by Kevin Grieves

Created on: May 01, 2009

In 1596 an Algonquian princess with the formal names of Matoaka and
Amonute was born in an area known as Tenakomakah (modern day Virginia). She was the daughter of Wahunsunacawh who was the Chief or Powhatan of a confederation of tribes in that area, later known as the Powhatan Empire, and one of his many wives. Due to her carefree antics she received the nickname Pocahontas meaning 'playful one' and became her father's favourite daughter despite her lowly status within the family.

In May 1607 English colonists began to settle in the area. In December that same year, a group of Powhatan hunters captured a leading colonist called John Smith. According to his later account, they took him to one of their main settlements called Werowocomoco, where he was laid across the stone about to be beaten to death. The young Pocahontas threw herself across him and persuaded her father to spare his life. It is entirely possible that this was a symbolic act of adoption or a small part in a ritualised peace treaty. Either way, a bond developed between the young girl and the Englishman. She frequently visited the Jamestown colony, where she lived up to her nickname, turning naked cartwheels and larking about with the local boys. Smith later told of the time she risked her life to provide the colonists with food and by warning them of an impending attack planned by her father.

In 1609 Smith's return to England for medical care following an explosion and the resumption of the armed conflict between the English and the Native Americans resulted in an end to the contact between Pocahontas and the colonists. Not long later she may have married a Powhatan captain called Kocoum. Little is known of this union but it appears to have ended before 1613. By that time she was living in Passapatanzy, a village of the Patawomecks who traded with the Powhatans. According to Smith, she had been in the care of the Patawomeck chief, Japazaws, for a couple of years. He accepted a bribe from a group of colonists led by Captain Samuel Argall to trick Pocahontas onto their ship where they took her captive. The colonists intention was to trade her for a peace treaty and the English prisoners, weapons and tools held by her tribe.

Even though the Powhatans returned the prisoners and some of the equipment they had captured, the colonists were not satisfied and a year-long negotiation began. In that time Pocahontas remained captive in the town of Henricus where she fell under the influence of Reverend Alexander

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