Pocahontas’ essay

Pocahontas’ essay

The daughter of a powerful chief of a confederation of tribes in the tidewater region of Virginia, Pocahontas played a crucial role in negotiating a stable relationship between the Jamestown colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy, thus ensuring the survival of the English colony. More interesting is the myth that has evolved around Pocahontas that emerged during the colonial era and has continued into the present day.

Historians are unsure about Pocahontas’ exact date or place of birth, but rough estimates suggest the year 1595. She was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan confederation, a powerful alliance that united many of the tribes in Virginia at this time. Pocahontas was first noted by the English colonists in 1607 when she sauntered into Jamestown as a young girl. The storybook version of Pocahontas relates the tale of Capt. John Smith’s capture by Powhatan’s brother, Opechancanough, when Smith raided the Powhatan territory in search of food. Pocahontas rescued Smith, 16 years her senior, from certain death. As Smith later told the story, just when he was about to meet his death from two warriors with clubs, Pocahontas placed her head on Smith’s. He thus always credited Pocahontas with saving his life. Historians have recently posited that Pocahontas was actually participating in an elaborate adoption ritual that Smith simply misinterpreted. Regardless, the story that Pocahontas saved Smith is the story that has endured.

After Smith’s rescue, Pocahontas continued to visit the settlement of Jamestown over the next year and a half. She often advised the colonists on which Indian tribes were the friendliest and taught the English how to bargain for food. Pocahontas also rescued several other colonists in 1610. First, she helped an English boy, Richard Wiffin, run away from his father who sought to kill him. Then, she warned Smith and his men that several Native Americans were plotting to murder them. Forewarned, Smith and his companions escaped.

Relations between the Powhatans and the English remained shaky, however. Capt. Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas in 1613 in hopes of exchanging her for the return of English prisoners, food, and weapons that the Powhatans had taken. The plan fell through when Pocahontas’ father refused to meet their demands and sent only a small portion of what the English demanded.

Pocahontas remained with the English and soon adjusted to her new circumstances. By 1614, with the help of Reverend Alexander Whitaker and colonist John Rolfe, Pocahontas rejected her tribal religious beliefs and converted to Christianity. She was baptized and renamed “Rebecca.” In the meantime, Rolfe, who would earn fame by developing a new strain of tobacco plant, had fallen in love with Pocahontas while he was instructing her in the Christian faith. Rolfe convinced the deputy governor of Virginia and representatives of the Church of England that his marriage would prove that the native tribes could be civilized and Christianized for “our Country’s good, the benefit of this Plantation, and for the converting [of] an irregenerate to regeneration.” With Powhatan’s assent, Pocahontas married Rolfe on April 5, 1614. Their marriage brought a brief period of peace between the Powhatans and the colonists, as well as the birth of a son, Thomas.

The Virginia Company of London, in hopes of capitalizing on the marriage between a Native American and an Englishman, arranged a tour of England for the Rolfe family in June 1616. They made a number of appearances, including at the court of King James I. Pocahontas also sat for a portrait, the only one known of her. The Rolfes left London in March 1617 for Rolfe’s new job as secretary of the Virginia colony. While en route to a port city so that they could return to Virginia, Pocahontas fell gravely ill. She died on March 21, 1617 in Gravesend, where she was buried.

The myth of Pocahontas, the “Indian Princess,” has been propagated since the 18th century and has captured the imagination of generations of Americans. Artists have devoted countless poems, novels, biographies, and paintings to Pocahontas, each telling and contributing to the myth. One of the most prominent stories—that Pocahontas and Smith were romantically involved, or that at least she was “enamoured” with Smith—had emerged by the mid-19th century. Amidst fears of miscegenation, the emphasis shifted from the tale of Pocahontas’ marriage to John Rolfe, once seen as an honorable and worthy event, to her rescue of John Smith. In the process, Pocahontas changed from a real historical figure and mother to a heroic protector, thus removing the troubling stigma of her son, Thomas. This presentation of her as the heroic, mythic protector is the way that she is most often portrayed.

ABC-CLIO

Further Reading

Barbour, Philip L., Pocahontas and Her World, 1970; Bataille, Gretchen M., Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, 1993; Magill, Frank N., Great Lives from History: American Women Series, 1995; Mossiker, Frances, Pocahontas: The Life and the Legend, 1976; Tilton, Robert S., Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative, 1994.

MLA Citation

“Pocahontas.” The American Mosaic: The American Indian Experience, ABC-CLIO, 2017, americanindian2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1479963. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.