Short History Of... - Pocahontas

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Pocahontas is probably the best known Native American in history. But the true story of her life has been eclipsed by a fictionalised version, played out as a romance between an intrepid English captain and a wild native princess. So what is known about the real Pocahontas, and her life before the arrival of the white colonisers? How did she spearhead a period of truce between her tribe and the Europeans? And did she truly have a say in her own fate, and the fate of her people?  This is a Short History of Pocahontas. Written by Lindsay Galvin. With thanks to Camilla Townsend, professor of history at Rutgers University, and author of Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma.  For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Sponsor: Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/shorthistory It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is May 1608, on the east coast of North America. The Powhatan Indians know these lands as Sanakomaka. They have lived here for thousands of years. Now a small group of this indigenous tribe pad through the spring forest towards a small peninsula they rarely visit. The Atlantic crashes in the distance, and the gush of the Powhatan River helps them navigate. crashes in the distance and the gush of the Powhatan River helps them navigate. But it is the shouts and jarring metallic sounds of the Jamestown Fort

which tell them they have reached their destination before they see it. The youngest member of this delegation is Amunute Matoaka. Aged around 11 years old, she is the daughter of Powhatan, powerful chief of the tribal confederacy of the same name. Standing in the dappled shadows of her ancestral forest, she and her group pause, scanning the palisade or log fence surrounding the Jamestown fort. Taking a decisive, deep breath, she starts to move towards it, but the warriors accompanying her hold her back. Frustrated, she waits as her father's advisor adjusts the two bunches of raccoon tails hung on a leather thong at her waist. He wants to ensure these valuable goods are the first things the foreigners see when she approaches. Apart from these and her leather moccasin shoes, she's almost naked, as is

traditional for Powhatan children. But she is ready. This is the most critical mission of her young life, and she's not afraid. Her hair at the front and sides was freshly shaved this morning, with sharpened muscle shells. Pausing only to draw a bundle of corn from a deerskin sack, she nods to the group, squares her shoulders, and approaches the fort alone. Though the village warriors remain hidden in the foliage as agreed, their fingers twitch on their weapons. They know how easily these situations can turn. If she needs them, they will be right here. She steps out into the clearing that surrounds the Jamestown settlement and walks towards the entrance, her chin high. There is a shout from inside. She's been seen. The sounds of labor stop, quickly replaced by gruff voices.

Two white men step into the fort entrance, muskets at their shoulders. The child swallows, knowing that other members of her tribe have been shot on sight for less than this trespass. She has seen the cruel wounds their metal weapons can leave. One of the men raises his gun, aiming high over her head. She hesitates, her resolve floundering for just a moment, until she reassures herself that this is the warning shot her father told her the foreigners would fire. A startled flock of birds suddenly lifts from the silent forest behind her. Tensing, she listens for the whistle of arrows, but there is nothing, and the English do not shoot again. Her father promised her that even they would not shoot a girl, and for now at least he seems to have been right.

Raccoon tails swinging, she continues to walk. The pre-teen girl passes unhindered through the entrance of the fort, ignoring the black mouths of the guns aimed at her. White men climb the inside of the palisade to aim out into the forest. They suspect she's not alone. Once she's inside their fortifications, she stops. Taking care not to cause offense by wrinkling her nose at the acrid smell of these foreigners, she glances at the men staring at her from behind their weapons. And they are all men.

No women, no children. At a sorry sight. They look ill, dirty, afraid. The girl clears her throat. Standing as tall as she can, she greets them with a confident good afternoon, just as she practiced. Her clear voice, speaking their own language, seems as shocking to the men as a volley of arrows. But now the girl, who is known affectionately by her people as Pocahontas, smiles and holds out her offering of corn. Pocahontas is probably the best-known Native American in history.

Just over a year after the arrival of the Jamestown settlers in Powhatan territory, she was sent to negotiate the release of captives, using her knowledge of English. But though this exchange was successful and peaceful, many others ended in violence and death. The true story of her life has been eclipsed by a fictionalized version, played out as a romance between an intrepid English captain and a wild native princess. This story was written and later embellished by John Smith, who cast himself as the hero of his own tale. But what is known about the real Pocahontas and her life before the arrival of the white colonizers?

