Pocahontas
Baptism of Pocahontas, 1614, by Alexander Whitaker, "Apostle of Virginia"
Oil study for mural by John Gadsby Chapman, c. 1837-1840
The original is at Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Educational Trust
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 Wahunsunacock (also known as Chief or Emperor Powhatan), who ruled an area encompassing almost all of the neighboring 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
19th century illustration of Pocahontas saving Smith's life.
In April 1607, when the English colonists arrived in Virginia and began building settlements, Pocahontas was around the age of 12-14 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, (beaten with a club by the Chief himself) when Pocahontas threw herself across his body: "at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown."
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 10 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' image; however, in a recent book, J.A.O. Lemay points out 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.
A Pocahontas statue was erected in Jamestown, Virginia in 1922 Some experts have suggested, 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.] During a time when the colonists were starving, "ever 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. 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. They were treated kindly and traded with the Indians, but 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. 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.
In 1609, an injury from a gunpowder explosion forced Smith to return to England for medical care. The English told the natives Smith was dead, he had been captured by a French pirate, the pirate ship had been wrecked on the Brittany coast, and it had gone down with all hands. Pocahontas believed Smith was dead until she arrived in England several years later, the wife of John Rolfe.
According to William Strachey, Pocahontas married a Powhatan warrior called Kocoum at some point before 1612; nothing more is known about this marriage. There is no suggestion in any of the historical records Smith and Pocahontas were lovers. This romantic version of the story appears only in fictionalized versions of their relationship (such as the animated Walt Disney version).
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, her name was changed to Rebecca.
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
During her stay in Henricus, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, who fell in love with her. Rolfe, whose English-born 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.
They were married on April 5, 1614. Pocahontas was christened Lady Rebecca. For a few years after the marriage, the couple lived together at 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. 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
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 tamed, and the colony made safe.
In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to England, arriving at the port of Plymouth on the 12th of June 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 in Plymouth, Pocahontas 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 for some time. 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".
The statue of Pocahontas in St George's church
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. The nature of the illness is unknown, but since she had been described as sensitive to London's smoky air, pneumonia or tuberculosis are likely, although smallpox has also been suggested. 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 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
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.
”
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". Sauel 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).
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
Based on the engraved image by Simon van de Passe, but with European features
A 19th century depictionAfter her death, increasingly fanciful and romanticized representations of Pocahontas were produced. The only contemporary portrait of Pocahontas is Simon Van de Passe's copperplate engraving of 1616. In this portrait, her Native American facial structure is clear, despite her European clothing.
Later portraits often 'Europeanized' her appearance. Subsequent images and reworkings of Pocahontas' story presented her as an emblem of the potential of Native Americans to be assimilated into European society. For example, the United States Capitol prominently displays an 1840 painting by John Gadsby Chapman, The Baptism of Pocahontas, in the Rotunda. A government pamphlet was circulated, entitled The Picture of the Baptism of Pocahontas, explaining the characters in the painting, congratulating the Jamestown settlers for introducing Christianity to the "heathen savages", and thus showing that the settlers did not simply "exterminate the ancient proprietors of the soil, and usurp their possessions".
In another development, 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. 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. 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.
"[She] was the first Christian of that [Indian] nation and the first Virginian who ever spake English." Smith
John Smith's Letter to Queen Anne regarding Pocahontas In 1616, word came to Captain John Smith that Pocahontas was coming to visit England with her husband John Rolfe. Captain Smith was concerned that Pocahontas might not be given the reception he felt she deserved, so he wrote a letter Queen Anne to personally vouch for the integrity and faithfulness of Pocahontas. He reveals to the Queen that Pocahontas saved his life on several occasions, and saved the lives of many English at Jamestown. Although Smith humbles himself before the Queen in this letter (as would any English citizen), it is important to realize he was one of the most famous and influential explorers in England and what he said carried a lot of weight.
