Comments (Famous Bearer Only)
I've also seen her birth name given as "Mataoka" in several sources. I don't know which is more authentic or whether that can be determined.
1
1
Pocahontas is the 1995 Disney movie. I really like 'The Virginia Company' and 'Steady As The Beating Drum', the first two songs in that movie.
5
5
Pocahontas was also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe.
7
7
In fact, Matoaka was Pocahontas's birth name. When she married a British subject, she was baptized Rebecca Rolfe. Pocahontas was a childhood pet name of Algonquin meaning (playful).
9
9
Comments are left by users of this website. They are not checked for accuracy.
When she was around 10 years old, John Smith (27 years old) and English colonists arrived in Tsenacomoca in the spring of 1607. They were never married nor involved. Many native people feared the English, as they sometimes would enter their villages and hold them at gunpoint to take their food and supplies, however an alliance was formed, as both parties feared the Spanish.
By the time Pocahontas came of age and was married to a man in her tribe, relations between the native people and the colonists had turned somewhat sour, and the colonist men had picked up the habit of sexually assaulting the native women and children. Pocahontas had her first child soon after her marriage.
When she was around 15-16, the colonists went to her husband and said that he could either give up his wife or have his village attacked. Hoping she would be returned, he agreed to let them take her, to protect the rest of the village, which did not happen. The kidnappers tossed him a copper pot, which fabricated the narrative that it was a "trade", a story still taught today. Pocahontas had to give up her baby and her husband was later killed.
After being taken, Pocahontas was abused by many crew members, resulting in her second pregnancy. She confided this in her sister, who she was allowed to see only after showing signs of extreme mental distress.
Eventually, Pocahontas was converted to Christianity, given the Christian name "Rebecca", and married off to John Rolfe, an English man who hoped in marrying her that he would learn how to fix his failing tobacco crop, a sacred practice not told to outsiders. Pocahontas gave birth to her son, Thomas. She was never allowed to see her family after marrying John.
After this, colonist tobacco was greatly successful, and greedy farmers started expelling natives from their land to expand their farms. Many atrocities were committed.
After this, Pocahontas was brought to England to raise money, and sway the opinions of certain nobles who disapproved of the atrocities committed against Native Americans, before dying of illness at around 20. Some speculate she was murdered. According to her sister, she realised she was being used and desperately wished to go home to her father and child, and expressed outrage on the mistreatment of the Powhatan people.
Many years later, John Smith wrote a fictional account of his romantic relationship with Pocahontas, who he made out to be an adult during times when she was a child. Many other baseless claims were made, and this story has circulated about for centuries and was adapted into a Disney movie, along with a warped story of her marriage to John Rolfe.