Everything Wrong With The Story Pocahontas

Disney's Pocahontas
From Disney 

I'm sure most people have seen the movie Pocahontas or at least knows of her Disney fame. This Disney "Princess" fell in love with a man named John Smith and caused the conflict with the white voyagers to end for the time being. What if I told you that the story presented by Disney is completely inaccurate? This may ruin a few childhood memories so be prepared to experience the true story behind Pocahontas and her peoples' experience with the white voyagers.

First things first let's get this straight, Pocahontas and John Smith would have never had a real loving relationship. The reason being that during the time when the voyagers came to the new world Pocahontas would have only been around the age of 12 years old. There also wasn't really any record that John Smith and Pocahontas had any sort of friendly connection towards each other. However, the town did seem to enjoy Pocahontas's company when the tribe was giving them food for the winter.

John Smith
From Indian Country Today

The Disney story also doesn't explain what the voyagers did in the winter. It is described in many different records that since none of the voyagers took time into planting food they started to suffer in the winter. The tribe felt threaten that the voyagers would attack them if they didn't help them out throughout the winter. The tribe would give them food and other resources. The real conflict started to happen when the tribe started to run empty on the food surplus and started to limit there trading with the voyagers causing this sort of clash between the two groups.

Here is where things get sort of messy. The tribes hunting parties managed to capture John Smith and bring him back to there camp. Once he gets back to Jamestown he told two very different stories about what happened to him. The first story is that he and the Chief of the tribe had a very large feast and he was treated with respect. The second story was that he was captured and about to be executed but then a little girl by the name of Pocahontas saved him. It is said that the reason he used two stories was that at the time he was writing a book and wanted to make himself a good story.

John Rolfe and Pocahontas dancing after there Marriage
From Visit Norfolk

The white Voyagers decided to hold Pocahontas captive. As stated by Ancient Origins " During her captivity, tobacco planter John Rolfe took a ‘special interest’ in the attractive young prisoner, and he eventually conditioned her release upon her agreeing to marry him." Pocahontas was taken to England and baptized among the name Rebecca. Pocahontas would have also been forced to marry John Rolfe. There are also records that during her time in England she met up with John Smith but refused to talk with him. Pocahontas was forced to change her entire culture once she arrived in England. In 1617 the Europeans decided to bring her back to Virginia as a symbol of hope and peace but during the time of boat ride, she contracted an illness and died from it.

Pocahontas's Disney story is about love and breaking cultural barriers, however, the real story is about her being forced to change her culture and only being regarded as a symbol. Not everything in the Disney story is false though. The Disney adaptation did hit pretty heavily on discriminating on indigenous people. They also did get right that the reason they came to Virginia in the first place was to find gold. But everything else was that interpreted is completely false. There is no real love in this story only pain and racial hatred. Now that you know the true story of Pocahontas watch the movie again and point out the wrongdoings of Disney to a friend or a family member to educate them of time the white voyagers came to Virginia to find gold and develop Jamestown   


Work Cited

   Mrreese. "The True Story of Pocahontas as NOT Told by Disney." Ancient Origins. March 06,
2019. Accessed April 12, 2019. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/true-story-pocahontas-not-told-disney-002285.

Mansky, Jackie. "The True Story of Pocahontas." Smithsonian.com. March 23, 2017. Accessed April 12, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/.

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. "The Real Story of Pocahontas: Her Life, Death and Meaning." Time. March 12, 2019. Accessed April 12, 2019. http://time.com/5548379/pocahontas-real-meaning/.