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99-652: 37°32′21.4″N 77°29′46″W  /  37.539278°N 77.49611°W  / 37.539278; -77.49611 Powhite Parkway Bridge crosses the James River in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia . It carries the Powhite Parkway, also known as Virginia State Route 76 . The bridge is owned and maintained by the Richmond Metropolitan Authority , and was funded with revenue bonds which are repaid from user tolls . There

198-519: A ceremony was held to thank the bear for "giving" up its life to them. One study of the Ojibwe women who married French fur traders maintained that the majority of the brides were "exceptional" women with "unusual ambitions, influenced by dreams and visions—like the women who become hunters, traders, healers and warriors in Ruth Landes 's account of Ojibwe women". Out of these relationships emerged

297-563: A fierce rivalry grow between France and Great Britain as each European power struggled to expand their fur-trading territories. The two imperial powers and their native allies competed in conflicts that culminated in the French and Indian War , a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe. The 1659–1660 voyage of French traders Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers into

396-477: A gap between demand and supply and to a higher equilibrium in terms of supply. Data from the trading posts show that the supply of beavers from the Aboriginals was price-elastic and therefore traders responded with increased harvests as prices rose. The harvests were further increased due to the fact that no tribe had an absolute monopoly near any trade and most of them were competing against each other to derive

495-543: A growing trade in the French and later British territories in the 17th century. The transition from a seasonal coastal trade into a permanent interior fur trade was formally marked with the foundation of Quebec on the Saint Lawrence River in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain , officially establishing the settlement of New France . This settlement marked the beginning of the westward movement of French traders from

594-453: A hunt should occur, particularly prohibitions against needless killing of deer. There are specific taboos against taking the skins of unhealthy deer. But the arrival of the lucrative, European deerskin trade prompted some hunters to abandon tradition and act past the point of restraint they had operated under before. The hunting economy collapsed because of the scarcity of deer as they were over-hunted and lost their lands to white settlers. As

693-599: A large portion of the National Defense Reserve Fleet , called the "James River fleet" or the "ghost fleet", consisting of " mothballed " ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises. The fleet is managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation 's Maritime Administration and

792-512: A series of small fortifications, beginning with Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario in 1673. Together with the construction of Le Griffon in 1679, the first full-sized sailing ship on the Great Lakes, the forts opened the upper Great Lakes to French navigation. More native groups learned about European wares and became trading middlemen, most notably the Ottawa . The competitive impact of

891-663: A significant effect on the social behavior of Native Americans. Under the influence of rum, the younger generation did not obey the elders of the tribe and became involved with more skirmishes with other tribes and white settlers. Rum also disrupted the amount of time the younger generation of males spent on labor. Alcohol was one of the goods provided on credit, and led to a debt trap for many Native Americans. Native Americans did not know how to distill alcohol and thus were driven to trade for it. Native Americans had become dependent on manufactured goods such as guns and domesticated animals, and lost much of their traditional practices. With

990-512: A survey identified 175 sturgeon remaining in the entire river, with 15 specimens exceeding 5 feet (1.5 m). Due to its potential for generating mechanical power for rotating machinery such as grist mills, hydroelectric power, and as a water route for trade, many dams have been built across the James River since the time of European settlement of the region. While most of these dams have been removed or failed, several dams still exist along

1089-401: A very slow return. The first revenues from fur sales in Europe did not arrive until four or more years after the initial investment. These economic factors concentrated the fur trade in the hands of a few large Montreal merchants who had available capital. This trend expanded in the 18th century and reached its zenith with the great fur-trading companies of the 19th century. Competition between

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1188-666: A woman from one of these kinship networks would make a fur trader into a member of these networks, thereby ensuring that Indians belonging to whatever clan the trader had married into were more likely to deal only with him. Furthermore, the fur traders discovered that the Indians were more likely to share food, especially during the hard months of winter, to those fur traders who were regarded as part of their communities. One fur trader who married an 18-year old Ojibwe girl describes in his diary his "secret satisfaction at being compelled to marry for my safety". The converse of such marriages

1287-503: Is a lack of critical discussion on other factors such as beaver population dynamics, the number of animals harvested, nature of property rights, prices, role of the English and the French in the matter. The primary effect of increased French competition was that the English raised the prices they paid to the Aboriginals to harvest fur. The result of this was greater incentive for Aboriginals to increase harvests. Increased price will lead to

