The Truth about Pocahontas

 

 

We all know the story of Pocahontas the courageous Native American woman who saved an English Adventurer from execution however much of the story we know came to us through John Smith who wrote a large portion of it years after her death so who was Pocahontas and did John Smith rewrite her story popular culture has depicted Pocahontas as someone who challenged her people to save John Smith with whom she fell in love in the well-known Tales, Pocahontas fell for another English Explorer John Rolf after John Smith returned to England at the end of Disney's, Pocahontas too she sails away into the sunset with her new love. The true story of Pocahontas is far less idealistic and far more tragic but how did this romanticized version of events become so prevalent, to answer this we must look at how Pocahontas came to public attention the, English Explorer John Smith wrote several books after he returned from new England to Old England around 1660 his books were detailed descriptions of Virginia and New England in the early 1600s and his most famous was the “General history of Virginia New England and the summer isles” which contained descriptions of his encounters with Pocahontas Smith had grown up in Lincolnshire and was Apprentice to a wealthy Merchant in his teens at around 17 he started his military career, when Smith was 26 he joined a group preparing to travel to North America and establish a colony. Smith was appointed to the colony's governing Council that would go on to become Jamestown, and had a pretty antagonistic relationship with the other Governors, supposedly due to Smith's focus on Survival compared to the others who were preoccupied with status and the Privileges that came with it, Smith prioritized trading with the indigenous Americans for coin and mapping the surrounding area he explored the region through a series of river voyages which is how he first crossed paths with Pocahontas in December of 1607.

 Smith and his party were exploring the Chickahominy River when members of “The Powhatan” ambushed them. The Powhatan comprised more than 30 native North American tribal groups who spoke Algonquin, the two men with Smith were killed and Smith was taken back to ‘werowocomoko’, where he was presented to ‘Chief Powhatan’ also known as “Wahunsenacah”, Smith was kept as a prisoner for about a month before he was condemned to death when Powhatan ordered men to hold Smith head on a rock and strike it with clubs. According to Smith, at this point’ The chief's daughter intervened and rescued him, “at the moment of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her brains to save mine, and not only that but, so prevailed with her father that I was safely conducted to Jamestown” this event has been much debated, with some claiming that the incident never happened mainly because Smith did not include his rescue in his first books and references to Pocahontas putting her life on the line to save Smith were published after she died.

 Some historians postulate that the exclusion of this part of the story was due to not wanting her to be able to refute it; however, it is possible that Smith had wanted to include the story in his early works, but it was edited out by the Colony sponsor, the Virginia Company. Furthermore, there is some evidence that the incident was all part of a ritual to initiate Smith into the tribe. The main argument for this is that a similar thing happened to a Spanish Noble in Florida. “Juan Ortiz” was a prisoner for 11 years, and when Explorer “Hernando de Soto” found him, he told the story of how the chief's daughter had requested that he be spared from execution seconds before he was to die.

Smith's first mention of Pocahontas comes from his 1608 book “A True Relation”, When the people of Jamestown kept members of the Powhatan Empire captives Smith writes “Powhatan understanding we detain certain Salvages, sent his daughter a child of 10 years old, which not only for feature, countenance and proportion much exceeded any of the rest of his people: but for wit and spirit the only nonpareil of his country”.

If Smith's story about his time and werowocomoko were true, this would have been at least his second encounter with Pocahontas, and it is clear that he deeply admired her for her looks and personality, despite her being only around 10 years old. Old Smith recognized the importance of Powhatan sending his beloved daughter, and the captives were released and sent home with Pocahontas and the rest of the party. Pocahontas visited Jamestown many times. She would visit the fort naked, as was usual for Powhatan children, and turn cartwheels with the young boys. She is not mentioned again in “A True Relation” but in the glossary of his 1612 book, “A map of Virginia” Smith includes some Powhatan words in a few sentences. one of the sentences translates to “bid Pocahontas bring hither two little baskets and I will give her white beads to make her a chain”. Although there is no reference to when or why Smith learned this particular phrase, it does hint that he knew Pocahontas well enough to go to the trouble of speaking to her in her language. Some historians postulate that it was Pocahontas who taught Smith some Powhatan phrases, while many believe it was Smith who first purported his romantic relationship with Pocahontas. John Smith's writings never claimed that the two were involved in fact he specifically denies having any intention to marry or have a sexual relationship with Pocahontas in his book, “The proceedings of the English colony in Virginia” because his fellow settlers had accused him of wanting to make himself “king by marrying Pocahontas”. This book also hints that Pocahontas had warned Smith of a plot by her father to Ambush him. This particular chapter was written by one of Smith's friends and States, “Her especially he ever much respected: and she so well requited it, that when her father intended to have surprised him, she by Stealth in the night came through the Wildwood and told him of it”. In this book, Pocahontas is now described as “not past 13 or 14 years” of age, which adds a couple of years to Smith's first description of her. Perhaps this was due to the allegations of a relationship between the two, the book asserts, “Her marriage could in no way have entitled him by any right to the kingdom, nor was it ever suspected he had ever such a thought, if he would he might have married or done what he listed. For there was none that could have hindered his determination”.

