When the English colonists arrived in 1607, they landed in Paspahegh Country, which extended westward along the shore of the James River to the Chickahominy River and beyond. The Native Americans who lived here were Algonquin speakers who fished, foraged, farmed, and hunted for a living. Archaeological excavations at the Paspahegh Settlement Site indicate that the English encountered a well-established town, consisting of residences, warehouses, and temples scattered loosely across the landscape, that may have been home to as many as 620 people. Thousands of artifacts, including pottery, projectile points, and copper ornaments, document Paspahegh life during the Late Woodland period (AD 1000 to 1600) and offer insight into the social, economic, and political worlds in which they lived. Faunal and skeletal remains show that the Paspahegh were relatively healthy and that their diet consisted largely of corn, although they ate a variety of wild foods, including nuts, small grains, fruits, deer, small mammals, reptiles, and fish. Given their proximity to Jamestown, the Paspahegh were early and convenient trading partners for the English, but in 1610 the colonists raided the Paspahegh town, killing nearly all of its residents, burning their residences, and destroying their crops. The Paspahegh who survived were forced to abandon their territory and seek refuge in other Indian nations.
