Pocahontas

Pocahontas was an Indigenous woman from the Powhatan paramount chiefdom in present-day Virginia, known for her association with the early English colony at Jamestown.

Pocahontas was an Indigenous woman from the Powhatan paramount chiefdom in present-day Virginia, known for her association with the early English colony at Jamestown. Her life has been heavily mythologized in later accounts, but historical sources show she was born around 1596, was baptized as Rebecca, married John Rolfe, travelled to England, and died there in 1617.

Early life

Pocahontas was born around 1596 in the area now known as Virginia and was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a confederacy of Indigenous groups in the Tidewater region. The name Pocahontas was a childhood nickname; sources identify her birth name as Amonute and also record the name Matoaka.

Contact with English settlers

She became associated with the English colony at Jamestown during the early 1600s. Later accounts around her relationship with John Smith became central to legend, but historians do not treat this as a marriage or confirmed romance. Historical accounts do not support the popular claim that she married Captain John Smith.

Marriage and travel to England

She was captured by English colonists in 1613, later baptized as Rebecca, and married tobacco planter John Rolfe in 1614. She travelled to England with Rolfe and died in Gravesend in 1617 after falling ill. In England, she was presented as an example of colonial success and cross-cultural conversion.

Death and burial

Pocahontas became ill in 1617 while preparing to return to Virginia and died in Gravesend, England. She was buried at St. George's Church in Gravesend; the exact grave location is uncertain.