The Real Pocahontas
- takers204
- Mar 27, 2020
- 5 min read
When we think of Pocahontas, nine times out of ten you automatically think of the Disney adaptation. Most of us were shown it in elementary school as a way to "help" us imagine just what she was like. Unfortunately, as is with most things, that story is far from the truth. Pocahontas is a watered down, sad example of what the true Pocahontas really was.
The date of Pocahontas' birth is still widely unknown, however, most historians have concluded that she was born sometime in the year 1595. Her father was chief Powhatan, he ruled over some 30 Algonquian-speaking groups, including some smaller chiefdoms in the Tidewater region of Virginia known as Tsenacommacah. Her mother's identity is sadly unknown. Chief Powhatan had many daughters but it's noted that Pocahontas was considered his favorite among them. Captain Ralph Hamor, a colonists at the time, documented Powhatan as saying she was his "delight and darling". Often times she's depicted as being a princess. That is actually far from the truth. Although she was the chief's daughter, Pocahontas had normal duties like any other woman in the tribe. She learned to farm, forage for food and firewood, building thatched houses, and helping prepare for feasts and celebrations.
Pocahontas most likely had more than one name. The one we know her by, Pocahontas, was most likely a childhood name tagged to her by the people around her. Her other names included Matoaka and Amonute.
Obviously the biggest thing associated with her is that she saved John Smith, her
love for him was enough to stop a war between Natives and English! That is....to say the least, false. Pocahontas was nothing but an 11 year old child when she met 28 year old John Smith. It should be noted that she was also a naked child. It wasn't until her 12th birthday that she started wearing a leather dress. These most often depicted either animals or scenes. She also had a mantle that was made of feathers that she was said to have worn.
Now we turn to John Smith. He's a man that is fairly handsome. It's fairly easy to see why someone would think a woman would save him. However, the real John Smith was not so attractive. He wore puffy pants, which was the style at the time. He was short and had a beard, and lastly, he had hardly any teeth, those that he did have were rotted and on the verge of falling out. Not really someone that you'd consider handsome. The only true thing is that the armor depicted in the movie is very similar to what he actually wore. It's also important to acknowledge that he was clasped in irons and imprisoned for most of the journey, it wasn't until they had landed that he was released. After that he spent a fair amount of time of exploring and trading. He actually mapped out a large section of the territory.
It wasn't until 1624 that Smith published his accounts in his book Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles. In it he depicts how he was about to have his head smashed in by Powhatan when Pocahontas runs over and places her own head over his, saving him from death. This is all most likely not true, in fact, it's argued that the whole account was nothing more than Smith's own imagination. It's also important to remember that he published his book after no one else was alive to dispute him. Smith was a mercenary who fought against the Turks and had a vast reputation for claiming to have been saved by many beautiful women. Something that he was oddly the only one around to be able to account for. It is considered that perhaps he was undergoing a re-birthing ceremony. Often times this was a way for Powhatan to symbolize someone being reborn as a Native and being placed as a new sub chief under him.
The love affair between Pocahontas and Smith was not true either. As mentioned above she was a child and he an adult. One of the settlers wrote in their accounts that she would arrive at their forts and turn cartwheels with other Native children “whom she would follow and wheel so herself naked as she was all the fort over”. Smith also accounts in one of his published works that she gave him 2 small baskets in return for some white beads. The "Dusky Maiden" is most likely the culprit for this idea having formed. It was common for settlers to stereotype and sexualize indigenous women.
Next, her marriage to John Rolfe is another well known fact. In 1613 Pocahontas was captured along the Patawomeck by the English and brought to Jamestown. It was here that she was introduced to Rolfe and began to receive Christian Doctrine from Reverend Alexander Whitaker. Before this, however, she was married to another Native American named Kocoum. What she felt for either of her husbands is unknown, but it is known that from the moment Rolfe saw her, he was infatuated. After having married John Rolfe and converting to Christianity, Pocahontas changed her name to Rebecca and was later known as Lady Rebecca Rolfe. She also took up the dress style. It's here that the "Noble Savage" stereotype takes root. This marriage did have a benefit for both Native and English nations. She was viewed as a "middle man" and often times being able to negotiate between the two groups. This is most likely the only reason that her father tolerated this union.
Pocahontas, John Rolfe and their son Thomas visited England in 1616, this once more solidified the "Noble Savage", showing that a young beautiful Native Woman could see the light and turn to Christianity to save her soul. It was after this that she was viewed as almost a wonder and put upon a pedestal for her dignity and composure. Her father's chief adviser joined them as well, seeing as she had many ideas for her people she wanted to share to the Monarchy. During this same year while in England, Pocahontas met again with John Smith, but their relationship was different. She viewed him as breaking the kinship between peoples and added harshly: “For your countrymen will lie much.”
In 1617 the pair and their young son set out to sail back to Virginia. Their ship only made it to Gravesend on the Thames before she became deathly ill. The boat docked and she was taken ashore, only to die at the age of 21. Her cause of death is still debated between smallpox, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and perhaps even being poisoned. Her funeral took place on March 21, 1617, in the parish of St George's Church, Gravesend. It is thought that her grave was under the church, but when the building burned in 1727 all the remaining bones were gathered and buried in a mass grave behind the new building. Several years ago Wayne Newton ( a claimed descendant of Pocahontas) led a movement in which her body be returned to Virginia to her ancestral grounds for a proper Indian Burial. However, this was impossible. Pocahontas died an Anglican-Christian, meaning that her burial and funeral were as she had wanted them to be, that and the Powhatan's did not bury their dead.
Her burial place is marked by a statue at St George's Church in Gravesend.
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