Pocahontas-Historical Facts
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Pocahontas (c. 1595 – March 21, 1617) was a Native American woman who
married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and became a celebrity in London in the last
year of her life.
She was a daughter of Wahunsunacawh (also known as Chief or Emperor
Powhatan), who ruled an area encompassing almost all of the tribes in the
Tidewater region of Virginia (called Tenakomakah at the time). Her formal names
were Matoaka (or Matoika) and Amonute
Pocahontas was a childhood nickname referring to her frolicsome nature (in the
Powhatan language it meant "little wanton", according to William Strachey).
After her baptism, she went by the name Rebecca, becoming Rebecca Rolfe on
her marriage.
Biography
Encounter with John Smith
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In May 1607, when the English colonists arrived in Virginia and began building
settlements, Pocahontas was between twelve and fourteen years old, and her
father was the leader of the Powhatan Confederacy.
One of the leading colonists, John Smith, subsequently recounted that he was
captured by a group of Powhatan hunters and brought to Werowocomoco, one of
the chief villages of the Powhatan Empire.
According to Smith, he was laid across a stone and was about to be executed (by
being beaten with clubs), when Pocahontas threw herself across his body:
"Pocahontas, the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevail, got his
head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save him from death". She earned
respect from the other people and the English Settlements.
John Smith's version of events is the only source, and, since the 1860s, skepticism
has increasingly been expressed about its veracity.
One reason for such doubt is: despite having published two earlier books about
Virginia, Smith's earliest surviving account of his rescue by Pocahontas dates
from 1616, nearly ten years later, in a letter entreating Queen Anne to treat
Pocahontas with dignity.
The time gap in publishing his story raises the possibility Smith may have
exaggerated or invented the event to enhance Pocahontas's image; however, in a
recent book, J.A.O. Lemay points out that Smith's earlier writing was primarily
geographical and ethnographic in nature and did not dwell on his personal
experience; hence, there was no reason for him to write down the story until this
point.
Further skepticism arose from the fact that Smith had earlier told a very similar
story of being rescued through the intervention of a beautiful young girl after he
was captured by Turks in Hungary in 1602.
Even if Smith's version of events was accurate, some experts have recently
suggested that, although Smith believed he had been rescued, he had in fact been
involved in a ritual intended to symbolize his death and rebirth as a member of the
tribe.
However, in Love and Hate in Jamestown, David A. Price notes this is only
guesswork, since little is known of Powhatan rituals, and there is no evidence for
any similar rituals among other North American tribes.
Whatever really happened, this encounter initiated a friendly relationship with
Smith and the Jamestown colony, and Pocahontas would often come to the
settlement and play games with the boys there.
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During a time 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."
As the colonists expanded further, however, some of the Native Americans felt
their lands were threatened, and conflicts arose again.
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In 1608, Pocahontas is said to have saved Smith a second time. Smith and some
other colonists were invited to Werowocomoco by Chief Powhatan on friendly
terms.
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They were treated kindly and traded with the Natives, but they missed the tide and
had to spend the night. That night, Pocahontas came to Smith's hut and told him
that her father was planning to send men with food who would kill them when
they put down their weapons to eat.
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She had been told not to inform them, but she begged the Englishmen to leave.
Being forewarned, the English kept their weapons ready by them even while
eating, and no attack came.
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In 1609, an injury from a gunpowder explosion forced Smith to return to England
for medical care.
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The English told the natives Smith was dead, that he had been captured by a
French pirate, that the pirate ship had been wrecked on the Brittany coast, and that
it had gone down with all hands.
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Pocahontas believed Smith was dead until she arrived in England several years
later, the wife of John Rolfe.
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According to William Strachey, Pocahontas married a Powhatan warrior called
Kocoum at some point before 1612; nothing more is known about this marriage.
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There is no suggestion in any of the historical records that Smith and Pocahontas
were lovers. This romantic version of the story appears only in fictionalized
versions of their relationship (such as the animated version by Walt Disney.)
Capture
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In March 1613, Pocahontas was residing at Passapatanzy, a village of the
Patawomecks, a Native American tribe that did some trading with Powhatans.
They lived in present-day Stafford County on the Potomac River near
Fredericksburg, about 65 miles (105 km) from Werowocomoco.
Smith writes in his Generall Historie she had been in the care of the Patawomec
chief, Japazaws (or Japazeus), since 1611 or 1612.
When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomec, they discovered
Pocahontas' presence.
