Page 52 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Pocahonntas

ground, his head was placed
were put on the g
u ppon them and a warrior raised a club to smash
g
his brains. Just as the club was raised a young
g girl leapt forward and placed her head upon his,
halting
halting the execution. That young g f
g girl was, of
1-year-old P
course, the 11-year-old Pocahontas.
However, the romantic and dramatic scene
dramatic s
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
o of the colonists, and in 1609
s she cemented this friendship
b 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
Pocahontas’ act of mercy towards return to England. The Powhatan were
John Smith may have been a told he was dead, and Pocahontas had no
later fabrication by the explorer
reason not to believe this.

The Age of Discovery, beginning in the their main focus was not to learn or grow people reflected an innocent version of
15th century, saw the major European from them, but to do anything necessary humanity, untainted by modern society.
powers scour the globe for new trade to get what they needed. Initially this The natives were a ‘blank slate’ on which
opportunities and lands to conquer. meant formal contracts between the two Christian ideals and civilisation could be
The vast American continents, peoples, however for many, it involved imposed upon. Both of these ideas – the
famously rediscovered by Christopher war, conquest and bloodshed. noble and brutal – were fantasies of the
Columbus, presented unrivalled For a country desperate to conquer European mind, ones that established the
opportunity for the adventurous, and profit, it was far easier to view these natives as ‘other’ and unlike them in any
brave or desperate to cultivate indigenous people as ‘savages’. European way, whether that was elevated purity, or
luxury resources, like tobacco, settlers regarded the natives as not degraded evil. Although many European
and found settlements. This new meeting the standards of civilised society, colonists recognised the strengths of the
land was particularly inviting to living by the laws of nature, without native people, they were always held at a
religious dissidents, such as the Puritans religion, education or morals. This concept distance, as if commenting on the virtues
and Quakers who faced persecution relied on the idea that the natives were in of a wild animal, not a fellow human. It
at home. England, which was being the ‘original’ human state, primitive and was this strict distinction between ‘us’
beaten to the punch by powers like backward, infant in their humanity. Two and ‘them’ that allowed Europeans to
Spain and France, needed new land attitudes towards the Native Americans rationalise their actions, claiming to be
and it needed it fast. Because of this, arose – the brutal and noble savage. The saving and civilising what was ultimately a In this scene the ‘old world’ is depicted
waking up the backwards, savage Americas
when they encountered native tribes noble savage was the belief that these ‘savage’ society.

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