She wasn’t a princess.
Her name wasn’t “Pocahontas”
And she
certainly didn’t frolic around Virginia fields singing about her affection for a clean-shaven, Mel Gibson-esque guy named John Smith.
But without her, the English colony at Jamestown–the first lasting English settlement in North America-- would have withered on the vine. No tobacco, no Virginia, no Thomas Jefferson or George Washington.
If she’s so important, then how did we get the story of one of America’s most important Founding Mothers so wrong? Read on to discover the real “Pocahontas” in this second installment of a continuing series examining the contributions of the Early America’s most interesting and influential women, intended as a companion series to mkfox’s outstanding “Forgotten Founding Fathers” diaries.
Matoaka, daughter of the Powhatan
To her parents, she was Matoaka, or “Little Snow Feather.” Born around 1595, she was privileged to be the daughter of an important man–Wahunsonacock, the Great Powhatan, a “wereowance” (tribal leader) of the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Confederacy, one of Virginia’s First Nations. Since her people were matrilineal (inheritance passed through the mother’s line), she and her 100+ siblings weren’t “royalty” as most Europeans would understand it; still, she was the daughter of a powerful man, and one of his favorites. Her nickname, “Little Naughty (or Wanton) One,” or “Pocahontas,” hints at a playful and strong-willed personality.
To most Americans, Pocahontas is famous for having “saved” John Smith, leader of the English colony at Jamestown (founded 1607). Smith, a soldier of fortune with an impressive red beard and an ego to match, was a controversial leader for the colony, but had been chosen by the Virginia Company as one of its leaders. His ability to impose and maintain harsh military discipline on unwilling workers (many of whom had been landless unemployed laborers in England–“homeless people” in modern parlance) was a key element in the colony’s survival.
“Pocahontas:” Smith’s savior(maybe)
And so was his friendship with Pocahontas. According to Smith’s later writing, the two met when he was kidnaped by Powhatan warriors during a hunting expedition. Held down in front of the Great Powhatan, Smith found himself menaced by fierce men who threatened to bash in his head. But the sudden appearance of the “Little Naughty One” saved him, or so he wrote in 1616:
....at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown.
And so impulsive little 12 year-old Matoaka prevailed on her father to save the life of the 37 year-old Englishman...or did she? Smith did not write the account until years later. Did the event even occur? Smith was a self-made man and shameless self-promoter who published several accounts exaggerating his own exploits as a soldier of fortune, fighting for France against the Ottoman Empire and then living as a slave among the Turks. Was this another exaggeration?
Or, was Smith being truthful, and simply misinterpreting his experiences? There are records of other First Nations tribes using ritual torture as part of an adoptive process, and adoption was sometimes key to making alliances for the tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. Was Smith, perhaps, being ritually adopted by the Powhatan, hoping to forge an alliance with the strange newcomers who had set up shop at Jamestown?
If this is the case, then it explains Matoaka’s continuing interest in John Smith–he was her adopted baby, or pet, or brother, or, perhaps even a father figure. In any case, the colonists were extraordinarily fortunate; Matoaka might not be a princess, but as the favorite child of Powhatan she was privileged, and was happy to pass along her privileges with the strange Englishman who was now her charge. Through the next years, she brought food in harsh winters, and even warned Smith of a plot against his life–a plot designed by Matoaka’s own father.
Matoaka: Torn between two peoples
How can we interpret her actions? Generations of white Americans have praised “Pocahontas” for her faithfulness to the English. From a Native American perspective, however, her actions were indeed “naughty” – even treacherous. Relations between the English and the Powhatan soured in the years 1608-1614; at one point, John Smith captured Matoaka’s uncle Opechancanough, and used physical force to extort food from the tribal leader, by grabbing
the long lock of his head; and with my pistol at his breast, I led him {out of his house} amongst his greatest forces, and before we parted made him [agree to] fill our bark with twenty tons of corn.
She never wrote a word of her own, so we can’t be sure what motivated the young girl to continue to intervene with her people on behalf of the Englishmen. Was it her duty as adoptive sponsor? Did she simply like the strange, hairy, overdressed English? Or was she (as one author suggests) actually a double agent, aiding the English in order to bring back intelligence to her father’s people? In any case, it’s indisputable that without her gifts of food and her invaluable diplomacy, Jamestown would have likely ended as quickly as it predecessor, the “Lost Colony” of Roanaoke..
Rebecca: Prisoner and Convert
At some point, Matoaka married a man named Kocuom, and moved away from her father’s settlement. What happened with her marriage is unclear, but she eventually came to reside in Passapatanz, with the Patawomec people (clients of the Powhatan Confederacy), under the care of Chief Japazaws.
The English discovered their old friend while trading with the Patawomec, and took a distinctly unfriendly action, kidnapping Matoaka in the hopes of gaining a large ransom form her father. To be fair to the English, several of their number were being helped by Powhatan, and the exchange of prisoners was a typical part of European negotiations aimed at ending hostilities. She was treated well, in line with the treatment of a distinguished captive. She learned English during her year of captivity, and even received instruction in Christianity. Still, her father hesitated to exchange her; reportedly this caused Matoaka much grief. Did Powhatan fear losing an advantage in his warfare? Did he fear losing Matoaka as an agent? Did her anger motivate her to “switch sides”? It’s almost impossible now to definitively understand their motivations.