With the help of Japazaws, they tricked Pocahontas into captivity. Their purpose,
as they explained in a letter, was to ransom her for some English prisoners held by
Chief Powhatan, along with various weapons and tools the Powhatans had stolen.
Powhatan returned the prisoners, but failed to satisfy the colonists with the
amount of weapons and tools he returned, and a long standoff ensued.
During the year-long wait, Pocahontas was kept at Henricus, in modern-day
Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Little is known about her life there although colonist Ralph Hamor wrote she
received "extraordinary courteous usage."
An English minister, Alexander Whitaker, taught her about Christianity and
helped to improve her English. After she was baptized, she took the name
Rebecca as her English name.
In March 1614, the standoff built to a violent confrontation between hundreds of
English and Powhatan men on the Pamunkey River.
At the Powhatan town of Matchcot, the English encountered a group that included
some of the senior Powhatan leaders (but not Chief Powhatan himself, who was
away).
The English permitted Pocahontas to talk to her countrymen; however, according
to the deputy governor, Thomas Dale, Pocahontas rebuked her absent father for
valuing her "less than old swords, pieces, or axes" and told them she preferred to
live with the English.
Marriage to John Rolfe
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During her stay in Henricus, Pocahontas met John Rolfe. Rolfe, whose Englishborn wife had died, had successfully cultivated a new strain of tobacco in Virginia
and spent much of his time there tending to his crop.
He was a pious man who agonized over the potential moral repercussions of
marrying a heathen.
In a long letter to the governor requesting permission to wed her, he expressed
both his love for her and his belief he would be saving her soul. He claimed he
was not motivated by:
"the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for the good of this plantation, for the
honor of our country, for the Glory of God, for my own salvation… namely
Pocahontas, to whom my hearty and best thoughts are, and have been a long time
so entangled, and enthralled in so intricate a labyrinth that I was even a-wearied to
unwind myself thereout."
Pocahontas's feelings about Rolfe and the marriage are unknown.
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They were married on April 5, 1614. For a few years after the marriage, the
couple lived together on Rolfe's plantation, Varina Farms, which was located
across the James River from the new community of Henricus.
They had a child, Thomas Rolfe, born on January 30, 1615.
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Their marriage was unsuccessful in winning the English captives back, but it did
create a climate of peace between the Jamestown colonists and Powhatan's tribes
for several years; in 1615, Ralph Hamor wrote ever since the wedding "we have
had friendly commerce and trade not only with Powhatan but also with his
subjects round about us".
Journey to England and death
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The Virginia Colony's sponsors found it difficult to lure new colonists and
investors to Jamestown.
They used Pocahontas as an enticement and as evidence to convince people in
Europe the New World's natives could be colonized, and the settlement made
safe.
In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to England, arriving at the port of Plymouth on the
12th of June[27] and, then journeying to London by coach in June 1616.
They were accompanied by a group of around eleven other Powhatan natives
including Tomocomo, a holy man.
John Smith was living in London at the time and, while Pocahontas was in
Plymouth she learned he was still alive. Smith did not meet Pocahontas at this
point, but he wrote a letter to Queen Anne urging Pocahontas be treated with
respect as a royal visitor, because if she were treated badly, her "present love to us
and Christianity might turn to… scorn and fury", and England might lose the
chance to "rightly have a Kingdom by her means".
Pocahontas was entertained at various society gatherings. On January 5, 1617 she
and Tomocomo were brought before the King at the Banqueting House in
Whitehall Palace at a performance of Ben Jonson's masque The Vision of Delight.
According to Smith, King James was so unprepossessing neither of the Natives
realized whom they had met until it was explained to them afterward.
Pocahontas and Rolfe lived in the suburb of Brentford, Middlesex for some time,
as well as Rolfe's family home at Heacham Hall, Heacham, Norfolk.
In early 1617, Smith visited them at a social gathering. According to Smith, when
Pocahontas saw him "without any words, she turned about, obscured her face, as
not seeming well contented" and was left alone for two or three hours.
Later, they spoke more; Smith's record of what she said to him is fragmentary and
enigmatic. She reminded him of the "courtesies she had done" and "you did
promise Powhatan what was yours would be his, and he the like to you".
She then discomfited him by calling him "father", explaining Smith had called
Powhatan "father" when a stranger in Virginia, "and by the same reason so must I
do you". Smith did not accept this form of address, since Pocahontas outranked
him as "a King's daughter".
