No es solo una princesa de Disney: Pocahontas desempeñó un papel decisivo en la fundación de los Estados Unidos. Esta es su verdadera historia.
The River Thames flows alongside the town of Gravesend in Kent. Not far from the waterfront is the church of St George. It was here, on March 21st, 1617, that the body of a young woman was brought for burial. Her name was “Rebecca” Rolfe, but she was better known as Pocahontas.
Jamestown
10 years earlier, in 1607, a group of English settlers from the Virginia Company of London landed on the east coast of North America. They founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The indigenous tribes in the area were ruled by a powerful chief named Powhatan. His favourite child, Matoaka, was nicknamed “Pocahontas,” meaning “playful.”
According to legend, John Smith, leader of the English settlers, was welcomed by Powhatan but was nearly killed during a visit. Only the intervention of young Pocahontas saved his life. Historians now believe that this was probably part of a tribal ritual.
A “GUEST” of the ENGLISH
Conflict between the colonists and indigenous people was inevitable. In 1612, Pocahontas was kidnapped and held as a “guest” by the English. She was baptised as “Rebecca” and, in April 1614, married to John Rolfe, an English settler. Rolfe successfully developed the tobacco crop that is grown to this day in Virginia. Whether there was romance or not, the marriage successfully bridged two cultures and was a strategic success for both sides.
Tragedy
When the governor of Jamestown returned to England in April 1616 to raise funds for the new settlement, John Rolfe and Pocahontas travelled with him. At the royal court, Pocahontas was greeted as the first Christian Native American. For a curious and intelligent young woman, the visit must have been full of wonder and surprises. It offered her the opportunity to understand the English better, and perhaps to return with knowledge and protection for her people.
Tragically, Pocahontas fell ill and died on board a ship anchored off Gravesend, ready for the journey home. Pocahontas was just 21 years old but had already played a central role in the early history of America.
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Interview: All the way from America
Disney fans will have heard of Pocahontas, but not everybody knows that she was a real person. Pocahontas was a Native American girl who married an English settler, John Rolfe, in the colony of Jamestown in Virginia. She then travelled to England with him and was due to return to America. Unfortunately, she fell ill aboard her ship and was taken ashore at Gravesend, near London, where she died. This tragic event took place on March 21st, 1617. Pocahontas is buried in the local church. We asked Sandra Soder, secretary of the Gravesend Historical Society, why Pocahontas had gone to England in the first place:
Sandra Soder (standard British accent): It was a big publicity stunt! The new colony had been started and, as we know, she married John Rolfe and the governor was returning to England and he had promised the London Virginia Company that he would bring Pocahontas back with him to be seen in London. An ambassadress! And also this publicity, sort of promotional event because they wanted more people to go out there to the colony and so when they brought her back it was “Look how good it is out there! The favoured daughter of the king of that area has married one of our colonists and she has given birth to a legal child, so come and join us, come out and help the colony grow!”
Culture shock
And what did Pocahontas and her companions find when they got to England?
Sandra Soder: Well, horrific smells for a start! Because where they came from they were used to living in villages and of course the wonderful huge countryside that was all around them and when they arrived it would have been in the hustle and bustle and houses all tight on each other and she wasn’t the only North American who came over there, there were others with her as well and they were beginning to become ill and die, and I suspect her health was already beginning to deteriorate because it says that they move her out of the City of London “for the betterment of her health.”
A message for our times
And, as we enter a strange period in history, it’s worth asking: What does Pocahontas represent?
Sandra Soder: Historically, as far as I’m concerned, it’s the start of the United States as we know it. The colony that was started by the English out in the Jamestown area, that is the start of the United States. It wasn’t for religious reasons that the colony was started, it was economic, commercial, and that is the start of the United States. So that is, historically, why it’s important, but it’s also the fact that it was a joining together of two tribes, when Pocahontas married an English colonist, and that is so important today, bringing together of peoples of different understandings and different nations, and so therefore that first marriage there that was recognized and such a fete was made about, and so important to the colony, that bringing together of people and trying to have a peace is what is relevant today.
Glossary
burial: entierro
settlers: colonos
chief: jefe tribal
to nickname: apodar
playful: juguetonato
kidnap: secuestrar
crop: cultivo
to raise funds: recaudar fondos
to fall ill: enfermar
ashore: a tierra
hustle and bustle: bullicio
as far as I’m concerned: por lo que a mí respecta