Page 55 - All About History - Issue 53-17

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Poocahontas
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Pocahontas lived peacefully with Rolfe on his Powhatan natives, Pocahontas travelled to England even a daughter of a chief, would be treated
plantation for two years, however, the tale of in 1616. The party toured the country attending with an unbiased degree of respect. For many
the converted ‘savage’ travelled quickly through various social gatherings, and in 1617 she met King of the locals she and the other Powhatans were
to the Virginia Company, the trading business James at the Palace of Whitehall. As the daughter regarded as curiosities, to be gawked and stared
who financed the colonies on the east coast. of the chief, Pocahontas was presented as a at. Pocahontas wasn’t presented as how cultured
The company saw her marriage, conversion and princess and although this did not fit the Powhatan a ‘savage’ could be, but instead, how much the
subsequent peace as a great marketing opportunity culture, it afforded her a high degree of respect in English nation could do to ‘better’ them.
to promote investment in Jamestown. Leaping on the country. Pocahontas seemed to leave a good It was during her time in England that
the PR opportunity, the Virginia Company paid for impression on the people, most likely coached by Pocahontas was reunited with an old friend. John
Pocahontas and her family to travel to England. the Virginia Company, and she presented herself a Smith, who she had been told was dead, met the
This was no mere holiday – this trip was made polite, cultured lady. couple at a social gathering and, according to
with the intention of displaying what England However, this was not the case for everyone. The Smith, Pocahontas was so overcome with emotion
could do for the ‘savages’ and to promote how well ‘new world’ was still frightening and mysterious that she was unable to speak or look at him. After
Jamestown was doing, and Pocahontas was chosen to many Europeans, and the bias of the ‘brutal finding her voice she was quick to remind him
to be the poster child. savage’ was firmly ingrained in many. It is almost of the kind things she had done for him, and
Accompanied by around a dozen other impossible to imagine that a Native American, 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 come
into 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
Pocahontas’ marriage helped ease the
tensions between natives and English, countrymen will lie much.” It seems unlikely that
but the peace wouldn’t last 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
Her conversion to Christianity On her tour of England, body of the chief’s daughter never found its way
delighted the English Pocahontas met King James at
the Palace of Whitehall 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. © Alamy
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