Pocahontas

1595

Virginia

March 1617

Gravesend, England

Powhatan-Renapé "princess" who helped the Virginia colonists

" . . . I will bee for ever and ever your Countrieman. . . . "

Pocahontas.

The story of Pocahontas, a Powhatan-Renapé "princess," is one of the earliest and most deeply rooted legends of American history. According to the legend, Pocahontas saved John Smith (see entry), one of the founders of the Virginia Colony, from being executed by her father, Powhatan (see entry). If the story is true, Pocahontas may have decisively influenced the course of English settlement in the New World (a European term for North America and South America). Her friendly and generous relationship with Smith and the English settlers helped preserve the colony through the long winters when the colonists were threatened with starvation. With the benefit of hindsight, many Native Americans have criticized her for preventing Powhatan from killing off the colonists. Had she not done so, they say, the English might never have colonized North America and many Native American cultures might have been preserved from extinction (no longer existing). On the other hand, Americans of European descent regard Pocahontas as a savior of their own race and a fore-mother of the United States.

Pocahontas saves Smith?

Most of the existing information about Pocahontas's early life comes from the writings of Smith, an English adventurer with the Virginia Company. The company had been licensed by King James I of England to explore the coast of North America and exploit its natural resources. In May 1607 Smith and his party established the settlement of Jamestown, named after the king, on the shores of the James River in present-day Virginia, near Chesapeake Bay. Initially the progress of the settlement was thwarted by jealousy and disagreement among the leaders. Smith himself was imprisoned for some time for insubordination (disobedience to authority). In December 1607, Smith embarked on an expedition up the Chickahominy River, exploring the region for new Native American trading partners, places to prospect for gold, and possible access to the Pacific Ocean. He apparently went too close to a treasure house belonging to Powhatan, the chief of the local Powhatan group, which was part of the Algonquin tribe. Powhatan's agents captured Smith and took him before the chief.

In a letter to Queen Anne (wife of James I), dated 1616, Smith claimed that Powhatan sentenced him to death. Then, Smith declared, "at the minute of my execution, [Pocahontas] . . . hazarded the beating out of her own braines to save mine." Writing about himself in the third person, Smith gave a fuller account of the event in his Generall Historie of Virginia (1624). He wrote that Powhatan fed him well, but then "two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many [of the Indians] as could layd hands on him [Smith], dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne [u]pon his to sa[v]e him from death."

Is the story true?

Some modern historians have questioned Smith's version of the events that took place in Powhatan's camp. They believe that Smith, a self-promoter, created the story of Pocahontas to enhance his own prestige. In fact, in Smith's earliest description of his meeting with Powhatan, he mentions neither Pocahontas nor an execution. According to an account Smith wrote only a year after the incident, he was brought before Powhatan and the king questioned him about the presence of English settlers in Native American territory. After Smith gave his reply, Powhatan simply sent him back to Jamestown. On the other hand, nothing in Smith's story of Pocahontas can be disproved. For instance, when young Native American men were initiated into full membership in a tribe, they often went through a ceremony that involved a mock execution like the one Smith described. At some point during the execution a sponsor had to speak up for the young man. If this was Smith's initiation ceremony, then Pocahontas served as Smith's sponsor in the tribe. This interpretation makes her later assistance to the English colonists more understandable.

"the willful one"

According to historical documents, Pocahontas seems to have earned her name, "the willful one." Smith believed Powhatan indulged her and refused her nothing. William Strachey, the official secretary and historian for the Jamestown Colony, called Pocahontas "a well featured but wanton young girle." He added that she frequently engaged in provocative (tending to excite or provoke) behavior: When she was about the age of "11 or 12 yeares, [she would come to the fort and] gett the boyes [to go] forth with her into the markett place and make them wheele [turn handsprings], falling on their hands turning their heeles upwardes, whome she would follow, and wheele so her self naked as she was all the fort over." The spectacle of an unclothed, preteenage girl turning handsprings in such a public place did not fit English ideas of ladylike behavior.

Saves colonists' lives

It is a documented fact that Pocahontas saved the English colonists from starvation. During the early months of 1608, after their own stores and homes burned down, she supplied them with food. Smith recalled, "Now ever once in foure or five dayes, Pocahontas with her attendants brought him [Smith] so much provision, that saved many of their lives, that els for all this had starved." He continued: "James towne with her wild traine she as freely frequented, as her father's habitation, and during the time of two or three yeeres, she next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion; which if in those times, [fit] had once been dissolved, Virginia might have [lain] . . . as it was at our first arrivall to this day."

