POCAHONTAS - A PRINCESS AMONG ENGLAND'S SAVAGES
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| Marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe |
Pocahontas is a name that almost everyone in the Western world is familiar with. She conjures up images of a mysterious and beautiful Native American, a symbol of enduring love beyond racial boundaries with a bittersweet ending. Today this myth has been encouraged by the Disney production which bears her name, but this is not a modern phenomenon. Romanticised images and portrayals of the Powhatan chief’s daughter occurred almost immediately after her early death.
Pocahontas became the poster child for the civilised savage, a Juliet figure in tales of star-crossed lovers, she appeared on stamps, in songs and ballets. Her tale was told, changed and adapted until only remnants of truth remained. The story itself became separate from the actual woman, the one who lived, breathed, loved and died. Pocahontas’ true thoughts and feelings are not recorded for history to study, so in order to understand the woman who inspired so many, we are required to look back on her life, and the true history behind the myth.
Born circa 1596, Pocahontas was not her birth name, instead the child was named Amonute. She was also called Matoaka by those closest to her, meaning ‘bright stream between the hills.’ She was born to a nameless woman, likely a commoner, and Wahunsenacawh, paramount chief of the Powhatan chiefdom. This empire comprised of around 30 different tribes, all with their own chiefs. Wahunsenacawh, as the paramount chief, was expected to keep unity and peace between all these different tribes of the Tidewater region of modern-day Virginia. We know little about Pocahontas’ mother, and it is likely she died in childbirth. As the chief’s children would usually live with their mother until they weaned, if this is true Pocahontas would have stayed with her father from birth, which certainly explains how she quickly became his favourite.
Girls, even the chief’s daughter, were taught women’s work from an early age. This was very different from the European definition, because in addition to rearing children, women would build houses and do all the farming, they collected firewood, made baskets and collected edible plants in the wilderness. Pocahontas would have learned all these skills, but what we also know is that from an early age she stood out. She had a tendency to wander off, she was an immensely curious and adventurous child, with little fear of danger. Her playful, inquisitive nature earned her the nickname ‘Pocahontas’, which means ‘little wanton’ or ‘playful one.’ Wanton or not, the frolicsome child became a quick favourite of her father, who had a hoard of children, calling her his “delight and darling.”
The English first arrived in Virginia in April 1607. Their encounters with the natives had varied from friendly to hostile but in December of that year everything came to a head when John Smith, one of the leaders of the settlers, was captured by a hunting party led by one of Wahunsenacawh’s brothers. The English explorer was taken to Werowocomoco, the capital of the Powhatan empire. What occurred after this point is up for some debate. Smith himself claimed that as he was brought before the chief two large stones were put on the ground, his head was placed upon them and a warrior raised a club to smash his brains. Just as the club was raised a young girl leapt forward and placed her head upon his, halting the execution. That young girl was, of course, the 1-year-old Pocahontas.
However, the romantic and dramatic scene that Smith painted is greatly contested. Some believe that what Smith experienced was not a true threat to his life, but instead a ritual intended to symbolise his death and rebirth as part of the tribe, and he was never in any actual danger. Others, however, do not believe the event occurred at all. Smith neglected to mention his near death experience in his earliest account of the event – in 1608 he simply writes that he enjoyed a great feast and a long talk with the chief. In fact, it wasn’t until nine years later, when Pocahontas was preparing to visit England, that he uttered a word about this ‘execution’, which seems a peculiar thing to leave out. It is quite possible Smith invented this event to paint Pocahontas in a good light before her visit.
Whether it happened or not, we do know that Pocahontas went on to befriend the English settlers in the Jamestown colony, Smith especially. Curious and friendly, Pocahontas frequently visited the settlement to play games with the boys, as well as bringing the starving men provisions from her people. She quickly became a favourite of the colonists, and in 1609 she cemented this friendship by saving the lives of Smith and others by warning them of an ambush. However, later that year Smith was injured in a gunpowder explosion and forced to return to England. The Powhatan were told he was dead, and Pocahontas had no reason not to believe this.