1386-679: Is based in Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is a different entity from the United States Navy reserve fleets , which consist largely of warships. North American fur trade Europeans began their participation in the North American fur trade from the initial period of their colonization of the Americas onward, bringing the financial and material gains of the trade to Europe. European merchants from France , England and

1485-417: Is likely that the women were in fact acting with the approval of their menfolk. Henry claims that he had left at once out of the fear of violence from jealous Ojibwe men, but it seemed more likely that he was afraid that his French-Canadian voyageurs might enjoy themselves too much with the Ojibwe women at this one village and would not want to travel further west. American historian Bruce White describes

1584-684: Is no bridge toll to cross the Powhite Parkway Bridge, however the toll plazas located south of the bridge prohibit drivers from crossing the bridge without paying a Powhite Parkway toll. This article about a bridge in Virginia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . James River (Virginia) The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from

1683-593: Is now southern Ontario being bordered on three sides by Lake Ontario , Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay , and it was through Wendake that the Ojibwe and Cree who lived further north traded with the French. In 1649, the Iroquois made a series of raids into Wendake that were intended to destroy the Wendat as a people with thousands of Wendat taken to be adopted by Iroquois families with the rest being killed. The war against

1782-555: Is the last bridge east of the Deepwater Port of Richmond and head of ocean-going navigation at the fall line of the James River. West of this point, potential flooding is more of an engineering concern than clearance for watercraft. The following is a list of extant highway bridges across the James River with one or both ends within the City of Richmond. The following is a partial, incomplete list of extant highway bridges across

1881-558: The Métis people whose culture was a fusion of French and Indian elements. Indian men were the trappers who killed the animals for their furs, but normally it was the women who were in charge of the furs that their menfolk had collected, making women into important players in the fur trade. Indian women normally harvested the rice and made the maple sugar that were such important parts of the traders' diets, for which they were usually paid with alcohol. Henry mentions how at one Ojibwe village,

1980-604: The Central Plains . While some historians dispute the claims that the competition was predominantly responsible for over-exploitation of stocks, others have used empirical analysis to emphasize the changing economic incentives for Indigenous hunters and role of the Europeans in the matter. Calvin Martin holds that there was a breakdown of the relationship between man and animal among some Indigenous hunters who, adapting to

2079-736: The Compagnie des Cent-Associés went bankrupt, New France was taken over by the French Crown. King Louis XIV wanted his new Crown colony to turn a profit and dispatched the Carignan-Salières Regiment to defend it. In 1666, the Carignan-Salières Regiment made a devastating raid upon Kanienkeh, which led the Five Nations to sue for peace in 1667. The era from roughly 1660 through 1763 saw

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2178-533: The Company of Habitants in the 1640s and 1650s, permitting a small group of investors within Canada an initial hold on the monopoly but then quickly pulling back and limiting trading and investment within the colony. While the monopolies dominated the trade, their charters also required payment of annual returns to the national government, military expenditures, and expectations that they would encourage settlement for

2277-466: The Dakota , who were the enemies of the Ojibwe at the time. Likewise, the fur trader Alexander Henry in visiting an Ojibwe village in what is now Manitoba in 1775 described the "facility with which the women abandoned themselves to my Canadiens " to such an extent that he believed it would cause violence as the Ojibwe men would become jealous, causing him to order his party to leave at once, though it

2376-513: The Dutch Republic established trading posts and forts in various regions of eastern North America, primarily to conduct trade transactions with First Nations and local communities. The trade reached its peak of economic prominence in the 19th century, by which time the entire operation was fueled by seasoned trails, the knowledge and experiences of numerous frontiersmen and the system of elaborate trade networks. The trade soon became one of

2475-1068: The Elizabeth River and the Nansemond River join the James River to form the harbor area known as Hampton Roads . Between the tip of the Virginia Peninsula near Old Point Comfort and the Willoughby Spit area of Norfolk in South Hampton Roads , a channel leads from Hampton Roads into the southern portion of the Chesapeake Bay and out to the Atlantic Ocean a few miles further east. Many boats pass through this river to import and export Virginia products. The James River contains many parks and other recreational attractions. Canoeing, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and swimming are some of

