Pocahontas

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Life of Pocahontas

Pocahontas is said to have prevented her father from executing colonist John Smith in the year 1607. This was very probably a ritual that was used to accept John Smith as a friend of the tribe and was only symbolic. The truth of this story cannot be verified; Pocahontas was only thirteen years old at the time and could not have known Smith for long, as he had arrived from England that year. Smith did not speak the Powhatan language at that time and may have misunderstood what was actually happening. Smith's account was long considered to be a fabrication, in part because he never mentioned the event in any of the sundry monographs about the colony that he published in the twenty years following his return. Some recent researchers assert that there is little reason to doubt his veracity, but the more romanticized popular versions of the story are unquestionably dubious.

Related Topics:
John Smith - 1607 - England

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Whatever really happened, a friendly relationship with Smith and the rest of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia was initiated and Pocahontas would often come to the settlement and play with the children there. During hard times, Pocahontas also helped to save the Jamestown colony from extinction by supplying it with food.

Related Topics:
Jamestown, Virginia - Extinction

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In 1612, Pocahontas was captured and held hostage by the Jamestown colonists in the hope that they could ransom her for the release of some of their own people held in captivity by Pocahontas's tribe. During this time, she learned English and was baptized by Alexander Whitaker. There is evidence that she was already betrothed to someone of her own tribe by the name of Kocoum before she was kidnapped. After her baptism, however, she married John Rolfe, who had established the growing of tobacco in Virginia, on April 5, 1614, and her name was changed to Rebecca Rolfe. They lived together at Rolfe's plantation, Varina Farms, which was located across the James River from Henricus. Their marriage was unsuccessful in winning the captives back, but it did create a climate of peace between the Jamestown colonists and Powhatan's tribes for several years.

Related Topics:
1612 - Baptized - Alexander Whitaker - John Rolfe - Tobacco - April 5 - 1614 - Varina Farms - Henricus

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The Virginia colony's sponsors found it difficult to lure new colonists to Jamestown and to find investors for such ventures and so used Pocahontas as a marketing ploy to convince people back in Europe that the New World's natives could be tamed and the colony made safe. In 1616 she was brought to England, living in Brentford between 1616 and 1617, to meet King James I and his court. There she was promoted as an "Indian princess," which created a sensation in England, becoming America's first international celebrity. The plan to win more backing for the Virginia colony and to gain royal favor was a great success.

Related Topics:
1616 - Brentford - 1617 - King James I

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Rolfe was eager to return to Virginia to raise tobacco, but Pocahontas became ill and died of smallpox, pneumonia, or tuberculosis (accounts differ) during the journey, in Gravesend. Her only child was Thomas Rolfe, born at Varina Farms, through whom she has living descendants.

Related Topics:
Smallpox - Pneumonia - Tuberculosis - Gravesend - Thomas Rolfe

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