Nansemond

The Nansemond lived along the river that bears their name, south of the James and near the waters later known as Hampton Roads. Their villages stood on both banks; fishing, oyster gathering, hunting and farming sustained a people who belonged to the Powhatan Confederacy. Across the sheltered harbor, the town of Norfolk would grow on the Elizabeth River.

Relations with the English at Jamestown soon became violent. In 1609 colonists raided the Nansemond leader's island, destroying sacred places and burial sites and taking valuables from their houses. As English settlement encroached during the seventeenth century, Nansemond communities were separated and displaced from their lands. Some remained along their river, while others moved toward the Nottoway; their descendants continued to identify as Nansemond.