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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You missed in History class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And Sarah and

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Speaker 1: I saw something about the newest Disney princess, the Frog Princess,

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Speaker 1: the other day, and it got us thinking about our favorites.

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Speaker 1: Mine is Bell from Beauty and the Beast because she

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Speaker 1: reads Mine is snow White because I think I kind

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Speaker 1: of look like her. And we realized there are a

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Speaker 1: few Disney princesses who rarely make it onto the Disney

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Speaker 1: Princess branded item, the montage of all the Princesses, right,

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Speaker 1: and one of them is Pocahontas. Yeah, she is certainly

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Speaker 1: a princess. She's got a Disney movie, but she never

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Speaker 1: makes it onto the T shirts and I don't know

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Speaker 1: the cake plates stuff like that. So you know what,

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Speaker 1: We're going to give Pocahona some attention today. That's not

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Speaker 1: her real name, by the way, it's a nickname for

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Speaker 1: her that means little wanton or mischievous one, so a

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Speaker 1: bit of a spicy little nickname. Her real name was Matawaca,

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Speaker 1: and later she went by a Christian name Rebecca. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Pocahonta's nickname was apparently act. She was really bright

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Speaker 1: and curious and would get into trouble with little pranks

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Speaker 1: and such. And she was born around fifteen nineties six

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Speaker 1: near present day Jamestown, which is why she comes up

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Speaker 1: so much in American history because, as well learn, the

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Speaker 1: Jamestown settlement is quite a story. Yeah. So Pocahontas was

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Speaker 1: the daughter of Powhatan, who was the chief of the

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Speaker 1: Powetan Empire, which is no small matter. It consisted of

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Speaker 1: twenty eight tribes in the Tidewater region and at the

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Speaker 1: peak of his power, it's estimated that he ruled between

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Speaker 1: thirteen thousand and thirty four thousand people. And pocahon Is childhood.

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Speaker 1: One of the little details you gave that I liked

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Speaker 1: was that she used to do cartwheels with the boys

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Speaker 1: of Jamestown, and like all the girls in her tribe,

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Speaker 1: she went with out clothing until puberty. Yeah. So Palatans,

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Speaker 1: people who were known by the colonists Palatin Indians, lived

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Speaker 1: in villages of a few hundred inhabitants, and they would

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Speaker 1: have cleared lands around this. They didn't have domestic animals

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Speaker 1: except for dogs. So they didn't really have fences except

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Speaker 1: for defensive palaceades, which that proves to be an important fact,

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Speaker 1: the fact that they don't have fences. UM. And the

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Speaker 1: Jamestown site, the settlers were looking for gold. Uh that's

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Speaker 1: really which you know, because you can find gold anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Apparently guess what you can't Um. The Virginia Company sent

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Speaker 1: them on this gold hunting mission, sort of thinking that

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Speaker 1: they would have their stores and everything would be great

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Speaker 1: and they could spend most of their free time looking

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Speaker 1: for gold. It really doesn't happen. But when they first arrived,

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Speaker 1: they didn't really want trouble with the local Native of Americans,

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Speaker 1: and so they positioned Jamestown in an undesirable location. And

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Speaker 1: part of this is just they didn't quite know what

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Speaker 1: they were doing. But Jamestown is on a clear an

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Speaker 1: area of cleared land, something the Native Americans had probably

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Speaker 1: cleared a generation or two before, but it wasn't really

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Speaker 1: good land. It's on a part of the James River

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Speaker 1: that didn't have year round freshwater, and they're really bad mosquito,

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Speaker 1: So it's an undesirable place to start out. So Jamestown

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Speaker 1: and John Smith come into Pocahona's life when she's about

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Speaker 1: ten or eleven. They settled there around sixteen oh seven.

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Speaker 1: And this is where the history starts to turn into

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Speaker 1: just stories, because what you probably did learn in your

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Speaker 1: history client Pokehontas, this lovely Native American girl rescued this

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Speaker 1: guy John Smith yep. In sixteen twenty four, John Smith

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Speaker 1: wrote this bizarre third person account of how when he

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Speaker 1: was exploring the Chickahominy River in a canoe with two

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Speaker 1: other people and two Indian guides, he was intercepted by

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Speaker 1: Powhatan's powerful brother, and pocahon Is draped herself over him

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Speaker 1: and saved him from the Native Americans who were going

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Speaker 1: to kill him. At least this is the story I learned.