Smith mentions in this letter that Pocahontas saved his life twice.
"To the most high and virtuous princess, Queen Anne of Great Britain
Most admired Queen,
The love I bear my God, my King and country, hath so oft emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself, to present your Majesty this short discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I should omit any means to be thankful.
So it is, that some ten years ago being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chief King, I received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of my desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks fatting amongst those Salvage courtiers, at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown: where I found about eight and thirty miserable poor and sick creatures, to keep possession of all those large territories of Virginia; such was the weakness of this poor commonwealth, as had the salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most gracious Queen, was commonly brought us by this Lady Pocahontas.
Notwithstanding all these passages, when inconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this tender virgin would still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have been oft appeased, and our wants still supplied; were it the policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our nation, I know not: but of this I am sure; when her father with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me, having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her from coming through the irksome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence, with her best advice to escape his fury; which had he known, he had surely slain her.
Jamestown with her wild train she as freely frequented, as her fathers habitation; and during the time of two or three years, she next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion; which if in those times, had once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival to this day.
Since then, this business having been turned and varied by many accidents from that I left it at: it is most certain, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt her father and our colony; all which time she was not heard of.
About two years after she herself was taken prisoner, being so detained near two years longer, the colony by that means was relieved, peace concluded; and at last rejecting her barbarous condition, she was married to an English Gentleman, with whom at this present she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, the first Virginian ever spoke English, or had a child in marriage by an Englishman: a matter surely, if my meaning be truly considered and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding.
Thus, most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majesty, what at your best leisure our approved Histories will account you at large, and done in the time of your Majesty's life; and however this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest heart, as yet I never begged anything of the state, or any: and it is my want of ability and her exceeding desert; your birth, means, and authority; her birth, virtue, want and simplicity, doth make me thus bold, humbly to beseech your Majesty to take this knowledge of her, though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself, her husbands estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I can do, is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried it as myself, and the rather being of so great a spirit, however her stature: if she should not be well received, seeing this Kingdom may rightly have a Kingdom by her means; her present love to us and Christianity might turn to such scorn and fury, as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; whereas finding so great a Queen should do her some honor more than she can imagine, for being so kind to your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endear her dearest blood to effect that, your Majesty and all the Kings honest subjects most earnestly desire.
And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands,
Captain John Smith, 1616
******
Pocahontas along with her husband and her child, stayed in London at the Bell Sauvage Inn on Ludgate Hill, which was located in close proximity to St. Paul's' Cathedral.
Pocahontas was entertained by many and ushered into the highest social circles including attending plays and balls. The Reverend Samuel Purchase recalled some years later that Pocahontas "did not only accustome here selfe to civilitie, but still carried her self as the Daughter of a King, and was accordingly respected." Purchase also said that the Bishop of London held a party for her described as "a festivall state and pompe" beyond the usual hospitality shown to ladies.
Many were certainly fascinated by the stories of Pocahontas and wanted to catch a glimpse of this princess of Kinge Powhatan and her entourage of 10 or so mostly young women from the Powhatan tribe plus her sister Matachanna and her husband Uttamatomakkin (also called Tomocomo or Tomakin).
The King and Queen received Pocahontas at the Banqueting House a few days after Christmas at one of the highlights of the court calendar, the Twelfth Night revels. There Pocahontas and Uttamatomakkin were seated near the King. They were entertained by a masque, the Vision of Delight, written especially for the occasion by Ben Johnson. This was a elaborate play of song and dance with special effects and illusions designed by Indigo Jones. This must of been a special evening she would never forget.
Pocahontas's portrait made in England at 21 years of age
This Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe, carefully preserved through the centuries, although its travels and whereabouts have been been shrouded in mystery. Presently at Kings Lynn Museum. It is believed the bereaved John Rolfe brought this portrait with him from England to his home here on the edge of the wilderness.
