Pocahontas

Pocahontas (born Matoaka, and later known as Rebecca Rolfe, c. 1596 – 1617) was a Native American woman notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia.

Early life

Pocahontas was born about 1596 and named "Amonute," though she also had a more private name of Matoaka. She was called "Pocahontas" as a nickname, which meant "playful one," because of her frolicsome and curious nature.

Interaction with the Jamestown colony

Pocahontas is most famously linked to the Englishman John Smith, who arrived in Virginia with a hundred other settlers in April 1607, where they built a fort on a marshy peninsula on the James River. The settlers were hoping to establish a permanent English settlement in the New World, but they had landed in the middle of a powerful Indian confederacy led by Powhatan.

Marriage and life in England

In 1614, Pocahontas converted to Christianity and was baptized "Rebecca." In April 1614, she and John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colony’s leaders, were married. The marriage led to the "Peace of Pocahontas," a lull in the inevitable conflicts between the English and Powhatan Indians. The couple had one child, Thomas Rolfe, born in January 1615.

Death and legacy

Pocahontas's death was sudden. She was preparing to return to Virginia from England with her husband and son in March 1617, but she became ill and died. She was buried in Gravesend, England.

Pocahontas's legacy is a mix of fact and fiction, and she has been romanticized over the centuries in various books, documentaries, and films. Her story continues to be a source of inspiration, and her life—real and mythologized—resonates with themes of cross-cultural contact, female heroism, and the enduring power of myth.

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