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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Greetings everyone, Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: where we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.

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Speaker 1: Today is April five, nineteen. The day was April five,

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Speaker 1: sixteen fourteen. A Native American woman named mato Aka, better

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Speaker 1: known by her nickname Pocahontas, married Jamestown colonists John Rolfe.

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Speaker 1: Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief wahom Seneca also called Powhatan,

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Speaker 1: the paramount chief of the Powhatan chiefdom known as Senecomico.

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Speaker 1: The chiefdom included about thirty Algonquian speaking tribes and what

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Speaker 1: is now Tidewater, Virginia and Virginia's eastern shore. In May

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Speaker 1: sixteen o seven, English colonists founded Jamestown, the first permanent

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Speaker 1: English colony in North America. Pocahontas and Palatan didn't meet

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Speaker 1: any English colonists until late December of that year, when

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Speaker 1: Captain John Smith was captured by Palatin's brother and eventually

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Speaker 1: taken to Chief Powatin at where a Wacomco Poatin's capital.

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Speaker 1: The story goes that Pocahontas rescued him from his execution,

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Speaker 1: but that's likely not the truth back then, as it

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Speaker 1: still happens today, Pocahontas's power within the Palatin tradition was

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Speaker 1: often played up. Smith was given permission to leave where

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Speaker 1: a wacomco in sixtight. Smith became the president of Jamestown.

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Speaker 1: That same year, Pocahontas was part of a delegation that

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Speaker 1: went to Jamestown to negotiate the release of several Native

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Speaker 1: Americans who had been captured. On that trip and on

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Speaker 1: later envoys to Jamestown, Pocahontas was mainly a symbol of

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Speaker 1: Palatans trust and Smith. Pocahontas was pretty playful, and English

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Speaker 1: writer William Straitchy even described her doing cart wheels with

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Speaker 1: Inish boys in Jamestown. Relations between the English and the

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Speaker 1: tribes were okay. At first. Palatin sent food to the

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Speaker 1: colonists and the colonists traded with the Palatin people's but

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Speaker 1: by the winter of sixteen o eight relations had soured

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Speaker 1: as the English demanded more food that the tribes did

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Speaker 1: not have. The first Anglo Palatin War began, and Palatin

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Speaker 1: moved his capital west. Pocahontas was barred from visiting Jamestown,

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Speaker 1: though she did still have some interaction with the colonists,

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Speaker 1: and Smith left Virginia because of an injury in October

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Speaker 1: sixteen o nine, But Pocahontas, who would have been around

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Speaker 1: fourteen and sixteen o nine and sixteen ten, was getting older,

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Speaker 1: wearing the clothing of adults and getting tattoos. Pokehonta is

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Speaker 1: like other Palatin women, could choose to marry whom she wanted.

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Speaker 1: In sixteen ten, Pocahontas married a Native American man named Cocoon,

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Speaker 1: who was a commoner but also some sort of warrior.

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Speaker 1: It's not clear where they lived or if they had children,

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Speaker 1: but English documentation in Native oral history show that Powetan

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Speaker 1: was happy with Pocahontas's choice and stayed close to his

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Speaker 1: daughter after the marriage. But during this time, the colonists

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Speaker 1: were expanding beyond Jamestown. In sixteen thirteen, Captain Samuel Argall

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Speaker 1: found out Pocahontas was living with the pottawa Met tribes,

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Speaker 1: and with the help of the tribe, kidnapped her and

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Speaker 1: held her as ransom for the return of stolen weapons

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Speaker 1: and English captives. She was then taken to Jamestown and

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Speaker 1: probably Henrico, a nearby settlement. Accounts differ on how Pocahontas

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Speaker 1: was treated at this time. Some say she was treated well,

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Speaker 1: while others say she was raped. But it was during

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Speaker 1: this time when Pocahontas learned the English language, traditions, and religion,

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Speaker 1: and in sixteen fourteen she was baptized and given the

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Speaker 1: Christian name Rebecca. By the time an agreement was reached

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Speaker 1: for her release, Pocahontas had fallen in love with the

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Speaker 1: English colonist John Rolfe, who had introduced the tobacco crop

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Speaker 1: in Jamestown. Rolph asked Sir Thomas Dale, the Deputy governor

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Speaker 1: of Virginia, for permission to marry Pocahontas. In a letter

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Speaker 1: to Dale, rolf said that the marriage was not for

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Speaker 1: the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for quote the

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Speaker 1: good of this plantation, for the honor of our country,

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Speaker 1: for the glory of God, for my own salvation, and

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Speaker 1: for the converting to the true knowledge of God in

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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and unbelieving creature, namely Pocahontas. Palatan and Dale

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Speaker 1: agreed to the marriage and on our around April five,

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Speaker 1: six fourteen either Minister Alexander Whittaker or Richard Book performed

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Speaker 1: the ceremony. At that point, her first marriage ended, and

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Speaker 1: the couple had a son named Thomas. Although it's not

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Speaker 1: clear when, but pocahontas Is marriage Row brought about a

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Speaker 1: period of peace between the tribes and the colonists, as

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Speaker 1: Palatine called an end to the war. The Virginia Company

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Speaker 1: of London, which had funded the settling of Jamestown, saw

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Speaker 1: this unlikely pairing as a marketing opportunity and trotted the

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Speaker 1: couple out to England in sixteen sixteen. The English upper

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Speaker 1: class largely notated on her while she was there, as

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Speaker 1: her appearance was a spectacle to them, and she was

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Speaker 1: even presented at the court of King James the First.

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Speaker 1: But in March sixteen seventeen, when Pocahontas and John were

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Speaker 1: about to head back to Virginia, Pocahontas died, possibly of

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Speaker 1: an upper respiratory illness or dysent theory. Soon the piece

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Speaker 1: that their marriage had insided would deteriorate, and the Second

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Speaker 1: Anglo Palatine War began in sixteen twenty two. I'm Eves

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Speaker 1: jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. You can learn more about

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Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: T d i h C Podcast. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for listening, and I hope to see you again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for more tidbits of history