https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre_of_1622
"At first, the natives were glad to trade provisions to the colonists for metal tools, but by 1609 the English governor, John Smith, had begun to send in raiding parties to demand food. This earned the colonists a bad reputation among the Native Americans and precipitated conflict.[3] They isolated the Native Americans, burned down houses, and stole their food supplies.[4] The English violence alienated the natives further and they laid siege to the Jamestown fort for several months. Unable to secure more food supplies, many colonists died during the "starving time" in 160910.[5]
The London Company's primary concern was the survival of the colony. In England's best interest, the colonists would have to maintain civil relations with the Powhatan. The Powhatan and the English realized that they could benefit from each other through trade once peace was restored.
[...]
In 1610 the London Company instructed Gates, the newly appointed colonial governor, to christianise the natives and absorb them into the colony.[9] As for Chief Powhatan, Gates was told, "If you finde it not best to make him your prisoner yet you must make him your tributary, and all the other his weroances[subordinate chiefs] about him first to acknowledge no other Lord but King James".[8]
When Gates arrived at Jamestown, he decided to evacuate the settlement because he thought the government's plan was not feasible. As the colonists were about to leave the Bay and head out into the open sea, they were met by the incoming fleet of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr. Taking command as governor, de la Warre ordered the fort reoccupied. He plotted conquest of the surrounding tribes.[8]
In July 1610 he sent Gates against the Kecoughtan people. "Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance act by his drummer, and then slaughtered them".[8] This was the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
[...]
Opchanacanough and Nemattanew began to predispose plans for the unavoidable war. Having recovered from their defeat commanding Pamunkeywarriors during the First Anglo-Powhatan War, they planned to shock the English with an attack that would leave them contained in a small trading outpost, rather than expanding throughout the area with new plantations.[11] In the spring of 1622, after a settler murdered his adviser Nemattanew, Opchanacanough launched a campaign of surprise attacks on at least 31 separate English settlements and plantations, mostly along the James River, extending as far as Henricus."
But sure, it was all just an unprovoked attack by those savages.
