According to The Learning Kingdom, a site I subscribed a few years ago, Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Algonquian Indian tribes. In 1614, while a prisoner of English settlers in Jamestown, Pocahontas married colonist John Rolfe. Their marriage brought temporary peace between settlers and Native Americans. In 1616, Pocahontas went with Rolfe to England where she died, probably due to a respiratory illness. She was 22 years old.
Below is a picture of Pocahontas, quite different from what we know from the cartoon, don't you think?
More about Pocahontas.
Modern Algonquian are fond of claiming that Pocahontas was more or less abducted from her tribe, forced to marry John Rolfe (a wealthy plantation developer, not Captain John Smith), and hauled off to England, where she was treated very badly.
ReplyDeleteActually, according to English history, she was captured by the British in hopes of ransoming back prisoners, and during that time John Rolfe fell in love with her and decided to marry her hoping to "save her soul" (i.e. bring her into Christianity). Apparently she was treated with respect after that, being that she was the daughter of a Native American king. Unfortunately, she became sick and died after only a year or so in London.
As for her relationship with Captain John Smith, there is still a lot of controversy. Smith's own tale kept changing, and many think he later exaggerated it to make people look upon Pocahontas more favorably. However, most historians agree that they had probably been friends rather than lovers. Later, when Smith and Pocahontas met by chance at a party in London (after Pocahontas had been led to believe Smith was dead), she apparently became deeply upset. After that she referred to him as "father" as he'd been a friend of her father, an incident that apparently caused some consternation among the Londoners since she was a princess and Smith was "only" a captain.
It's hard to know the truth, especially since Pocahontas herself never learned to write.
BTW, her real name was Mataoka. "Pocahontas" was a nickname meaning "little wanton" because she was a mischievous troublemaker. But apparently Chief Powhatan loved her very much.
MM, thank you for the history lesson.
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