Essay On Pocahontas

Pocahontas is considered one of the most important and influential Native American women in early European exploration into America. Her work with the colonists as a peacemaker between the two peoples, her marriage and alliance with the English through her husband John Rolfe and her voyage to England to promote the Virginia Company have all earned her an important place in history. Above all that she did, most importantly her many roles helped the interactions between the settlers and her Native people.

Pocahontas was born in the year 1595, in the area that we now call Virginia (Holler 17). Her birth tribe was Algonkian, meaning that it was part of a group of various individual tribes in the North American region that each shared a similar culture but had little to no contact (Holler 17). Upon her birth she was given the name Matoaka, however this was only her family name, and to the rest of her tribe, she was known as Pocahontas, meaning playful, (Holler 25) that referenced her lively behavior as a young girl (Holler 25). Not much is known on her mother, who she was thought to have been taken from upon birth (Holler 25-26), but her father, Powhatan (Holler 11) was the head of the Powhatan tribe (Holler 11). This meant for Pocahontas, that as a young girl born into upper society, she was not given the tasks that were common to children her age, because of her status (Holler 26). It has also been discovered, that Pocahontas was the favorite of her father, among many other children (Holler 25), which would later help Pocahontas in life with her interactions between her father and the settlers. It was at the mere age of eleven (Stebbins web) that Pocahontas’ world changed dramatically, with the arrival of the English colonists to V...

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... influence on English society and the rest of the world, and peaked a large amount of interest in her and her peoples lifestyle (Fromm, Web). Being shown on many different occasions in forms of art, in a way that related her to the culture of the artist, showed that she successfully promoted interactions between people, even in her role as a muse after her death (Fromm, Web).

In conclusion, Pocahontas encouraged interaction between the English people and Native Americans. Her roles as a peacemaker, wife, ransom and representative helped to bring the people together under a single linking figure and helped promote positive behavior and attitude towards one another. Pocahontas in this way will always be remembered for her actions that helped shape society to the way it has become, and allowed people to understand that a single figure can indeed influence history.