By Julia White
The
Powhatan Confederacy was an especially cruel and bloodthirsty group of
some 200 tribes in the Southeastern Virginia, Northern North Carolina coastal
areas. Even though their chief had a different name, he was called Powhatan,
and his famous daughter was Matowaka. Powhatan favored Matowaka greatly,
and his pet name for her was "pakahantes", which means "my favorite daughter".
To English ears, pakahantes sounded like "pocahontas", and so she became
known and continues to be known throughout history. While a great
deal is known about the father, nothing is known about her mother which
has given birth to the theory that the mother was one of the "Lost Colony"
who was taken in by Powhatan. It is true that Pocahontas looked different
from her relatives, and it is also true that she adapted to English customs
and the language very quickly — she even enjoyed them.
Pocahontas was first seen by the English when she was 10 years old frolicking with 4 cabin boys from ships docked in the harbor. They were struck by her beauty, her free spirit and her athletic prowess. Shortly after this first sighting, she saved Capt. John Smith by begging her father for mercy; or so the legend goes. That was it - the extent of the connection between John Smith and Pocahontas! Many respected historians doubt that this encounter ever took place except in the fanciful mind of John Smith. (See note below)
At age 13, she saved the lives of 3 Englishmen who had been captured by Powhatan, and when the English saw the influence she had over her father, Pocahontas was kidnapped and taken to Jamestown to use as a bargaining tool for kinder treatment from her savage father. It worked. However, Pocahontas liked the life in Jamestown; studied the English language; became a churchgoer and adopted Christianity; was baptized into the Church of England, and was given the English name of "Rebecca". At the age of 14, she married an English settler named John Rolfe, and shortly after that went to England with her husband.
While in London, she became the darling of King James and his Court, and was given the title "Lady Rebecca". She gave birth to one child, Thomas, and prepared to return to Virginia. However, she caught smallpox before her ship sailed and she died at Gravesend, England. She was only 22. She is buried there, and a statue in her honor has been erected there. Wayne Newton, the Powhatan/Cherokee performer, is currently attempting to negotiate with the English to have Pocahontas' remains returned to her homeland.
Pocahontas' only child, her son Thomas, did return to Virginia where he became a successful businessman. He later married, and the couple had one child, a daughter.
Our thanks to A. Sandage, a direct descendant of Pocahontas, for sending along this added insight into John Smith: "John Smith made a few different claims about being rescued by prominent women -- none of which can be verified by anything other than his own writings. His account of the incident with Pocahontas is especially shaky, since he first told the story in a letter with which he was trying to make an argument for waging war on the Powhatan tribe. John Smith was a mercenary soldier, with a reputation of womanizing and riotous behavior -- so much in fact that more than one person tried to kill him in one way or another, and he was not regarded as pleasant company."
This
painting, "The Baptism of Pocahontas" is the only painting in the Rotunda
of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. which depicts an American Indian
as its central figure. Reportedly, this was done as an illustration
of converting savages from their pagan ways to Christianity,
and of the submission of inferior Indian ways to the superiority
of European culture.
Innerspace Main Page |
|
E-Mail to Julia |