslaved → first escapees: Indians captured in early colonial wars represent America's first enslaved people—but also the first who fled, setting a precedent for resistance that later shaped African American escape and survival strategies.
Freedom by water: The Appomattox
The Appomattox corridor on Pocahontas Island facilitated both commerce and escape—first for Indigenous captives familiar with the terrain, and later for enslaved African Americans via Underground Railroad networks.

Conclusion

Pocahontas Island encapsulates the intertwined legacies of Indigenous displacement, Black resilience, and the earliest structures of bondage in English America. It stands as both a memory landscape and a birthplace of freedom—where the first enslaved Indigenous captives crossed riverbanks unknown to English masters and where later generations found sanctuary on the same soil.

Just as Nas confronts ancestral truths tied to a captive named “Pocahontas,” the island challenges us to reconsider the origins of slavery and resistance in North America—and reminds us that the first captives were often also the first to fight for their freedom.

For further reading, explore the Pocahontas Island Black History Museum website and consider visiting the site in Petersburg, VA to trace these histories in person.

Links & Resources

Pocahontas Island Historic District (NRHP listing, Virginia DHR): includes updated significance noting Native-held land and Pamunkey families living on the island into the 19th century.

DHRVirginia.gov

Park Service article on early enslaved labor and free Black settlement.

National Park Service

Before Cowboy Carter blog: a contemporary overview of Native and Black heritage on Pocahontas Island.

beforecowboycarter.edublogs.org

Before Cowboy Carter blog: a contemporary overview of Native and Black heritage on Pocahontas Island.

beforecowboycarter.edublogs.org

History of Indian slave trade in colonial South and Virginia.

Wikipedia

PBS Finding Your Roots clip featuring Nas’s reaction to discovering his ancestor’s slavery.

YouTube

PBS