Pocahontas - a love story or "tobacco princess". John Rolfe and Pocahontas: biography, interesting facts from life

Everybody knows Princess Pocahontas like the Disney cartoon heroine who saved the life of her lover, a European settler John Smith. In fact, the girl was about 10 years old when the Indians wanted to kill the Englishman, and there was no romantic history between them. But she really married a European. Her life was cut short at the age of 22, and her grave was located thousands of kilometers from her homeland. What was the fairytale story of Pocahontas?

Very little information has been preserved about the girl’s life, and some of it is very contradictory. No reliable images of her have survived. In fact, Pocahontas is not a name, but a nickname that meant “prankster.” The girl’s real name was Matoaka (“white feather”), it was hidden from strangers. She was born around 1595 into a Native American tribe and was the chief's favorite daughter.

In 1607, English settlers appeared on the lands of Indian tribes. John Smith was really going to be executed for killing an Indian, but the girl begged her father to spare his life. A year later, she helped the British by revealing to them her father’s plans to liquidate the colony. After being wounded, John Smith had to return to his homeland. Perhaps Pocahontas was truly sad after the breakup, but this did not last long.

In 1613, it was stolen by colonists for ransom. According to one version, she was treated with respect, according to another, she was raped in captivity. All this time she acted as a mediator in negotiations with the Indians, and soon married tobacco planter John Rolfe. For the sake of her husband, she even converted to Christianity, and from then on her name was Rebecca Rolfe. This marriage allowed the British to make peace with the Indians for 8 years. And two years later, Pocahontas and her husband went to England. One can only guess who she really was - a heroine or a traitor to her tribe.

In England she was accepted as the “Empress of Virginia”; the girl changed her image and learned social manners. But the happiness did not last long - a year later Pocahontas died. Death occurred either from pneumonia, or from tuberculosis, or from smallpox. According to one version, the British poisoned the girl before she was about to return to her homeland so that she could not warn the Indians about the British intentions to destroy their settlements.

The true story of Pocahontas makes us think about the untold realities of that time, about which an American of Indian descent eloquently said: “What is the true story of Pocahontas? White guys come to a new land, deceive the Indian chief, kill 90% of the men and rape all the women. What are Disney doing? They translate this tragedy, the genocide of my people, into a love story with a raccoon singing. I wonder if you, a white man, would make a love story about Auschwitz, where a skinny prisoner falls in love with a guard, with a singing raccoon and a dancing swastika? I was ashamed that my daughter watched this cartoon.”

The history of the Indians - Native Americans - is overgrown with incredible myths that are firmly rooted in the modern consciousness, replacing the real facts. Thanks to my friends from, I learned a lot of new and interesting things and I will periodically tell Indian stories to you, introducing everyone to the culture and traditions of American Indian tribes.

I want to start with one of the most popular myths - the story of Pocahontas.

In 1995, Disney released a full-length animated film “Pocahontas” about the love of an Indian princess and an English colonist with the simple name John Smith. The Powhatan Tribal Council (or Powhatan, English: Powhatan Nation) offered its assistance to Disney, but the film studio refused the consultants. The film was loved by children and adults all over the world, and Disney still successfully sells toys dedicated to its characters.

But bad luck - representatives of the indigenous peoples of America were offended by the Disney company. Responding to their complaints, the filmmakers argued that he was “responsible, accurate and respectful.” Let's check what is so precise and respectful there and what the descendants of Indian tribes were offended by.

“Pocahontas” is not the name of a Native American princess, but a nickname meaning “naughty, spoiled child.” Her real name was Matoaka, which translates as “flower between two streams.” She was probably named that way because she was born between two rivers, the Mattaponi and Pamunke. The Powhatan tribe, to which Matoacoi belonged, was dominant in the territory of the modern state of Virginia. At the time the city of Georgetown was founded here, the Powhatan tribe numbered more than 20 thousand people.

“Since we met the Europeans in the 1500s, our history has been characterized by the struggle for survival of war, disease, prejudice and cultural disintegration,” the tribal council says. – The diseases that the colonists brought with them greatly reduced the population of Powhatan by the end of the 17th century, and many of the survivors of terrible epidemics were destroyed by wars and famines.

How did the Powhatan Indians live?

