On March 22 , 1622 , Opchanacanough , head of the Powhatan Confederacy , began the Second Anglo-Powhatan War with a coordinated series of attacks against English settlements along the James River , known in English histories as the Indian massacre of 1622 . Nine colonists were killed at Berkeley . The assault took a heavier toll elsewhere , killing about a third of all the colonists , and virtually wiping out Wolstenholme Towne on Martin 's Hundred and Sir Thomas Dale 's progressive development and new college at Henricus . Jamestown was spared through a timely warning and became the refuge for many survivors who abandoned outlying settlements . A myth about the March 22 date was that it occurred on Good Friday . This is incorrect
Indian massacre of 1622
Indian massacre of 1622
Berkeley Hundred