Pocahontas (c.1595-March 1617) was the daughter of the North American Indian Chief Powhatan. In 1607, she befriended the English settlers of the Jamestown Colony. Captain John Smith recorded her intervention which prevented her father from executing him.
In 1613, the Indian Princess was baptized into the Christian faith, taking the name Rebekah, by the Reverend Richard Bucke, second chaplain to the Virginia Colony. In 1614, she married John Rolfe, the council member of the Jamestown Settlement noted for having introduced tobacco cultivation in 1612. John Rolfe, a widower ten years her senior, asked the Jamestown officials for permission to marry her:
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John and Pocahontas moved to England, where she was received as royalty. They had a son named Thomas, (whose descendants include statesmen, educators and ministers, the most notable being John Randolph of Roanoke and Edith Bolling Galt, who married President Woodrow Wilson in 1915).
In 1617, Pocahontas contracted smallpox in England and died. Her last words were:
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The original painting of Pocahontas is in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. The inscription painted on the portrait reads:
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:.
1595PO001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Pocahontas, 1614, John Rolfe asked the Jamestown officials for permission to marry Pocahontas. Kevin Dale Miller, The Real Pocahontas (Carol Streams, IL: The Christian Reader, a bimonthly publication of Christianity Today, Inc., July/August 1995), p. 39. Historic Marker within reconstructed interior of original church, Jamestown Island, Virginia. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989), Vol. 13, pp. 6434-6435.
1595PO002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Pocahontas, last words, 1617. Kevin Dale Miller, The Real Pocahontas (Carol Streams, IL: The Christian Reader, a bimonthly publication of Christianity Today, Inc., July/August 1995), p. 39.
1595PO003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Pocahontas, 1613, inscription on painting Pocahontas, Indian Princess, in National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
This post originally appeared at https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute/pocahontas-c-1595-march-1617