11/7/2022 0 Comments Who was pocahontas![]() ![]() So Rolfe marrying Pocahontas was the most important wedding in American history. Even when in Jamestown, he found the townspeople starving and resorting to cannibalism. Sailing to the Americas with a new charter organised by the Virginia Company, he survived the storm of the century, the hurricane which inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest, but was nonetheless marooned with Sara on a deserted island for almost 10 months, enduring murder and mutiny and the death of his new-born baby. That Rolfe came to have arrived in the new colony was a miracle. John Rolfe was a widower – his wife Sara dying shortly after arriving in Jamestown in May 1610. She converted to Christianity, took the name Rebecca, and was married to plantation owner John Rolfe, from Heacham in Norfolk, on Apin the town’s wooden church by Reverend Richard Bucke.Īt the time of the marriage, Pocahontas, which means 'Little Mischief' or 'the naughty one', was a 16-year-old widow, her first husband Kocoum, having been killed when she taken captive. She has entered history through her association with the early Jamestown settlers and marriage to a Norfolk man – the first inter-racial church wedding in the Americas and the marriage that saved the colony.ĭuring hostilities, Pocahontas (a nickname, her real name was Matoaka) was taken prisoner in Jamestown. Her only child, Thomas Rolfe, was educated in England, and he returned to Virginia to leave many descendants bearing the name Rolfe.Native American Pocahontas (c1596-1617) was the daughter of Powhatan, also known as Wahunsenacah, who controlled much of what is now Virginia. She was buried in the chancel of Gravesend Church. Early in 1617 Pocahontas and her party prepared to return to Virginia, but at Gravesend she developed a case of smallpox and died. Pocahontas was received as a princess, entertained by the bishop of London, and presented to King James I and Queen Anne. Rolfe, Pocahontas, her brother-in-law Tomocomo, and several Indian girls sailed to England. In 1616 the Virginia Company wished Pocahontas to visit England, thinking that it would aid the company in securing investments from British financiers. Both Native Americans and Englishmen apparently considered this a bond between them, and it brought 8 years of peaceful relations in Virginia. Powhatan also consented, and the marriage took place in Jamestown in June 1614 in the Anglican church. Dale readily agreed in order to win the friendship of the Indians, although Pocahontas may have been married earlier to a chief named Kocoum. ![]() ![]() John Rolfe, a gentleman at Jamestown, fell in love with her and asked Dale for permission to marry her. After instruction in the Christian religion, she was baptized and took the name Rebecca. There she was treated with courtesy by the governor, Sir Thomas Dale, who was touched by her gentility and intelligence. Samuel Argall of the vessel Treasurer took her prisoner as security for Englishmen in Indian hands and for tools and supplies which the Indians had stolen. In 1613, while Pocahontas was visiting the village of the Potomac Indians, Capt. Relations between the Native Americans and the colonists were not smooth in Virginia, however. The salvation of John Smith was the salvation of Jamestown colony. John Smith, who had been captured by Powhatan's warriors and was to be clubbed to death. In 1608, according to a story of debated authenticity, she saved the life of Capt. In 1607 English colonists sent by the Virginia Company founded Jamestown. Her father was Powhatan, chief of a confederation of Algonquian tribes that bore his name. As a child, she was called Pocahontas, meaning "playful one, " and the name stuck. Her marriage to an English settler brought 8 years of peace between the Indians and the British. 1595-1617) was the daughter of a Native American chief in Virginia at the time of its colonization by the British. ![]()
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