Updated:
05/09/2008
Pocahontas (1595?-1617)
American Indian Princess
Pocahontas was said to be a beautiful and intelligent Indian princess. The daughter of the Indian Chief Powhatan, of the POWHATAN confederacy of Virginia. Her personal clan name was Matoaka. In 1608, John Smith, one of the founders of the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia, was captured by the Indians and brought to Pocahontas's village.
According to John Smith's account in his General History of Virginia, Pocahontas saved his life by placing her head over his body to protect him, when Powhatan was about to kill him. The site at which Pocahontas saved the captain has been variously placed Gloucester County; it is generally agreed that it did occur on the north bank of the York River near Werowocomoco.
The Indian princess became the intermediary between the Englishman and her father. She persuaded him to provide food to the starving colonists and at the risk of her own life, she warned the men of dangers and of planned Indian attacks.
In 1613, Pocahontas was taken captive by Captain Samuel Argall and taken to Jamestown, in an effort to force Powhatan to keep peace. During her captivity she learned the foundations of Christianity and became a Christian. As a Christian she took the name Rebecca. The following year, with her father's consent, she married John Rolfe, a tobacco planter. This began an eight-year period of peace between the Indians and colonists. Thomas was born to the couple in 1615. Pocahontas traveled to England with her husband in 1616, where she was received as royalty. She captivated the London society . During her preparation to return to America, she became ill of smallpox and died in Gravesend, England in March 1617.
