POCAHONTAS AND JOHN SMITH: Greatest Love Stories Ever Told Series

Posted by Author R. Ann Siracusa

What elements of a love story make it one of the “greatest”? What makes it different from all the rest of the love stories we have read, seen, heard about, watched in movies or on TV, or lived? Why have certain stories captured the human imagination and lasted, in some cases, for thousands of years?

So far, I would conclude these tales are usually tragedies involving great sacrifices on the part of the lovers, which often means death…and that’s about the greatest sacrifice for most human beings. Not too many HEAs.

NO ONE REALLY KNOWS ANYTHING

Although Pocahontas left an indelible impression enduring for more than 400 years, many who know her name know little about her. What they think they know was probably misinformation. According to Jackie Mansky -- historian, professor of Native American history, and writer for the Smithsonian Magazine -- most of the histories and biographies of Pocahontas were:

“...written by people who weren’t historians. Others were historians, [but] they were people who specialized in other matters and were taking it for granted that if something had been repeated several times in other people’s works, it must be true. When I went back and looked at the actual surviving documents from that period, I learned that much of what had been repeated about her wasn’t true at all.”

IN THE BEGINNING

Pocahontas was born around 1596, the last child of Wahunsenaca, the highest chief of the Powhatan Indians [the Superchief, so to speak], and his first wife [and wife of preference] who was also named Pocahontas. She was apparently a member of the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia.

Our Pocahontas was formally named Amonute, but was called by the more private name Matoaka, which means “flower between two streams.” Pocahontas was like a nickname which meant playful one, because of her frolicsome and curious nature. Other sources claim the nickname meant laughing and joyous one, ittle wanton, mischievous one, the naughty one, or spoiled child. When she became Christian, she was Christened as Rebecca.

I’ll just call her Pocahontas.

Little is known about the mother of Pocahontas. Some historians believe she died in childbirth. Whatever the truth, Pocahontas was favored by her father and held a special place in his heart.

Wahunsenaca, her father, was the most important man among the twenty-eight or thirty Powhatan tribes [25,000 people]. Sometimes referred to as the Powhatan Confederacy, each tribe had its own chief, and Wahunsenaca presided over the whole Confederacy. This matters because there is quite a lot known about the Powhatan Indians and their culture, and some of the events recorded in John Smith’s book General Historie of Virginia, published in 1624, simply could not, would not have happened in that culture.

ARRIVAL OF THE COLONISTS

The English colonists arrived in Virginia in May of 1607 and began the process of settling Jamestown. The Powhatan and settlers didn’t meet until the winter of that year, when Captain John Smith [age 27 at the time] was captured by Wahunsenaca’s brother, Opechancanough. Once captured, Smith was displayed at several Powhatan Indian towns before being brought to the high Chief Wahunsenaca in Werowocomoco.

References are unclear regarding the length of time John Smith was a captive of the Powhatan. Apparently, it was long enough for Pocahontas [who was only ten- or eleven-years old] to try to teach him the Algonquian language and for Chief Wahunsenaca to take a liking to him, to discover they both feared the Spanish, and ultimately to offer 1) An alliance against Spain; 2) A better site for the Jamestown colony; and 3) “Adoption” by the tribe [an initiation and recognition of Smith as another chief].

Pocahontas Saving the Life of Captain John Smith, chromolithograph, c. 1870.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. cph 3g03368)

According to John Smith's book, which as written after Pocahontas died, he was brought in front of Chief Wahunsenaca to be executed. In his version of the story, his head was forced onto two large stones and a warrior raised a club to smash in his brains.

Before the warrior could do it, Pocahontas rushed in and placed her head over Smith’s, saving his life. After that, the chief told Smith he was now part of the tribe, and in return for two guns and a grindstone, he gave Smith land on the York River and his esteem as a son. Then Smith was allowed to leave.

Afterward, the chief sent food to the starving English. No mention of this “rescue” appears in any of John Smith’s notes, letters, or written accounts of his capture until after the death of Pocahontas.

The oral history of the tribes indicates what Smith described was not an intended execution -- although Smith wouldn’t have understood that – but a four-day ceremony in which Smith became a werowance, a honorary member of the tribe. Children were never allowed to be present at any sort of religious ritual, including the werowance ceremony, so many historians deem it highly unlikely, if not impossible, the Pocahontas, a child of ten or eleven, would have been there.

Over the course of the next two years, the Powhatan made many trips to the colony, to bring gifts of food and to trade. Pocahontas, being the favored daughter of the chief, was likely present as was a sign of peace to the English. It’s clear she went there often enough to be known at the colony.

When John Smith was injured from a fire in his gunpowder bag, he returned to England, and relations between the Jamestown colony and the Indians deteriorated. Pocahontas did not return to the colony for four years. Some references claim she stayed away because the English told her Smith had died.

Actually, in 1610, at the age of adulthood [14], Pocahontas married a warrior named Kocoum. This is confirmed by later colony records. He was a member of the Patawomeck tribe, a component of the Powhatan Confederacy, and brother of the tribal chief. After her marriage, she was still the favored daughter, since the Powhatan women could marry whom they chose. She soon had a child, although there is debate over whether the offspring was male or female. In the Patawomeck oral history, the child was a daughter named Ka-Okee.