What led the Powhatan chief to send his favorite daughter into such danger? And, despite her impact on the development of American colonization, did she truly have a say in her own fate and the fate of her people? I'm John Hopkins, and this is a short history of Pocahontas. In 1596, on the coastal plain of what is now known as Virginia, baby Emonuta Mitoaka is born. Her father is an important leader, and her mother one of his many wives. Camilla Townsend is a professor of history at Rutgers University and author of Pocahontas and the Poetan Dilemma. and author of Pocahontas and the Poetan Dilemma.

Pocahontas's father, Poetan, was the paramount chief over numerous tribes, and at some point he took her mother as what we might call a lesser wife or a concubine. Most likely, her people had been conquered in a military sense by the Poetans. But we can never be quite sure what her ethnic background was. Pocahontas's father was very talented at gaining power. He knew when to marry strategically with another tribe, when to attack. And over the years of his career, he parlayed the six tribes that he had inherited into a conglomeration of somewhere between 20 and 30 tribes. The conglomeration of tribes is known as the Poetan Confederacy, which in turn forms part of the Algonquian language grouping. Though Poetan children usually grow up with their mothers, and Monute Matoaka remains in her father's village when her mother dies shortly after her birth. By the time she is walking,

the chief's daughter has earned the name Pocahontas, meaning mischief or playful. She chases the other children around her village, a tidy cluster of dwellings called Yehaken. These sturdy Poetan houses are built from flexible saplings bent into large arches covered with woven mats, bark tiles or hides. A long house dominates the village, providing a shared space, the heart of the community. Outside, the spoils of hunts are skinned and roasted. Deer hides have to be scraped and softened for weeks before they are ready, but the result is a beautiful, durable, but very labor-intensive material to be used in clothing and shelters. Crops are grown, and at harvest time everyone

lends a hand. Women pound corn into flour to make ash cakes, small bread patties which are nestled near the base of the fire and covered with ash as they cook. Pocahontas's early years are spent in the company of her aunts, uncles, and cousins, not to mention her many siblings. One of 26 half-brothers and sisters spread over the Confederate tribes, her bright mind and vivacious temperament help her become her father's favorite. her bright mind and vivacious temperament help her become her father's favorite. The nickname earned early in childhood sticks. But though Powhatan is a formidable leader, status travels down the maternal line,

so Pocahontas herself is just like everyone else. Pocahontas may have been the daughter of a high chief, but that does not mean that she was treated like a, quote, princess in our Western sense of the word. This was a face-to-face society. Everybody knew the chief and the chief knew everybody and everybody worked. So the fact that she came from an important line does not mean that she sat around and gave orders. She would have joined all the other women working in the fields. They were farmers. They grew the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash. And at certain other seasons of the year, they would have helped the men with the game

that they hunted. At certain other seasons of the year, they would have helped the men with the fishing work that they did. Everybody worked all the time. And she, Pocahontas, would have been no exception. all the time, and she, Pocahontas, would have been no exception. Life is demanding, but the poet and Indians appreciate their limited leisure time. Every occasion, from births to funerals, is marked with ceremony, song, and dancing. Voices are accompanied by the lilt of reed flutes and percussion from gourds and turtland seashells.

Their music regularly rings through the forest, alongside the crackle of the nightly communal fire. But this isn't a wholly peaceful land. War and violence frequently break out between tribes. Even within the Powhatan Confederacy, the politics are complex and the peace fragile. It's the world outside of their territory, the politics are complex and the peace fragile. It's the world outside of their territory, though, which will prove the biggest threat to their way of life.

In April 1607, three boats arrive carrying the hundred men of the Jamestown expedition from England. They are not the first white immigrants. By this time the Powhatan have had contact with many western ships who cruise the coast looking for places to replenish water or trade for food. But no one has ever stayed. Until now. This time the English cleared the vegetation to make way for a settlement. Funded by the state-sponsored Virginia Company, they're here by order of King James I of England himself to create a permanent colony.

The settlers choose the peninsula due to its coastal aspect, thinking the proximity of the river will be useful. Watching from the forest, the indigenous people are bewildered at the colonizers' choice of camp. There is a good reason they've never lived in this area themselves. They know the white men will find the land swampy, the tidal river brackish, and the insect population pitiless. The newcomers are undeterred. The mangrove trees are butchered into planks and palisade fencing is erected. A well is dug, releasing a sulfurous stench from the lower layers of marshy soil.