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Speaker 1: He was going to have his head beaten in by

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Speaker 1: a stone. And a lot of people have learned that

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Speaker 1: myth in school or potentially embellished story, but there's not

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of real basis to it. Now they're

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Speaker 1: in the two camps. The people who think it was

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Speaker 1: a bit of misinterpretation and yeah, maybe he didn't quite

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Speaker 1: understand the ceremony that was going on, and then people

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Speaker 1: who think he completely made it up and in the

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Speaker 1: misinterpretation camp Um. There's one theory that's kind of based

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Speaker 1: on tenuous evidence that Smith was actually in an adoption

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Speaker 1: Sarah Money. So what he thought was an execution He's

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Speaker 1: going to have his head hit by rocks was kind

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Speaker 1: of hazing. Actually a ritualized death and a symbolic rebirth.

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Speaker 1: And Pocahontas, who's an important person, she's the chief, the

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Speaker 1: head chief's daughter, uh is in the position of converting him,

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Speaker 1: making him a brother of the tribe. And for someone

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Speaker 1: of Smith's stature, it's more likely that execution would have

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Speaker 1: involved playing, burning and dismemberment, not just a knock on

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Speaker 1: the head. So I guess Smith's lucky on that account.

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Speaker 1: The other camp is the John Smith completely entirely made

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Speaker 1: up this story camp, which is the one that Sarah

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Speaker 1: and I are and I believe because his accounts in

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Speaker 1: general are fairly unreliable. He likes to set himself up

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Speaker 1: as the hero who doesn't and this prototype of the

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Speaker 1: frontiersman to write, and his story wasn't published until seven

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Speaker 1: years after her death, after she's already famous, so that

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Speaker 1: would have, you know, made it bit more sellable. Well,

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Speaker 1: And he gave an account of the capture only a

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Speaker 1: few months after it happened in something that wasn't for publication,

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Speaker 1: and there was no mention of Pocahontas. So you know,

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Speaker 1: he describes how he's on the search expedition and now

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Speaker 1: he's captured by the men, but Pocahonas doesn't come into

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Speaker 1: the story. But one of Smith's favorite motise in his

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Speaker 1: writing too is being rescued by a lady and um

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Speaker 1: the idea of a princess saving a hero is also

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Speaker 1: a stable of medieval romance literature, which Smith would have

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Speaker 1: been familiar with, so he had an idea of how

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Speaker 1: he would like himself seen by the public. He wrote

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Speaker 1: on her famous coattails with that story, he wrote a

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Speaker 1: pretty convincing story if it's made it all the way

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Speaker 1: to today. Well. And the other story that people try

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Speaker 1: to say is that there was a relationship between John

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Speaker 1: Smith and pokeconta is a romantic relationship. This is good

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Speaker 1: for the movies or something. I even remember when I

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Speaker 1: was a little kid learning this story, wondering who this

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Speaker 1: John Rolf guy is who comes in later? I always thought,

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Speaker 1: you know, how did he Pocahonus and John Smith go together?

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Speaker 1: Really supposed to end up together. But they don't. As

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Speaker 1: you'll see, they were really just friendly, cautious allies, and

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Speaker 1: she was very helpful to him. She was a little girl.

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Speaker 1: We should say that too. It's only ten or eleven

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Speaker 1: years old when they meet, um, but yeah, they are allies.

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Speaker 1: She uh takes the trouble to learn his language and

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Speaker 1: he learns hers, and she becomes a frequent visitor in

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Speaker 1: Jamestown over the years. She'll bring food from her father

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Speaker 1: sometimes and she even if the earlier account is not true,

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Speaker 1: she does save John Smith's life later in January of

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Speaker 1: sixteen o nine, when she warns him about an ambush.

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Speaker 1: And then we've got a sad little interlude where Smith

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Speaker 1: returns to England in late sixteen o nine and relationships

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Speaker 1: between the settlers and Powhattan just go down the tubes,

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Speaker 1: and the English tell Pocahonas that he died, and so

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Speaker 1: she doesn't come back for four years. She just disappears

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Speaker 1: from the life of Jamestown. And this is a pretty

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Speaker 1: dark time in general for Jamestown. Um the at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of sixteen ten, what's known as the starving time,

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Speaker 1: when the settlers just ran out of food and they

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Speaker 1: ate dogs and cats, rats, mice, the starch from their

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Speaker 1: Elizabethan roughs they could make into this crude porridge, and

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Speaker 1: the more grizzly details they dug up people who had

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Speaker 1: died to eat them. And the famous maccab tale of Jamestown,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure most of us know is the man who

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Speaker 1: murdered his pregnant wife and eat her, or at least

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Speaker 1: started to prepare her for eating. But Pocons comes back

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Speaker 1: into the lives of the settlers in sixteen thirteen when

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Speaker 1: Sir Samuel Argall takes her prisoner in exchange for English

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Speaker 1: prisoners and weapons and tools that have been stolen from

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Speaker 1: the settlers. So that's an awfully nice way to repay

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Speaker 1: someone who's been to help kidnap her, uh it. Sir

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Speaker 1: Samuel Argyll had conspired with Japazus, the chief of the

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Speaker 1: Patawamic tribe, and Palatine releases some of the prisoners, but

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Speaker 1: he won't negotiate further than that. We probably because they're

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Speaker 1: not very trustworthy. Yeah, he's probably seeing them as criminals. Um.

