Pocahontas Thesis

It is said that there are many different versions to a story. There is one persons story, then there is an other person’s story, and then, there is the truth. “Our memories change each time they are recalled. What we recall is only a facsimile of things gone by.” Dobrin, Arthur. "Your Memory Isn't What You Think It Is." (online magazine). Psychology Today. July 16, 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/am-i-right/201307/your-memory-isnt-what-you-think-it-is. Every time a story is told, it changes. From Disney movies to books, to what we tell our friends and colleagues. Sometimes the different sides to the story challenge the

Many people believe the 1995 film, Pocahontas, to be the true story of a young Powhatan woman. However, the story lacks facts. Pocahontas isn’t even her real name. Matoaka, the real Pocahontas, faced mush more misery than the movie showed. Mataoka’s life in America, life in England, a comparison between the movie and real life, and how fictional portrayals of real people effect society today will show you that Disney’s inaccuracies could change history.

As young children we are often misled to believe that the stories and movies we are exposed to are presumably based on factual history, but are in reality myths, keeping the truthful, important, and fair facts hidden. Amonute is an accurate example of learning the real events that occurred in a person’s life while the typical myth of Pocahontas saved an Englishmen from being killed by her father. In the beginning of the book we are briefly introduced to Pocahontas, the Powhatan people and the English colonists. As the book continues we follow Pocahontas when she is kidnapped, her married life, and her trip to London where she got sick because of foreign illnesses and died. Camilla Townsends “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma” wants Pocahontas’ true story to unfold because she is worthy of respect for her bravery and sacrifice and because “everyone subverted her life to satisfy their own needs to believe that the Indians loved and admired them” (Townsend, pg. xi). I also believe that the author was trying to argue that even though the Englishmen believed that the Native Americans were uncivilized and lived like savages, that instead they were wise people.

Pocahontas was born in 1595, with the given name of Matoaka and later got the nickname Pocahontas. She has been known as the favorite daughter of the powerful Powhatan Chief but she is also famous in history for contributing greatly toward the survival of the Jamestown colony. When the English colonists settled in Jamestown in 1607, there became tension between the Colonists and the Powhatan Indians. During the 1600s, the leader of the Colonists, Captain John Smith was caught by the Powhatan’s men. It has been said that Pocahontas saved Smith’s life and has had great influence on early relationships between the colonists and Indians. During Pocahontas’s life, she has faced many tragedies but triumphs have also played a role in her time.

Deborah was raised in poverty. Her father got lost at sea and her mom had poor health so she sent her and her siblings to relatives. She was the oldest of three sisters and three brothers. When she was old enough she taught summer school and she weaved in the winter, she was highly skilled at weaving. She lived with the people she worked for.

Sacagawea was one of the two native Americans that went on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacagawea was 16 when she went on the expedition. She was only 20 when she died so she didn’t live that long. Imagine how early that would be today! Sacagawea has many nicknames such as Jamie and Julia. Sacagawea was kidnapped at age twelve by the Hidatsa Indians along with some other women, she must have been very scared. On the trip she had a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau when she was 16, he was born on February 11 in 1805. Lewis helped with the delivery of Jean. One way that this affected the trip is it shows that the travelers came in peace. Jean was like a big sign that said: We don’t want to fight! Sacagawea’s husband is Toussaint Charbonneau.

Pocahontas was captured by Samuel Argall and during her captivity she became pregnant. The father was a mystery, but she was supposed to be marrying me. We got married on April 5, 1614 and then her baby was born on January 30, 1615. We were blessed with thousands of acres of land from Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan. My wife, our baby, and I traveled to England on the ship, Treasurer, in 1616. Pocahontas was soon addressed by the name, Princess Pocahontas, because she was so widely respected. While in England, we visited Queen Anne and King James I. While in London, Pocahontas met John Smith who she thought was dead. We stayed and toured England for several months, and on our trip back home Pocahontas became very ill and died. I returned back to Virginia while Thomas, our son, stayed in England. I soon married the daughter of a colonist. Her name was Jane Pierce. Soon after we married, we had a daughter and named her Elizabeth. My house was on my tobacco plantation, and it was attacked by stupid Native Indians. I honestly don’t know why they hate me so much. It’s devastating. There, I was left stranded with no help, just lying in the grass. It’s my time to go…