Although Pocahontas enjoyed playing with the English settlers, relations between the two nations were rapidly deteriorating. Wahunsenacawh was growing tired of the English demand for food, and also felt his lands were being threatened by the colonists, who were steadily expanding their influence. These tensions rapidly mounted into war, the English burned towns and destroyed cornfields, and the natives tried their best to repulse the invaders with ambushes. These attacks were trying on the English who were already struggling with lack of resources, and were very aware they actually needed the native’s co-operation to maintain their settlements. However, in 1613, the English discovered that Pocahontas was living with the Patawomeck tribe. Seeing this as a chance for leverage with Wahunsenacawh, Sir Samuel Argall, an English naval officer, worked with the not entirely loyal chief of the Patawomeck to capture Wahunsenacawh’s most beloved daughter.
Japazeus, the Patawomeck chief and Pocahontas’ host, tricked the young girl by luring her onto Argall’s ship. Quick and clever, Pocahontas at first refused to go on board, sensing something was amiss, but was finally coerced by the tears of the chief’s wife. Argall then refused to let the girl go, and sent word to her father that she was being held as ransom for English prisoners and weapons. Pocahontas was brought to Henricus, a small settlement in Jamestown and when her father heard of the terms, he agreed to release seven prisoners. However, he refused to return the weapons and tools, and negotiations ended. Beloved daughter she may have been, but Wahunsenacawh was fighting a war, and family allegiances were second to advantage and victory.
In the year-long wait between negotiations, Pocahontas was kept in Henricus. Her time there is not well documented, though some claim she was raped and mistreated. However this doesn’t really align with the English interests in keeping her safe at this time. Pocahontas was a very important captive for the English, who feared native retaliation.
During her time there she received lessons from the minister to improve her English, and she also converted to Christianity, taking the Christian name Rebecca. Considering later events it seemed this occurred genuinely, rather than through any fear or intimidation.
During her capture at the settlement, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, a plantation owner who had previously lost his wife and child before he arrived in Virginia. Rolfe quickly developed romantic feelings for Pocahontas, which by all accounts appear to be heartfelt. However, he agonised over the morals of marrying her, a native girl, but in his letter to the governor requesting the marriage, he claimed that his heart belonged to her. It would have been easier for Rolfe to marry an English woman, but he seemed entirely enamoured with Pocahontas. On 5 April 1614, the two were married, with the permission of Wahunsenacawh, who sent her uncle to the wedding to represent himself and his people.
This wedding, whether intentional or not, had a huge impact on the relations between the natives and the English. The union fostered a lull known as the ‘Peace of Pocahontas’ between the two warring tribes, with friendly trade flourishing. Pocahontas, the little girl bearing corn and warnings, had always been a symbol of peace for the colonists, but now she had truly helped to end the fighting between the two nations. This peace between the Jamestown residents and the Powhatan lasted eight years, and this was cemented with the birth of a child – Thomas Rolfe, an interracial child who seemed to symbolise a new harmony between the two peoples.
Pocahontas lived peacefully with Rolfe on his plantation for two years, however, the tale of the converted ‘savage’ travelled quickly through to the Virginia Company, the trading business who financed the colonies on the east coast. The company saw her marriage, conversion andsubsequent peace as a great marketing opportunity to promote investment in Jamestown. Leaping on the PR opportunity, the Virginia Company paid for Pocahontas and her family to travel to England. This was no mere holiday – this trip was made with the intention of displaying what England could do for the ‘savages’ and to promote how well Jamestown was doing, and Pocahontas was chosen to be the poster child.
Accompanied by around a dozen other Powhatan natives, Pocahontas travelled to England in 1616. The party toured the country attending various social gatherings, and in 1617 she met King James at the Palace of Whitehall. As the daughter of the chief, Pocahontas was presented as a princess and although this did not fit the Powhatan culture, it afforded her a high degree of respect in the country. Pocahontas seemed to leave a good impression on the people, most likely coached by the Virginia Company, and she presented herself a polite, cultured lady.