The chief of the tribe at the time of the meeting of the Powhatan people with the English was Wahunsunacock. It is curious that the inheritance of this tribe was through the maternal line - and he inherited this honorary position from his mother. Powhatan was not just a single tribe; it was a confederation that united several neighboring tribes. Wahunsanakok skillfully governed his people - at first he led six tribes, by 1607 he had more than 30 different tribes under his command, each of which had its own leader. All of these tribes were part of the confederation through marriage or coercion and were subject to the Powhatan people.

It is assumed that a typical Powhatan settlement looked like this.

In fact, it was not even a village, but a small town located near the river. According to the recollections of the colonists, in a typical city there were about 200 houses (yehakin), each of which lived from 60 to 200 people. Yehakin were made of curved and beveled rods, and woven mats were thrown over them. There were open arches on both sides of the house for entry and exit, and a hole was made in the roof of the house for smoke. The sizes of the houses were different, for example, the leader of the tribe had several rooms in his house, connected by separate corridors. In the summer, when it was hot and humid, the mats were rolled up and air circulated between the wicker rods. Inside the house there were wicker beds along both walls. They slept on woven mats or animal skins, and a rolled up rug served as a pillow. During the day, the bed was rolled up to save space - and the beds served instead of, as they would say now, chairs and sofas.

It is curious that women built houses - and women also owned them. In addition to building houses, Powhatan women prepared food, collected firewood, raised children, cleaned the house, weaved baskets, sculpted pots, planed wooden utensils and utensils, sewed clothes, collected edible mushrooms, berries, medicinal plants, and monitored the hygiene of tribe members (Indians The Powhatan washed themselves in the river every morning and had their hair cut regularly (by the way, women were also hairdressers in the tribe). In general, a paradise for modern feminists.

What did the men do? Basically, they fought, and in peacetime they hunted and fished. Interestingly, the hunting methods adopted by the Powhatans required a special hairstyle: they shaved the right side of the head and tied the remaining hair on the left side with a knot, which they decorated with war trophies and feathers.

British Museum

Marriage in Powhatan society could be concluded in two ways. When a man decided to marry, he had to first court her and then ask her parents for permission. As a sign of the seriousness of his intentions, and also to show that he could support his family, he had to bring them his hunting trophies. After the consent of the parents, the groom paid compensation to the bride's parents. The greater the amount of compensation, the more the man loved and appreciated his chosen one. The man had to prepare the house for the arrival of his beloved (he had to build a house, bring there a mortar, pestle, pots, other household utensils, carpets and bedding), after which the bride’s father brought her to the groom. Shell beads were pulled along the groom's arm (as if changing its length), and then they were broken; the beads were given to the bride's father. Thus, the marriage was considered concluded. Another type of marriage, contract marriage, was a temporary agreement between a man and a woman that usually lasted one year. Every year the contractual union was either renewed, or the former partners could marry others. If, however, neither of them married within a certain time, the former spouses were considered permanently married again. Divorce was possible in the Powhatan tribe, and children were divided between parents depending on gender. Polygamy was also allowed, provided that the husband could support all his wives equally. The leader of the tribe, for example, had about a hundred wives. When the leader's wife gave birth to a child, she and the newborn were sent from the “palace” to her hometown, where she raised the baby herself. When the child grew up, he was sent back to the leader, and his mother was considered divorced and could marry any other man.

Children in the tribe were taught not only life skills, but also the rules of behavior in society. Self-control and the ability not to express one's true feelings were considered the greatest virtues. It was not customary in the tribe to interfere in quarrels between people; even the leader refused to address the complaints. The best policy was simply not to openly show one's hostility. This diplomatic and respectful attitude confused the English, who negotiated with the Powhatans and took their silence as a sign of agreement.

The True Story of Pocahontas

At first, the Indians received the English colonists very hospitably. However, by 1609, the chief had grown tired of their endless demands and officially ordered his people not to help the English. Relations between the Native Americans and the colonists deteriorated greatly. In 1613, the English kidnapped the chief's favorite daughter, Matoacoy (Pocahontas). The girl was 17-18 years old (her exact year of birth is unknown, 1595 or 1596). Accounts of how she was treated in captivity also vary. The fact is that in captivity she met John Rolfe and they fell in love. Her father agreed to the wedding, Matoakoi converted to Christianity and became Rebecca. The marriage took place in April 1614, and a year later their son Thomas was born.

