Pocahontas

POCAHONTAS THE POWHATAN PEACE SYMBOL

The true story of Pocahontas (c. 1596-1617) has been warped by centuries of romanticization. Her life was, indeed, a tragic love story between herself, her father, and her nation. Pocahontas shared a deep bond with her father, Chief Wahunsenaca of the Powhatan people. English colonists landed at Jamestown in Spring 1607 when Pocahontas was ten years old. Settlers record Pocahontas as running around naked in the colony doing cartwheels with English boys. She was charismatic, joyful, and energetic. As the favourite daughter of the Chief, she accompanied him on visits to the colony as a peace symbol. This carefree young child contrasts starkly with Pocahontas’s fate. After coming of age, marrying a great warrior of her nation, Kocoum, and bearing a son, she was kidnapped by the English. This was a strategic plan to keep the Powhatan from attacking their colony in retribution for the injustices, such as rape and betrayal, English settlers were committing against the Powhatan. In captivity, Pocahontas was raped and bore a son, Thomas, causing her to fall into a deep depression. She was forcefully married to John Rolfe, a tobacco farmer, and, in June 1616, they travelled to England. Admired her good graces and sociability, the couple received an invitation to King James I’s Twelfth Night Masque in January 1617. Soon after, according to Mattaponi sacred oral history, she was poisoned. Other sources state that she fell ill with a respiratory disease. Pocahontas, the Powhatan peace symbol, died in March 1617 in England. Her father, Wahunsenaca, fell into a deep depression and died in 1618. There was no John Smith – Pocahontas love story, although their paths did cross several times. Rather, the romanticized tale is widely believed to have been a product of Smith’s own self-promotion. Pocahontas’s short life is significant as it represents many indigenous-settler interactions in the Atlantic World.