2574-601: The Kanawha River , a tributary of the Ohio River . For the most mountainous section between the two points, the James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to provide a portage link for wagons and stagecoaches. However, before the canal could be fully completed, in the mid-19th century, railroads emerged as a more practical technology and eclipsed canals for economical transportation, ending the canal's progress at Eagle Rock . The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O)

2673-665: The Saint Lawrence River . He concentrated on trading for furs used as trimming and adornment. He overlooked the fur that would become the driving force of the fur trade in the north, the beaver pelt, which would become fashionable in Europe. The earliest European trading for beaver pelts dated to the growing cod fishing industry that spread to the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic in the 16th century. The new preservation technique of drying fish allowed

2772-565: The confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson rivers in the Appalachian Mountains . It flows into the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads . Tidal waters extend west to Richmond at the river's fall line (the head of navigation ). Larger tributaries draining to the tidal portion include the Appomattox River , Chickahominy River , Warwick River , Pagan River , and the Nansemond River . At its mouth near Newport News Point,

2871-558: The pays d'en haut . Champlain supported the northern groups in their preexisting military struggle with the Iroquois Confederacy to the south. He secured the Ottawa River route to Georgian Bay , greatly expanding the trade. Champlain also sent young French men to live and work among the natives, most notably Étienne Brûlé , to learn the land, language, and customs, as well as to promote trade. Champlain reformed

2970-486: The "nations of the north" which was attended by Ojibwe, Dakota, and Assiniboine leaders, where it was agreed that the daughters and sons of the various chiefs would marry each other to promote peace and ensure the flow of French goods into the region. The French fur trader Claude-Charles Le Roy writes that the Dakota had decided to make peace with their traditional enemies, the Ojibwe, in order to obtain French goods that

3069-523: The "overall grade of the State of the James has improved to a B with a score of 66% from its failing health decades ago." The James River drains a catchment comprising 10,432 square miles (27,020 km ). The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people (2000). The James River forms near Iron Gate on the border between Alleghany and Botetourt counties, from

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3168-644: The 1620s, the Iroquois had become dependent upon iron implements, which they obtained by trading fur with the Dutch at Fort Nassau (modern Albany, New York ). Between 1624 and 1628, the Iroquois drove out their neighbors, the Mahican, to allow themselves to be the one people in the Hudson river valley able to trade with the Dutch. By 1640, the Five Nations had exhausted the supply of beavers in Kanienkeh ("the land of

3267-671: The 1960s and 1970s, mishandling and dumping of the insecticide Kepone resulted in the contamination of large stretches of the James River estuary downstream of the Allied Signal Company and LifeSciences Product Company plants in Hopewell, Virginia . Because of the pollution, sections of the river were considered "dead" and unfit for human use, and many businesses and restaurants along the river suffered economic losses. In December 1975 Virginia Governor Mills Godwin Jr. shut down

3366-403: The English and the French was disastrous on the beaver population. The status of beavers changed dramatically as it went from being a source of food and clothing for Indigenous peoples to a vital good for exchange with the Europeans. The French were constantly in search of cheaper fur and trying to cut off Indigenous middleman which led them to explore the interior all the way to Lake Winnipeg and

3465-477: The Five Nations once and for all, and to teach them to respect the "grandeur" of France. The repeated French raids took their toll with the Mohawk who could field about 300 warriors in the 1670s to able to field only 170 warriors in the summer of 1691. The Iroquois struck back by making raids into New France with the most successful being a raid on Lachine in 1689 that killed 24 Frenchmen while taking 80 captives, but

3564-434: The French took an ambivalent attitude towards the Iroquois push west. On one hand, having the Five Nations at war with other nations prevented those nations from trading with the English at Albany, while on the other hand, the French did not want the Iroquois to become the only middlemen in the fur trade. But as the Iroquois continued to win against the other nations, they prevented French and Algonquin fur traders from entering

3663-577: The Hudson Bay. Their success led to England's chartering of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, a major player in the fur trade for the next two centuries. French exploration and expansion westward continued with men such as La Salle and Jacques Marquette exploring and claiming the Great Lakes as well as the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. To bolster these territorial claims, the French constructed

