Story of America Cards

Pocahontas

Ok so we all know the Indian Princess; Pocahontas, she has her own Disney movie and became one of the most iconic Disney princesses, but what we also know is that out of all other Disney princesses she is a real person from history.

However what was shown in the 1995 film or any other films talking about Pocahontas if they keep following the real John Smith's story about the event, Uh Pocahontas' life was not all good as Disney would make you think....I do like the film it's good in its own right and doesn't deserve hate because of the historic details even though the argument is agreeable and understandable...

But let's not talk about Controversy, it's a void of darkness no one wants to be in, and let's talk about history so here is the Story of America Cards about Pocahontas in The Indians category.

(Who was Pocahontas?)

Pocahontas also known as "Amonute" and "Matoaka". She was a Native American woman from the Powhatan people, known for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. The daughter of a paramount powhatan chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah encompassing the Tidewater region of what is today the U.S. state of Virginia.

Pocahontas was known to have been captured and held for ransom by English colonists during hostilities in 1613 and During her captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca (Which just so happens to be my birth name). She then married the tobacco planter named John Rolfe, and the rest we will talk about later but we already know she is associated with explorer; John Smith.

(Legend of an Indian Princess)

During the desperate months of 1607, fully half of the members of England's first colony in America at Jamestown, Virginia, died of disease and starvation. The death toll would have been much higher had it not been for swashbuckling soldier-adventurer Captain John Smith.

Who took charge of the colony's affairs, he forced the settlers to stop their fruitless search for gold and plant crops and build houses instead, while he traded with the Indains for much-needed food.

During one of his trips into the wilderness late 1607, Smith was seized by Indains and dragged before Powhatan chief of the powerful Powhatan Confederacy of the Virginian Algonquin tribes. According to Smith's own published account in 1624, he was condemned to death and was to be beheaded by a club-wielding Warrior.

At that moment, Powhatan's daughter, Matoaka, whose Indian nickname was Pocahontas ("The playful one"), squirmed through the mob of Indian onlookers and begged for Smith's life. Powhatan finally relented and Smith was set free. Two years later, he was severely burned in a gunpowder explosion and returned to England. (We can all imagine how that went down)...

Pocahontas, who was born around 1595, may have been 12 when she saved Smith's life; it was an event that some historians doubt and others believe. But it is known that, in 1613, she was kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall and taken to Jamestown as a hostage for English prisoners held by Powahtan.

The chief was enraged by this act, but Pochahatas's conversion to Christianity (she was baptized as "Rebecca") and her marriage in 1614 to John Rolfe calmed Powhatan and led to eight years of peace.

In 1613 Rolfe had performed a great service for Jamestown colony when he experimented with West Indies and Indian tobacco and produced a milder leaf that found a ready sale in England.

Tobacco eventually replaced the elusive gold as a source of wealth and brought great prosperity to Virginia.

In 1616 the governor of the colony. Sir Thomas Dale, saw an opportunity to promote the London Company of Virginia by taking Pocahontas and her husband to London, where the charm and dignity of this Indian "princess" won her great popularity at the court of King James I.

The Following year, however, Pocahontas suddenly became ill and died. At the age of about 22, shortly before she was to board a ship for the voyage back to Virginia.

The Rolfes had one son, Thomas, who went back to America and settled in Virginia.

(The Cultural and Legacy of an Indian Princess)

So everyone should know in Popular media of Pocahontas's Story because of the 1995 film by Disney and some of it has controversy because of historic inaccuracy, as you've seen me read from the card you can see the difference especially not just from me talking about it.

But of course that wasn't the only film or cultural representation of Pochahontas's story, there have been a lot of stage plays, art, a few books, a stamp and a lot more films; one is a very old short silent film from 1910 from Thanhouser Company which unfortunately is lost.

But for Legacy otherwise, like from my last history card, I talked about Sacajawea, she has locations named after her one being a 18th century Mill pond in the campus of the College of William & Mary called; Lake Matoaka which has been named after Pocahontas since the 1920s.

But as you known she had a son; Thomas Rolfe who went to resettle in his mother's homeland of Virgina, from the family tree, his wife Jane Poythress, had a daughter, Jane Rolfe, who was born as Varina, where what is now Henrico County, Virginia, on October 10, 1650, Jane all grown up marries Robert Bolling of present-day Prince George County, Virginia.

They had son John Bolling who at this point is the Grant-grandchild of Pocahontas he had six surviving children who had their own children and so forth.

John and Robert besides Pocahontas and her John are the only ones known to have actual pictures made of them, and this is all we have on Pocahontas's family tree from fourward on, and their have been held known people who claim to be descendants of her, which I found interesting and those people included, President Woodrow Wilson's wife, Edith Wilson, american actor; Glenn Strange who is known for playing the bartender on Gunsmoke; Sam Noonan, and he also the Frankenstein monster, and finally astronomer Percival Lowell, so believe what you want to believe if you think they are descendants of Pocahontas I guess, But I think I'll just leave everything off at here.

(Ending)

And that's all the Information on Pocahontas, that I'll talk about and read from the card, I hope you enjoyed with the interesting information I shared and found when researching, some I didn't know about Pocahontas especially media, like that 1910 silent film, (and some who may have been watching my videos for awhile, might would know about my love of silent films from videos I've shown).

Well I'm gonna leave to get started with other stuff I need to work on, and I'll see you next time when the next part of videos that I'm doing on Category about Indian Culture and so forth~bye.