[1] Disney’s Pocahontas has understandably received a lot of flak about the historically inaccurate story that is told about the legendary Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. There is a good reason for that. The movie does little that can be construed as historically accurate, yet Disney claims that was never their intent. Disney, in their previous movies, has been attacked for being racist and unsympathetic to racial minorities. Their answer was a movie whose sole purpose, as stated by Disney, was to promote racial tolerance. The question is, then can a movie promote racial tolerance when the issue is built on false history, history that if told accurately would depict the exact opposite?

Pocahontas was connected with English colonists through Captain John Smith. He arrived in Virginia on April 1607. John Smith was captured by a group of hunting men led by Powhatan’s relative while exploring

She was born in a Shoshone tribe. Her tribe was very poor though. They moved around a lot so they could never plant food. Even if they did plant food they would have moved away before the crops were fully grown and good to eat. So they had to rely on trade and hunting.

Another important person from this time period was Pocahontas born in 1596 to Chief Powhatan, leader of the Powhatan Empire.

John Smith's tales of the Indian princess, Pocahontas, have, over time, encouraged the evolution of a great American myth. According to this myth, which is common knowledge to most Americans, Pocahontas saved Smith from being killed by her father and his warriors and then fell in love with John Smith. Some versions of the myth popular among Americans include the marriage of Smith and Pocahontas. Although no one can be sure of exactly what happened almost four-hundred years ago, most historians agree that the myth is incorrect. Pocahontas did not save John Smith's life from "savages" and never showed any affection for him. The events of her life differ greatly from the myth Americans have created.

A quote from the website called (¨Pocahontas Leadership and Legacy¨), it is said that, ¨She had preferred to live with the English and kept her new found faith breaking barriers on religious freedoms.¨ This is a legacy of Pocahontas because her name meant ¨playful one¨ or ¨naughty child¨ and she always wanted adventure and exploration. As said in the website called (¨Pocahontas Leadership and Legacy¨), it says, ¨She, in her efforts broke down walls of religious freedoms, and interracial inequality all while changing the demographic of stereotypes early settlers had on native Americans. Which led to enriching our country financially, ethically, and socially directly affecting the prosperity of our county as we know it.¨ This is a legacy of Pocahontas because she wanted people to stop the fights and arguments to have peace. (¨Encyclopedia Virginia/Pocahontas¨) says, ¨¨In fact, she did not become a celebrity until the 1820s, when southerners sought a colonial heroine to compete with the story of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and so establish Virginia (more accurately) as the earlier of the two English colonies.¨ This is a legacy because it shows that at one point, people didn't know about Pocahontas and that it took awhile to find out about her. These are some of the legacies of

I believe that Pocahontas felt empowered and embraced her role as Englishman wife. During the early stages of her life, I like to think that she might have felt forced into the culture she was a slave of, she was ultimately captured and imprisoned by the English. It wasn’t until some time later when she met John Rolfe, and slowly began to fall in love with him, while starting to adopt the English Christian culture. In 1616 she and her husband sailed back to England with their child, there she was given the name Lady Rebecca (her Christian name) that was sanctioned in the English court. It wasn’t only a year later that Lady Rebecca (Pocahontas) fell ill with European diseases and smallpox later to be pronounced dead. Pocahontas did not have

Pocahontas. Americans know her as the beautiful, Indian woman who fell in love with the white settler John Smith and then threw her body upon the poor white captive to protect him from being brutally executed by her own savage tribe. The magical world of Walt Disney came out with their own movie version several years ago portraying Pocahontas as a tan, sexy Barbie doll figure and John Smith as a blond-haired, blue-eyed muscular Ken doll. Although Disney attempts to instill racial tolerance, inter-racial friendship, and nonviolent resolutions in Pocahontas, they contribute to the inaccurate Indian woman stereotype that has evolved from such stories. While it can be argued that Disney has