3762-590: The Hudson's Bay Company competition. At the same time, the English presence in New England grew stronger, while the French were occupied with trying to combat the coureurs de bois and allied Indians from smuggling furs to the English for often higher prices and higher quality goods than they could offer. In 1675, the Iroquois made peace with the Machian while finally defeating the Susquenhannock . In

3861-480: The Hudson's Bay Company show this trend. The English and French had very different trading hierarchical structures. The Hudson's Bay Company had a technical monopoly of the beaver trade within the drainage basin of Hudson Bay while the Compagnie d'Occident was given a monopoly of the beaver trade farther south. The English organized their trade on strictly hierarchical lines while the French used licenses to lease

3960-447: The Iroquois finally made peace with the French in 1667, one of the terms was the French had to hand over all of the Wendat who had fled to New France. The Iroquois had already clashed with the French in 1609, 1610 and 1615, but the "beaver wars" caused a lengthy struggle with the French who had no intention of allowing the Five Nations to set themselves up as the only middlemen in the fur trade. The French did not fare well at first, with

4059-463: The Iroquois inflicting more casualties then they suffered, French settlements frequently cut off, canoes bringing fur to Montreal intercepted, and sometimes the Iroquois blockaded the Saint Lawrence. New France was a proprietary colony run by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés who went bankrupt in 1663 because of the Iroquois attacks which made the fur trade unprofitable for the French. After

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4158-503: The Iroquois, who had a predatory attitude towards their neighbors even at the best of times, constantly raiding neighboring peoples in "mourning wars" in search of captives who would become Iroquois, were determined to be the only middlemen between the Europeans and the other Indians who lived in the West, and quite consciously set about eliminating any rivals as such as the Huron (Wendat). By

4257-421: The James River to fishing for 100 miles, from Richmond to the Chesapeake Bay . This ban remained in effect for 13 years, until efforts to clean up the river began to show results. A decade of accumulated silt, lying above the contaminated riverbed, helped to reduce levels of the chemical. Since the 1970s, the health of the James River has improved substantially. The Chesapeake Bay Agreement of 1983, signed by

4356-602: The James River west of Richmond. The Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel prohibits bicycles, but bicyclists may take the Jamestown Ferry . After a fatal accident on the Boulevard Bridge , the City of Richmond requires bicycles to travel on the sidewalk for the length of the bridge. The James River Reserve Fleet is the anchorage ( 37°07′13″N 76°38′47″W  /  37.120393°N 76.646469°W  / 37.120393; -76.646469 ) for

4455-578: The James River. The Native Americans who populated the area east of the Fall Line in the late 16th and early 17th centuries called the James River the Powhatan River , named for the Powhatans who occupied the area. The Jamestown colonists who arrived in 1607 named it "James" after King James I of England as they constructed the first permanent English settlement in the Americas along

4554-534: The Mississippi River valley, and the Ottawa showed signs of finally making an alliance with the Five Nations, in 1684, the French declared war on the Iroquois. Otreouti in an appeal for help correctly noted: "The French will have all the beavers and are angry with us for bringing you any". Starting in 1684, the French repeatedly raided Kanienkeh, burning crops and villages as Louis gave orders to "humble"

4653-498: The Native Americans in debt. Traders would rig the weighing system that determined the value of the deerskins in their favor, cut measurement tools to devalue the deerskin, and would tamper with the manufactured goods to decrease their worth, such as watering down the alcohol they traded. To satisfy the need for deerskins, many males of the tribes abandoned their traditional seasonal roles and became full-time traders. When

4752-570: The North West with Montreal . The old system of native middlemen and coureurs de bois traveling to trade fairs in Montreal or illegally to English markets was replaced by an increasingly complex and labor-intensive trade network. Licensed voyageurs , allied with Montreal merchants, used water routes to reach the far-flung corners of the North West with canoe loads of trade goods. These risky ventures required large initial investments and had

4851-637: The Ojibwe were blocking them from receiving. Le Roy writes the Dakota "could obtain French merchandise only through the agency of the Sauteurs [Ojibwe]" so they made "a treaty of peace by which they were mutually bound to give their daughters in marriage on both sides". Indian marriages usually involved a simple ceremony involving the exchange of valuable gifts from the parents of the bride and groom and, unlike European marriages, could be dissolved at any time by one partner choosing to walk out. The Indians were organized into kinship and clan networks, and marrying