However, this was not the case for everyone. The ‘new world’ was still frightening and mysterious to many Europeans, and the bias of the ‘brutal savage’ was firmly ingrained in many. It is almost impossible to imagine that a Native American, even a daughter of a chief, would be treated with an unbiased degree of respect. For many of the locals she and the other Powhatans were regarded as curiosities, to be gawked and stared at. Pocahontas wasn’t presented as how cultured a ‘savage’ could be, but instead, how much the English nation could do to ‘better’ them.
It was during her time in England that Pocahontas was reunited with an old friend. John Smith, who she had been told was dead, met the couple at a social gathering and, according to Smith, Pocahontas was so overcome with emotion that she was unable to speak or look at him. After finding her voice she was quick to remind him of the kind things she had done for him, and the terrible way his people had treated her own. She discomforted him further by calling him ‘father’ as he had done to her own father. When he did not allow this, she became passionate and angry and said: “Were you not afraid to comeinto my father’s country and caused fear in him and all his people (but me) and fear you here I should call you ‘father’?” Finally she informed Smith that the English had said he was dead, but Wahunsenacawh had suspected otherwise as “your countrymen will lie much.” It seems unlikely that Smith would have invented this heated, critical exchange concerning his own people, so this is a rare insight into a Pocahontas that is less obliging, less adoring of the English and, perhaps, a glimpse into her true nature – fiery, passionate and loyal. A converted woman she may have been, but she had not forgotten the hurt the English had brought upon her own people.
By March 1617 the Rolfe family began their journey back to Virginia. However, this came to an abrupt and sudden end as while sailing on the River Thames, Pocahontas fell gravely ill. She was taken ashore in Gravesend and died of an unknown illness, though popular theories include pneumonia and dysentery. Her husband recorded that her last words were “all must die, but ‘tis enough that the child liveth.” The body of the chief’s daughter never found its way back to her native homeland, and instead she was buried in Saint George’s church on 21 March 1617. Her husband continued the journey to Virginia, but her beloved son remained in England until 1635, when he returned to his homeland to become a successful tobacco planter.
Within a year of Pocahontas’ death, her father followed his beloved daughter. The deaths marked the end of the brief period of peace enjoyed by the natives and the colonists, and ushered in an era of more war, murder and bloodshed than ever before. Pocahontas, with her kind, curious and adventurous spirit, had provided hope of a peaceful union for both parties, but with her dead and gone at only 21 years of age, that peace was over, and her people would begin a descent into a dark, devastating fate.
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THE TOIC MITH OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE
The Age of Discovery, beginning in the 15th century, saw the major European powers scour the globe for new trade opportunities and lands to conquer. The vast American continents, famously rediscovered by Christopher Columbus, presented unrivalled opportunity for the adventurous, brave or desperate to cultivate luxury resources, like tobacco,and found settlements. This new land was particularly inviting to religious dissidents, such as the Puritans and Quakers who faced persecution at home. England, which was being beaten to the punch by powers like Spain and France, needed new land and it needed it fast. Because of this, when they encountered native tribes their main focus was not to learn or grow from them, but to do anything necessary to get what they needed. Initially this meant formal contracts between the two peoples, however for many, it involved war, conquest and bloodshed.
For a country desperate to conquer and profit, it was far easier to view these indigenous people as ‘savages’. European settlers regarded the natives as not meeting the standards of civilised society, living by the laws of nature, without religion, education or morals. This concept relied on the idea that the natives were in the ‘original’ human state, primitive and backward, infant in their humanity. Two attitudes towards the Native Americans arose – the brutal and noble savage. The noble savage was the belief that these people reflected an innocent version of humanity, untainted by modern society.
The natives were a ‘blank slate’ on which Christian ideals and civilisation could be imposed upon. Both of these ideas – the noble and brutal – were fantasies of the European mind, ones that established the natives as ‘other’ and unlike them in any way, whether that was elevated purity, or degraded evil. Although many European colonists recognised the strengths of the native people, they were always held at a distance, as if commenting on the virtues of a wild animal, not a fellow human. It was this strict distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ that allowed Europeans to rationalise their actions, claiming to be saving and civilising what was ultimately a ‘savage’ society.
By Frances White in "All About History", UK, issue 53, excerpts pp. 50-55. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.
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