Qualla: Fort Christanna https://qualla.com/fort-christanna en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Fort Christanna https://qualla.com/fort-christanna Fort Christanna: Introduction https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The children shrieked with delight as they ran through the rain. Lieutenant John Fontaine, visiting in 1715, recorded the scene at Fort Christanna -- hordes of happy Indian children playing outside a pentagonal stockade overlooking the Meherrin River in what is now Brunswick County, Virginia. Inside, a schoolmaster named Charles Griffin was teaching as many as a hundred Saponi, Tutelo, and Occaneechi children to speak English, read the Bible, and recite their catechisms. The Siouan peoples adored Griffin so much, one visitor reported, that they would gladly have crowned him king of the Saponi nation. It was a remarkable experiment in cross-cultural education on the edge of the British Empire -- and it lasted barely four years before colonial commerce killed it.

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fort Christanna: Spotswood's Ambitious Design https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Tuscarora War erupted in 1711, sending shockwaves through the Virginia Colony. Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood saw an opportunity within the crisis. He proposed gathering the tributary Siouan and Iroquoian tribes of Virginia -- peoples who had accepted English authori...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-spotswoods-ambitious-design.mp3 0:06 2 full Fort Christanna: A School on the Frontier https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1714, Spotswood personally visited the site and persuaded the Saponi, Tutelo, Occaneechi, and Eno peoples to occupy a 36-square-mile tract surveyed around the fort. Some Nansemond from the north side of the Meherrin River joined them. The Iroquoian tribes -- the Nottoway and M...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-a-school-on-the-frontier.mp3 0:06 3 full Fort Christanna: Commerce Devours the Experiment https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Virginia Indian Company's trade monopoly infuriated private merchants, none more than William Byrd II, who had inherited his father's profitable Indian trade. Byrd traveled to London and lobbied the Lords of Trade directly, arguing that Christanna was an unnecessary public ex...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-commerce-devours-the-experiment.mp3 0:06 4 full Fort Christanna: Scattered to the Winds https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Saponi, Tutelo, and remnants of perhaps fifteen other tribes lingered on the tract for years at a village they called Junkatapurse -- from the Tutelo words chunketa pasui, meaning horse's head. Around 1728, many migrated south to join the Catawba, fellow speakers of an easter...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-scattered-to-the-winds.mp3 0:06 5 full Fort Christanna: Ghosts in the Bastions https://qualla.com/fort-christanna/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Colonial Dames of America acquired about ten acres of the site in 1924 and erected a historical marker dedicated at a ceremony with native dancers and a descendant of Governor Spotswood. Archaeological excavations in the 1970s confirmed the fort's exact location. Brunswick Co...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/8/8/fort-christanna-wp/dq88-fort-christanna-ghosts-in-the-bastions.mp3 0:06 6 full