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Speaker 1: And so Pocahonas gets taken from Jamestown to another settlement

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Speaker 1: which she's treated like a princess, and she's converted to

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Speaker 1: Christianity and given her new name, baptized as Rebecca. And

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Speaker 1: then this is where her real love comes in, not

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Speaker 1: John Smith, John Rawl in April of sixteen fourteen, who

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Speaker 1: is the man she married with the approval of the

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Speaker 1: Virginia Governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and also her father, Chief Patan.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like we should give a little background

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Speaker 1: on John Rolfe because his arrival in Virginia is so miraculous.

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Speaker 1: He he he tries to come to Jamestown in sixteen and nine.

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Speaker 1: It's probably good that he didn't make it because as

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Speaker 1: we all know now sixteen ten we have the starving time.

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Speaker 1: But instead on his voyage, the ship is damaged by

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Speaker 1: a hurricane and everyone in the ship is working to

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Speaker 1: hall water to keep it afloat, but they run aground

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Speaker 1: in the Bermudez, and he and the survivors recover on

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Speaker 1: the island, catching fish, wild hogs, and sea turtles better

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Speaker 1: than the cats, rats, and dogs. Spend nine months on

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Speaker 1: the island and they build two small ships out of

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Speaker 1: the wreckage and managed to sail to Jamestown sixteen ten.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's better than Robinson Crusoe, isn't it. It

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Speaker 1: really is impressed Bermuda. At least you're missing a starving time. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So they arrive in the spring of sixteen ten. You

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Speaker 1: can imagine these poor shipwrecked people are probably hoping they're

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Speaker 1: gonna come to a nice, cozy little jamestown with everything

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Speaker 1: set up and happy. So welcomes with open arms. But

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Speaker 1: of course it is right after the starving time, so

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Speaker 1: instead they find a bunch of skeletal survivors are really

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Speaker 1: not that many, Only sixty of them have made it

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Speaker 1: through the winter, and they're all pretty disheartened. So the

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Speaker 1: shipwreck survivors pack up the starving time survivors and they're

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Speaker 1: going to wait until the tides are right and sail

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Speaker 1: for Newfoundland and try to hitch your ride back to England.

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Speaker 1: And while they're waiting for the for the right conditions,

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Speaker 1: a convoy of ships comes in this time with a

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty new colonists and supplies. I imagine they

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Speaker 1: thought it was a mirage. Probably at the time. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty well. And imagine what if they had left too,

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Speaker 1: What if they had just gotten out and tried to

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Speaker 1: hitch to New England. I have no idea it would

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Speaker 1: look like for the new or the new colonists coming,

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Speaker 1: it would look like another Roanoke or something. So this

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Speaker 1: is your history Americans. But going back to Pocohonas, after

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Speaker 1: their marriage, peace between US settlers and the Indians lasted

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Speaker 1: for all of Powatan's lifetime. Yeah, it was a non

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Speaker 1: aggression treaty. It was a real royal marriage in a sense.

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Speaker 1: So Pocahontas and her husband have a child, Um Thomas,

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Speaker 1: and in the spring of sixteen sixteen, when their son

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Speaker 1: is one year old, the family heads back to England

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Speaker 1: um with a group of other Native Americans and Governor Dale,

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Speaker 1: and Rolf is selling tobacco. He's done quite well for

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Speaker 1: himself since Funnally settling in Jamestown was a lucky guy.

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Speaker 1: He was. He he smoked tobacco. It was a popular

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Speaker 1: fad at the time. And while the Native Americans also

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Speaker 1: smoked tobacco, they they had a different strain that wasn't

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Speaker 1: as popular with the Europeans or the colonists. So Rolf

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Speaker 1: actually imports a special strain of tobacco from the Caribbean

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Speaker 1: and Central America and he grows this and cultivates it

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Speaker 1: in Virginia and becomes a very respectable early Virginia planter

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Speaker 1: making that money. So so when his family is returning

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Speaker 1: to England, they're loaded down with tobacco. But it's also

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Speaker 1: kind of a pr visit. The Virginia Company uses Pocahona's

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Speaker 1: visit to publicize the colony and say, oh, you know,

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Speaker 1: look how well Jamestown is doing, and to win support

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Speaker 1: from investors in James the First because they would like

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Speaker 1: to send more settlers over there and perhaps developed that

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Speaker 1: possibly very lucrative tobacco. So she, yeah, she entertains at

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Speaker 1: royal events, and she's sort of a poster girl for

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Speaker 1: the quick good Indian um, just to make everyone more

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Speaker 1: comfortable with the idea of colonization. Not savages, these are

