Opening the Southwest: Anglo-Native Trade in Colonial Virginia, 1646–1718

The Indian trade, although present from Virginia's beginning, provided a new avenue for Anglo-Indian interaction in the post-1646 period, and the record reveals that the trade was contentious and often violent. This paper will contend Virginia played a vital role in the emergence of the Indian trade empires that dominated the Southeast. Indian trade shaped Virginia colonial legislation and Anglo-Indian interaction by determining settlement patterns, diplomacy, and social connections between colonists and Indians. While Virginia's role in the Indian trading networks declined significantly by the demise of the short-lived Virginia Indian Company in 1718, the years between the 1646 Peace with Necotowance and the end of the company led to a structuring of Anglo-Indian relations that fundamentally set the stage for future Anglo-colonial control of Indian trade and interaction in the colonies of Carolina and Georgia.