The Powhatan realize the English really do plan to stay. And, though the location they have chosen may be poor quality and uninhabited, it has been part of indigenous territory for thousands of years. As the settlement grows, the news spreads quickly across the entire tribe. Theirs is a proud nation of deeply territorial warriors. Soon, first contact is established, but things don't get off on the best of terms. The very first interactions were violent. That is, when half the English went up the river looking to explore a bit, the other half, being fewer in number at this point, were rendered vulnerable.

day, was to attack. Even if later one intended to establish trade relations, one first needs to make the point that this is our home and we are in charge. So they did the usual. What they learned, though, is what many indigenous people learned, and that was that they were in a military sense no match for Renaissance Europe. The Europeans could shoot from crossbows aboard ship. They could send fiery arrows into indigenous villages. They could spray lead shot, grape shot, it's called, you know, bits of metal that they put in the small cannons on board ship and wound dozens of people. And only maybe one European would be wounded in the little skirmish. So the indigenous learned at that point that it was probably better to establish relations and trade. The first trade missions are carried out by Powhatan warriors, but without success.

Violence breaks out, and prisoners are taken on both sides. The chief realizes different tactics are required, and both sides can see it's in their interests to be able to communicate with one another. A boy named Thomas Savage swaps places with an indigenous boy soon after the colonizers arrive. Each child lives with the other's people in order to learn the language and teach it to others. Thanks to this earlier exchange, the sharp-minded daughter of the chief becomes fluent in English. So in 1608, it's Pocahontas who walks, unarmed and unaccompanied, into the Jamestown fort, securing the release of her tribespeople imprisoned there.

Her value as an interpreter is cemented on that day, a role that will shape her life and the future of her people. By the time of Pocahontas's first venture into the Jamestown Fort, the English are severely malnourished. They haven't had time to grow crops. Constant skirmishes with the indigenous tribes make it difficult even to shoot ducks or fish without catching an arrow themselves. The colonizers had banked on being paid tributes by the Powhatan. They expected compliance and regular contributions of food in exchange for simple technology and trade of low-value metal goods. After all, that's the model the Spanish

used in their colonization of South America. But here, the strategy is deeply flawed. Their demands are not only unreasonable, but impossible. The Powhatan are semi-nomadic. Theirs is not a cash crop system. They simply don't have the excess food to feed the settlers, as well as their own people, even if they wanted to. Their agricultural sites shift, allowing soil to replenish and keeping harvests bountiful. The colonizers take the supplies by force. In the face of burned villages and vicious raids, Powhatan orders his warriors to shoot any thieves on sight.

The newcomers are isolated in their makeshift fort. Soon the Jamestown settlers become desperate. Many of them die and conditions are so grim that some resort to cannibalism. One day, a young captain literally draws the short straw and sets off for far-flung villages which have not yet been raided. This soldier is John Smith, and it is now that he enters Pocahontas' story. John Smith, and it is now that he enters Pocahontas' story. If he had not been chosen for this mission, Pocahontas may not have become part of Western world history,

framed forever by the dominant culture, rather than the oral testimonies of her tribe. When a Powhatan hunting party finds Captain Smith and his compatriots tracking across their land, all are killed except him. Smith is held captive and paraded around various villages before being brought before Paramount Chief Powhatan. It is in her father's village that the fiction of Pocahontas' relationship with John Smith begins. Smith's book, General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, is not published until 16 years later, in 1624. In it, he describes a striking teenage princess who rescues him at the moment tribal warriors are about to ritually cave in his skull with rocks.

According to his account, Pocahontas shields the young soldier's head with her own in the nick of time before, inevitably, they fall in love. Most of us, most scholars think he said it to sell books because he was in fact writing a book at that time. This was a paragraph of that book. It was also apparently a very popular motif in medieval literature. If a girl loved a guy enough to die for him, then she really loved him. So he had reason to think that this would sell popcorn. It's quite interesting that in the report that he sent back to England after he was freed a few months later in 1608. He said nothing about anything like this. So there's a high chance that it simply didn't happen at all, that nothing even remotely resembling that event ever occurred. They wouldn't have tried to kill him. Why would they take him

to about a dozen villages and eventually bring him home if their plan was to kill him? Why would they take him to about a dozen villages and eventually bring him home if their plan was to kill him? Indeed, if a ceremony takes place at all, the chief's daughter, who's still a child, is not there. But there is truth in the fact that they meet. Pocahontas's translation skills enable John Smith to make assurances that the English will halt their violent demands for food. He sends home letters at the time, describing a young Indian girl who helps teach him Algonquian. But in reality, these few lessons from a bright and curious child surrounded by her family

is the extent of John Smith and Pocahontas' relationship. Soon, Smith is released in an exchange for Powhatan prisoners. Back at the Jamestown fort, he suffers an accidental gunpowder injury and sails back to England. Any promises he made of peaceful and reasonable trade are soon broken. The colonizers steal food and burn more villages. And this time, Chief Powhatan shows no mercy. Tired of the constant attacks on his people, he orders his warriors to kill any white man on sight.