THE KIDNAPPING

During this period, the Powhatan were at war with the English settlers, now under Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Virginia.

Pocahontas isn’t mentioned again in colony records until 1614, when Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped her, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to end the war with the Powhatan and for the return of some British prisoners, tools, and weapons.

Samuel Argall        Governor Thomas Dale

She was held captive for over a year, apparently at first in Jamestown. During that time, she learned English, converted to Christianity, and was baptized Rebecca. She also met John Rolfe, a recently widowed settler who had come to Virginia in 1610 and was pioneering the production of tobacco.

John Rolfe

MARRIAGE TO JOHN ROLFE

Written history claims that, as a captive, Pocahontas was treated as a guest, and eventually she and John Rolfe fell in love. The tribal histories claim she told her sister she was raped and treated like a slave. When she became pregnant, she was moved to a smaller town named Henrico where she gave birth to a son [Thomas] out of wedlock.

Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman, oil on canvas
in. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Photo: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pocahontas-Powhatan-princess     

Pocahontas either accepted, or was coerced into accepting, a proposal of marriage from John Rolfe. Allegedly, both her father and Governor Dale agreed to the marriage, although Chief Wahunsenaca did not attend the ceremony for fear of treachery.

Her husband, Kocoum, seeing the handwriting on the wall, agreed to a divorce [which did exist among the Indian tribes]. Other accounts claim Argall threatened Kocoum’s brother until he agreed to help with the kidnapping. In this version, Kocoum was killed by the settlers when he returned to his village. Both versions could be true.

Once Pocahontas married, peace prevailed but, of course, she had to give up her child to be raised by the women of the tribe and probably never saw her again.

According to https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com, “In the midst of her captivity, the English colony of Jamestown was failing. John Rolfe was under a 1616 deadline to become profitable or lose the support of the Virginia Company and the English crown. Rolfe sought to learn tobacco curing techniques from the Powhatan, but curing tobacco was a sacred practice not to be shared with outsiders. Realizing the political strength of aligning himself with the tribe, he eventually married Pocahontas on April 5 [14?], 1614.

After the two were married, the tribe’s spiritual leaders and family shared the curing practice with Rolfe. Soon afterwards, Rolfe’s tobacco was a sensation in England, which saved the colony of Jamestown, as they finally found a profitable venture."

Two years later, in the spring of 1616, Rebecca and John Rolfd and their infant son Thomas, went to England with Governor Dale and a group of other Native American men and women, including Pocahontas' sister, Mattachanna and her husband. The Virginia Company saw the visit as a device to publicize the colony and to win support from King James I and other investors.

The marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe (1614) © North Wind Picture Archives
 www.gerard-tondu.blogspot.com

During her nine months in London, our heroine met John Smith once and didn’t mince words about her displeasure with him and his countrymen who “lie much.”

THE TRAGIC DEATH

Rebecca and her husband John planned to return to Virginia in 1617 and had embarked on the ship, still on the River Thames, when Pocahontas fell ill and died.

The historical party-line is that she probably had contracted a lung disease [pneumonia or tuberculosis]. Mattachanna’s account was that Pocahontas was in good health all through the trip and when they boarded the ship for the return journey. Then, after having dinner with Rolfe and Argall, she began vomiting and soon thereafter died. So sudden was her death that her sister concluded she had been poisoned. 

She died at the age of about 21 or 22 in the town of Gravesend, Kent and was buried on March 11, 1617 in the chancel [near the altar] of the original St. George’s Church in Gravesend before it was destroyed by fire in 1727.

John Rolfe returned to Virginia and Thomas, the son, remained in England until 1635, when he returned to Virginia and eventually became a tobacco farmer.

Her father, Chief Wahunsenaca, learned from Mattachanna that his beloved daughter had died but had never betrayed her people, as some historians claim. Heartbroken that he never rescued her, he died from grief less than a year after the death of Pocahontas. 

CONCLUSION

Not only is the love story between Pocahontas and John Smith an unfounded myth, a sham, but even the love story between Pocahontas and John Rolfe is questionable and certainly not one of the greatest ever told. But even if her “love story” isn’t one of the greatest, she made significant sacrifices for her people and helped create a bridge between cultures. Pocahontas deserves to be remembered and honored for who she was as a person; brave, courageous, clever, strong, and a much more interesting and important than the fictional Pocahontas.
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AUTHOR R. ANN SIRACUSA
Travel to Foreign Lands for Romance and Intrigue

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Sources

http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/true-story-pocahontas-not-told-disney-002285
http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/genealogy/true-story-pocahontas-historical-myths-versus-sad-reality/https:/indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/genealogy/true-story-pocahontas-historical-myths-versus-sad-reality/ https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/true-story-pocahontas-not-told-disney-002285 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/ https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas https://www.history.com/news/how-early-american-stage-dramas-turned-pocahontas-into-fake-news https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pocahontas-Powhatan-princess http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pocahontas http://patawomeckindiantribeofvirginia.org/ https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pocahontas-marries-john-rolfe http://gerard-tondu.blogspot.com/2014/02/1614-pocahontas-marries-john-rolfe.html

Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star." The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History.Golden: Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.