The painting “The Baptism of Pocahontas” by John Gadsby Chapman is in the US Capitol

Little is known about John Rolfe himself before his arrival in America. He was born around 1585 in England, perhaps his father was a modest landowner. John traveled to America with his wife in 1620, and she died shortly after arriving. Until 1611, Rolf grew tobacco seeds, most likely from Trinidad. When the new tobacco was sent to England, it proved to be very popular, competitive with that imported by the Spaniards. By 1617, the colony was exporting 20,000 pounds of tobacco annually; this figure doubled the following year. Thus, thanks to Rolfe, the economy of the young state of Virginia quickly stabilized and began to grow.

In 1616, the Rolfe family went to England, rather for advertising purposes - to stir up interest in the English colony in Jamestown, Virginia. In England, Pocahontas fell ill and died of an unknown illness in 1617. Her son Thomas was also ill, but fortunately he was able to be saved and remained in England in the care of his paternal uncle. John Rolfe sailed back to Virginia, where he again married the daughter of one of the colonists. In 1621, Rolfe was appointed to the Virginia Council of State as part of the reorganized colonial government.

In 1618, Pocahontas's father, the leader of the Powhatan Wahunsanakok tribe, died in America. His duties passed to Pocahontas's younger brother Opitapam, then to another brother Opechanchan. At first, the peace treaty concluded with the marriage of Pocahontas and Rolf was respected. John Rolfe was a successful tobacco trader, the Virginia Trading Company, which financed the Jamestown settlement, made a profit and attracted more and more Englishmen to America. The colonists began to push the Powhatans off their land. In March 1622, Opechanceanu announced an attack on all English settlements. Thanks to the timely warning of the young Indian, Jamestown was saved. Of the 1,200 English colonists, 350-400 were killed. In the same year, John Rolfe also died - and it is unclear whether it was due to natural causes or whether he was killed in this battle.

Subsequently, armed clashes between the Native Americans and the colonists continued for ten years until peace was achieved. By 1644, the number of English settlers had grown so large that the Indians could not compete with them. In 1646 Opechanceanu was captured and killed. With his death, the decline of the Powhatan tribe began. In 1677, the remnants of the tribe were driven into a reservation; they were forbidden to teach their children their native language; communication in the tribe had to be in English. Later they began to be sent to camps organized specifically for Indian children in order to destroy the slightest traces of Native American culture.

So what about John Smith?

Who John Smith (1580-1631) really was - a noble Englishman or a robber-adventurer - no one really knows now. However, his name has always been known to all Virginia schoolchildren studying the history of their native land, and thanks to the Disney company, now to children in different countries of the world. Officially, history books refer to Smith as “an English adventurer and explorer known for his role in exploring the New World and establishing Jamestown, England’s first permanent colony in America.”

What he did before coming to America is not known for certain. In 1597 he joined the English army against the Spanish. He fought in various battles throughout Europe and was captured by the Turks in Hungary. Russian Wikipedia assures that he was enslaved in the Crimean Khanate, further (I quote): “through the Don, Severshchina, Volyn, Galicia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth he reached the Holy Roman Empire... went to travel around Europe and North Africa. There is speculation that Smith used the palisade fortification system, which he became familiar with in the Ukraine, when defending a settlement in Virginia from Indians; and the log houses he saw in Severshchina and Volyn became examples of buildings known as “log-cabins”.

However, American historians hold different views on his past and military exploits, and “log cabins” or log houses existed in America before Smith, mainly among northern tribes. Log houses became most widespread in places where communities of immigrants from Scandinavian countries settled, of which there were many in the 17th century. In American books, they prefer to keep silent about the military exploits and travels of John Smith to America.

All researchers of his life agree on one thing - due to Smith's boastful nature and limited sources, many of his stories and achievements cannot be verified. It is well established that he was one of the founders of Jamestown, organized repeated expeditions to explore the coast of New England, and was one of the most active enthusiasts and propagandists (as they would now say, a “talented advertiser”) who attracted large numbers of English settlers to America. So his role in the history of Virginia and the history of America is undeniable. By the way, it was he who left the most detailed description of the life and traditions of the Powhatan tribe, which is still used by historians.