There were many rumours about Smith and Pocahontas at the time, and Smith denied them all, declaring that he could have married her if he had wanted to, but he didn't. Smith became president of Jamestown in 1608, which flourished under his leadership. The town was more prosperous and safer during his time as president than before or after. In 1609, an injury forced him to return to England. By 1613, relations between the settlers and the Powhatan had deteriorated and in March Captain Samuel Argall, sailed past Powhatan territory to trade with the “Patawomec” tribe, he heard that Pocahontas was visiting the Patawomec and decided that he would gain the upper hand in their war with the Powhatan by capturing the chief's daughter and ransoming her, Argall pressured a chief of the Patawomec into tricking Pocahontas to come onto the Englishman’s boat. The Trap worked, and Pocahontas was abducted and taken to Jamestown. This story is somewhat disputed, as the people who reported the incident, Ralph Hamor, John Smith, and Samuel Purchas, weren't even in Virginia at the time; however, they got there.

Pocahontas was held captive in Jamestown. There she was baptized, and her name was changed to Rebecca in 1614, the same year she married a widower named John Rolfe. Pocahontas' father agreed to the marriage; according to English accounts, it was a love match. The union led to a brief period of peace between the Powhatans and the English settlers, and the couple had one son named Thomas. In 1616, the Virginia Company of London saw Pocahontas as an opportunity to encourage interest in the colony and paid for the Rolfe family to travel to England. Pocahontas, now known as Lady Rebecca Rolfe, toured the country with her family and several members of the Powhatan. The only known portrait of her is from this visit, in which she is dressed in the most fashionable European garb. She attended the Royal Court and was visited by John Smith. According to Smith, the encounter was very emotional as the Powhatan had been told that he had died. In 1617, the group planned to return to Virginia, but Pocahontas and her son fell ill. Pocahontas died in March at the age of about 21. Rolfe returned to Virginia but left his sick son in England under the care of relatives. Thomas would eventually return to Virginia when he was in his 20s, but as his father died unexpectedly in 1622, he never saw his parents again. Chief Powhatan also died before Thomas arrived in Virginia, but his grandfather had left him thousands of acres of land on the James River. An alternative perspective on the life of Pocahontas comes from the oral history of the Mattaponi tribe. According to this history, Pocahontas's birth name was “Matoaka,” meaning flower between two streams. Her mother was “Mattaponi,” and her father was Wahunsenaca Pamunkey. Her mother died while giving birth to Matoaka, which devastated Wahunsenaca, and from then on, Matoaka held a special place in his heart, Wahunsenaca often called his daughter by a special nickname meaning “laughing and joyous one” or Pocahontas the Powhatan people were eager to trade in form alliances when the English arrived. A fight broke out when a Powhatan Hunting Party encountered a small group of English explorers, one of the English- John Smith, was captured by Wahunsenaca’s brother “Opechancanough”, Opechancanough wanted the Powhatan people to see that the newcomers weren't so different from them and took Smith from Village to Village eventually performing a traditional rescue ceremony to welcome Smith and the English to their lands as children were not allowed to be present at religious rituals it is unlikely that Pocahontas attended the ceremony, from then on the Powhatan people expected loyalty from the English and in return they provided them with food and Aid however, relations started deteriorating when the settlers aggressively demanded more food than the Powhatan could offer, when Pocahontas came of age she married “Kocoum” of the “Potowomac” tribe and after hearing rumours that the English wanted to kidnap her she moved with her husband to his home Village. The couple soon had a son, but it wasn't long before the English captured Pocahontas. After which Captain Argall killed her husband, Kocoum, Wahunsenaca paid the demanded Ransom, but Pocahontas was not released. She confided in her sister that she had been raped and thought she was pregnant.

 According to oral history, Pocahontas gave birth to Thomas before she married John Rolfe in 1614, the English staged a botched Ransom payment and told Pocahontas that her father had refused to pay her Ransom as he did not love her. She was forced to convert to Christianity and marry John Rolfe to legitimize her son, whom she hoped would create a bond between the settlers and her people. Wahunsenaca consented to the marriage out of fear that his daughter would be harmed if he said no, and John Rolfe gained the help of the Powhatan spiritual leaders with his tobacco crops.

In 1616, Pocahontas and several Powhatan members including “Mattachanna”, Pocahontas's sister were sent to England shortly before Pocahontas died, she had dined with Captain Argall and when Mattachanna returned to Virginia in 1617, she was convinced that her sister had been point poisoned as she had been in good health until the meal with Argall, Wahunsenaca despaired that he could not protect his favourite child and died the following year perhaps the truth about Pocahontas lies somewhere between these two versions. But the Romantic notion of a headstrong native American falling for an English Explorer is much more palatable than a young girl being captured and dying so far from home, despite the falsehoods in the popular films about her.

 Seeing a strong native American figure as a main character helped to open discussions about Native American culture and history. Pocahontas tried to encourage understanding between two vastly different worlds while she was alive, and her story is still being used to bridge the gap between two cultures and help her people tell their history…