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The False Interpretation Of Pocahontas And The Powhatan Essay

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The False Interpretation of Pocahontas and the Powhatan Natives
Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma is a novel written by Camilla Townsend, which illustrates a well detailed perspective of the life of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan. It is often shown that Pocahontas 's story is misinterpreted, as many analyses of this subject are conducted by the speculations of various historical writings. To record, there is no single document by Pocahontas herself, so it is left for historians to rely on other people 's perspectives of the time. With the idea that most sources of this period would have come from rich, white men, these ideas would ultimately be biased in their views. In my opinion, I believe that the thesis regarding this book was to illustrate the true telling of Pocahontas and the effect of the English on the Natives residing in America during the 17th century. Specifically, I chose to analyze Chapter 3: First Contact, as Townsend was able to shed light upon the mythical idea of Pocahontas and demonstrate the plethora of inaccurate ideas portrayed by the settlers on the Native American culture. It is without doubt that there has been a prominent distinction between the Native Americans and the English settlers upon landing in Virginia in the early 1600s. With the prior ‘knowledge’ from previous pioneers in America, the colonist had viewed the Natives in a vilified manner as savages without proper means of civilization. These so called ‘heathens’ were said

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