Pocahontas

Podcast Transcript

One of the most notable figures in early American history is Pocahontas.

Best known as the main character in Disney’s animated film Pocahontas, she was not a fictional character. She was, in fact, quite real.

However, her real life was radically different from that depicted in popular culture. In fact, there are enormous discrepancies between the story and the real person.

Learn about the real story of Pocahontas and how it differs from legend on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Pocahontas’ exact birth year is unknown, but the best estimate is 1596.

She was born a member of the Powhatan tribe, where she was also known as Amonute and Matoaka. These two names were what she was more commonly referred to by her tribe.

The Powhatan people lived in the tidewater region of modern-day Virginia. Her father, Wahunsenacawh, was the Paramount Chief of Tsenacommaacah, the Powhatan name of their homeland.

The Paramount Chief was the highest-ranking leader, meaning that Pocahontas’s father controlled roughly 8,000 square miles of land and 15,000 people across 30 different communities.

Historians know little about Pocahontas’ mother, but some theories may explain why.

One theory is that she was Wahunsenacawh’s first wife and died in childbirth. This theory comes from the oral traditions of the Mattaponi Tribe, who are descendants of the Powhatans.

Another theory comes from the reports of Henry Spelman, an English adventurer who lived among the Powhatans as an interpreter.

He reported that the Paramount Chief had many wives, and that after a wife gave birth, she returned to her home, where she was supported by the chief until she found a new husband.

Pocahontas was the childhood nickname of the young Matoaka. The etymology of the name means “playful one.” As a young girl, she was described by colonists as playing with the young kids from the Jamestown settlement.

Some historians believe the English deliberately concealed Pocahontas’s real name, possibly thinking that revealing her real name would give her more power.

In modern times, Pocahontas is often referred to as a princess because of her position as the Chief’s daughter. This title is technically not accurate, as she and her siblings were not next in line to be chief. Instead, that title was held by the Paramount Chief’s siblings and his sister’s children.

One of the first reports of Pocahontas comes from Englishman John Smith. He describes meeting the young girl in his book, A True Relation of Virginia. In this report, he states that he met a ten-year-old girl in the Spring of 1608. Later, Smith describes her in 1616, saying the young girl was twelve or thirteen.

As mentioned, Disney produced an animated film based on Pocahontas’ life. While popular, the movie highly exaggerates or fabricates her story. In reality, Pocahontas led a short and tragic life.

Let’s start with her connection to the film’s love interest, John Smith.

Smith represents Pocahontas’s best-known connection, but the film takes great liberties with their relationship.

For starters, as I just mentioned, Pocahontas met Smith at a much younger age, likely just ten years old.

Smith landed in Jamestown in April of 1607 with 100 other settlers. They built a fort along the James River, where they had numerous encounters with nearby Native Americans. Some of these interactions were positive, whereas others were extremely hostile.

Smith was captured by a hunting party and was brought to a Powhatan village. When accounting for his kidnapping, he does not mention meeting Pocahontas at the time, but instead states he met her months later.

The Powhatan reportedly offered Smith and the colonists a chance to join their tribe. If Smith accepted, he would control a small village in the territory, a strategy seemingly designed to keep the colonists under control.

In 1616, Smith wrote about Pocahontas again, this time regarding her visit to England. In this letter, he claims that Pocahontas had saved his life a few years prior. In this account, he describes how she protected him from an execution by wrapping her arms around his head, preventing him from getting his skull beaten in by clubs.

When historians have looked back on Smith’s retelling of events, some believe that Smith was not about to be executed, but instead accepted into their tribe. This thought comes from the tribe referring to Smith as a member following the “ritual.”

Despite the highly fictionalised relationship between Smith and Pocahontas in the film, historians agree that they were just friendly. Pocahontas was often seen delivering messages from her father and gifts, such as food, to Smith and the other colonists. She also visited Smith in England in her later years. In this visit, she reportedly referred to him as “father.”

Eventually, Pocahontas stopped visiting Jamestown as tensions rose between colonists and Native Tribes. Colonists demanded more food than the tribes could supply due to drought, sparking the First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1609.

The Anglo-Powhatan War changed Pocahontas’ life, as she was kidnapped by the colonists during the conflict.

Early in the war, Colonists controlled the James River, holding both its mouth and its falls. They attempted to make inroads into the Chiefdom by establishing connections with different tribes.

One group the colonists made contact with was the Patawomecks, who, though part of the Powhatan Confederacy, were not particularly loyal. While in contact with the Patawomecks, the colonists learned that Pocahontas had visited one of their villages.

Using this information, the English pressured the Patawomecks into an alliance against the Powhatans. With this alliance, they used the wives of the Patawomeck chief to lure Pocahontas onto a ship.

