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Pocahontas Essay

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Pocahontas For more than two centuries since the death of the Indian princess Pocahontas, legends and stories of romance have been imbedded into our minds, but her dramatic life was more important to the creation of a segment of American history than legend.

Around the year of 1595, Pocahontas was born to chief Powhatan, the powerful chief of a federation of Algonquian Indian tribes who lived in the tidewater region of Virginia (Sahlman). She was but one of the many children of Powhatan, who ruled more than 25 tribes. Her real name was Matoaka, a name used only within the tribe (Sahlman). Her tribe, the Powhatans, believed that harm would come to them if outsiders learned of their tribal name (Jamestown). Therefore, she went by …show more content…

Pocahontas converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca (Microsoft, Pocahontas). She then married Rolfe in April of 1614 and from that time forward was known as Rebecca Rolfe (Microsoft, Pocahontas).

It is uncertain as to why Pocahontas was wed to John Rolfe. The Powhatan Nation of today profess that she agreed to marry Rolfe, who took a “special interest” in the young hostage, as a condition of her release (Sahlman). Other sources claim that the two fell madly in love and then married. Some disagree because it was rumored that Pocahontas was to be married to an Indian named Kocoum and therefore, could not marry again. Also, she would only have been 17 at the time and would not have had any interest in the 28 year-old Rolfe.

The union of Rolfe and Pocahontas did have some benefits, however. It brought peace between the natives and settlers that would last for eight years (Jamestown). A general peace and spirit of goodwill between the two groups resulted from this marriage.

Shortly after Rolfe and Pocahontas married, they had a son whom they named Thomas (Sahlman). He was the only child born to them and would later become an important member of the Jamestown society.

Sir Thomas Dale, the leader of a new settlement in Virginia, made an important voyage to England to seek financial support for the Virginia Company (Sahlman). To insure publicity, he

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