Opechancanough would probably be one of Obama’s heroes if he had ever heard of him (which I doubt). He tried to wipe out the Jamestown settlement—but only killed the white settlers, not any blacks (unclear whether they were slaves or indentured servants at that point). The colony survived but soon after the Virginia Compnay lost control and it became a royal colony.
It was a violent time. There were “kill them all” types among the Powhatan, but also among the Jamestown settlers as well. A doctor tried to poison the indians, succeeded with quite a few, in retaliation for an attack. Then, there were those who tried to get along, on both sides.
Opechancanough not killing blacks isn’t necessarily true, there weren’t very many there at all at that point. The headrights system was providing more than enough Irish, Scotch and English indentured servants. Africans were comparatively expensive. They were all indentured servants at that time.
The African slave trade began in earnest for several reasons. Chattel slavery, slavery for life, did not exist as a legal construct until th 1670’s, they began running out of desirable land to give indentured servants once their term had been served leading to the collapse of the headrights system, and plantation owners began to perceive that Africans had a better survival rate due to better disease resistance in swampy, tropical areas like the rice and indigo plantations further south.
All this coincided between 1670 - 1680. Indentured servitude faded and chattel slavery arose from that point onward.