Download - Pocahontas Lesson
PocahontasU. S. History, grades 6th-12th
JEN CHRISTIE
EME6053: INTERNET IN EDUCATION
Reading like a Historian
In this lesson, students use evidence to explore whether Pocahontas actually saved John Smith’s life, and practice the ability to source and contextualize historical documents.
Caption: Powhatan Indians
Bellwork
Today we are going to talk about a topic in history that you’ve probably all heard about. What do you know about Pocahontas?
Write student answers on the board.
Pocahontas biography video
http://www.biography.com/people/pocahontas-9443116
Pocahontas was a Powhatan Native American woman, born around 1595, known for her involvement with English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. In a well-known historical anecdote, she saved the life of Englishman John Smith, by placing her head upon his own at the moment of his execution. Pocahontas later married a colonist, changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe and died while visiting England in 1617.
Caption: John Smith, a friend of Pocahontas
EARLY LIFE
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the leader of an alliance of about 30 Algonquian-speaking groups and petty chiefdoms in Tidewater Virginia known as Tsenacommacah. Her mother’s identity is unknown.
Historians have estimated Pocahontas’ birth year as around 1595, based on the 1608 account of Captain John Smith in A True Relation of Virginia and Smith’s subsequent letters. Even Smith is inconsistent on the question of her age, however. Although English narratives would remember Pocahontas as a princess, her childhood was probably fairly typical for a girl in Tsenacommacah.
Pocahontas timeline
Map showing Powhatan County (Virginia)
Powhatan
Like most young females, she learned how to forage for food and firewood, farm and building thatched houses. As one of Powhatan’s many daughters, she would have contributed to the preparation of feasts and other celebrations.
Like many Algonquian-speaking Virginia Indians of the period, Pocahontas probably had several names, to be used in various contexts. Early in her life she was called Matoaka, but was later known as Amonute. The name Pocahontas was used in childhood, probably in a casual or family context.
Caption: the houses of the Powhatan Indians
primary and secondary sources
Explain the difference between primary and secondary sources
Primary source: original materials that have not been altered in any way, which may be used by historians. In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called original source) is an artifact, a document, or other source of information that was created at the time under study.
Secondary source: artifact or document, created after the fact, that does not have first-person knowledge
Answer the questions for each source in this lesson:
1. Who wrote the document?
2. Why did they write it?
3. What else was going on at the time?
Pocahontas Historical Documents
Document A: Captain John Smith’s Letter (1608)
“True Relation” (Modified)
Arriving in Werowocomoco, the emperor
welcomed me with good words and great
platters of food. He promised me his friendship
and my freedom within four days. . . .He asked
me why we came and why we went further with
our boat. . . . He promised to give me what I
wanted and to feed us if we made him hatchets
and copper. I promised to do this. And so, with
all this kindness, he sent me home.
Source: Smith’s own words, from A True Relation of such
occurrences and accidents of note as hath happened in Virginia
Since the First Planting of that Colony, published in 1608.
Caption: Captain Smith’s first voyage map 1608
POCAHONTAS SAVES JOHN SMITH’S LIFE
Pocahontas was primarily linked to the English colonists through Captain John Smith, who arrived in Virginia with more than 100 other settlers in April 1607. The Englishmen had numerous encounters over the next several months with the Tsenacommacah Indians. While exploring on the Chickahominy River in December of that year, Smith was captured by a hunting party led by Powhatan's close relative Opechancanough, and brought to Powhatan's home at Werowocomoco.
The details of this episode are inconsistent within Smith’s writings. In his 1608 account, Smith described a large feast followed by a talk with Powhatan. In this account, he does not meet Pocahontas for the first time until a few months later. In 1616, however, Smith revised his story in a letter to Queen Anne, who was anticipating the arrival of Pocahontas with her husband, John Rolfe.
Caption: An 1850s painting of John Rolfe and, wife, Pocahontas
Pocahontas Primary source Document B: “General History” (Modified)
They brought me to Meronocomoco, where I
saw Powhatan, their Emperor. Two great
stones were brought before Powhatan. Then I
was dragged by many hands, and they laid my
head on the stones, ready to beat out my brains.
Pocahontas, the King’s dearest daughter took
my head in her arms and laid down her own
upon it to save me from death. Then the
Emperor said I should live.
Two days later, Powhatan met me and said we
were friends. He told me to bring him two guns
and a grindstone and he would consider me his
son.
Source: From Smith’s later version of the story in General History of
Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles, published in 1624.
Pocahontas captured by colonists Pocahontas befriended Smith
and assisted the Jamestown colony. Pocahontas often visited the settlement. When the colonists were starving, "every once in four or five days, Pocahontas with her attendants brought him [Smith] so much provision that saved many of their lives that else for all this had starved with hunger."
In late 1610, Pocahontas was captured by the English the
following year.
Caption: Jamestown Settlement, Virginia
Pocahontas Documents WorksheetComplete the worksheet independently or in in groups of 3
Review students’ claims/ hypotheses as a class.
Caption: replicaof John Smith’s boat
CAPTIVITY AND LATER LIFE
Pocahontas' capture occurred in during the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Captain Samuel Argall and his indigenous allies tricked Pocahontas into boarding Argall's ship and held her for ransom, demanding the release of English prisoners and supplies held by Powhatan. When Powhatan failed to satisfy the colonists’ demands, Pocahontas remained in captivity.
Little is known about Pocahontas' year with the English. It is clear that Pocahontas spoke English.
In March 1614, the English permitted Pocahontas to talk to her father and other relatives as a diplomatic maneuver. According to English sources, Pocahontas told her family that she preferred to remain with the English rather than returning home.
Pocahontas met and married John Rolfe during her year in captivity,
and had a son.
Caption: Pocahontas in England, known as Rebecca Rolfe
Pocahonatas dies in birthplace of Virginia
In March of 1617, the Rolfes boarded a ship to return to Virginia. The ship had only gone as far as Gravesend when Pocahontas fell ill. She was taken ashore, where she died, possibly of pneumonia.
She is one of the best-known Native Americans in history, and one of only a few to appear regularly in historical textbooks.
Pocahontas became of symbol of Indian religious conversion, one of the stated goals of the Virginia Company. The company decided to bring Pocahontas to England as a symbol of the tamed New World "savage.”
Sources
Pocahontas. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/pocahontas-9443116
Stanford University (2014). Pocahontas. The Stanford History Education Group. Retrieved from http://sheg.stanford.edu/pocahontas