Lower Chesapeake Bay

The lower Chesapeake receives the James, York and Rappahannock rivers before opening to the Atlantic between Cape Henry and Cape Charles. Its tidal waters touch the homelands of many Indigenous peoples, including communities of the Powhatan Confederacy. In 1607 three English ships entered the bay and sailed up the James to establish Jamestown. The rivers and inlets around the lower bay soon became the setting for trade, diplomacy and repeated conflict between the colonists and their neighbours.