Pocahontas Island, Virginia
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Pocahontas Island Historic District
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Pocahontas Island welcome sign
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| Location | Pocahontas, Witten, Rolfe, Logan, and Sapony Sts., Petersburg, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 37°14′19″N 77°23′59″W / 37.23861°N 77.39972°WCoordinates: 37°14′19″N 77°23′59″W / 37.23861°N 77.39972°W |
| Built | 1952 |
| Architect | Lee, William Edward, Jr. |
| Architectural style | Federal, Bungalow/Craftsman |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| VLR # | 123-0114 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 03, 2006 |
| Designated VLR | September 6, 2006 |
Pocahontas Island is a peninsula in Petersburg, Virginia; it is located on the north side of the Appomattox River. Archeological evidence has been found here of prehistoric Native American settlement dating from 6500 BC. The tribe occupied this area at the time of European-American settlement by English colonists.
In the 19th century, this area became notable as the first predominately free black settlement in the state and, by mid-19th century, one of the largest in the nation. In 1860 slightly more than half of Petersburg's population was black, and 3,224 or one-third of those people were free; they constituted the largest free black population of the time.
During the 20th century, the population declined as people moved north in the Great Migration. In 1975 residents secured renewed residential zoning to protect their neighborhoods from industrial development proposed by the city. The Pocahontas Island Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a historic district. It is significant both for its African-American history and prehistoric indigenous archeological assets.
Archaeological evidence of a prehistoric Native American community dated to 6500 BC has been found on the island. This is at the beginning of the Middle Archaic Period (6500 BC to 3000 BC) or end of Early Archaic Period (8000 BC to 6500 BC)
When English colonists first arrived in Virginia in 1607, the tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy had this area within their territory. English colonial settlement on the peninsula started in the 18th century. Some of the first enslaved Africans were brought here in 1732 to work in John Bolling's tobacco warehouses. Surveyors platted the land in 1749, and settlers named the village Wittontown. When formally organized as a town in 1752, it was renamed Pocahontas after the Native American daughter of Powhatan, who was important to colonial history and, together with her English husband, became an ancestor of numerous First Families of Virginia.
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