The Jamestown colony limps on in tatters. The would-be settlers succumb not only to starvation, but to dysentery from the poor quality drinking water. not only to starvation but to dysentery from the poor quality drinking water. They find temporary relief when ships arrive from England to deliver supplies, but no escape. Sailors are unwilling to take news of failure back to the King of England, so the colony cannot be seen to collapse. No one is leaving. With the Jamestown colonizers now too weak to pose a continuing threat, the Powhatan continue as they have for generations.

In her mid-teens, Pocahontas is considered ready for marriage. We know the name of the man she married. It was Kokoom. This was later written down in one of the English records. We don't know much about him except that he was a war captain, a leading warrior, and this makes sense. She wouldn't have married a chief because she was the daughter of a very unimportant wife, a lesser wife, probably actually a prisoner wife, but she would have married a successful warrior because she was also the daughter of Powhatan, the high chief. She most certainly would have chosen her spouse. There were some arranged marriages, but again, only between people who were high born on both

sides. So some of her half sisters by more important mothers were married off to chiefs in symbolic ceremonies. But a relatively ordinary daughter would have chosen her own spouse, as the vast majority of Native American girls did. They would have been married in a ceremony that involved white beads, wampum beads, beads made of what we might call mother of pearl, the inside of shells, and they would have gone on to live as relative equals. and they would have gone on to live as relative equals. Gone is the naked girl with her shaved head. Pocahontas has grown her hair out and now wears the one-shoulder tunics or aprons favored by the adult women of the tribe.

The deer hide is pierced with brightly dyed porcupine quills to create decorative designs and falls in pliable folds with fringed edges. Three years pass and no record is left of Pocahontas and Cacoam ever having children, or anything else about her marriage. Some native oral histories suggest she may have a daughter, but sources are conflicted. If it's true, it seems she was not raised by her mother. As for Kokoom, he soon disappears from records. Maybe he dies, but divorce is possible too. It was perfectly acceptable for people to get divorced within her culture. If the marriage wasn't working, you didn't have to stay married. It wouldn't work for either party. It wouldn't work for the village as a whole.

So whether it was a tragic story of loss or a mutual decision to part, years later when Pocahontas married an Englishman, there was definitely no native husband in the picture. In 1613, Pocahontas turned 17 years old and no longer has the domestic tasks of a wife. Still her father's favorite, she is now a trusted and experienced envoy, often making visits to other villages to discuss trade and relations. The failing Jamestown colony has been little threat in these years,

but the English remain determined to colonize what they call the New World. Ships of fresh settlers arrive from England, armed with a new tactic for getting what they want from the locals. And the daughter of the chief is the perfect target. Now, in her late teens, she visits a village at the furthest northern boundary of Powhatan territory to trade a consignment of goods. But though she's acting as her father's representative, out here she doesn't have his protection. It is the 13th of April, 1613. Two women and a man move through the trees towards the sandy bay that marks one

boundary of their village. The man, Iopasus, is the brother of the village chief. He's accompanied by his wife and Pocahontas. The couple have persuaded her to come with them to see the imposing English ship currently anchored in their natural harbor. As the forest floor gives way to sand under their feet, Pocahontas pauses, wary. She has seen these ships before, though it's many years ago now, the memory of the Jamestown Settlers' arrival and the bloodshed it brought still haunts her. But her companion links her arm in hers and they walk on across the beach to the shoreline. Iopassus' wife is fascinated by the ship. She demands to go aboard to see

what it is like inside and pleads with her husband to let her go. When he refuses, she loudly bursts into tears. By this time, the commotion on shore has been noticed on the deck of the ship, and a rowing boat is launched. Iopasus relents, saying he will only allow his distraught wife to go aboard the foreign ship if Pocahontas accompanies her. Watching as the small boat draws ever nearer, Pocahontas tries to refuse. But the woman won't take no for an answer. As the vessel scrapes onto dry land, Pocahontas eventually agrees. Suspiciously, she takes the hand of one of the white men and climbs in. On board the ship, the two women are shown around the dingy cabins by a bulky man with bushy facial hair. Another, uncomfortable-looking man introduces himself as the captain.

