Pocahontas goes on to become fast friends with Smith and his fellow settlers, helping the English colony of Jamestown in Tidewater Virginia to survive its tenuous early years. Some historians believe that the story is simply not true. The earliest surviving account of the incident by Smith is quite different. Smith, who was known to go to great lengths to promote himself and his role in the early colony, only told the version of being saved by an "Indian princess" after she became famous.
In , Smith wrote of Pocahontas' affection for him, but in his "True Relation," he never mentions Pocahontas, nor does he describe any threat of execution when recounting the details of his expedition and meeting Powhatan.
It was not until in his "Generall Historie" Pocahontas died in that he wrote of the threatened execution and the dramatic, life-saving role Pocahontas played. Some historians believe that the story reflects Smith's mistaken interpretation of the "sacrifice.
Some historians believe the story happened largely as Smith reported it. Smith himself claimed to have written of the incident in a letter to Queen Anne , wife of King James I. This letter—if it ever existed—has neither been found or verified.
So what's the truth? We'll likely never know. We do know that Pocahontas was a real person whose help probably saved the colonists at Jamestown from starvation in the colony's first years. We have not only the story of her visit to England but also clear records of her genealogical ancestry to many of the First Families of Virginia, through her son, Thomas Rolfe. What is certain is that many Hollywood versions and depictions in popular art are embellishments even on the story as told by Smith.
According to all contemporary accounts, although they are often depicted as young adults in love, Pocahontas was a child of 10 to 13 at the time she met Smith—who was There is a report from another colonist, describing the young "princess" doing cartwheels through the marketplace with the boys of the colony—and causing more than a bit of consternation because she was naked.
Some historians believe Pocahontas was in love with Smith. She was not present when Smith left the colony to return to England and was told he had died.
These historians cite Pocahontas' extreme reaction when she discovered Smith was still alive during a visit she made to England. Rather than romantic love, however, most historians believe the relationship was more along the lines of Pocahontas having a deep friendship and respect for Smith, whom she regarded as a father figure. During your extensive research what were some details that helped you get to know Pocahontas better?
The documents that really jumped out at me were the notes that survived from John Smith. He was kidnapped by the Native Americans a few months after he got here. Eventually after questioning him, they released him. But while he was a prisoner among the Native Americans, we know he spent some time with Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas and that they were teaching each other some basic aspects of their languages.
And we know this because in his surviving notes are written sentences like "Tell Pocahontas to bring me three baskets. In one case English, in another case an Algonquian language. Literally in the fall of , sitting along some river somewhere, they said these actual sentences. She would repeat them in Algonquian, and he would write that down. That detail brought them both to life for me.
Four hundred years after her death, her story is being told more accurately. What's changed? So that had to happen first. So let's say by the mid to late '90s that had happened. Then more years had to go by.
My Pocahontas book, for example, came out in Another historian wrote a serious segment about her that said much the same as I did just with less detail in Since the shift in mainstream scholarship is so recent, do you think going forward there's more to learn from her story?
I think there's more to learn about her in the sense that it would help modern politics if more people understood what native peoples really went through both at the time of conquest and in the years after.
There's so strong a sense in our country, at least in some places among some people, that somehow Native Americans and other disempowered people had it good, they're the lucky ones with special scholarships and special status.
That is very, very far from a reflection of their real historical experience. Once you know the actual history of what these tribes have been through, it's sobering, and one has to reckon with the pain and the loss that some people have experienced far more than others over the last five generations or so. I think it would help everybody, both native and mainstream culture, if more people understood what native experience was really like both at the time of conquest and since.
Jacqueline Mansky is a freelance writer and editor living in Los Angeles. Federal Government or other governmental entity that views the things it creates as in the public domain; the work was never protected by copyright for some other reason related to how it was produced for example, it was a speech that wasn't written down or recorded ; or the work doesn't have enough originality to make it eligible for copyright protection.
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