American History
Mr. D’Ambrosio
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Pocahontas Biography
SECONDARY SOURCES
Directions: Read the following biography of Pocahontas and then answer the
questions that follow using complete sentences. Remember to use proper
capitalization and punctuation!
Synopsis
Pocahontas was a Powhatan Native American woman, born around 1595, known
for her involvement with English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. In a
well-known historical anecdote, she saved the life of Englishman John Smith, by
placing her head upon his own at the moment of his execution. Pocahontas later
married a colonist, changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe and died while visiting
England in 1617.
Early life
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the leader of an alliance of about 30
Algonquian-speaking groups and petty chiefdoms in Tidewater Virginia known as
Tsenacommacah. Her mother’s identity is unknown.
Historians have estimated Pocahontas’ birth year as around 1595, based on the
1608 account of Captain John Smith in A True Relation of Virginia and Smith’s
subsequent letters. Even Smith is inconsistent on the question of her age,
however. Although English narratives would remember Pocahontas as a
princess, her childhood was probably fairly typical for a girl in Tsenacommacah.
Pocahontas was a favorite of her father's -- his "delight and darling,” according to
the colonist Captain Ralph Hamor -- but she was not a princess in the sense of
inheriting a political station. Like most young females, she learned how to forage
for food and firewood, farm and building thatched houses. As one of Powhatan’s
many daughters, she would have contributed to the preparation of feasts and
other celebrations.
Like many Algonquian-speaking Virginia Indians of the period, Pocahontas
probably had several names, to be used in various contexts. Early in her life she
was called Matoaka, but was later known as Amonute. The name Pocahontas
was used in childhood, probably in a casual or family context.
Saving John Smith
Pocahontas was primarily linked to the English colonists through Captain John
Smith, who arrived in Virginia with more than 100 other settlers in April 1607. The
Englishmen had numerous encounters over the next several months with the
Tsenacommacah Indians. While exploring on the Chickahominy River in
December of that year, Smith was captured by a hunting party led by Powhatan's
close relative Opechancanough, and brought to Powhatan's home at
Werowocomoco.
The details of this episode are inconsistent within Smith’s writings. In his 1608
account, Smith described a large feast followed by a talk with Powhatan. In this
account, he does not meet Pocahontas for the first time until a few months later.
In 1616, however, Smith revised his story in a letter to Queen Anne, who was
anticipating the arrival of Pocahontas with her husband, John Rolfe.
Smith’s 1616 account describes the dramatic act of selflessness which would
become legendary: "... at the minute of my execution", he wrote, "she
[Pocahontas] hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not
only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to
Jamestown." Smith further exaggerated this story in his Generall Historie, written
years later.
Historians have long expressed doubts that the story of Pocahontas saving Smith
occurred as told in these later accounts. Smith may have overstated or invented
the account to enhance Pocahontas's standing. Another theory suggests that
Smith may have misunderstood what had happened to him in Powhatan's
longhouse.
Rather than the near victim of an execution, he may have been subject to a tribal
ritual intended to symbolize his death and rebirth as a member of the tribe. It is
possible that Powhatan had political motivations for bringing Smith into his
chiefdom.
Early histories establish that Pocahontas befriended Smith and assisted the
Jamestown colony. Pocahontas often visited the settlement. When the colonists
were starving, "every once in four or five days, Pocahontas with her attendants
brought him [Smith] so much provision that saved many of their lives that else for
all this had starved with hunger." Despite this connection, there is little in the
historical record to suggest a romantic link between John Smith and Pocahontas.
In late 1609, John Smith returned to England for medical care. The English told
the Indians that Smith was dead. According to the colonist William Strachey,
Pocahontas married a warrior called Kocoum at some point before 1612. Nothing
more is known about this marriage, which may have dissolved when Pocahontas
was captured by the English the following year.