4950-621: The Saint Lawrence heightened the fierce competition between the Iroquois and Huron for access to the rich fur-bearing lands of the Canadian Shield . The competition for hunting is believed to have contributed to the earlier destruction of the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians in the valley by 1600, likely by the Iroquois Mohawk tribe, who were located closest to them, were more powerful than the Huron, and had

5049-404: The Wendat was at least just as much a "mourning war" as a "beaver war" as the Iroquois obsessively raided Wendake for ten years after their great raids of 1649 to take single Wendat back to Kanienkeh, even though they did not possess much in the way of beaver pelts. The Iroquois's population had been devastated by losses because of European diseases like smallpox for they had no immunity, and when

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5148-585: The activities that people enjoy along the river during the summer. From the river's start in the Blue Ridge Mountains to Richmond , numerous rapids and pools offer fishing and whitewater rafting. The most intense whitewater stretch is a 2-mile (3 km) segment that ends in downtown Richmond where the river goes over the fall line . This is the only place in the country where extensive class III (class IV with above average river levels) whitewater conditions exist within sight of skyscrapers. Below

5247-512: The animals' North American populations. The natural ecosystems that came to rely on the beavers for dams , river and water management and other vital needs were also ravaged, leading to ecological destruction , significant environmental change, and even drought in certain areas. Following this degradation, both the river otter and beaver populations in North America would continue to decline, without much noticeable improvement until around

5346-400: The banks of the river about 35 miles (56 km) upstream from the Chesapeake Bay . The navigable portion of the river was the major highway of colonial Virginia during its first 15 years, facilitating supply ships delivering supplies and more emigrants from England. However, for the first five years, despite hopes of discovering gold ores, these ships sent little of monetary value back to

5445-414: The beaver returns from each trading post, biological evidence on beaver population dynamics and contemporary estimates of beaver population densities. While the view that increased competition between the English and the French led to over-exploitation of beaver stocks by the Aboriginals does not receive uncritical support, most believe that Aboriginals were the primary actors in depleting animal stocks. There

5544-484: The business of the trade, creating the first informal trust in 1613 in response to increasing losses because of competition. The trust was later formalized with a royal charter, leading to a series of trade monopolies during the term of New France. The most notable monopoly was the Company of One Hundred Associates based back in France, with a period of attempted transition towards other share trading companies, such as

5643-590: The confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County 348 miles (560 km) to the Chesapeake Bay . The river length extends to 444 miles (715 km) if the Jackson River is included, the longer of its two headwaters, it is the longest river in Virginia. Jamestown and Williamsburg , Virginia's first colonial capitals, and Richmond , Virginia's current capital, lie on

5742-426: The continual supply of European goods to their communities and discourage fur traders from dealing with other Indian tribes. The fur trade did not involve barter in the way that most people presuppose but was a credit/debit relationship when a fur trader would arrive in a community in the summer or fall, hand out goods to the Indians who would pay him back in the spring with the furs from the animals they had killed over

5841-465: The country north and west of Lake Superior symbolically opened this new era of expansion. Their trading voyage proved extremely lucrative in furs. More importantly, they learned of a frozen sea to the north that provided easy access to the fur-bearing interior. Upon their return, French officials confiscated the furs of these unlicensed coureurs des bois . Radisson and Groseilliers went to Boston and then to London to secure funding and two ships to explore

5940-476: The dead Iroquois; thus a cycle of violence and warfare escalated. More significantly, new infectious diseases brought by the French decimated Native communities . Combined with warfare, disease led to the near destruction of the Huron by 1650. During the 1640s and 1650s, the Beaver Wars initiated by the Iroquois forced a massive demographic shift as their western neighbors fled the violence. They sought refuge west and north of Lake Michigan . The Five Nations of

6039-473: The deer populations declined and the government pressured tribes to switch to the European settler's way of life, animal husbandry replaced deer hunting both as an income and in the diet. Rum was first introduced in the early 16th century as a trading item and quickly became an inelastic good . While Native Americans for the most part acted conservatively in trading deals, they consumed a surplus of alcohol. Traders used rum to help form partnerships. Rum had

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6138-405: The deerskin trade collapsed, Native Americans found themselves dependent on manufactured goods, and could not return to the old ways because of lost knowledge. It was a common practice on the part of the Indian women to offer marriage and sometimes just sex in exchange for fur traders not trading with their rivals. Radisson describes visiting one Ojibwe village in the spring of 1660 where during