But somehow, Matoaka came, not only to be baptised into the Church of England as “Rebecca,” but also to marry an Englishman, 28-year-old John Rolfe. Rolfe had been diligently working on how to grow a good crop of tobacco in Virginia, hoping that a good cash crop would make the colony financially viable. Perhaps his interest in Matoaka originated as an attempt to learn more about the crop. Whatever the case, he later explained that his thoughts were “entwined” in a “Labyrinth” of affection for the young woman. He was not blind to the potential benefits of the marriage to his colony either, explaining the union was undertaken
.. for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the Glory of God, for my own salvation...
Mistress Rolfe: Peacemaker and Ambassador
Did Rebecca love John Rolfe? Did she even expect to? Again we don’t know. We do know that there is no hint of a romance between her and the much older Smith, who had left the colony when she was still an adolescent (in fact, she had been told Smith was dead). In any case, Rebecca and John’s marriage conformed to the English expectation that marriages meant alliances and peace. The so-called “Peace of Pocahontas” reigned between the English and the Powhatan from their marriage until the death of Wahunsunacock and the accession of his brother Opchanacanough, who in 1622 opened warfare on the English once more. The “breathing room” and period of good relations that resulted from Pocahontas’ marriage were key to the growth and stability of the Virginia colony
The couple settled in Virginia, on lands given them by Wahunsunacock. Rolfe continued to experiment with his tobacco, and Rebecca had her sister, Matachanna, with her to keep her company and assist with the birth of Thomas, who came into the world in 1615. Matachanna and her husband Tomococo were close companions of the Rolfes, and traveled with them to England in 1616. There, Rebecca’s status as an Indian “princess” made the Rolfes quite a sensation. Rebecca even met King James I in London; he is supposed to have chided Rolfe for disobeying the English law that forbade commoners from marrying foreign royalty without seeking the king’s permission first.
This kind of publicity pleased Sir Thomas Dale, the governor of Virginia, who shrewdly used Rebecca’s fame to draw potential investors to the Virginia company. We can only hope that Rebecca enjoyed being feted and visiting the theatre. One diarist noted that she "carried her selfe as the daughter of a king." That sense of dignity survives in the portrait engraved of her in 1616. She wears fashionable English dress, but the artist let her very un-English features shine through. Her dramatic brow and strong bone structure didn’t conform to a Jacobean English standard of beauty (plump and pale). But to a modern eye, she appears strong and remarkably confident in her foreign garb, gazing back at us with a look that might even be wry amusement.
Rebecca, Matoaka, or Pocahontas? Grief and Remembrance
At least one of her English encounters was quite un-amusing--in fact, Rebecca found it downright distressing. Captain John Smith re-introduced himself to Mistress Rolfe, which came as a shock, since she believed him dead. Although she still greeted him as “father,” Rebecca at first turned away from Smith and did not wish to see him; later she assured him, however, that he would “forever” be her “countryman.”
In March 15617 the Rolfes set off for a return to Virginia, but tragedy struck before they had left the English coast. Rebecca contracted a fatal lung disease, perhaps tuberculosis or pneumonia, and died. Buried on march 21, 1617, she was memorialized with a statue at Gravesend church.
The line of Rebecca Rolfe lived on in her son, Thomas, who returned to Virginia with his father.
Her story was celebrated and romanticized, especially in the 19th century. A painting of her baptism was added to the Capital rotunda in 1840, and there is statue of her at Jamestown, dressed in generic “Indian garb” that looks very little like what we know of the 17th century Powhatan. Most of the “Pocahontas” mythologies are wildly distorted, including such extraneous elements as the fictional romance with John Smith and blackening of Rolfe’s character to include the claim that he tricked Matoaka into marriage. Celebrated in story, song, and film, “Pocahontas” has become quite famous while the real Matoaka/Rebecca is almost forgotten. But although it leaves tantalizing gaps, the true story of this remarkable young woman is in many ways even more engaging than the many myths which have grown up around her.
Further Reading
Young readers may like The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz, an award-winning retelling of Matakoa’s story that avoids over-romanticizing the story, but remains fun and and lively. Adult readers might choose the recent biography Pocahontas:Medicine Woman, Spy, Diplomat, which re-evaluates Pocahontas’s remarkable role in history, using Algonquian oral traditions in its analysis. Helen C. Rountree’s Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed By Jamestown provides an up-to-date scholarly perspective on the story.
Founding Mothers is a continuing series about important women of America’s colonial, Revolutionary, and Early National periods. Upcoming subjects include First Lady Dolly Madison, ex-slave and famed poet Phyllis Wheatley, historian/propagandist Mercy Otis Warren, rebellious Puritan Anne Hutchinson, and many more...