He invites them to join the ship's officers and their wives to eat. Pocahontas is not surprised. It is the custom of her own tribe to offer food to visitors. Their wine is sour, and the meat past its best, boiled in water. Cooked to mush, strange vegetables fall apart in her mouth, but Pocahontas forces them down, copying the way the English use their metal tools to cut and spear their food. When she speaks to the company in English, they seem delighted, their cheeks growing rosy with the wine. After the meal, Pocahontas expects to leave, but darkness has fallen and she is persuaded to stay the night. A bed has been made for her in a small windowless cabin, next door to the woman who accompanied her.

But the next morning, she awakes to find the door locked. She bangs her fist against the wood, then against the cabin wall, hoping to alert her companion. Finally, someone hears. The English captain with the bushy beard stands in the doorway. Two soldiers flank him. One holds a rope. Pocahontas realizes immediately that she has been tricked. As she curses Iopasus and his wife and whatever reward they have received for their duplicity, the Englishmen merely watch her, unmoved. The boat lurches. They are setting sail.

Pocahontas looks again at the rope, at the three tall men. One of them steps forwards, but she looks away, her shoulders slumped. There will be no need to bind her, she tells them. Though Pocahontas can barely have known it, the tribe she had been staying with had little choice but to betray her. With the English ship's cannons trained on their village, they reasoned it was better to offend their high chief than make an enemy of these foreigners. Back in England, King James I had demanded the newest expedition try the technique that had worked for the Spanish conquistadors.

the newest expedition try the technique that had worked for the Spanish conquistadors. Kidnapping high-profile hostages might just force the belligerent chief Powhatan into a permanent truce. Pocahontas does not attempt escape. She waits for word from her father. In her culture, being captured by an enemy is a familiar fate for any woman or child. Being captured by an enemy is a familiar fate for any woman or child. All Native American women before the arrival of Europeans understood that warfare was a constant and that it was dangerous. It was dangerous to their menfolk who might die, and it was dangerous to them, because if their side lost, they stood a good chance of being taken prisoner. This had probably happened to Pocahontas' own mother, in fact.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone to imagine that this meant it was no big deal. Of course it was a horrible experience for them. They lived through it, they adapted, they survived, they went on with their lives. But I wouldn't want anyone to imagine that it wasn't traumatic, that it wasn't difficult for them. Of course it was. The captive Pocahontas is taken to the Jamestown Fort, where, as a native princess, she is treated with some respect. The arrival of Argyle's ship, full of healthy and enthusiastic settlers, breathes new life into the failing colony. and enthusiastic settlers breathes new life into the failing colony. In the care of a Protestant priest and his household, Pocahontas endures a barrage of religious teachings. The colonizer has always argued that they bring the one true God to the

unsaved native population. This is their defense for forcing unwanted trade, for stealing indigenous land. Willing converts prove that they have a legitimate claim, wiping their consciences clean. Because who wouldn't want to be saved? But Pocahontas stubbornly resists this conversion. lists this conversion. During her captivity, Pocahontas is visited often by one of the new settlers in particular. John Rolfe is the 27-year-old son of a Norfolk landowner, widowed on arrival at Jamestown. By early 1614, Rolfe declares himself in love with Pocahontas. He writes to the settlement governor, expressing his passionate desire to marry her. Chief Powhatan has not successfully negotiated her release. In fact, he has refused to return the weapons his warriors stole during many English raids in exchange for his daughter.

daughter. Maybe he's confident that Pocahontas, with her resilience, resourcefulness, and excellent English, will be more useful on the inside, gathering knowledge for the tribe. Whatever his reasoning, Pocahontas reaches what she likely sees as the inevitable conclusion to her capture. She prepares to become a prisoner wife. a prisoner wife. Three days before her wedding, she converts to Christianity. The Powhatan tribe worship a hierarchy of gods and spirits, and what the English see as conversion simply means she adds the Christian deity to the pantheon she already pays tribute to. Even in marriage, Pocahontas knows she is very much still a captive.