It is known that Smith began to collaborate with the Virginia Company, which planned to make a profit by using the natural resources of America and mining gold here. In 1606, Smith set out for the colony with three ships and 144 future settlers. It is assumed that he tried to start a mutiny to seize power on the ships, but failed and was almost hanged. However, he came out of the situation alive and unharmed. In April 1607, the ship landed on the shores of Virginia.

The map, created by John Smith and first published in England in 1612, was the very first detailed map of the Chesapeake Bay and was used by colonists for more than a hundred years.

In his first year in America, John Smith, along with several comrades, was captured by the Indians. He was brought to the leader of the tribe and was about to be executed, but Pocahontas stopped the execution. No one will know the details of what happened, it is only known that Pocahontas (who was 10-11 years old at that time) subsequently called him “the son of the leader.”

In 1609, Smith was forced to leave America due to injuries. He never returned to Virginia, but explored the shores of modern Maine and Massachusetts in 1614-1615. He published maps and descriptions of New England, and actively encouraged the British to come and colonize the country. The adventures and misadventures that characterized Smith's life followed him to New England. It is curious that it was he who gave the name New England to these northeastern territories. In 1615 he was captured by French pirates and released three months later. He then returned to London and wrote books about his adventures for the rest of his life.

As for romantic adventures, all his memories are full of them, and everywhere in his books beautiful girls fall in love with him. The story about Pocahontas’ love for him is considered exactly the same fiction. Moreover, he mentioned her only once - when the Indian princess arrived with her husband in London, in his letter to Queen Anne. Of course, there could be no talk of any love affair during his rescue from Indian execution, especially considering Pocahontas’s young age.

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Virginia Indians identified themselves as Christians and spoke English. In 1924, the Racial Integrity Act was passed. The law protected racial purity and separated “whites” from “coloreds” (which included African Americans and Indians). Many Indians left the state under pressure. The law was overturned on June 12, 1967 by the US Supreme Court.

John Smith is rightfully considered one of the founders of the British colonies, an explorer of the territories of the New World and the greatest inventor.

There is a monument to Pocahontas in Virginia and a monument in England. Her son Thomas Rolfe became the first American child born in a marriage between an Englishman and an Indian woman. He was a successful planter (largely thanks to his father's inheritance and a successful marriage).

The first film about the love between an Indian princess and a simple Englishman, John Smith, was made in 1953, starring Jody Lawrence and Anthony Dexter. In 1995, a Canadian film on this topic was released, and at the same time a Disney film. In 1998, Disney made a second cartoon about Pocahontas's journey to England; in 2005, the same theme was played out in the film “The New World” by Terrence Malick.

The descendants of the Powhatan tribe do not believe that they should be grateful to Disney for using their history in this way - rather, on the contrary. A beautiful fairy tale about love between a girl from a virtually humiliated tribe and someone who actively helped destroy this tribe is far from historical realities.

“The people of Smith and Rolf turned their backs on those who shared their resources with them and offered them friendship. During the conquest, the Powhatan people were destroyed and scattered, and the lands were seized. A clear pattern was established that soon spread throughout the American continent. “We regret that this sad story, of which Europeans and today’s Americans should be ashamed, has become an entertainment and perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan people,” Chief Roy Crazy Horse, longtime leader of the tribe’s descendants, said at the time.

The confederation of tribes led by Powhatan was only recognized by the government in the late 1980s. The remnants of the confederation now own only 809 hectares of land. It has its own tribal council, its own representatives, they hold their own and celebrate holidays. They still pay an annual fish tribute to the Governor of Virginia, as stipulated in treaties signed in 1646 and 1677. In the 372 years since the first treaty was signed, the tribes have never missed a payment.

Frames from the Disney cartoon “Pocahontas” were used.

Reality.