The picture may have hung on the wall of one of Virginia's stately Colonial mansions and been taken back to England at some time. When reaching adulthood, Thomas Rolfe came to Virginia and assumed his fathers lands and possessions. He may have shipped the painting back to England, possibly to the Heacham Hall estate, which had been in the Rolfe family hundreds of years before John was born.
It is known that the painting was sold at about the turn of the present century, the canvas was removed to Sedgeford, another Rolfe property. That the painting was carefully preserved proves, however, that its value to the Rolfe ancestors.
The earrings worn by Pocahontas in the picture are in existence today and are the only personal belongings of Powhatan's daughter known to have survived the long intervening centuries. They have been handed down carefully in the Rolfe family from father to son for generations and are owned now by Robert Girdlestone Meggy of Brooklyn, New York.
Earrings said to have belonged to Pocahontas
She may have received these earrings on a trip to London right before her death in 1617. The earrings were handed down through the Rolfe family and now belong to the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Each earring is formed of a double mussel-shell, the rare white kind found only the eastern shore of Bering's Strait. They are set in silver rims, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and are worth approximately $500,000.
Double shell earrings were worn very generally among the American Indians we are told, but the white variety was reserved exclusively for the adornment of priests and princes. These royal jewels are set in silver rims, inlaid with small steel points. This mounting, it is thought, suggests that they were set, or re-set, in England. The latter assumption is more or less confirmed by an old tale concerning these valuable ornaments. It is declared that they were reset in England for Pocahontas by that Duke of Northumberland who was the brother of George Percy the colonist, who wrote "The Trewe Relacyon of What Happened in Virginia." This document is a letter from the emigrant to his brother, the nobleman, who remained at home. * * *
When Pocahontas died and was buried at Gravesend, her small son was left by his father in the care of the little boy's uncle, Henry Rolfe, with whom he lived until maturity. The descendants of this Henry Rolfe were know as the Rolfe's of Essex, the last member of this branch of the family being J. Girdlestone Rolfe. His second wife was Isabella Golden Clark, to whom he gave the earrings at the time of their marriage in 1923, and she bequeathed the precious earrings to her sister, Mrs. Jessie Hodgson Meggy. In this way they went out of the Rolfe family. The present owner inherited them from his mother, who had obtained them from her sister, Mrs. Rolfe.
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 Wahunsunacock (also known as Chief or Emperor Powhatan), who ruled an area encompassing almost all of the neighboring 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
In April 1607, when the English colonists arrived in Virginia and began building settlements, Pocahontas was around the age of 12-14 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, (beaten with a club by the Chief himself) when Pocahontas threw herself across his body: "at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown."
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 10 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' image; however, in a recent book, J.A.O. Lemay points out 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.
A Pocahontas statue was erected in Jamestown, Virginia in 1922 Some experts have suggested, 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.] During a time when the colonists were starving, "ever 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. 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. They were treated kindly and traded with the Indians, but 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. 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.
In 1609, an injury from a gunpowder explosion forced Smith to return to England for medical care. The English told the natives Smith was dead, he had been captured by a French pirate, the pirate ship had been wrecked on the Brittany coast, and it had gone down with all hands. Pocahontas believed Smith was dead until she arrived in England several years later, the wife of John Rolfe.
According to William Strachey, Pocahontas married a Powhatan warrior called Kocoum at some point before 1612; nothing more is known about this marriage. There is no suggestion in any of the historical records Smith and Pocahontas were lovers. This romantic version of the story appears only in fictionalized versions of their relationship (such as the animated Walt Disney version).
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, her name was changed to Rebecca.
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
Pocahontas's feelings about Rolfe and the marriage are unknown.
They were married on April 5, 1614. Pocahontas was christened Lady Rebecca. For a few years after the marriage, the couple lived together at 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. 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
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 tamed, and the colony made safe.
