Flowerdew appears to have been occupied as early as the Late Pleistocene by Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers and later, the Weyanoke (or Weanock) tribe as part of the powerful Tsenacommacah Chiefdom. Upon the end of the First Anglo-Powhatan War and the introduction of tobacco to the colony, George Yeardley founded the Flowerdew Hundred Plantation, which continued to operate as such until the early 20^th c. in the hands of different owners. Africans lived and worked at the site, at first as indentured servants and later as slaves, producing a material record in the landscape. During the Revolutionary War, General Benedict Arnold left his mark at Flowerdew. Later, during the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant built a famous pontoon bridge, explored by archaeologists, across the James on the bank near Flowerdew. Thus, Flowerdew opens multiple windows into a frequently problematic past, constituting a cross-section of different chronological eras and interacting or clashing cultures.