What is known about

Pocahontas and the Powhatan

People? Examine firsthand and secondhand accounts.

What information do they reveal?

How can we use this information to make inferences and draw conclusions about the life of Pocahontas and the daily lives of the Powhatan people?

This evidence comes from 1607. This was the year the first permanent English settlement was established in North America, known as Jamestown.

These first settlers - and those who sent them - were extremely interested in finding out about the area to see how they could benefit from settling this region.

These settlers began to explore and they soon encountered the Native people.

Read the text on the next page to find out what this excerpt from one of the settler’s diary reveals.

“They goe all naked save their privityes, yet in coole weather they weare deare skinns, with the hayre on loose: some have leather stockinges…, & sandalls on their feet,

their hayre is black generally, which they weare long on the left side, tyed vp on a knott, about which knott the kinges and best among them have a kind of Coronett of deares hayre coloured redd, some have chaines of long linckt

copper about their neckesm and some chaines of pearle, the common sort stick long fethers in this knott, I found not a

grey eye among them all. their skynn is tawny not so borne, but with dying and paynting them selues, in which they - delight greatly. The wemen are like the men, onely this

difference; their hayre - groweth long al over their heads save clipt - somewhat short afore, these do all the labour

and the men hunt and goe at their plesure.”

The typed diary excerpt above contains the spelling errors and grammar contained in the original text.

Is the diary entry a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the diary entry?

What information is revealed?

This evidence is an image from the 1995 Disney production Pocahontas.

Is it a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image?

What information is revealed?

How does the Disney Pocahontas image compare to the diary entry of one of the early Jamestown settlers?

How do you determine the reliability of information?

This evidence, created by John Smith, was published in his work ‘The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles’ in 1624.

According to John Smith’s writings it is an image of Pocahontas saving his life.

The engraving was created by John Smith based on his time in Virginia.

Is it a firsthand or secondhand account? What is the focus of the image? What information is revealed?

This evidence is an engraving of Pocahontas.It was created in the 1800s.

Is it a firsthand or secondhand account? What is the focus of the image? What information is revealed?

How does this 1800s engraving compare to the engraving by John Smith?

How do you determine the reliability of information?

The first meeting of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith is a legendary story, romanticized

[glamorized, exaggerated] by Smith in his later writings. He was leading an expedition of the

new Virginia colonists in December 1607 when he was taken captive by some Indians.

Turn to the next page to read more.

This evidence was created and published by Historic Jamestowne, a jointly administered organization which works to preserve the original site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, Jamestown.

Is the paragraph a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the paragraph? What information is revealed?

Over many days he was marched through woods and swamps to the official residence of Powhatan at Werowocomoco, which was only 12 miles from Jamestown as the crow flies. According to Smith, he was first welcomed by the great chief and offered a feast.

Then he was grabbed and forced to stretch out on two large, flat stones. Indians stood over him with clubs as though ready to beat him to death if ordered. Suddenly a little Indian girl rushed in and took Smith's "head in her arms and laid her owne upon his to save him from death." The girl, Pocahontas, then pulled him to his feet.

Powhatan said that they were now friends, and he adopted Smith as his son, or a subordinate chief. Actually, this mock "execution and salvation" ceremony was traditional with the Indians, and if Smith's story is true, Pocahontas's actions were probably one part of a ritual.

How does the information provided in the paragraph influence your view of the evidence found in each representation of Pocahontas saving the life of John Smith?

The first meeting of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith is a legendary story, romanticized [glamorized, exaggerated] by Smith in his later writings.

He was leading an expedition of the new Virginia colonists in December 1607 when he was taken captive by some Indians….

This evidence, a diary excerpt, was written in 1607. This was the year that the first permanent English settlement was established in North America, known as Jamestown.

“some of his people led vs to their houses, showed vs the growing of their Corne & the maner of setting it, gave us

Tobacco, Wallnutes, mullberyes, strawberryes, and Respises. One shewed vs the herbe called in their tongue wisacan,

which they say heales poysoned woundes, it is like lyverwort of bloudwort. One gaue me a Roote wherewith they poisen

their Arrowes. they would shew vs any thing we Demaunded, and laboured very much by signes to make vs

understand their Languadg.”The typed diary excerpt above contains the spelling errors and grammar contained in the original text.