Pocahontas existed. True, she was a representative of the tobacco industry, something of a living Indian "tobacco shop" in the days when tobacco stores had not yet opened.
The young Indian princess Pocahontas (1595 - 1617) was kidnapped by British settlers in 1613 - this was done in order to conclude a more favorable peace between the whites and the girl’s father, Chief Powhatan. They hoped to exchange Pocahontas for British prisoners. While she was in prison, the Reverend Father Whitetaker taught the girl English, introduced her to the Holy Scriptures, and tried to “instill in her decent manners” (Pocahontas was accustomed to walking naked from the waist down from childhood and often asked the boys to “build her a carriage so that she could ride it without clothes").
The girl showed good abilities - she grasped everything on the fly, learned quickly and quickly got used to her new life.
She was baptized with the name Rebecca and married to an Englishman, farmer John Rolfe. It was John's tobacco plantations (the first in Virginia) that gave the state a chance to survive.
In 1616, John took a trip to England to show new samples of the product, and Pocahontas was also one of the samples.
It should be noted that the English King James I hated tobacco, calling it “harmful to the eyes, disgusting to the nose and deadly to the brain.”
When Pocahontas, her husband and a dozen tribesmen arrived in London, the Indians were introduced to the court. Pocahontas was a success with Queen Anne. While all the Indians came to England in their usual dress, Pocahontas came to the palace dressed in the latest fashion - in a dress with a high English collar. Pocahontas became everyone's favorite. And it was then that John Smith for the first time - 10 years after it happened - began to tell others the story of “how-she-saved-me-from-death.” Here it should be noted that back in 1608, John Smith wrote a book called “The Real Discovery of Virginia” - and so, in this book there was NOT A WORD about his miraculous salvation with the help of the Indian girl Pocahontas! Another curious thing is that after John’s departure, Pocahontas married a fellow tribesman named Kokoum and, apparently, was his faithful wife until 1613, when she was kidnapped by the colonists. And the whole love story was described by John Smith only in 1624. Maybe Smith was just trying to attract a little more attention to himself? In addition, no evidence has yet been found that Captain John Smith and Pocahontas actually met during her stay in England.

Half of the Indians who arrived in England with John Rolfe died from unknown diseases. Pocahontas also fell ill with smallpox and, after much suffering, died in March 1617 at the age of 22. She is buried there, on the shores of Foggy Albion.
As for John Rolfe’s mission, it failed: the king did not reduce taxes. However, Virginia doubled its tobacco exports in a year - from 20 to 40 thousand pounds.
John Rolfe (1585 - 1625) married again - this time to an Englishwoman, but a few years later he was killed - they say this was done by the Indians. And his legacy lives on today - in the Joe Camel tobacco company.

The four faces of Pocahontas.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Portrait from an engraving of 1616
Birth name:
A place of death:
Father:
Spouse:	John Rolfe (1585-1622)
Children:	son: Thomas Rolfe (1615-80)

To the cinema

• "Pocahontas" is an American animated film from 1995.
• “Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World” is a 1998 American animated film.
• “New World” - 2005 film.

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Literature

• Philip L. Barbour. Pocahontas and Her World. - Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970. - ISBN 0-7091-2188-1.