In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to England, arriving at the port of Plymouth on the 12th of June 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 in Plymouth, Pocahontas 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 for some time. 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. The nature of the illness is unknown, but since she had been described as sensitive to London's smoky air, pneumonia or tuberculosis are likely, although smallpox has also been suggested. 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 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
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. | ” |
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". Sauel 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).
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".
Based on the engraved image by Simon van de Passe, but with European features
Later portraits often 'Europeanized' her appearance. Subsequent images and reworkings of Pocahontas' story presented her as an emblem of the potential of Native Americans to be assimilated into European society. For example, the United States Capitol prominently displays an 1840 painting by John Gadsby Chapman, The Baptism of Pocahontas, in the Rotunda. A government pamphlet was circulated, entitled The Picture of the Baptism of Pocahontas, explaining the characters in the painting, congratulating the Jamestown settlers for introducing Christianity to the "heathen savages", and thus showing that the settlers did not simply "exterminate the ancient proprietors of the soil, and usurp their possessions".
In another development, 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. 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. 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.
"[She] was the first Christian of that [Indian] nation and the first Virginian who ever spake English." Smith
John Smith's Letter to Queen Anne regarding Pocahontas In 1616, word came to Captain John Smith that Pocahontas was coming to visit England with her husband John Rolfe. Captain Smith was concerned that Pocahontas might not be given the reception he felt she deserved, so he wrote a letter Queen Anne to personally vouch for the integrity and faithfulness of Pocahontas. He reveals to the Queen that Pocahontas saved his life on several occasions, and saved the lives of many English at Jamestown. Although Smith humbles himself before the Queen in this letter (as would any English citizen), it is important to realize he was one of the most famous and influential explorers in England and what he said carried a lot of weight.
Smith mentions in this letter that Pocahontas saved his life twice.
"To the most high and virtuous princess, Queen Anne of Great Britain
Most admired Queen,
The love I bear my God, my King and country, hath so oft emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself, to present your Majesty this short discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I should omit any means to be thankful.
So it is, that some ten years ago being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chief King, I received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of my desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks fatting amongst those Salvage courtiers, at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown: where I found about eight and thirty miserable poor and sick creatures, to keep possession of all those large territories of Virginia; such was the weakness of this poor commonwealth, as had the salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most gracious Queen, was commonly brought us by this Lady Pocahontas.
Notwithstanding all these passages, when inconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this tender virgin would still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have been oft appeased, and our wants still supplied; were it the policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our nation, I know not: but of this I am sure; when her father with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me, having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her from coming through the irksome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence, with her best advice to escape his fury; which had he known, he had surely slain her.
Jamestown with her wild train she as freely frequented, as her fathers habitation; and during the time of two or three years, she next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion; which if in those times, had once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival to this day.
Since then, this business having been turned and varied by many accidents from that I left it at: it is most certain, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt her father and our colony; all which time she was not heard of.
About two years after she herself was taken prisoner, being so detained near two years longer, the colony by that means was relieved, peace concluded; and at last rejecting her barbarous condition, she was married to an English Gentleman, with whom at this present she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, the first Virginian ever spoke English, or had a child in marriage by an Englishman: a matter surely, if my meaning be truly considered and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding.
Thus, most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majesty, what at your best leisure our approved Histories will account you at large, and done in the time of your Majesty's life; and however this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest heart, as yet I never begged anything of the state, or any: and it is my want of ability and her exceeding desert; your birth, means, and authority; her birth, virtue, want and simplicity, doth make me thus bold, humbly to beseech your Majesty to take this knowledge of her, though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself, her husbands estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I can do, is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried it as myself, and the rather being of so great a spirit, however her stature: if she should not be well received, seeing this Kingdom may rightly have a Kingdom by her means; her present love to us and Christianity might turn to such scorn and fury, as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; whereas finding so great a Queen should do her some honor more than she can imagine, for being so kind to your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endear her dearest blood to effect that, your Majesty and all the Kings honest subjects most earnestly desire.