Captivity and Later Life
Pocahontas' capture occurred in during the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Captain
Samuel Argall pursued an alliance with the Patawomencks, a northern group of
dubious loyalty to Powhatan. Argall and his indigenous allies tricked Pocahontas
into boarding Argall's ship and held her for ransom, demanding the release of
English prisoners and supplies held by Powhatan. When Powhatan failed to
satisfy the colonists’ demands, Pocahontas remained in captivity.
Little is known about Pocahontas' year with the English. It is clear that a minister
named Alexander Whitaker instructed Pocahontas in Christianity, and helped her
to improve her English through reading the Bible. Whitaker baptized Pocahontas
with a new, Christian name: Rebecca. The selection of this name may have been
a symbolic gesture to the Rebecca of the Book of Genesis who, as the mother of
Jacob and Esau, was the mother of two nations.
In March 1614, violence broke out between hundreds of English and Powhatan
men. The English permitted Pocahontas to talk to her father and other relatives
as a diplomatic maneuver. According to English sources, Pocahontas told her
family that she preferred to remain with the English rather than returning home.
Pocahontas met John Rolfe during her year in captivity. Rolfe, a pious farmer,
had lost his wife and child on the journey over to Virginia. In a long letter to the
governor requesting permission to wed Pocahontas, he expressed both his love
for her and his belief he would be saving her soul through the institution of
Christian marriage. Pocahontas' feelings about Rolfe and the marriage are
unknown.
Rolfe and Pocahontas married on April 5, 1614, and lived for two years on
Rolfe's farm. On January 30, 1615, Pocahontas gave birth to Thomas Rolfe.
According to Ralph Hamor, the marriage created a period of peace between the
colonists and Powhatan.
Pocahontas became of symbol of Indian religious conversion, one of the stated
goals of the Virginia Company. The company decided to bring Pocahontas to
England as a symbol of the tamed New World "savage.” The Rolfes traveled to
England in 1616, arriving at the port of Plymouth on June 12 with a small group
of indigenous Virginians.
Although Pocahontas was not a princess in the context of Powhatan culture, the
Virginia Company nevertheless presented her as a princess to the English public.
The inscription on a 1616 engraving of Pocahontas, made for the Virginian
Company, read: "Matoaka, alias Rebecca, daughter of the most powerful prince
of the Powhatan Empire of Virginia.
"While some considered her a curiosity rather than a princess, Pocahontas was
apparently treated well in London. On January 5, 1617, she was brought before
the king in Whitehall Palace during a performance of Ben Jonson's The Vision of
Delight. Shortly thereafter, John Smith met the Rolfes at a social gathering.
Pocahontas had believed up to this point that John Smith was dead. The only
accounts that exist of their interaction come from Smith, who wrote that when
Pocahontas saw him, “without any words, she turned about, obscured her face,
as not seeming well contented.” Smith's record of their later conversation is
fragmentary and unclear. He wrote that Pocahontas reminded him of the
"courtesies she had done,” saying, “you did promise Powhatan what was yours
would be his, and he the like to you.”
In March of 1617, the Rolfes boarded a ship to return to Virginia. The ship had
only gone as far as Gravesend when Pocahontas fell ill. She was taken ashore,
where she died, possibly of pneumonia or tuberculosis. Her funeral took place on
March 21, 1617, in the parish of St. George's. The site of her grave was probably
beneath the chancel of St. George’s, which was destroyed in a fire in
1727.Members of a number of prominent Virginia families trace their roots to
Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan through her son, Thomas Rolfe.
Directions: After reading the biography above, answer the questions below
using complete sentences. Be sure to use proper capitalization and punctuation!
1) Does the term “princess” describe Pocahontas’ position among the
Powhatan? Explain.
2) Why do some people question the story of Pocahontas saving John
Smith’s life?
3) Why did the English hold Pocahontas in captivity?
4) What were John Rolfe’s reasons for wanting to marry Pocahontas?
5) How would you describe Pocahontas’ reaction to seeing John Smith in
England?
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