Notes

Links

Excerpt characterizing Pocahontas

And Pierre now deserved the Italian’s passionate love only because he evoked in him the best sides of his soul and admired them.
During the last period of Pierre's stay in Oryol, his old freemason acquaintance, Count Villarsky, came to see him, the same one who introduced him to the lodge in 1807. Villarsky was married to a rich Russian woman who had large estates in the Oryol province, and occupied a temporary position in the city in the food department.
Having learned that Bezukhov was in Orel, Villarsky, although he had never been briefly acquainted with him, came to him with those statements of friendship and intimacy that people usually express to each other when meeting in the desert. Villarsky was bored in Orel and was happy to meet a person of the same circle as himself and with the same, as he believed, interests.
But, to his surprise, Villarsky soon noticed that Pierre was very far behind real life and had fallen, as he himself defined Pierre, into apathy and selfishness.
“Vous vous encroutez, mon cher,” he told him. Despite this, Villarsky was now more pleasant with Pierre than before, and he visited him every day. For Pierre, looking at Villarsky and listening to him now, it was strange and incredible to think that he himself had very recently been the same.
Villarsky was married, a family man, busy with the affairs of his wife’s estate, his service, and his family. He believed that all these activities were a hindrance in life and that they were all despicable because they were aimed at the personal good of him and his family. Military, administrative, political, and Masonic considerations constantly absorbed his attention. And Pierre, without trying to change his view, without condemning him, with his now constantly quiet, joyful mockery, admired this strange phenomenon, so familiar to him.
In his relations with Villarsky, with the princess, with the doctor, with all the people with whom he now met, Pierre had a new trait that earned him the favor of all people: this recognition of the ability of each person to think, feel and look at things in his own way; recognition of the impossibility of words to dissuade a person. This legitimate characteristic of every person, which previously worried and irritated Pierre, now formed the basis of the participation and interest that he took in people. The difference, sometimes the complete contradiction of people's views with their lives and with each other, pleased Pierre and aroused in him a mocking and gentle smile.
In practical matters, Pierre suddenly now felt that he had a center of gravity that he did not have before. Previously, every money question, especially requests for money, to which he, as a very rich man, was subjected very often, led him into hopeless unrest and bewilderment. “To give or not to give?” - he asked himself. “I have it, but he needs it. But someone else needs it even more. Who needs it more? Or maybe both are deceivers? And from all these assumptions he had previously not found any way out and gave to everyone while he had something to give. He had been in exactly the same bewilderment before with every question concerning his condition, when one said that it was necessary to do this, and the other - another.
Now, to his surprise, he found that in all these questions there were no more doubts and perplexities. A judge now appeared in him, according to some laws unknown to himself, deciding what was necessary and what should not be done. Pocahontas: the wrong side of the legend

Chief's Daughter

Pocahontas was born around 1594 or 1595 (the exact date is unknown), presumably at the Indian settlement of Werawocomoco (now Wicomico, Virginia), north of the Pamaunkee River (York River). Her ancestral, secret name was Matoaka ("Snow-White Feather").

She was the daughter of a Powhatan chief named Wahunsonacock. True, in the history of white people he remained Powhatan - after the name of the union of tribes that he headed. There were about 25 tribes under his rule. Pocahantas was the daughter of one of his many wives.

In the spring of 1607, English settlers landed at the mouth of the Pamaunka River. At the confluence of the Pamaunkee and Chickahiminy, they founded a city named Jamestown (in honor of King James I). By that time, the Powhatan Indians already knew about the existence of white people. In 1570-71, they encountered the Jesuit Spaniards, they heard and about the attempts of the palefaces to establish English colonies in the Carolinas. English ships also sailed to the mouth of the Pamaunka River. A few years before the founding of Jamestown, the English killed one of the Powhatan leaders, and captured many Indians and enslaved them. It is not surprising that the new batch of colonists were Indians They were met unkindly: they were attacked, killed one and wounded several settlers.However, after two of the three ships weighed anchor and sailed back to England, Chief Powhatan invited the settlers to make peace and, as a proof of goodwill, sent a deer to the first governor of the colony, Wingfield. It was at this time that Matoaka met the pale-faced people, who knew her as Pocahontas, which means “spoiled” or “playful.” It was then, presumably, that Pocahontas met John Smith, a man largely thanks to whom her story has survived the centuries and become a legend.

John Smith

John Smith was born around 1580 (that is, he was about 15 years older than Pocahontas). His life was full of adventures. Before arriving on the shores of the new continent, he managed to fight in Hungary against the Turks (in 1596-1606). Contemporaries called him "a rude, ambitious, boastful mercenary." According to eyewitnesses, he was short and had a beard.
An experienced soldier, adventurer, explorer, Smith also had a quick pen and a rich imagination. It was he who wrote the first known description of an English settlement in the New World through the eyes of an eyewitness - “A True Narrative of the Remarkable Events in Virginia since the Founding of this Colony” (1608). This book, however, does not mention Pocahontas. Smith told about how the Indian princess saved his life only in 1616 in a letter to Queen Anne (Pocahontas had just arrived in England, but more on that below), and then repeated this story in his book “General Historie”, published in 1624.

According to Smith, in December 1607, he, at the head of a small detachment of colonists, left the fort in search of food. The Indians, led by Pocahontas's uncle, Openchancanu, attacked the expedition, killed everyone except Smith, and he was taken to the capital Powhatan, to the supreme leader. He ordered Smith to be killed, and then the young Indian woman protected him from the clubs of her fellow tribesmen.