Acts as negotiator

Pocahontas also served as a go-between for negotiations between her father and the English settlers. In April 1608, one of Smith's fellow captains of the Virginia Company had made the mistake of giving Powhatan tribesmen English steel swords in exchange for turkeys. When Smith refused to barter (trade) any more of his limited supply of weapons, the Powhatans began ambushing settlers and taking their swords, guns, axes, spades, and shovels. Smith then seized seven Powhatan hostages, who confessed that they were acting under their leaders's orders. In mid-May 1608 Powhatan sent Pocahontas to Smith as a negotiator, and Smith finally released his captives to her.

Despite Pocahontas's efforts, relations between her father and the colonists deteriorated. Powhatan was alarmed by the arrival of more colonists and believed that the English intended to take his land away from him. An attempted coronation (crowning) of Powhatan according to English rituals (a plan concocted by Virginia Company officials in London in the hope to gain Powhatan as an ally by making him think he was equal to their own king) did nothing to ease his suspicions. In the autumn of 1608, Powhatan finally forbade all trade with the English. Faced with another hard winter on inadequate rations, Smith decided to confront Powhatan at his capitol, Werowocomoco, and force him to trade under threat of war. In January 1609, Smith and Powhatan met on the banks of the Pamunkey River. According to Smith, Powhatan's major concern was when the English would be leaving: "Some doubt I have," Smith quotes him as saying, "of your comming hither, that makes me not so kindly seeke to relieve you as I would: for many doe informe, your comming hither is not for trade, but to invade my people, and possesse my Country."

Pocahontas again to the rescue

Recognizing that Smith did not intend to leave without the grain he needed, Powhatan decided to remove himself and his family—including Pocahontas—to the town of Orapaks, about fifty miles from Jamestown. Smith and his men were subsequently stranded at Werowocomoco when the barge they had brought to transport the grain was grounded by low tide. They were forced to spend the night in the partly deserted town. In the meantime Powhatan had made plans to attack and kill the English party. Smith and his men were saved once again by Pocahontas, who warned them of her father's intentions and told then to flee. Smith described the event in his Generall Historie: "For Pocahontas [Powhatan's] dearest jewell and daughter, in that darke night came through the irksome woods, and told our Captaine [Smith] . . . if we would live, shee wished us presently to be gone."

Smith tried to reward Pocahontas with some trinkets, but she refused the gifts. She feared that Powhatan would punish her if he found out what she had done. Smith wrote: "Such things as shee delighted in, he would have given her: but with the teares running downe her cheekes, shee said shee durst not be seene to have any: for if Powhatan should know it, she were but dead, and so she ranne away by her seffe as she came." Smith did not see Pocahontas again for about eight years. During that time Powhatan and his people ceased trade with the English.

At this point Pocahontas largely drops out of the history of the Jamestown colony. Evidence suggests that she helped hide occasional fugitives who fell into Powhatan's hands, sending them back to the settlement. Smith himself suffered a serious wound—some gunpowder contained in a pouch at his side exploded, stripping the flesh off one leg—and he went back to England in September 1609. He arrived there to find that several men he had exiled from Jamestown for various offenses had returned to England and had levied countercharges against him. He was required to give answers in London. Meanwhile Pocahontas assumed Smith was dead, and since her father had severed ties with the English, she never returned to Jamestown.

Lives with Patawamakes

According to English records, in 1610 Pocahontas married one of her father's supporters, a man named Kocoum. He may have been a member of another tribe, possibly the Patawamakes, who lived farther north on the shores of the Potomac River. Whether for this or some other reason, by 1613 Pocahontas had left her father's territory and was living with friends among the Patawamakes.

Meanwhile in Jamestown, Smith's position was largely taken over by a sea captain named Samuel Argall. The colonists were still suffering from the trading sanctions (prohibiting of trade with his tribe) imposed by Powhatan. The chief had also been waging a guerilla war (a type of unplanned, or unconventional, warfare that involves surprise attacks) against the English for years and taking captives. In late December 1612, while looking for new trading partners, Argall made contact with the chief of the Patawamakes, a man named Iapazaws. When Argall learned that Pocahontas was living with the Patawamakes, he theorized that Powhatan might agree to resume trade if he knew his daughter was being held captive by his enemies. Argall therefore coaxed Pocahontas on board his ship and sailed off with her to Jamestown.

