Pocahontas
Amid a collection of paintings of Pocahontas. Where no two are the same. The public’s persona hasn’t known much about this woman. In the 400 plus year, since her life. The truth is, we know very little about her, she never kept a diary, sent letters or told anyone her life story. So, the museum’s rely on second hand account’s from those that were around her.
Even her name is different, in her village her name would have been, Matoaka or Rebecca and her nickname was Pocahontas which meant little play thing, because of her playful nature.
Pocahontas was likely born around 1596, as the daughter of a Powhatan, she enjoyed amount a status among her village. But she didn’t like the term princess, which the Englishman would refer to her as.
Powhatan, whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Virginia Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.
As a child in 1607, she played with the Jamestown settlers’ children in the streets of Jamestown. Soon after, she befriended the captured English captain John Smith and probably pleaded with her father to spare his life. Thereafter, Smith and Pocahontas had a special, father-daughter relationship. Beginning in early 1608 Pocahontas led delegations of Indians who brought food to the near-starving Jamestown settlers. Then Pocahontas warned Smith of another plot to kill him.
The Abduction of Pocahontas
In 1613 Pocahontas was kidnapped by Englishmen. After dining aboard a ship, where was held for ransom, forced to wear restrictive European clothing, and adhered to strict religious schedule and eventually was baptized into Christianity. Powhatan had demands sent to him by the Englishmen that Pocahontas being held as prisoner. Which eventually led to Pocahontas to stay with the foreigners.
Life Portrait of Pocahontas
In 1614 she married the Englishman John Rolfe; the couple had a child, Thomas. Her education of the English language would continue through her marriage. While living in England she enjoyed a life of Luxury and Comfort. By January of 1617 is was time to depart back to her homeland.
She died “unexpectedly,” in March 1617 at Gravesend, England, where she is buried, she was only 20 years old going on 21 years old. The cause of her death is unknown. While she has gained some recent notoriety, including a 1995 American animated musical romantic drama film by Walt Disney Pictures. She has secured herself as one of the heroes of Virginia History.