6237-414: The expansion while centralizing the French efforts. As native peoples had the primary role of suppliers in the fur trade, Champlain quickly created alliances with the Algonquin , Montagnais (who were located in the territory around Tadoussac), and most importantly, the Huron to the west. The latter, an Iroquoian -speaking people, served as middlemen between the French on the Saint Lawrence and nations in

6336-412: The fall line east of Richmond, the river is better suited for water skiing and other large boat recreation. Here the river is known for its blue catfish , reaching average sizes of 20 to 30 pounds (9.1 to 13.6 kg), with frequent catches exceeding 50 pounds (23 kg). In the Chesapeake watershed, the James River is the last confirmed holdout for the nearly extirpated Atlantic sturgeon . In May 2007

6435-403: The falls at Richmond, many James River plantations had their own wharves, and additional ports and/or early railheads were located at Warwick , Bermuda Hundred , City Point , Claremont , Scotland , and Smithfield , and, during the 17th century, the capital of the colony at Jamestown. Navigation of the James River played an important role in early Virginia commerce and in the settlement of

6534-410: The first permanent settlement of Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay River on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, up the Saint Lawrence River and into the pays d'en haut (or "upper country") around the Great Lakes . What followed in the first half of the 17th century were strategic moves by both the French and the Indigenous groups to further their own economic and geopolitical ambitions. Champlain led

6633-457: The flint," the Iroquois name for their homeland in what is now upstate New York ), and moreover Kanienkeh lacked the beavers with the thick pelts that the Europeans favored and would pay the best price for, which were to be found further north in what is now northern Canada. The Five Nations launched the "Beaver Wars" to take control of the fur trade from other middlemen who would deal with the Europeans. The Wendat homeland, Wendake, lies in what

6732-406: The fur trade also brought profound changes to the Indigenous communities living along the Saint Lawrence. European wares, such as iron axe heads, brass kettles, cloth, and firearms were bought with beaver pelts and other furs. The widespread practice of trading furs for rum and whiskey led to problems associated with inebriation and alcohol abuse. The subsequent destruction of beaver populations along

6831-431: The governors of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, the mayor of the District of Columbia, and the EPA, established baseline environmental protections and promoted regional cooperation conducive to river clean-up. This original agreement has evolved as the Chesapeake Bay Program . The James River Association (JRA), founded in 1976, began publishing State of the James reports in 2016. In their 2023 report, JRA concluded that

6930-403: The highly angled path the dam takes across the river. While not identified in the National Inventory of Dams, a very low head weir structure is found below Bosher Dam in Richmond on either side of Williams Island. Known as the "Z-Dam" for its zigzag course on the south side of the island, the current structure was built in 1932 and serves to direct water into Richmond's water treatment facility on

7029-409: The importance of personal contacts and experience in the fur trade, gave an edge to independent traders over the more bureaucratic monopolies. The newly established English colonies to the south quickly joined the lucrative trade, raiding the Saint Lawrence River valley and capturing and controlling Quebec from 1629 to 1632. While bringing wealth to a few select French traders and the French regime,

7128-518: The interior, although growth of the colony was primarily in the Tidewater region during the first 75 years. The upper reaches of the river above the head of navigation at the fall line were explored by fur-trading parties sent out by Abraham Wood during the late 17th century. Although ocean-going ships were unable to navigate beyond present-day Richmond, portage of products and navigation with smaller craft to transport crops other than tobacco

7227-688: The late 1670s and early 1680s, the Five Nations started to raid what is now the Midwest , battling the Miami and the Illinois while alternatively fighting against and attempting to make an alliance with the Ottawa. One Onondaga chief, Otreouti, whom the French called La Grande Gueule ("the big mouth"), announced in a speech in 1684 that the wars against the Illinois and Miami were justified because "They came to hunt beavers on our lands ...". Initially,

7326-525: The main economic drivers in North America, attracting competition amongst European nations, whom maintained trade interests in the Americas. The United States sought to remove the substantial British control over the North American fur trade during the first decades of its existence . Many Indigenous peoples would soon come to depend on the fur trade as their primary source of income and method of obtaining European-manufactured goods (such as weaponry, housewares, kitchenwares, and other useful products). However, by

