THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240238
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
She was the favorite child of a powerful king and a precocious 12-year-old. Legend has it that she had no inhibitions while cartwheeling nude through the fort at Jamestown. Barely 13, history describes her as risking her life to save one of history's most well-known explorers, Captain John Smith.
She married a man of wealth and prestige apart from her race and through this union she helped prevent a war by offering food to starving British soldiers.
Once she arrived in the capital of her husband's nation, she was presented as ``royalty'' to his sovereign and won the hearts of his people as she had won those of her own.
With a reputation for kindness and beauty established firmly on both sides of the Atlantic, she prepared to return to her native Virginia, but a sudden illness delayed her sailing. She lies today at Gravesend, England, far from the Virginia she loved. But her legend strongly lives on in fact and fable.
As the 400th anniversary of her birth approaches next year, both the United States and England will give thanks for the life of Pocahontas, America's first heroine.
Her life was literally cultivated around the definition of our colonial custom of Thanksgiving. Whether it was first held in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in 1621 or much earlier with her people on the banks of the James at Berkley Plantation, it was partially because of the intercession of Pocahontas that peace reigned long enough between the first colonials and the powerful Powhatan confederation of Tidewater that allowed the colony at Jamestown to survive.
Of her life, this much we know.
Born in 1595, she was the daughter of Powhatan, ruler of some 30 tribes who controlled everything south of the Potomac River far beyond what is today the border of North Carolina and to the fall line of the James River. After several skirmishes between the English and Powhatans, including one devastating raid at Dumpling Island on what is today the Nansemond River, Pocahontas was captured in 1613 and held as a hostage in exchange for prisoners.
During her captivity, she was converted to Christianity and met John Rolfe, who that same year was is credited with having perfected the process of curing tobacco, thus giving Virginia a very valuable staple crop for export to England.
It had to be the most famous and controversial marriage in the colonial era when Powhatan gave his daughter in marriage to Rolfe. History does not measure the degree of romantic interest the two newlyweds had for each other, but there is no doubt that politics had a lot to do with the union as it was, after all, the Powhatan Indians who first introduced tobacco to the colonials who turned it into a cash crop for both sides to profit from.
Nothing makes peace between warring sides like a marriage between the children of both leaders, and in this case, the 1614 union of Pocahontas and Rolfe was more effective in maintaining peace than any treaty or peace pipe could have ever been.
After a crash course in courtly etiquette, and a radical change in wardrobe, which saw the Indian princess change from deerskin and turkey feathers to a high-collared, floor-length gown, Rolfe had his bride ready to storm the social barriers of aristocratic England.
But Pocahontas had lost nothing to the British on family lineage, as she could trace her family centuries further back in time than most of them. Thus after being given a very proper and stylish new name, ``Rebecca,'' she sailed at 21 for London, whereupon she became the toast of the town and the perfect public relations symbol for the fledgling Virginia Company.
Needless to say, her husband, justifiably proud, reaped many of the benefits as investors flocked to buy shares in tobacco futures. History argues that one major reason for the Virginia Company's success was because of the interest Pocahontas stirred among potential investors in being captivated by her charm than dabbling in the purely experimental fashion of tobacco.
History does not tell us exactly which malady of England finally took her, but suffice it to be said that Pocohantas longed for Virginia at the moment of her death in 1617.
It is a sad note that immediately afterwards, the fragile union between the Indians and the colonials began to deteriorate. Following her father's death in 1618, outbreaks recurred. Her widowed husband was killed in a 1622 attack.
However, because of the earlier intervention of Pocahontas, the colonials were able to hold on to their foothold in Virginia. Instead of seeking gold, they had found tobacco and corn from which farms and trading ports such as Yorktown, Hampton, Norfolk and Portsmouth sprung. By the middle of the 17th century, Williamsburg had become the Virginia cultural and financial center earlier envisioned by Rolfe and Pocahontas.
Last weekend a 4-foot-tall bronze statue of a youthful Pocahontas was unveiled at Gloucester Court House. Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton, among others, traveled across the country to reclaim that Indian ancestry. But the majority were school children from across the state, who came to catch a glimpse of America's first heroine, standing arms outstretched, against a background of autumn leaves, blue sky on a warm, Indian summer's day. ILLUSTRATION: Pocahontas had a reputation for kindness and beauty that was
firmly established on both sides of the Atlantic.
by CNB