POCAHONTAS -- Native American Princess

POCAHONTAS  AND SON

Although Pocahontas became a legend; she was a real person.

She was born in 1595 a princess of the Powhatan tribe and her father was the chief. Her name meant 'playful one'.

The English settlers never knew her real name, Matoaka, because Pocahontas believed that by knowing they would put the evil eye on her.

It is a fact that the British settlers would not have survived the first winter in Jamestown if it wasn't for the Powhatan tribes giving them food. Yet, what these people wouldn't give, the English took with a lot of ferocious fighting.

A soldier Captain John Smith advised the colonists to grow food and stop searching for gold. In 1607 when Smith was exploring the area, the Powhatan's tribe captured him and would have executed him if it wasn't for Pocahontas.

Pocahontas as young as she was, managed to stop the fighting between the settlers and the indigenous population. Being only 12 or 13 years of age she played with the English children and achieved a peace between the two groups. When the Powhatan wanted to club Smith to death she went and laid her head on his. This was not the only time she rescued him.

Smith wrote 'blessed Pocahontas, the great King's daughter of Virginia, oft saved my life', in his 'Generall Historie of Virginia (1624)'. Ian Smith own words, "Pocahontas, under God, was the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion".

After Smith returned back to England and Pocahontas married a native warrior Kocoum, there is no record of Pocahontas of that time and no knowledge of Kocoum's fate.

Captain Sir Samuel Argall took Pocahontas in 'honoured captivity' to stop the slaughter of English prisoners. In 1613 she was cared for by the acting governor of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Dale. She was baptised with the name Rebecca.

John Rolfe fell in love with Pocahontas. He was the first secretary and recorder-general of Jamestown. He asked for the governor's consent and Powhatan's blessing to marry her. They were married in April,1614 and with that peace returned for eight years.

1616 Pocahontas sailed to England and in London she stood out because she was a beautiful, exotic looking person. Being a princess she was presented to the court of James I. With her graceful manners the people had to change their minds about native Americans. Ben Johnson wrote a play about Pocahontas.

She was preparing to return to Virginia but died of smallpox before that. She is buried in St, George's Church, Gravesend, Kent. Her son, Thomas, went back to Virginia and settled there. Many descendants are still living there today.

POCAHONTAS'S GRAVE