7425-487: The mainly Basque fishermen to fish near the Newfoundland coast and transport fish back to Europe for sale. The fishermen sought suitable harbors with ample lumber to dry large quantities of cod. This generated their earliest contact with local Indigenous peoples, with whom the fisherman began simple trading. The fishermen traded metal items for beaver robes made of sewn-together, native-tanned beaver pelts. They used

7524-481: The maximum benefit from the presence of the English and the French. Additionally, the problem of the commons is also glaringly visible in this matter. Open access to resources leads to no incentive to conserve stocks, and actors which try to conserve lose out compared to the others when it comes to maximizing economic output. Therefore, there appeared to be a lack of concern by tribes of the First Nations about

7623-412: The mid-19th century, changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices and led to the crashing of several fur companies. Many Indigenous (and European) communities that relied on the fur trade were suddenly plunged into poverty and, consequently, lost much of the political influence they once held. The number of beavers and river otters killed during the fur trade was devastating for

7722-506: The mid-twentieth century. French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with 16th century and later explorations in North America. Cartier attempted limited fur trading with the First Nations in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and along

7821-543: The most to gain by controlling this part of the valley. Iroquois access to firearms through Dutch and later English traders along the Hudson River increased the casualties in the warfare. This greater bloodshed, previously unseen in Iroquoian warfare, increased the practice of " Mourning Wars ". The Iroquois raided neighboring groups to take captives, who were ceremonially adopted as new family members to replace

7920-460: The new English Hudson's Bay Company trade was felt as early as 1671, with diminished returns for the French and the role of the native middlemen. This new competition directly stimulated French expansion into the North West to win back native customers. What followed was a continual expansion north and west of Lake Superior. The French used diplomatic negotiations with natives to win back trade and an aggressive military policy to temporarily eliminate

8019-403: The new cattle herds roaming the hunting lands, and a greater emphasis on farming due to the invention of the cotton gin , Native Americans struggled to maintain their place in the economy. An inequality gap had appeared in the tribes, as some hunters were more successful than others. Still, the creditors treated an individual's debt as debt of the whole tribe and used several strategies to keep

8118-532: The north bank. The less than 5 feet tall dam does not serve any power or navigation purpose. In the Hampton Roads area, the river is as much as 5 miles (8.0 km) wide at points. Due to ocean-going shipping upriver as far as the Port of Richmond , a combination of ferryboats , high bridges and bridge-tunnels are used for highway traffic. Crossings east to west include: The SR 895 high-level crossing

8217-531: The robes to keep warm on the long, cold return voyages across the Atlantic. These castor gras (in French) became prized by European hat makers in the second half of the 16th century, as they converted the pelts to felt . The discovery of the superior felting qualities of beaver fur, along with the rapidly increasing popularity of beaver felt hats in fashion, transformed the incidental trading of fishermen into

8316-409: The settling to a lower level of stable population, further declines were caused by over-harvesting in two of the three English trading posts (Albany and York). The data from the third trading post are also very interesting in that the post did not come under French pressure and was therefore shielded from the kind of over-exploitation of stocks which resulted at the other trading posts. At Fort Churchill,

8415-440: The sparsely populated New France. The vast wealth in the fur trade created enforcement problems for the monopoly. Unlicensed independent traders, known as coureurs des bois (or "runners of the woods"), began to do business in the late 17th and early 18th century. Over time, many Métis were drawn to the independent trade; they were the descendants of French trappers and native women. The increasing use of currency , as well as

8514-602: The sponsors. In 1612, businessman John Rolfe successfully cultivated a non-native strain of tobacco which proved popular in England. Soon, the river became the primary means of exporting the large hogsheads of this cash crop from an ever-growing number of plantations with wharfs along its banks. This development made the proprietary efforts of the Virginia Company of London successful financially, spurring even more development, investments and immigration. Below

8613-576: The stocks of beaver adjusted to the maximum sustained yield level. The data from Churchill further reinforce the case of over-exploitation of stocks caused by the French-English competition. Indigenous North American beliefs in the affected region incorporate respect for the environment. Traditionally, many tribes in the region believe in a spiritual relationship between the people and the animals they rely on for food, clothing, and medicines, and many tribes have traditional protocols surrounding how

