The real story of Pocahontas: why an Indian princess converted to Christianity and left for England

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Everybody knows Princess Pocahontas as a Disney cartoon character who saved the life of her lover, a European settler John Smith … In fact, the girl was about 10 years old when the Indians wanted to kill the Englishman, and there was no romantic story between them. But she did indeed marry a European. Her life ended at 22, and the grave was thousands of kilometers from her homeland. What was the untold story of Pocahontas?

Very little information has survived about the girl's life, and some of them are very contradictory. No reliable images have survived. In fact, Pocahontas is not a name, but a nickname that meant "naughty girl." The girl's real name was Matoaka ("white feather"), it was hidden from strangers. She was born about 1595 in an Indian tribe and was the beloved daughter of the chief.

In 1607, English settlers appeared on the lands of the Indian tribes. John Smith was really going to be executed for the murder of an Indian, but the girl begged her father to save his life. A year later, she helped the British, revealing to them her father's plans to liquidate the colony. After being wounded, John Smith had to return to his homeland. Perhaps Pocahontas was really sad after the breakup, but this did not last long.

In 1613, she was kidnapped by the colonists in order to obtain a ransom. According to one version - she was treated with respect, according to another - she was raped in captivity. All this time, she mediated in negotiations with the Indians, and soon married the tobacco planter John Rolf. For the sake of her husband, she even converted to Christianity, since then her name was Rebecca Rolf. This marriage allowed the British to make peace with the Indians for 8 years. And two years later, Pocahontas went to England with her husband. It remains to be wondered who she really was - a heroine or a traitor in relation to her tribe.

In England she was accepted as the "Empress of Virginia", the girl changed her image, learned secular manners. But the happiness did not last long - a year later, Pocahontas died. Death came either from pneumonia, or from tuberculosis, or from smallpox. According to one version, the British poisoned the girl before she was going to return to her homeland, so that she could not warn the Indians about the intentions of the British to destroy their settlements.

The true story of Pocahontas makes you wonder about the untold realities of that time, which the American Indian eloquently spoke about: “What is the true story of Pocahontas? White boys come to a new land, deceive an Indian chief, kill 90% of men and rape all women. What is Disney doing? They translate this tragedy, the genocide of my people, into a love story with a raccoon singing. I wonder if you, a white man, would make a love story about Auschwitz, where a skinny prisoner falls in love with a guard, with a raccoon singing and a dancing swastika? I was ashamed that my daughter had seen this cartoon."

Perhaps, it is precisely because of the stereotyped decisions and too free interpretation of history that today there are so many attempts to "expose" Disney, to make his characters more lifelike, or at least to throw off the masks of ideal beauties and heroes from them: disney characters in the apocalyptic world or 8 Disney heroines with hairstyles close to reality