And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands,
Captain John Smith, 1616
******
Pocahontas along with her husband and her child, stayed in London at the Bell Sauvage Inn on Ludgate Hill, which was located in close proximity to St. Paul's' Cathedral.
Pocahontas was entertained by many and ushered into the highest social circles including attending plays and balls. The Reverend Samuel Purchase recalled some years later that Pocahontas "did not only accustome here selfe to civilitie, but still carried her self as the Daughter of a King, and was accordingly respected." Purchase also said that the Bishop of London held a party for her described as "a festivall state and pompe" beyond the usual hospitality shown to ladies.
Many were certainly fascinated by the stories of Pocahontas and wanted to catch a glimpse of this princess of Kinge Powhatan and her entourage of 10 or so mostly young women from the Powhatan tribe plus her sister Matachanna and her husband Uttamatomakkin (also called Tomocomo or Tomakin).
The King and Queen received Pocahontas at the Banqueting House a few days after Christmas at one of the highlights of the court calendar, the Twelfth Night revels. There Pocahontas and Uttamatomakkin were seated near the King. They were entertained by a masque, the Vision of Delight, written especially for the occasion by Ben Johnson. This was a elaborate play of song and dance with special effects and illusions designed by Indigo Jones. This must of been a special evening she would never forget.
Pocahontas's portrait made in England at 21 years of age
This Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe, carefully preserved through the centuries, although its travels and whereabouts have been been shrouded in mystery. Presently at Kings Lynn Museum. It is believed the bereaved John Rolfe brought this portrait with him from England to his home here on the edge of the wilderness.
The picture may have hung on the wall of one of Virginia's stately Colonial mansions and been taken back to England at some time. When reaching adulthood, Thomas Rolfe came to Virginia and assumed his fathers lands and possessions. He may have shipped the painting back to England, possibly to the Heacham Hall estate, which had been in the Rolfe family hundreds of years before John was born.
It is known that the painting was sold at about the turn of the present century, the canvas was removed to Sedgeford, another Rolfe property. That the painting was carefully preserved proves, however, that its value to the Rolfe ancestors.
The earrings worn by Pocahontas in the picture are in existence today and are the only personal belongings of Powhatan's daughter known to have survived the long intervening centuries. They have been handed down carefully in the Rolfe family from father to son for generations and are owned now by Robert Girdlestone Meggy of Brooklyn, New York.
Earrings said to have belonged to Pocahontas
She may have received these earrings on a trip to London right before her death in 1617. The earrings were handed down through the Rolfe family and now belong to the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Each earring is formed of a double mussel-shell, the rare white kind found only the eastern shore of Bering's Strait. They are set in silver rims, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and are worth approximately $500,000.
Double shell earrings were worn very generally among the American Indians we are told, but the white variety was reserved exclusively for the adornment of priests and princes. These royal jewels are set in silver rims, inlaid with small steel points. This mounting, it is thought, suggests that they were set, or re-set, in England. The latter assumption is more or less confirmed by an old tale concerning these valuable ornaments. It is declared that they were reset in England for Pocahontas by that Duke of Northumberland who was the brother of George Percy the colonist, who wrote "The Trewe Relacyon of What Happened in Virginia." This document is a letter from the emigrant to his brother, the nobleman, who remained at home. * * *
When Pocahontas died and was buried at Gravesend, her small son was left by his father in the care of the little boy's uncle, Henry Rolfe, with whom he lived until maturity. The descendants of this Henry Rolfe were know as the Rolfe's of Essex, the last member of this branch of the family being J. Girdlestone Rolfe. His second wife was Isabella Golden Clark, to whom he gave the earrings at the time of their marriage in 1923, and she bequeathed the precious earrings to her sister, Mrs. Jessie Hodgson Meggy. In this way they went out of the Rolfe family. The present owner inherited them from his mother, who had obtained them from her sister, Mrs. Rolfe.
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