8712-564: The superior resources of the French state proceeded to grind them down until they finally made peace in 1701 . The settlement of native refugees from the Beaver Wars in the western and northern Great Lakes combined with the decline of the Ottawa middlemen to create vast new markets for French traders. Resurgent Iroquoian warfare in the 1680s also stimulated the fur trade as native French allies bought weapons. The new more distant markets and fierce English competition stifled direct trade from

8811-455: The sustainability of the fur trade. The problem of over-exploitation is not helped by the fact that the efforts by the French to remove the middlemen such as the Huron who increasingly resented their influence meant that stocks were put under more pressure. All these factors contributed to an unsustainable trade pattern in furs which depleted beaver stocks very fast. An empirical study done by Ann M. Carlos and Frank D. Lewis shows that apart from

8910-549: The upper course of the river. From the head of the river downstream to Richmond are found the following dams as identified by the current US Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams: The tallest dam is the Reusens Dam, which also has the greatest hydroelectric nameplate capacity and the greatest reservoir capacity. At 1,617 feet, the longest dam is the Cushaw Hydroelectric Project due to

9009-591: The use of their posts. This meant that the French incentivized the extension of trade, and French traders did indeed infiltrate much of the Great Lakes region. The French established posts on Lake Winnipeg, Lac des Praires and Lake Nipigon which represented a serious threat to flow of furs to the York Factory . The increasing penetration near English ports meant that the Native Americans had more than one place to sell their goods. The simulation of beaver populations around trading posts are done by taking into account

9108-546: The way in which the Ojibwe and the other Indian peoples sought to "use sexual relations as a means of establishing long-term relationships between themselves and people from another society was a rational strategy, one that has been described in many parts of the world". One fur trader who married an Ojibwe woman describes how the Ojibwe would initially shun a fur trader until they could give gauge his honesty and provided he proved himself an honest man, "the chiefs would take together their marriageable girls to his trading house and he

9207-403: The ways of the colonists, hunted to feed global fur markets with little consideration of the possibility of extinction. As competition increased between the English and French in the 16th century, fur also continued to be harvested by Aboriginal tribes, both for their own use and as middleman. All of this combined to cause a severe over-harvesting of beavers. Data from three of the trading posts of

9306-439: The welcoming ceremony: "The women throw themselves backwards on the ground, thinking to give us tokens of friendship and wellcome [welcome]". Radisson was initially confused by this gesture, but as the women started to engage in more overtly sexual behavior, he realized what was being offered. Radisson was informed by the village elders that he could have sex with any unmarried women in the village provided that he did not trade with

9405-421: The winter; in the interim, further exchanges often involved both Indian men and women. Fur traders found that marrying the daughters of chiefs would ensure the co-operation of an entire community. Marriage alliances were also made between Indian tribes. In September 1679, the French diplomat and soldier Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut , called a peace conference at Fond du Lac (modern Duluth, Minnesota ) of all

9504-621: Was completed between Richmond and the Ohio River at the new city of Huntington, West Virginia by 1873, dooming the canal's economic prospects. In the late-19th century, the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was laid along the eastern portion of the canal's towpath, and became part of the C&;O within 10 years. In modern times, this rail line is used primarily in transporting West Virginia coal to export coal piers at Newport News . During

9603-516: Was feasible. Produce from the Piedmont and Great Valley regions descended the river to seaports at Richmond and Manchester through such port towns as Lynchburg , Scottsville , Columbia and Buchanan . The James River was considered a route for transport of produce from the Ohio Valley . The James River and Kanawha Canal was built for this purpose, to provide a navigable portion of

9702-418: Was given the choice of the lot". If the fur trader married, the Ojibwe would trade with him as he became part of the community, and if he refused to marry, then the Ojibwe would not trade with him as Ojibwe only traded with a man who "took one of their women for his wife". Virtually all Indian communities encouraged fur traders to take an Indian wife in order to build a long-term relationship that would ensure

9801-407: Was that a fur trader was expected to favor whatever clan/kinship network that he had married into with European goods, and a fur trader who did not would ruin his reputation. The Ojibwe, like other tribes, saw all life in this world being based upon reciprocal relationships, with "gifts" of tobacco left behind when harvesting plants to thank nature for providing the plants, while when a bear was killed,

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