Researchers and historians disagree on how true this story is. Smith could well have invented it - as already said, his imagination always worked well. Doubts were aggravated by the fact that before, Smith, according to him, had already been saved by a princess, but not an Indian, but a Turkish woman - when he was in Turkish captivity. There is another version: the Indians did not intend to kill him at all, but, on the contrary, wanted to accept him into the tribe. Part of the ritual was a mock execution, from which Pocahontas “saved” him.

One way or another, but in Smith's presentation, Pocahontas became a real good angel of the colony of English settlers in Jamestown. Thanks to her, relations with the Indians improved for some time. Pocahontas often visited the fort and maintained friendly relations with John Smith. She even saved his life again by warning him that Chief Powhatan wanted to kill him again. In the winter of 1608, Indians brought provisions and furs to Jamestown, trading them for axes and trinkets. This allowed the colony to hold out until spring.

However, in October 1609, Smith suffered a mysterious accident - he was seriously wounded in the leg by a gunpowder explosion, and had to return to England. Pocahontas was informed that Captain Smith had died.

Among the pale-faced

After Smith's departure, relations between the Indians and colonists began to rapidly deteriorate. In the fall of 1609, Powhatan orders the killing of 60 settlers who arrived in Werawocomoco. Around the same time, Pocahontas marries her fellow tribesman Kokum and goes to live in an Indian settlement on the Potomac River. Little is known about this period of her life (even if John Smith was not found), as well as about the further fate of her husband.

In 1613, one of the residents of Jamestown, the enterprising captain Samuel Argoll, found out where Pocahontas was, and with the help of one of the small Indian leaders (he received a copper cauldron for treason), he lured the daughter of High Chief Powhatan onto his ship, after which he demanded her father - in exchange for his daughter - to release the English captured by the Indians, as well as return the weapons stolen from the settlers and pay a ransom in corn. After some time, the chief sent part of the ransom to Jamestown and asked that his daughter be treated well.

From Jamestown, Pocahontas was transported to the city of Henrico, where Thomas Dale was then governor. The governor entrusted the Indian woman to the care of Pastor Alexander Whitaker. After some time, Pocahontas converted to Christianity. She was baptized into the Anglican faith under the name Rebecca. Around the same time, another white man appeared on the scene, who played a significant role in Pocahontas’s life - colonist John Rolfe.

John Rolfe

When John Rolfe and his wife Sarah were sailing from England to Jamestown, a storm drove them to Bermuda. While in Bermuda, Sarah gave birth to a girl, but both Rolf's wife and his newborn daughter soon died. There, in Bermuda, Rolf picked up local tobacco grains, and, arriving in Virginia in 1612, crossed it with local coarse varieties. The resulting hybrid gained enormous popularity in England, and the export of tobacco ensured the financial well-being of the colony for a long time. Of course, Rolf became one of the most respected and wealthy residents of Jamestown. The tobacco plantation he owned was called "Bermuda Hundred".

Pocahontas met John Rolfe in July 1613, after tobacco had brought him wealth and respect from the colonists. The canonical legend states that Pocahontas and Rolfe fell in love and married - with the blessing of Governor Thomas Dale and Pocahontas' father, Chief Powhatan. However, genuine historical documents (in particular, a surviving letter from Rolfe to Governor Dale) allow us to conclude that this marriage was only a political union, and the very pious John Rolfe not only did not want, but even feared an alliance with a pagan and agreed to it only “for the good of plantation, for the honor of the country, to the greater glory of God and for her own salvation" and only after Pocahontas converted to Christianity. For Pocahontas, consent to marriage could be a condition of release.

One way or another, on April 5, 1614, 28-year-old widower John Rolfe and the Indian princess Pocahontas got married. The wedding was attended by relatives from the bride's side - her uncle and brothers. Leader Powhatan himself did not appear at the celebration, but agreed to the marriage and even sent a pearl necklace for his daughter. In 1615, Pocahontas, now Rebecca Rolfe, gave birth to a son, who was named Thomas, after the governor. The descendants of Pocahontas and Rolf were known in the United States as the "Red Rolfs."

In his 1616 Narrative of Virginia, Rolfe calls the next few years "blessed" for the colony. Thanks to the marriage of Pocahontas and Rolf, peace reigned between the colonists of Jamestown and the Indians for 8 years.