Life as a colonist's wife will give her more status and freedom than she had as a high-born prisoner, and any peace created by this bond will be to the benefit of her people. But it is certainly no conventional love match. There was no sense of falling in love or any sense that a marriage would be between two companions who would just look at each other with stars in their eyes for the rest of their lives. That idea did not exist among the poet. And it doesn't mean that they didn't love each other. Some of the men loved their women partners very much and vice versa. But there was no sense of falling in love, of being smitten, certainly not with one's captors. The idea that she would have been wildly in love with someone who had taken her prisoner is literally laughable.

of humor. We know this from something that her English husband later wrote, so I think if she heard people talk about how much she had been wildly in love with one of her English captors, she would have guffawed. On the 5th of April, 1614, at around age 18, Pocahontas weds John Rolfe. The Powhatan chief's daughter is propelled back into married life, this time under her newly baptized name of Rebecca Rolfe. She moves to his plantation, where he builds them a modest farmhouse. The young wife has Powhatan companions, likely to be indentured servants provided by her father. The Rolfe's alliance does herald a new period of peace between the Powhatan Indians and the Jamestown colony, later coined as the Peace of Pocahontas by white historians.

Pocahontas soon discovers her expected role is rather different to what it was in her first marriage. She had never been expected to obey Kakoam. They were companions, both equally valuable parts of a harmonious whole. But in 17th century European tradition, the husband is unquestioned head of the household. Anything other than a wife's obedience is considered ungodly, and divorce is not an option. Pocahontas soon challenges the limits of her new position. an option. Pocahontas soon challenges the limits of her new position. Later, during his marriage, Rolf wrote a very brief account of his life with Pocahontas and with the other indigenous people who lived there on the farm with them. And he complained. He said that he had tried to teach them better, but how did he put it? They do run

headlong, yea, with joy into the very arms of the devil, meaning they continue to laugh at jokes that he thought were dreadful. They continue to behave in ways that he thought by Christian standards were dreadful. She was clearly not listening to him or at least refusing to intercede with the other indigenous people and tell them what to do and how to do it and how to think. And most galling of all to him, not only did they continue to do what they wanted to do, but with blithe hearts, unworried about it. His frustration was palpable. And that tells us something about what went on on that farm during the years of their marriage. But he still seemed quite happy.

In that paragraph that he wrote about their lives, he seemed quite satisfied. So it makes sense to me to think that she probably was relatively content. She had done what her father asked. She was doing her people some good. She was a curious, interesting, smart young woman, and she undoubtedly was learning a lot about other language, other cultures, other religion. Her husband seems to have been content, and why would he have been if she were miserable? We have no reason to think that he was a sadist. Far from it. His letter seems to have been full of love and warmth. So we have reason to believe that the marriage was happy enough by the standards that

she herself would have applied. On the 30th of January, 1615, ten months after her wedding, Pocahontas bears a healthy son, Thomas Rolfe. The mixed-race child is a symbol of the delicate truce between the Powhatan tribe and the settlers. Thanks to the wisdom of Pocahontas and her indigenous companions, the plantation itself is a success. A combination of their region-specific agricultural knowledge and the European tools brought by the settlers help Rolf to become the first to grow a healthy cash crop of tobacco. In the absence of the cooperation of this indigenous woman, tobacco may not have been a success. Without it, we may have had a very different America than the one we know today.

But the Rolfe family's stable pastoral life is not to be enjoyed for long. When baby Thomas is one year old, the Royal Virginia Company, who sponsored John Rolfe's initial voyage to Jamestown, send for him. It is requested that he return immediately, with his indigenous wife and son, to London. Inevitably, word has leaked back to England about the hardships here. Rumors of illness, shortages, and the hostility of the indigenous tribes has dissuaded many Englishmen from seeking their fortunes in Virginia. But what if the natives can be shown as clever, friendly, and open to religious conversion? The Virginia Company will attract more immigrants, and England can grow her colonies.

The powerful London elite have heard of Pocahontas and her assimilation into the European lifestyle, how her marriage has improved relations with the Powhatan. King James I himself expresses a sincere desire to meet her. It is likely that such a request is less an invitation and more of a demand, leaving the small family little say in whether they cross the Atlantic. And so, after months at sea, on June 12, 1616, they dock at Plymouth, England. Pocahontas is immediately summoned to society functions thrown in her honor. She is paraded from one occasion to the next to satisfy the curiosity of the English aristocracy. Anything associated with Virginia and the conquering of colonies

