ABSTRACT
Pocahontas was a nickname for an Algonquian woman named Matoaka. She was the daughter of Powhatan, a powerful Algonquian werowance (paramount chief).
Pocahontas remains known in American history for the part she is assigned in the early days of the English settlement in Virginia and for romanticized stories of her relationship with Captain John Smith. Smith, the leader of the Jamestown Colony, credited Pocahontas with saving his life after Powhatan’s warriors took him captive in 1607. In the ongoing struggle between the English and Algonquians, the English took Pocahontas hostage in 1613 in retaliation for Powhatan’s seizure of several English settlers. In captivity she agreed to marry John Rolfe, an English colonist. Powhatan may have welcomed this marriage as a tactical and political connection with the English.
