May 1, 2018 (Revisited February 27, 2021)

Pocahontas is very famous for being a Disney Star but her real story is rather sad.  Let’s begin with Jamestown and discuss what was happening to build the settlement here.

In the early 1600’s, the English was struggling to keep the Jamestown Colony going.  The early settlers believed that the Native Americans would provide food and would be in awe of the settlers.  The plan was to avoid seeing the colonist die or being buried but that failed due to the high rate of dying English Settlers.  Over 80 percent of the inhabitants would die due to diseases over the early years at Jamestown.  

The people were starving and the relationship between the Native Americans and the Settlers diminished because there was not enough food to be provided by the Native Americans.  The two groups began to fight and Powhatan who ruled the many tribes around the area would continue to push back.  Captain John Smith came to the colony and worked with the settlers during 1608 to 1609.  Captain Smith led a group to ambush the local Native Americans but was ambushed by Powhatan’s people instead.

History shared that Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas stepped in and stopped her father from killing the Captain.  That would make for a great story and a great animated movie during our modern time.  However, some authors think the execution attempt was staged to make Captain Smith a sub chief and Jamestown a part of the powerful Powhatan’s reach.  Either way, it saved his life.

Pocahontas was born in 1596 and was rather young during the event with John Smith.  The hostilities between the tribe and the English settlers would continue after John left to go back to England without Pocahontas.  She would eventually be captured in 1613 and would be used as a tool to stop the fighting by the people at Jamestown.  

She would convert to Christianity and marry John Rolfe in 1614.  John was a wealthy tobacco farmer and  John and his bride would move to England to live where she died in 1617 at the age of 21.  She had one child and his name was Thomas Rolfe.   Thomas Rolfe would come back to the colonies years later but John Rolfe returned shortly after her death.

Captain William Pierce is my 11 Great Grand Father through the Vest, Baker, Appling, Clements and finally Pierce family genealogy.  Captain Pierce came to the Jamestown in 1610 and was a very prominent person in the early colony.  He was a Captain of the Governor guard, member of the House of Burgess, Lieutenant Governor at James City in 1629 and he would know both John Rolfe and Pocahontas.  

After Pocahontas death in 1617, John Rolfe would return to the colonies and would marry Jane Pierce, Captain William Pierce’s daugher in 1617.  Jane would be my 11 Great Aunt and that is how our family is connected to the Pocahontas story of the early 1600’s.