is currently highly fashionable, with Londoners flocking to see the newest artifacts. is currently highly fashionable, with Londoners flocking to see the newest artifacts. An indigenous princess in the flesh is no different. It is around now that the only image of Pocahontas created in her lifetime originates. A drawing was made and then an engraving was made from that drawing. And there we see her in the stiff collar with the upright beaver hat and like corsets,

this kind of straight, almost oar that was placed against the breasts, etc. She looks mighty uncomfortable, and I imagine that would have been quite difficult to get used to. By now, news has spread that her father, Chief Powhatan, has real influence over the success of the American colonial endeavor. It is in everyone's interest to treat her with courtesy, especially as she conforms with her immaculate dress and manners. In the autumn of 1616, word reaches Pocahontas that Captain John Smith, the man she met briefly when she was a child, is not in fact dead as she had believed, and he would like to meet with her. Perhaps she recalls Smith's assurances to her father

that the English would stop their raids, or the pain her people suffered when they were broken, or the Powhatan warriors who were carried into her village riddled with gunshots. She did see John Smith again and she screamed and yelled in front of various people, that's how we know about this, that he was a liar, that he had lied to her people, to her father.

You Englishmen do lie much, I believe is a quotation, because he had promised that they would not take much land, that this would be a useful alliance, etc. And her people had found it to be far more problematic than that. In his writings, John Smith later fictionalizes her reaction to his betrayal of her people.

He reframes it as a spurned lover burning with fury and passion to find her paramour alive after believing he was dead. His version certainly puts him in a better light than the truth. At the end of the Christmas season, Pocahontas receives a huge honor. She is invited to attend the Twelfth Night Mask at the court of King James. It is the 6th of January, 1617. Inside a velvet-lined carriage, Pocahontas, or Rebecca as she is now known, twists and

fidgets in her elegant gown. Her husband, John, gives her a sympathetic smile, acknowledging her discomfort. As she is jolted over cobbles, her unforgiving bodice slices into her ribs. It is a relief when the cart jerks to a halt and she can stand and breathe. But as the door opens and the crisp night air floods the carriage, she is reminded it is never wise to take too deep a breath in London. Even inside the walls of Whitehall Palace, the stench stings her nostrils. Horse dung, rot, and the ever-present reek of the filthy River Thames. She raises her scented handkerchief to her nose as John has taught her his plight,

but she still struggles to conceal her disgust. The footman offers his hand. Reluctantly, she takes it, for the sake of custom, even though it is merely a few steps down, and her husband is right at her side. Other carriages pull up around them, in the huge, square courtyard, and smartly dressed ladies and gentlemen

call out to each other in recognition. A swirling, freezing fog surrounds them all, pinching at her skin, but she continues to breathe through the handkerchief. She and Mr. Rolf are met by a servant, dressed in what she has learned is the king's livery. Pocahontas follows his brocaded back through an archway decorated with foliage and berries.

The smooth-tiled floor of the palace corridor is slippery underfoot. Her heeled slippers offer neither warmth nor grip, but merely force her to walk in dainty steps, which she supposes is the point of them. Briefly, she longs for her soft moccasins. She knows John's hand will hover in the air behind her should she slip, although he does not touch her. Double doors are flung open with a deep bow from the servant. The steamy heat of bodies hits her. The unnatural colors of the crowd's costumes dazzle. Jewels glitter in the lights of hundreds of candles.

Chairs are laid out in a half circle around a central platform. Now John does touch the base of her back. He murmurs in her ear, nodding to where King James and Queen Anne are seated on throne-like chairs at the front and centre of the audience. He then steps back. Pocahontas is to lead the way. It is she, after all, that everyone wants to see. The king stands when he catches sight of her. Stopping right in front of him,

she makes a low curtsy, her skirts sweeping the floor. She raises her eyes and greets him in her now perfect English. After a few moments, Pocahontas and John Rolfe are shown to seats flatteringly close to the king. The curtain whooshes open to another burst of music. There are drums, tumbling acrobats, men dressed as women, women as boys, boys as beasts. Before they set out this evening, John found it difficult to describe to her what was meant by a twelfth night mask.