Refuses to rejoin Powhatan

Even though the Englishmen were holding Pocahontas, their negotiations with the Powhatans did not go smoothly. Powhatan was willing to release his English hostages, but he would not give up the guns, swords, and tools he had seized. He claimed they had been stolen from him. Powhatan conducted most of his negotiations through his brother and successor, Opechancanough, who distrusted the English and was ready to fight them. Following an attack by Opechancanough, Argall and acting Jamestown governor Thomas Dale brought Pocahontas on shore to conduct negotiations with the Powhatans. She refused to meet with her father's representatives, choosing instead to remain with the English. According to a letter by Dale quoted in Purchas his Pilgrimes, Pocahontas "would not talke to any of [the Powhatans] . . . , [claiming] that if her father had loved her, he would not value her lesse then old Swords, Peeces [guns], or Axes: wherefore shee should still dwell with the English men, who loved her."

Marries John Rolfe

At least one Englishman did love Pocahontas. His name was John Rolfe (see entry), and he had come to Jamestown to grow tobacco. (Tobacco was the colony's first successful cash crop, and the basis for the Virginian economy for nearly the next three hundred years.) A devout Christian, Rolfe had courted the captive princess while she was in the care of the Reverend Alexander Whitaker at Henrico, a new community near Jamestown. Whitaker presided at Pocahontas's baptism when she took the name "Rebecca" as a sign of her conversion to Christianity. Rolfe carefully considered his position. He then wrote a lengthy letter to Dale, stating his desire to marry Pocahontas "for the good of the Plantacon, the honor of or Countrye, for the glorye of God, for myne owne salvacon." Both Dale and Powhatan ultimately approved the union. Pocahontas and Rolfe were married at Jamestown in April 1614, a union that spurred the Peace of Pocahontas—a friendship between the English and Powhatan tribes that lasted for many years.

Honored by English royalty

The young couple prospered for three years. In the winter or early spring of 1615, Pocahontas bore Rolfe a son named Thomas. The London owners of the Virginia Company, recognizing that the colony owed its survival to the princess, voted to award her an annual pension for the rest of her life. In addition, they decided to bring her and her family to England to be presented to the king and queen, and to serve as a living advertisement for the company's success. In 1616 the Rolfes sailed for London, accompanied by Dale, who had retired, and Powhatan's representative Uttamatamakin (also Tomocomo). Pocahontas was soon the talk of the town. She met Queen Anne and was later received by King James I. Rolfe did not share in the honor, however, partly because the king was upset with Rolfe for marrying a foreign princess without his permission. Also James did not approve of Rolfe's association with tobacco, a plant the king despised.

Pocahontas's health fails

Pocahontas apparently enjoyed court life. However, in the late winter or early spring of 1616–17, her health began to fail. Rolfe moved her from London to the village of Brentford outside the city. At Brentford, Smith came into her life again. He visited and, "after a modest salutation," Smith wrote, "without any word she turned about, obscured her face, as not seeming well contented." Several hours later Pocahontas regained her composure and confronted Smith: "Were you not afraid to come into my fathers Countrie, and caused feare in him and all his people (but mee), and feare you here I should call you father. I tell you then I will, and you shall call me childe, and so I will bee for ever and ever your Countrieman. . . . They did tell us alwaies you were dead, and I knew no other till I came to Plimouth." Historians speculate that by this statement Pocahontas meant that she would not have married Rolfe had she known Smith was still alive.

The Rolfes embarked for Virginia in mid-March 1617. By that time, however, Pocahontas was critically ill, probably with tuberculosis (a bacterial infection of the lungs) or pneumonia. She was able to travel only as far as Gravesend, toward the mouth of the Thames River. She died there and was buried on March 21, 1617. She was twenty-two years old. The site of her grave has since been lost. John Rolfe returned to Virginia, where he married for a third time. In 1622 Pocahontas's uncle Opechancanough launched a full-fledged massacre of the English, killing about a quarter of the Jamestown population. Rolfe died in the fighting.

For further research

Barbour, Philip L. Pocahontas and Her World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.

Bataille, Gretchen M., ed. Native American Women. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993.

Holler, Anne. Pocahontas: Powhatan Peacemaker. Broomal, Pa.: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996.

Hudson, Margaret. Pocahontas. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1998.

James, Edward T., and others, eds. Notable American Women, Volume III. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971, pp. 78–81.

Pocahontas: Jamestown Rediscovery.http://www.apva.org/history/pocahont.html Available July 13, 1999.

Pocahontas: Savior or Savage?http://theweboftime.com/Poca/POCAHO_l.html Available July 13, 1999.

Shaughnessy, Diane. Pocahontas: Powhatan Princess. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 1997.