![]() Perhaps the threat to his life was real, and Pocahontas did spur her father to spare the Englishman's life. The rescue story could reflect an actual event. In the 1995 movie, Pocahontas was " the first truly empowered Disney heroine." The story can be interpreted as valorizing a woman of color, defining a strong woman who chooses her own path rather than subordinating her desires to satisfy the men in her life. ![]() Some choose to the rescue myth in a positive light. By the end of the 1600's, the Native American culture east of the Fall Line had been thoroughly disrupted. History makes clear that the relationship between colonists and Native Americans was rarely harmonious everyone did not live "happily ever after." Less than 30 years after arriving in Virginia, Native Americans were expelled from the area around Jamestown and the English colonists constructed a wall on the Peninsula. Source: Library of Congress, Virginia (John Smith, 1624) Ohn Smith was captured after he canoed up the Chickahominy River past Appocant Smith's capture by a group of Native American hunters on the Chickahominy River was not bloodless his two companions that went with him in a canoe upstream of the town of Apocant were killed. ![]() The Disney movie offers a sanitized version of the harsh, conflict-ridden interaction between Native Americans and English colonists settling in Virginia. That tale is subject to multiple interpretations. Source: YouTube, Pocahontas - Savages (Part 2) two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could layd hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne vpon his to saue him from death.ĭisney portrayed Pocahontas as a heroine who saved John Smith from getting his head smashed with clubs He finally wrote, 16 years after the supposed rescue, how Pocahontas had stopped an execution in front of her father: 2 Smith never claimed Pocahontas saved his life in dramatic fashion until 1624, when everyone who might challenge the story was dead. She was a child rather than a mature young woman, so any relationship could not have been a love between consenting adults. In 1608, he was 25-26 years old and Pocahontas was just 10-11 years old. Most obviously, John Smith was not clean shaven and his hair was not blonde. The Disney movie does illuminate how both the Native Americans and the English viewed the other side as "savages," but the portrayal of Pocahontas ignores some key facts in order to enhance the story line. In the process, she tossed aside her love for Kocoum in exchange for a new relationship with the English captive. According to the myth, Smith was brought to Powhatan, and Pocahontas bravely challenged her father in order to save John Smith from execution. Smith had wandered too far up the Chickahominy River and been captured by a group that was out hunting deer. In the 1995 movie Pocahontas, Disney repeated the inaccurate myth of Pocahontas and John Smith falling in love in 1608. When she converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe, she took the name Rebecca. She is thought to have married a local man named Kocoum sometime after 1609. Pocahontas, apparently the Algonquian word for "playful," was just a pet name for her. Her formal name was Amonute, but she was most often called Matoaka. Pocahontas was the daughter of Wahunsenacawh (Wahunsenacock), the paramount chief known to the English as Powhatan. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, Pocahontas and Smith (1907 postcard) The myth of a love relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith has persisted despite all evidence to the contrary
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