Now Pocahontas understands why. But knowing she is expected by these arrogant colonizers to be charmed and awed by the opulence, she plays along. After all, she's nothing if not adept at diplomacy. One rather snide Englishman wrote in his diary, having seen her at a gala event, oh, I'm sure she loves it here and never wants to return to her own people. This was quoted out of context by numerous historians over the years, and it became an accepted fact that she loved London

and never wanted to return to her own people. But he had never even exchanged two words with her. We have no reason to think that was true. On the contrary, what little bit we do know about her reaction would indicate that she was rather sad and rather angry. Before they returned to Virginia, the family tour England, promoting the colony. Pocahontas sits little Thomas on her lap and points out the fields through the window of their carriage. But the cities are brash and dirty, the country houses sprawling and cold,

far bigger than any family could ever need. She looks at her son, his soft body trussed in stiff clothing, and remembers her village childhood. Compared to a Powhatan settlement and her Virginia plantation, this England is devoid of clean, simple work, of music and community. During her time in London, Pocahontas does make an impact in favor of her people when the opportunity arises, showing her customary spirit. There is also a record in correspondence of a Christian missionary society asking her and her husband to accept some money in exchange for missionary work that they would do amongst the indigenous. And the answer that she sent back was that they would accept the money,

but only if it was understood to be a thank you gift for conversions that had already occurred and not a payment or promise for more conversions to come. A few short months after her attendance at the Twelfth Night Mask, Pocahontas, John and Thomas set sail for Virginia. It is highly likely that Pocahontas asks to leave England with haste, as they take the last possible boat before the trade winds prevent passage. It makes the fact that they never make it beyond the Thames into open sea particularly

poignant. Pocahontas may have already been unwell, because her health dramatically deteriorates while on board. She cannot tolerate the stench of the salt-warped timbers, the stuffy cabin, and constant creaking. Too ill to continue with the voyage, she is brought ashore. Too ill to continue with the voyage, she is brought ashore. Perhaps she is suffering from smallpox, influenza, or the bloody flux, the common name for hemorrhagic dysentery, or any one of the million microbes she has no natural resistance to. Whatever her affliction, she eventually succumbs at an inn in Gravesend, Kent,

near the east coast of England, with her husband and son at her side. She is just 21 years old. Pocahontas is the second young wife John Rolfe has lost. He continues to Virginia alone, leaving their sickly young son Thomas with relatives in England. Word reaches Chief Powhatan of his favorite daughter's death. Though he expresses sadness, he is pleased that she bore him a grandson, albeit one he will never meet. Just one year later, he too passes away. The indigenous people who return with John Rolfe describe to their new chief the sheer size of Renaissance London's population. They report incredible numbers of soldiers, guns, and cannons.

This seems to convince the new Powhatan chief that if he doesn't dominate the colonists now, he won't have another chance. If more of London arrive from across the sea, they will be overcome. A great uprising follows in which one quarter of the English settlers are killed, but this last-ditch effort ultimately fails. With the fragile Peace of Pocahontas officially in the past, the English send more settlers, and in relatively short order, the Native Americans are forced to and in relatively short order, the Native Americans are forced to flee upriver, further into the woods. Within two generations, Paramount Chief Powhatan's confederacy of tribes no longer exists.

This is just the beginning of the European subjugation of the indigenous population of America. By the end of the 19th century, millions of lives will be lost. Years after the death of his mother, Pocahontas' son Thomas returns to Virginia in 1635. He attempts to find and meet his Powhatan family, but by this time relations between white settlers and Native Americans are outlawed. Though his mother's legacy was the creation of a bridge between these two disparate peoples,

in the end her son is banned from making contact with his own family. But it would be wrong to see that as proof of her failure as a diplomat, an ambassador, and a peacemaker. Pocahontas should be remembered for the extraordinary courage she showed, the efforts that she made on behalf of her people. Her father asked her to work as an intermediary, and she did the best she could. She did make peace for her people for a couple of years. She couldn't hold back the tide of history, but she did mute the violence to some extent. And she did help keep memory of their culture alive for posterity.

The European imperial moment was at hand, and that was going to unfold no matter what she did. But we can say that it stands as proof of the courage, the savvy, smart behavior that the indigenous showed, the extraordinary efforts that they made to try to keep their people and culture alive. And some blood descendants of Pocahontas' half-brothers and sisters are still among us on this earth, and some knowledge of the culture does survive. So we have to take the long view, as Native Americans often do, and look at her contributions in that way. Next time on Short History of, the Noiser team are having a week off, so we thought we'd rerun one of our favourite episodes, a short history of the Christmas Truce.

Shortly after Christmas, there was a short period of a few days where a lot of people just didn't believe it. And it was only really when the first photographs were published of the enemies standing together in no man's land. That's when suddenly people thought, oh, hang on, this is actually happening. That's next time on Short History Of.