ENGLISH 3264
Poetry and Prose of the Later Renaissance
December 10th, 2020
The Truth of Pocahontas Revealed – A Biographical Survey
Most of what is known about Pocahontas is legend and myth, not fact. Sources are conflicting, and the primary sources we do have, namely from John Smith and his Generall Historie (1625) is an unreliable account.
In addition, it was written years after the events he outlines, and with no one to dispute it, it had been taken as fact. Pocahontas is not even her real name, and she is white-washed the minute she steps into English culture.
Her real name is Matoaka, which means "sportive"(Hart) or "playful"(Cohen) depending on the source used, and in all sources there are conflicting dates for her birth: in some, she was born in 1595(Hart), in 1596(Rountree), and finally 1597/8(Sheridan). Even simple biographical details are unclear, which is a sadness.
According to John Smith's source, he met Pocahontas in 1608, which is one of the points that seems to be more or less factual. However, the interactions he describes are dubious at best, particularly given she would have been anywhere from 10-13 years old when they met.
More likely than her saving his life, is her playing a role in the ritual adoption of John Smith into the clan. There is no indication there were amorous relations between the two, unlike in the inaccurate portrayal of the Disney adaptation Pocahontas (1995).
Not mentioned in three of the four sources is the fact that Pocahontas actually married a man named Kocoum, a member of the Powhatan people, in 1610(Rountree); she potentially had a child with Kocoum(Sheridan). It goes to show how little is actually known about a woman that is so prolific and notable in North American culture even today.
Due to growing tensions between the English and the Powhatan people, a war spills over in 1613. Pocahontas is captured by a captain named Samuel Argall in an attempt to ransom her to leverage his men back(Cohen). She is held ransom for over a year, which is again, only mentioned in one Oxford source(Rountree).
During this year, she supposedly falls in love with a man named John Rolfe, a man who was tutoring her while she was in captivity(Rountree). More likely, she was coerced(Sheridan).
She is "brought into the Christian faith" and is given the Christian name Rebecca and subsequently marries Rolfe, which stabilizes Anglo-Powhatan relations even after her death(Rountree). Her marriage to Kocoum is swept under the rug as it was not recognized "under God".
Within two years, Pocahontas gives birth to a son, Thomas Rolfe, who grows up in England, and later in life migrates back to North America; his descendants can still be found in North America today(Rountree).
She is brought to England, ornamentally shown off and dressed in the English fashion. She is stripped from her culture and even her name—rather, her nickname as Pocahontas is not even her real name to begin with—is forsaken in lieu of the anglicized version.
Presented at the court of James I, she is well-received. However, her stay is not long in England, and on her return trip to North America for a mission her husband received, she died of a ship outbreak of hemorrhagic dysentery(Rountree).
[WORKS CITED]
Cohen, Charles L. "Pocahontas." The Oxford Companion to United States History: Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference. Date Accessed 10 Dec. 2020. oxfordreference-com.proxy.hil.unb.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195082098.001.0001/acref-9780195082098-e-1212.
Hart, James D., and Phillip W. Leininger. "Pocahontas." The Oxford Companion to American Literature: Oxford University Press, , 2004. Oxford Reference. Date Accessed 10 Dec.2020. com.proxy.hil.unb.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195065480.001.0001/acref-9780195065480-e-3819.
Mansky, Jackie. "The True Story of Pocahontas." Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 23 Mar. 2017. Date Accessed 10 Dec. 2020. story-pocahontas-180962649/.
Rountree, Helen C. "Pocahontas." The Oxford Encyclopedia Women in World History. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference. Date Accessed 10 Dec. 2020 com.proxy.hil.unb.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195148909.001.0001/acref-9780195148909-e-846.
Sheridan, Stephanie. "From the Collection: Pocahontas." National Portrait Gallery, 23 May 2014, npg.si.edu/blog/collection-pocahontas.
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Juvenilia ✔/ a Nonfiction Undergraduate University Collection
Non-FictionA collection of poems, essays, seminars, and other miscellaneous papers from my Undergraduate Degree in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing and minors in Classical History and Publishing. ju·ve·nil·i·a noun 1. works produced...
