Will the real Pocahontas please stand up?

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2004)

My mother used to say I was descended from the real Pocahontas's tribe, but I never saw any evidence to that effect. Nevertheless, it interested me in looking up her story. The real story is that she was a hostage of the white settlers, assigned to Capt. Smith when she was a teenager captured from her father's house. Since this was a well-known Indian custom (and ancient practice among humans), there was little surprise or action proceeding from this kidnapping, and she was a hostage to peace between the Powhatans and the Europeans. It is unknown what Smith's and Pocahontas's feelings were about each other. Smith took her, still a teenager, to England dressed in English clothing of the time (and most of the true portrayals of Pocahontas are in English clothing). Smith did marry her, and Pocahontas bore him a child. She died of (I think) tuberculosis before she and her family could sail back to the US, at the age of 19, having been displayed at the English court as a reformed savage.