Home > Categories > People > History > North American indigenous peoples: Biographies > Pocahontas

Pocahontas

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

Pocahontas , c.1595-1617, Native North American woman, daughter of Chief Powhatan . Pocahontas, meaning "playful one" (her real name was said to be Matoaka), used to visit the English in Virginia at Jamestown. According to the famous story, she saved the life of the captured Capt. John Smith just as he was about to have his head smashed at the direction of Powhatan. In 1613, Pocahontas was captured by Capt. Samuel Argall, taken to Jamestown, and held as a hostage for English prisoners then in the hands of her father. At Jamestown she was converted to Christianity and baptized as Rebecca. John Rolfe , a settler, gained the permission of Powhatan and the governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and married her in Apr., 1614. The union brought peace with the Native Americans for eight years. With her husband and several other Native Americans, Pocahontas went to England in 1616. There she was received as a princess and presented to the king and queen. She started back to America in 1617 but was taken ill and died at Gravesend, where she was buried. Pocahontas bore one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in England, went (1640) to Virginia, and gained considerable wealth.

Bibliography: See P. L. Barbour, Pocahontas and Her World (1969); G. S. Woodward, Pocahontas (1969).

Author not available, POCAHONTAS., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press

For permission to reuse this article, contact Copyright Clearance Center.

Related articles from HighBeam Research:

	Registration of `Pocahontas' Wheat. Crop Science; 7/1/2001; GRIFFEY, C.A. STARLING, T.M. PRICE, A.M. SISSON, W.L. DAS, M.K. PRIDGEN, T.H. ROHRER, W.L. BRANN, D.E.; 979 words; `Pocahontas' (Reg. no. CV-901, PI 602598) is an early-maturing, apically-awnlet ... The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station released Pocahontas in February 1997. The name Pocahontas was selected as a tribute to all Native Americans and ...
	Three Pocahontas programs gain IFDA's Best of Show Award. (Pocahontas Foods USA Inc.'s marketing programs receive Institutional Food Distributors of America awards) Frozen Food Digest; 2/1/1998; 644 words; Pocahontas Foods USA was awarded IFDA's Best of Show Award for ... category. In addition, Pate Dawson/Pate Derby Company, a Pocahontas distributor based in Goldsboro, NC, won IFDA's Best ... Complete Meal local marketing campaign, developed through Pocahontas Foods USA's Electronic Publishing & Graphics ...
	DISNEY'S `POCAHONTAS': RATE IT PC The Boston Globe; 6/16/1995; Jay Carr, Globe Staff; 1187 words; POCAHONTAS Directed by: Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg Written by ... Lion King" and "Aladdin" never surface in Disney's new "Pocahontas." The trouble is that nothing much else does, either ... Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid," too. Poor Pocahontas is flattened by the film's preaching, and even by ...
	`Pocahontas' a Natural // Well-Drawn Feature Is Good Family Entertainment Chicago Sun-Times; 6/16/1995; Roger Ebert; 988 words; POCAHONTAS (STAR) (STAR) (STAR) With the voices of: Pocahontas Irene Bedard John Smith Mel Gibson Governor Ratcliffe ... Chicago Theatre and next Friday at local theaters. `Pocahontas" is the best-looking of the modern Disney animated features ...
	Pocahontas: A Maiden's Voyage The Washington Post; 12/16/1994; Hank Burchard; 1387 words; POCAHONTAS was a savage slattern. Pocahontas was a natural saint. Somewhere between those judgmental extremes ... which soon will release a feature-length cartoon marking Pocahontas's 400th birthday and probably setting her popular image for ...
	A Powhatan Princess in Their Past; Disney's `Pocahontas' Inspires Virginians to Shake the Family Tree The Washington Post; 7/3/1995; Leef Smith; 649 words; Pocahontas is more than just the subject of a blockbuster summer ... e's family -- or they want her to be. With the image of Pocahontas plastered across lunch boxes and beach towels, people ... weeks from people trying to trace their heritage to Pocahontas," said David DeVito, an administrative assistant at ...
	Opposing forces: (re)playing Pocahontas and the politics of Indian removal on the antebellum stage. Comparative Drama; 12/22/2006; Jaroff, Rebecca; 8385 words; ... Greenhill Barnes, perform the title role in Pocahontas, or The Settlers of Virginia at the ... playwright and actress reintroduced the Pocahontas tale to audiences in Philadelphia nearly ... earlier version, Barnes's play depicts Pocahontas as an adept politician who strives for ...
	"Strange wives": Pocahontas in early modern colonial advertisement. Mosaic (Winnipeg); 9/1/2002; Stymeist, David; 6743 words; ... Rolfe notes his own apprehension that Pocahontas was from a generation accursed (Hamor ... authorizes his intermarriage with Pocahontas. In using conversion as his main argument ... upon the successful conversion of Pocahontas. The image of conversion serves as ... text by presenting his pamphlet as ...
	Pocahontas, for real.(how Walt Disney movie 'Pocahontas' compares to history)(includes related article) U.S. News & World Report; 6/19/1995; Silver, Marc; 1877 words; Indian summer comes early this year. Pocahontas, Disney's latest animation, opens nationally ... America's children will be clamoring for Pocahontas keepsakes from plush animals to pillowcases ... settlers in 17th-century Jamestown. Pocahontas, the movie, has everything--romance ...
	Reflecting on Pocahontas Frontiers; 1/1/2002; Anonymous; 1264 words; What do we know about Pocahontas? We know that she was Powhatan's ... know if, like Powhatan's sister, Pocahontas would one day have ruled a town ... the British translated the name Pocahontas to mean "little wanton," and they ...
	Acquisitions, Retirements Recast Pocahontas Bancorp. Arkansas Business; 8/13/2001; WALDON, GEORGE; 1429 words; THE LEADERSHIP changes in motion at Pocahontas Bancorp amount to a friendly changing ... will take over as president and CEO of Pocahontas Bancorp on Oct. 1. His advancement coincides ... measure are the renaming of the venerable Pocahontas Federal Savings & Loan Association ...
	The Princess Wild.(Pocahontas) U.S. News & World Report; 1/29/2007; LaRoe, Lisa Moore; 1118 words; Disney had it right about Pocahontas. She's a cartoon, a supernaturally ... biases of history. In reality, Pocahontas was just a child when she met Smith ... misinterpreted an adoption ceremony in which Pocahontas may have played a scripted part ...
	Pocahontas: A grade school memory Circle, The; 5/31/1995; Sherrole Benton; 1263 words; Sherrole Benton Circle, The 05-31-1995 Pocahontas: A grade school memory. This year ... film and traveling musical show about Pocahontas, the first Native American Princess ... Squanto holding a fish in his hands and Pocahontas standing next to a white man. "What ... I tried to remember the colors and maps ...
	Reflecting on Pocahontas (1).(Biography) Frontiers - A Journal of Women's Studies; 6/1/2002; Tremblay, Gail; 1398 words; What do we know about Pocahontas? We know that she was Powhatan's ... know if, like Powhatan's sister, Pocahontas would one day have ruled a town ... the British translated the name Pocahontas to mean little wanton, and they ...
	Disney's 'politically correct' Pocahontas. (animated film)(Race in Contemporary American Cinema: Part 5) Cineaste; 9/22/1995; Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn; 1594 words; ... and since few people will read about Pocahontas, this film will exist as 'fact' in ... agree. I like Mickey Mouse, too. But Pocahontas was a real woman who lived during ... a blonde Adonis. Smith's report of Pocahontas's brave act in saving his life was ... about eighty years before Smith met ...