Pocahontas then, "with a well-set countenance", said”Were you not afraid to come
into my father's country and caused fear in him and all his people (but me) and fear you
here I should call you 'father'? I tell you then I will, and you shall call me child, and so I
will be for ever and ever your countryman.”
Finally, she said the natives had thought Smith dead but her father had told
Tomocomo to seek him "because your countrymen will lie much".
In March 1617, Rolfe and Pocahontas boarded a ship to return to Virginia.
However, the ship had only gone as far as Gravesend on the River Thames when
Pocahontas became ill from smallpox.
She was taken ashore and died. According to Rolfe, she died saying "all must die,
but tis enough that her child liveth."
Her funeral took place on March 21, 1617 in the parish of Saint George's,
Gravesend. The site of her grave is unknown, but her memory is recorded in
Gravesend with a life-size bronze statue at St George's Church.
Descendants
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Pocahontas and Rolfe had one child, Thomas Rolfe, who was born at Varina
Farms in 1615 before his parents left for England. Through this son Pocahontas
has many living descendants.
Many First Families of Virginia trace their roots to Pocahontas and Chief
Powhatan, including such notable individuals as Edith Wilson, wife of Woodrow
Wilson; George Wythe Randolph; Admiral Richard Byrd; Virginia Governor
Harry Flood Byrd; fashion-designer and socialite Pauline de Rothschild; former
First Lady Nancy Reagan; and astronomer and mathematician Percival Lowell.
Title and status
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Pocahontas was the daughter of Wahunsunacock or Wahunsenacawh (spellings
vary), chief or leader of the Native American confederation which is now known
as the Powhatan. Wahunsunacock referred to himself as 'Powhatan', and thus is
commonly known in English as Chief Powhatan, yet 'Powhatan' was not a
personal name, but a title. As John Smith explained in A Map of Virginia, "Their
chiefe ruler is called Powhatan, and taketh his name of the principall place of
dwelling called Powhatan. But his proper name is Wahunsonacock."
However, although the young Pocahontas was a favorite of her powerful father—
his "delight and darling" according to one of the colonists—it is not certain that
her society regarded her to have a high social rank. This is because Powhatan
society was structured differently from that of Europe.
While women could inherit power in Powhatan society, Pocahontas herself could
not have done so, because the inheritance of power was matrilineal. In A Map of
Virginia John Smith explains:
His [Powhatan's] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren,
whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan, Opechancanough, and Catataugh; and after their decease
to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and
female of the eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males.
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Because of this, Pocahontas would not have inherited his power under any
circumstances. Furthermore, her mother's status was probably lowly. In his
Relation of Virginia (1609), Henry Spelman explains that Powhatan had many
wives and always sent them away after they had given birth to their first child, so
that they resumed their commoner status. It is not certain whether Pocahontas'
status was regarded as equal only to her mother's.
Regardless of the exact nature of Pocahontas' status among the Powhatan, it is
clear that many English people regarded her as a princess in the European sense.
One example of a contemporary English view is the 1616 engraving of
Pocahontas.
The inscription to which reads "MATOAKA ALS REBECCA FILIA POTENTISS :
PRINC : POWHATANI IMP:VIRGINIÆ". This translates as: "Matoaka, alias Rebecca,
daughter of (filia) the most powerful (potentiss[imi]) prince (princ[eps] of the
Powhatan Empire (imp[erii]) of Virginia."
Thus, at least some contemporary English recognised Wahunsunacock as ruler of
an empire, and presumably accorded what they considered as appropriate status to
Pocahontas (Matoaka). This is supported by Captain John Smith's 1616 letter of
recommendation to Queen Anne (King James' wife) concerning Pocahontas,
which refers to "Powhatan their chief King".] Samuel Purchas recalled Pocahontas
in London, saying that she impressed those she met because she "carried her selfe
as the daughter of a king" and when he met her in London, Smith referred to her
deferentially as a "Kings daughter".
A more ambivalent English view of Wahunsunacock's status can be seen in the
description of him as a "barbarous prince" by Lord Carew on 20 June 1616 (as
reported by Charles Dudley Warner in his essay on Pocahontas).