In the civilized world

In the spring of 1616, Governor Thomas Dale traveled to England. The main purpose of the trip was to seek funding for the Virginia Tobacco Company. In order to impress and attract public attention to the life of the colony, he took with him a dozen Indians, including Princess Pocahonas. Her husband and son accompanied her on the trip. Indeed, Pocahontas had great success in London and was even presented to the court. It was during her stay in England that John Smith wrote a letter to Queen Anne, in which he told the story of his miraculous salvation and in every possible way extolled the positive role of Pocahontas in the fate of the colony. Then Pocahontas and John Smith met again. Sources disagree on the circumstances in which this meeting took place. According to Smith's notes, Pocahontas called him father and asked him to call her daughter. But Chief Roy Crazy Horse, in an authentic biography of Pocahontas on the website powhatan.org, claims that Pocahontas did not even want to talk to Smith, and at the next meeting she called him a liar and showed him the door. Whether this is true or not, Pocahontas and John Smith never met again.

In March 1617, the Rolf family began to prepare to return home to Virginia. But while preparing to sail, Pocahontas fell ill - either with a cold or with pneumonia. Some sources even name tuberculosis or smallpox among the likely illnesses. She died on March 21 and was buried in Gravesend (Kent, England). She was, according to various sources, 21 or 22 years old.

Epilogue

Pocahontas's father, Chief Powhatan, died the following spring of 1618, and relations between the colonists and the Indians deteriorated completely and irrevocably. In 1622, Indians under a new chief attacked Jamestown and killed about 350 settlers. The British responded to aggression with aggression. Even during the lifetime of Pocahontas's peers, the Indians living in Virginia were almost completely exterminated and scattered throughout America, and their lands were given to the colonists. Soon, similar methods of treating the redskins spread throughout the continent.

Jamestown, meanwhile, flourished. John Rolfe continued to grow tobacco successfully. In 1619, he was one of the first to use the labor of black slaves on the plantation; in general, he was a progressive-minded person for his time and, as a result, forever entered the history of the tobacco industry and the history of America. Also in 1619, Jamestown became the capital of Virginia. However, in 1676, the city was practically destroyed during one of the largest Indian uprisings in American history, the Baconis Rebellion, after which it fell into relative decline and in 1698 lost its status as the state capital.

Pocahontas' son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England under the care of his uncle, Henry Rolfe. However, at age 20, he returned to his mother's homeland, became an officer in the local militia, and commanded a frontier fort on the James River.

John Rolfe died in 1676, the year of the rebellion, but whether he died a natural death (he would have been about 90 years old) or was killed during a massacre committed by Indians in the city is unknown.

In subsequent years, the story of Pocahontas, Captain Smith and John Rolfe gradually became one of the favorite Virginian, and then all-American myths. Many people in Virginia and beyond are descended from Pocahontas, and references to her and her descendants appear in many literary works. Here is what Mine Reed writes, for example, in the novel “Osceola, Chief of the Seminoles”: “There is an admixture of Indian blood in my veins, since my father belonged to the Randolph family of the Roanoke River and traced his descent from Princess Pocahontas. He was proud of his Indian ancestry - almost boasted of this. Perhaps this will seem strange to a European, but it is known that in America whites who have Indian ancestors are proud of their origin. Being a mestizo is not considered a disgrace, especially if the descendant of the natives has a decent fortune. Many volumes written about "The nobility and greatness of the Indians are less convincing than the simple fact that we are not ashamed to acknowledge them as our ancestors. Hundreds of white families claim to be descended from the Virginia princess. If their claims are true, then the beautiful Pocahontas was a priceless treasure for her husband."

The image of Pocahontas still adorns the flag and seal of the city of Henrico.

Well, after cinema was invented, the myth of Pocahontas - the Indian woman who helped the pale-faced - was repeatedly captured on film in different versions. The first film about Pocahontas was the silent film of the same name in 1910, and the last one at the moment is Terence Malick’s project “The New World”.

http://christian-bale.narod.ru/press/pocahontas_story.html

Illustrations by Smith, E. Boyd (Elmer Boyd, 1860-1943), 1906 .

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