POWHATAN & POCAHONTAS

When English settlers founded Jamestown Colony in 1607, all of the area around it (now part of the state of Virginia) was
occupied by Indian tribes. At the head of these tribes was a powerful chief known as Powhatan. Although Chief Powhatan could
easily have destroyed the entire young colony, he and his people were generally friendly during the pioneers’ first difficult years.
Powhatan was about 60 years old when the English settlers came. He was a tall, dignified man with a stern, suspicious face, and
he had a reputation for cruelty to anyone who tried to oppose him. But Powhatan had a very soft heart for his “dearest daughter,”
Pocahontas, who was a girl of about 13 at the time of the English arrivals.
Many legends have come down to us about Pocahontas. One of these stories tells about a time when Captain John Smith, leader
of the English settlers, went too far into Indian territory and was captured by the Indians. Powhatan ordered his men to kill
Captain Smith, but Pocahontas saved his life by throwing herself over his body. She begged her father not to kill him, and
Powhatan, affected by his daughter’s earnest requests, pardoned the English leader and sent him back to Jamestown in peace.
In 1609, in order to preserve the good will between the Indians and themselves, the English settlers made Chief Powhatan king of
the territory. They did this with a very grand and solemn ceremony. But, according to Captain Smith, the ceremony was not a
complete success.
Powhatan was more interested in the gifts that accompanied the event than in the crown itself, and he did not want to bow his
head even long enough for the crown to be placed on it. After John Smith returned to England, the relations between the
Indians and the white men became less friendly. Promises were broken by both groups. The English intruded on Indian lands, and
the resentful Powhatans captured settlers and seized their possessions. For several years there were conflicts between them.
In 1613 the English developed a plan to recover the goods and prisoners that the Indians had taken from them. Knowing of
Powhatan’s great love for his daughter, they persuaded Pocahontas to board a British ship which lay at anchor in the Potomac
River. They then sailed to Jamestown. With such a valuable hostage, the settlers were able to arrange an exchange: the Indians
returned the English prisoners and possessions to the colonists, and the colonists returned Pocahontas to her father.
But while Pocahontas was living among the English at Jamestown, she had met John Rolfe, “an honest gentleman and of good
behaviour,” as records of the time describe him. The two fell in love. After Pocahontas had been converted to Christianity and
had been given the name “the Lady Rebecca,” she and Rolfe were married.
The marriage was of much benefit to the English colonists, for Powhatan kept peace with them until his death in 1618.
In 1616 Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe and several of the Indians accompanied Jamestown Governor Thomas Dale to England, where
Pocahontas was received as a princess. She lived happily there until, at about 22 years of age, she died of smallpox. Her only son,
Thomas Rolfe, returned as a young man to the home of his mother and later founded one of America’s most respected families–
the Randolphs of Virginia. Several groups of Indians, descendants of the Powhatans, are found today in Virginia. The best known
of these are the Pamunkey and the Mattaponi.