Is the diary entry a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the diary entry?

What information is revealed?

The evidence on the next page was created and published by Historic Jamestowne, a jointly administered organization which works to preserve the original site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, Jamestown.

Is the paragraph a firsthand or secondhand account? What is the focus of the paragraph? What information is revealed?

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay…While disease, famine, and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population, there were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements….

This color engraving was published in Captain John Smith's ‘The Generall Historie of Virginia’ in 1624. It represents an event that occurred in December of 1607. Colonist Captain John Smith was taken captive by the Powhatan Native Americans and bound to a tree to be shot. This occurred near the British settlement of Jamestown.

Is the image a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image?

What information is revealed?

How does the evidence provided in these artifacts compare?

How do you determine the reliability of information?

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay…While disease, famine, and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population, there were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements….

This engraved portrait of Pocahontas, created from life during her time in England, is the oldest work in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

Is the image a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image?

What information is revealed?

This representation of Pocahontas was created by Pierre Gustave Eugene Staal and printed in World-Noted

Women in 1858.

Is the image a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image?

What information is revealed?

How does the representation of Pocahontas created in 1856 compare to the representation created during her time in Europe?

How do you determine the reliability of information?

Is this paragraph a firsthand or secondhand account? What is the focus of the paragraph? What information is revealed?

“As the daughter of a "chief" or "king," the English eulogized Pocahontas as a "princess" even though her status in Algonquian society is unclear….Pocahontas was further romanticized and sentimentalized. In representations such as Pierre Gustave Eugene Staal's printed in World-Noted Women (1858), Pocahontas was portrayed as more Caucasian and Christian than Native American. And by rejecting her "barbarous" girlhood and embracing piety (goodness), …submission, and domesticity (home life) in Victorian children's stories, Pocahontas modeled feminine civility for daughters of the "new" middle class.”

-- by Miriam Forman-Brunell 2009

“As the daughter of a "chief" or "king," the English eulogized Pocahontas as a "princess" even though her status in

Algonquian society is unclear….Pocahontas was further

romanticized and sentimentalized. In representations such as Pierre Gustave Eugene Staal's printed in World-Noted

Women (1858), Pocahontas was portrayed as more Caucasian and

Christian than Native American. And by rejecting her "barbarous" girlhood and

embracing piety (goodness), …submission, and domesticity (home life)

in Victorian children's stories, Pocahontas modeled feminine civility

for daughters of the "new" middle class.”

-- by Miriam Forman-Brunell 2009 How does the information provided in the paragraph influence

your view of the evidence found in each representation of Pocahontas?

This map was created by John Smith. It was published in ‘The Generall Historie of Virginia’ in 1624.

Is it a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image? What information is revealed?

This Susquehannock warrior, detail from John Smith’s Map of Virginia, was engraved by William Hole in 1612.

Is it a firsthand or secondhand account?

What is the focus of the image? What information is revealed?

Based on the evidence you have gathered from the

artifacts, what inferences and conclusions can be drawn

about the life of Pocahontas and the daily lives of the

Powhatan people?

What are the similarities and differences among the information presented from the first and secondhand accounts?

Credits:

POCAHONTAS (1995). Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 17 Sep 2013. http://quest.eb.com/images/144_1480240

Pocahontas. Photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 17 Sep 2013. http://quest.eb.com/images/115_893822

King Powhatan Commands Captain Smith To Be Slain, 1624 (engraving) . engraving. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 17 Sep 2013. http://quest.eb.com/images/108_4086138

(frame) Pocahontas. Photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 17 Sep 2013. http://quest.eb.com/images/115_894349

"Pocahontas (Matoaka) 1595-1617 [Print]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #338, http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/338 (accessed September 18, 2013).

Portrait Gallery, University of Texas Libraries, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/portraits/index.php?img=313 (accessed November 2, 2009). Annotated by Miriam Forman-Brunell.

Map Of Virginia, Discovered And Described By Captain John Smith, 1606, Engraved By William Hole . Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 19 Sep 2013. http://quest.eb.com/images/108_273988