Once on the ship, Pocahontas was held hostage and used for ransom. They offered her father her release in exchange for the release of colonial prisoners and the return of stolen weapons and supplies.

Pocahontas was kept in Henricus, an English settlement, from 1613 to 1614. We really don’t know much about what happened to her there, except that colonists later claimed they treated her well.

In some Native American oral traditions, there are claims that Pocahontas was raped during her time captive, though this is heavily disputed by historians.

It was also not in the interest of the colonists for any harm to come to Pocahontas. The colonists were heavily outnumbered and were trying to make a deal with the Powhatan, meaning that if Pocahontas faced any real harm, it would hurt their negotiations.

One of the main details about Pocahontas’ kidnapping that we do know is that she was introduced to Christianity during this time. She was also baptised and took the English name, Rebecca. We also know that during this period her English improved drastically.

It is believed that Pocahontas was married prior to her kidnapping. Her husband’s name was Kocoum, and he was the son of a chief. He is said to have been killed when Pocahontas was abducted in 1613.

However, historical evidence on this marriage is hard to find. The only English documentation of his existence comes from a single excerpt stating that she’d been living with a man named Kocoum for two years.

Some evidence suggests the couple had a child, Ka-Okee, whom the Pattawomecks raised after her father’s death and mother’s kidnapping.

Following Pocahontas’ marriage to John Rolfe in 1614, there is no mention of Kocoum, leading some to argue that the passage is being misunderstood and that it simply refers to a Powhatan officer.

Pocahontas and John Rolfe met while she was held captive in Henricus.

Rolfe had planned to move to Virginia with his wife and child, but both died in a shipwreck. Despite their deaths, Rolfe built a successful life for himself in Virginia, cultivating and developing new tobacco strains on his plantation.

Reportedly, Rolfe was very pious and struggled with the idea of marrying someone who was not Christian. He supposedly agonised over the idea of marrying Pocahontas despite her having already converted to Christianity.

The colonists eventually took Pocahontas, along with 150 men back to the Powhatan to demand ransom. A conflict erupted, leading the Englishmen to burn villages and kill some of the members of the tribe.

Reportedly, Pocahontas told her father she wanted to marry Rolfe to end the conflict, and her father agreed. The marriage became a peace-making event known as the “Peace of Pocahontas.” The couple married on April 5, 1614, most likely in Jamestown.

After the wedding, the colonists and the Powhatan improved relations for eight years. During this period, both groups engaged in friendly trade.

The marriage between Rolfe and Pocahontas stirred controversy in England, but not for the reasons you may think. Many considered it audacious for a commoner Rolfe to marry a princess like Pocahontas.

Pocahontas and Rolfe had a son together in 1616, named Thomas, bringing the family to three.

Pocahontas lived in Virginia until 1616, when Rolfe decided to bring his family back to Britian. The trio arrived in Gravesend, where the young Pocahontas was paraded around, showing the rest of England what “successful” colonization looked like.

In many ways, Rolfe and the British turned Pocahontas into a walking piece of propaganda. She was perceived as sweet, young, beautiful, and willing to do what the colonizers wanted. It painted the image that the colonization process was going well, and that there was little to no violence in the New World.

Pocahontas was dressed in Elizabethan attire and was perceived by the British as an “Indian Princess.” That status allowed her to be granted an audience with King James I and the rest of the royal family.

Unfortunately, Pocahontas was never returned to her home in Virginia.

She was set to sail back to her home in 1617, but was unable to make the journey after contracting either smallpox, the flu, tuberculosis, or cholera while aboard a different ship. She died shortly after, estimated to be just 22 years old.

As with many other events in her life, historians question her death. Some believe that Pocahontas may have been murdered, rather than the official story of dying of disease.

These accounts come from Powhattan representatives who were aboard the ship with Pocahontas. According to them, they were on the ship for such a short time that there was no time for her to get sick, leading them to think that she was poisoned.

Pocahontas was survived by her son, Thomas, who remained in England for about twenty years before returning to Virginia. Once back in Virginia, he grew tobacco and met his wife.

It is believed that Thomas made some effort to contact his Powhattan relatives, despite there being laws against it and the ridicule it drew from the colonists.

Her son Thomas had two children, and they had many descendants. There are estimated to be over 100,000 people today who are descendants of Pocahontas. Her descendants include several notable people, including First Ladies Edith Wilson, Nancy Reagan, and Letitia Tyler.

Singer Wayne Newton, actor Edward Norton, and astronomer Percival Lowell are also direct descendants.

The mythical Pocahontas is largely a creation of later American storytelling, shaped by a healthy dose of romanticism, nationalism, and commercialism.

In real life, she was perceived as a political bargaining chip, a tool, and a piece of propaganda, often more so than a person. That reality has been ignored in exchange for an entertaining yet highly inaccurate story.