All I knew about Pocahontas is the little I learned in grade school. As I remembered the story, she was an Indian princess who fell in love with the Englishman John Smith and begged her father to save his life when he was about to be executed. As it turns out, that was a legend according to historians who have researched and studied that time in history.
Pocahontas was born around 1596 in what is now the Tidewater area of Virginia. Her father Powhatan was the paramount chief of an alliance of 30 Algonquin-speaking tribes and her mother Winganuske was his first wife. Pocahontas was given the name Matoax at birth but that name was concealed from the English out of a belief that if her real name was known, they could hurt her in some way.
John Smith arrived in present day Virginia in a group of 100 settlers in April of 1607. Eleven-year old Pocahontas first saw John Smith when he was captured by her uncle Opechancanough and brought to Chief Powhatan. What happened next--as Smith told it years later--was that he was placed on the ground with his head on a rock as a warrior stood ready to bash his head with a club. Before this could happen, Smith said, Pocahontas rushed to him and placed her head on his, stopping the messy execution.
Historians, on the other hand, doubt that this ever happened. When John Smith first wrote about his capture in 1608 he didn't mention any threat to his life. In fact, he wrote about a feast and a meeting and never mentioned Pocahontas. It wasn't until 1616 in a letter he wrote to the Queen of Denmark that he told the tale of his near-death experience and rescue.
After Smith returned to Jamestown, Chief Powhatan sent food to the starving English on several occasions. Pocahontas usually accompanied the food deliveries as a sign of peace to the English. Friendly relations began to deteriorate in the winter of 1608-1609 after a drought the previous summer had greatly reduced the native's corn crop, leaving them little food to share with the English. The settlers demanded more food and began to threaten the tribes. Over the next few years, the relationship deteriorated.
English accounts between 1610 and 1613 don't mention Pocahontas. But in 1613 a Captain Samuel Argall decided that capturing her would give him leverage to improve the English position. With the help of native American Iopassus and his wife, a plan was hatched. Iopassus and his wife asked Pocahontas to accompany them to see Captain Argall's ship where they convinced her to go onboard to accompany Iopassus's wife. Once onboard, Argall refused to let Pocahontas leave and declared that she was being held as ransom for the return of English prisoners and weapons held by her father.
Pocahontas was brought to Jamestown and put under the charge of a minister where she was schooled in the English language, religion, and customs. She was baptized and renamed Rebecca. During the time she being schooled she met and fell in love with an English tobacco planter named John Rolfe. In April of 1614 she and John Rolfe married and relations between the English and the natives calmed in a period sometimes called "The Peace of Pocahontas". Soon after she and Rolfe had a son they named Thomas.
The Virginia Company of London, who had funded the settlement of Jamestown, decided to send Rolfe and Pocahontas to England. The thought was that the young Christian convert who had married an Englishman could encourage interest and investment in the Virginia settlement. The Virginia Company paid all expenses for the Rolfes to travel to England, even allowing about a dozen Powhatan men and women to accompany them. In England, Pocahontas was referred to as Lady Rebecca Rolfe as they toured the country.
In March of 1617 when the Rolfe party was set to return back to Virginia, Pocahontas became seriously ill as they sailed on the Thames. After being taken off the ship she died in a short time. Historians aren't sure what illness took her but some theories are pneumonia and dysentary. Pocahontas, who was just about 21-years old, was buried in England at St. George's Church on 21 Mar 1617. John Rolfe returned to Virginia alone, leaving his young son with relatives and his young wife in her grave.
A year later Pocahontas's father Powhatan died. Relationships between the English and the natives deteriorated and the "Peace of Pocahontas" was over.
The real story had none of the songs or romance of the Disney movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment