Who Is Pocahontas Saving John Smith's Life?

470 Words1 Page

Imagine you’re near Jamestown in Virginia. It is late December, and you see natives in a bunch. In the middle, there is Chief Powhatan, about to execute John Smith, leader of the Englishmen, while people around him are, weirdly, singing a song. Suddenly, Pocahontas suddenly runs and throws herself on top of John Smith and proclaims her love for John. After that, all is well. This is the Disney movie’s story, but the real story is still being debated. Did Pocahontas really save John Smith’s life? The movie might make it seem that way, but Pocahontas did not save John Smith’s life.
First off, John Smith decided to, oddly, wait for Pocahontas to die to even write the book that included Pocahontas saving John Smith. There isn’t really a reason to do this, unless Smith knew that Pocahontas would deny the story. At first, all he did was add some footnotes to True Relation, while Pocahontas was still alive. However, this seems to mostly have been added to “take credit for introducing Pocahontas to the English Language and the Bible” (Lewis A). …show more content…

Sure, Smith might not have wanted to say anything bad about the natives while living near them. However, Smith’s story “True Relation” (published in 1608) has no mention of Pocahontas at all. If Pocahontas was such a relevant character in the event, why was she not even mentioned at the publishing of the story? Also, “Why would a chief who had been so friendly before, suddenly decide to kill John Smith?” (Lewis A). Because the stories just don’t match up correctly, the credibility of what he wrote in England is severely

Open Document