Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

Although the historical record on Pocahontas is a bit uncertain, she is thought to have been born around 1595, in present-day Virginia, as the daughter of the powerful Algonquin chief Powhatan. Her birth names were Amonute and Matoaka; “Pocahontas” was a nickname meaning “playful” or “mischievous.” In 1607, the English captain John Smith’s exploration party was captured by Natives, and Pocahontas reportedly rescued him from death. From then on, she became an “intermediary between the two leaders and their communities” (71). In 1610, she married Kocoum, a warrior from the Patawomeck tribe.

In 1613, Pocahontas was captured by the English and became a hostage at Jamestown, where she was instructed in Christianity and adopted the Christian name Rebecca. She met John Rolfe, an English tobacco farmer and captain, who suggested a diplomatic marriage to seal an alliance between their people. Despite already being married, Pocahontas married Rolfe; they had a son and two years later traveled to England, where they were received ceremonially at the court of King James I. Pocahontas died of an unidentified illness two months later, as she was preparing to travel back home to Virginia.

Richter sees the Pocahontas-Rolfe story as tragic since the hopes for peaceful relations between English settlers and the Indigenous peoples of Jamestown died with her.