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Speaker 1: Indians will come and help us in our journey to

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Speaker 1: colonize America. But Pocahontas falls ill in the English climate

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Speaker 1: preparing for her return, and she dies in graves and

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Speaker 1: at about age twenty one, off to burke elysis and pneumonia,

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Speaker 1: and she's buried there. And her husband had been told

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Speaker 1: that their son was also too ill to survive the

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Speaker 1: voyage back to America, so he's left in England. Um

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Speaker 1: John Rolfe returns to Virginia um continues his his life

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Speaker 1: as a successful planter. Their son Thomas, stays in England

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Speaker 1: until about sixteen thirty five, and he too eventually goes

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Speaker 1: to Virginia and becomes a tobacco planter. But it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until about a century after John Smith's death that people

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Speaker 1: started to get really interested in Pokehonus and the Pocontas myth,

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Speaker 1: because she's become a really important story and how America

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Speaker 1: came to be. You know, something you learned about when

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Speaker 1: you're studying the Pilgrims in the First Thanksgiving, and Pocahontas

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Speaker 1: always falls in there. And even later in the nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: Southern writers started focusing on her story as a way

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Speaker 1: to promote Virginia's earlier origins. That Virginia and Jamestown were

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Speaker 1: older than New England, so you know, take that Massachusetts.

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Speaker 1: But one of the questions that historians have thought about

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Speaker 1: is why did Jamestown prevail over Platon. Peloton was pretty

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Speaker 1: ambivalent towards the settlers. He it really seemed that he

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Speaker 1: thought they were too incompetent to make it, and that

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Speaker 1: eventually they would die off, they would starve. They would

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Speaker 1: fail for a while there, which looked like was gonna

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's yeah, you can see why someone would

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Speaker 1: think that. But I guess what he wasn't reckoning on

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Speaker 1: is that there was an inexhaustible supply of colonists coming over,

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Speaker 1: and they gradually started to uh just change the land

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Speaker 1: so much that the Native Americans couldn't carry out their

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Speaker 1: old way of living. They were fencing in property to

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Speaker 1: raise domestic animals, they were growing tobacco, which tobacco is

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Speaker 1: really hard on the soil. Um, the Native Americans would

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Speaker 1: would grow crops for a while and then let the

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Speaker 1: land lie fallow, and even honey bees. The Europeans brought

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Speaker 1: honey bees with them, um, not really quite understanding the

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Speaker 1: pollination effects. But no one seems to understand that when

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Speaker 1: they introduced species to different places, as as you will find.

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Speaker 1: I remember reading a lot about them with Australia, when

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Speaker 1: they decided they would like to, you know, bring all

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Speaker 1: their nice English animals over, didn't really work out. This

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Speaker 1: is kind of weird. John Rolf actually might have been

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Speaker 1: responsible for bringing earthworms to America because in his tobacco

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Speaker 1: Latin's ships they had to throw over ballast which was

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Speaker 1: mostly soil and rocks from England or Europe, and the

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Speaker 1: earthworms get in there and changed the landscape of North America.

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Speaker 1: I like that. I like the detail about the worm

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Speaker 1: and as a complete sidebar here. Um, the Virginia Algonquin

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Speaker 1: language is extinct. No one has known to have spoken

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Speaker 1: it since seventy five, and there wasn't a writing system,

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Speaker 1: so we've lost the grammar and the vocabulary, but a

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Speaker 1: few words have made it. There are two contemporary accounts

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Speaker 1: of Virginia Algonquin words, Captain Smith and the Jamestown Colonies.

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Speaker 1: Secretary William Starchy gave us words like raccoon, terrapin, tomahawk,

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Speaker 1: and mox sins, which I'm actually wearing my minnetonkas today

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Speaker 1: in honor of Pocahontas it was meant to be. But

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Speaker 1: the language revitalization of Virginia Algonquin is in full swing. Um.

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Speaker 1: There were fifteen original Algonquin languages. Only two are still

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Speaker 1: spoken naturally today, but several Algonquin communities in the East

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Speaker 1: have efforts to return the languages to daily use, which,

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Speaker 1: as you know, English majors and people who are interested

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Speaker 1: in language in general, I think it's pretty cool. Well. Plus,

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Speaker 1: if the words are anything like moccasin and terrapin, I

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Speaker 1: mean I would like one of the more words like

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Speaker 1: that please. So, if you'd like to learn about another

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Speaker 1: early settlement, you can go to our homepage at ww

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Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com and look up Roanoke.

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Speaker 1: And if you have any more Native American history you'd

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Speaker 1: like to hear about, please email us at History podcast

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Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. For more on this

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Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Let us know what you think. Send an email to

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Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com, and be sure

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Speaker 1: to check out the stuff you missed in History Class

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Speaker 1: blog on the how stuff works dot com home page