William Stith writes that "her real Name, it seems, was originally Matoax; which the
Indians carefully concealed from the English, and changed it to Pocahontas, out of a
superstitious Fear, lest they, by the knowledge of her true Name, should be enabled to do
her some hurt." (History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, p. 136)
There is no evidence that Pocahontas was formally presented to King James and his
court, but she was introduced to him at a masque, at which the letter-writer John
Chamberlain recorded that she was "well placed"—that is, given a good seat that suited
her status. Furthermore, Purchas recorded that the Bishop of London "entertained her
with festival state and pomp beyond what I have seen in his greate hospitalitie afforded to
other ladies".
Posthumous legend
After her death, increasingly fanciful and romanticized representations of Pocahontas
were produced.
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Pocahontas' story was romanticized so that her 'rescue' of Smith begins a love
story between the two.
Although there had been earlier examples, the first writer to tell such a story at
length was John Davis in his Travels in the United States of America (1803).
Because Pocahontas' well-documented marriage to Rolfe did not fit this
interpretation, at least one author, John R. Musick, retold the story to "clarify" the
relationship between the three.[citation needed]
In Musick's account, Rolfe is a back-stabbing liar who, seeing the opportunity to
marry "royalty," tells the "Indian princess" Pocahontas that her true love, Smith, is
dead.
She then reluctantly agrees to marry Rolfe. After the two begin preparations to
leave England, Pocahontas encounters Smith, still alive. Overcome by emotion
and recollections, she dies of a broken heart three days later.
Several films about Pocahontas have been made, beginning with a silent film in
1924.
In recent film versions of her story, Pocahontas has been seen less as an image of
idealized assimilation, and more as an image of the perceived superiority of
traditional Native American values over western ones. The Walt Disney
Company's 1995 animated feature Pocahontas presents a highly-romanticized and
fictional view of a love affair between Pocahontas and John Smith, but in this
version, Pocahontas teaches Smith the value of respect for nature.
The sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, depicts her journey to
England. Pocahontas: The Legend is the second feature film based on the life of
Pocahontas (Sandrine Holt and Miles O'Keeffe) that was released in 1995. John
Rolfe does not appear in this motion picture but was portrayed by Robert Clarke
in Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953). In Terrence Malick's film The
New World, an attempt at greater historical accuracy, Pocahontas (Q'Orianka
Kilcher) and Smith (Colin Farrell) are still depicted as lovers.
Neil Young recorded an eponymous song about Pocahontas which detailed a
meeting between Marlon Brando and the songwriter around a campfire discussing
Hollywood, the Astrodome stadium and the genocide of Native American
peoples. The song appeared as the fourth track on 1979's Rust Never Sleeps.
Pocahontas- Comprehension Questions
1.
Who was Pocahontas’ father?
2.
What was her real name?
3.
Why was she nicknamed Pocahontas?
4.
Who was John Smith?
5.
How did Pocahontas supposedly save him?
6.
Why is there skepticism about how John Smith was saved by Pocahontas?
7.
What do expert believe really happened to John Smith when Pocahontas saved
him?
8.
Why did the Natives start to feel threatened by the explorers?
9.
How did Pocahontas save the English for a second time?
10. What Native warrior did Pocahontas possibly marry?
11. Why did Pocahontas think Smith was dead?
12. Is there any proof that Smith and Pocahontas were lovers?
13. Who captured Pocahontas? Why did they do this?
14. Was she released? Why was there still tension between the two parties after th
release of the prisoners?
15. Who as John Rolfe?
16. Why did he need to convince people that his marriage to Pocahontas was
beneficial?
17. How did Pocahontas meet John Smith again? Describe their reunion.
18. How did Pocahontas die?
19. Did Pocahontas have a high rank in her own society? Why or why not?
20. Did her mother have a high rank? Why or why not?
21. Did the English regard Pocahontas as having a high position? Why or why not?
22. Who civilians to have descended from Pocahontas?
23. When did her relationship with John Smith become romanticized?
24. What did one author describe her real husband as in order to make their romantic
version of her relationship to John Smith more realistic?
25. How has the image of Pocahontas changed from one of assimilation to the
perceived superiority of traditional Native American values over western ones
Pocahontas-Historical Accuracy vs. Cinema Portrayal
V.S
After watching Disney’s Pocahontas and then reading the historical facts about Pocahontas complete
the table below by writing first what the film portrayed that was correct and then write what the film
distorted-meaning it had some truth to it but it was changed in order to match the plot of the film.
Then write what the film added that was a falsity-meaning according to history it never happened! You
will use this for your essay!
Accuracies
Distortion of Fact
Falsity
Accuracies
Distortion of Fact
Falsity