1 HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer Pocahontas and John Rolfe 1. Letter of John Rolfe to Sir Thomas Dale (1614). 1 In the first decades after the founding of the English colony at Jamestown, relations between the colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy were often tense. The governor of Jamestown Colony, Sir Thomas Gates, came up with a plan to stabilize relations between the colony and the Powhatan: he would capture a member of the Powhatan royal family and use him/her as leverage to force the Powhatan to help the colonists obtain food and return the English captives and guns they had taken. (The colonists were especially concerned about the number of guns the Powhatan had succeeded in stealing. During the early days of Jamestown Colony, guns were the major technological advantage that the colonists had over Native Americans, and the colonists were anxious to protect that advantage.) In 1613 the teenage Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan, was kidnapped by the colonists while she was touring her father’s lands. 2 Pocahontas was one of dozens of offspring of Chief Powhatan, who had numerous wives. Moreover, Pocahontas’ mother was not a member of a royal family of a neighboring tribe and therefore Pocahontas was a relatively unimportant member of the royal family. When Gates triumphantly demanded that Powhatan return the guns and English captives he had taken in exchange for Powhatan’s daughter, Powhatan sent back the captives but not the guns, and so Pocahontas remained among the colonists. Powhatan recognized that Pocahontas was more valuable to the colonists alive, as a potential go-between between the two peoples, than dead; so he probably did not fear that she would come to harm at the hands of the colonists. Powhatan probably also reasoned that if Pocahontas learned the English language and customs, she would be better able to help her people control the English. During the year that she was an English captive, Pocahontas was well looked-after and the colonists schooled her in English customs, including the Christian faith. It was during this year that she met John Rolfe, a widowed English colonist. In 1614 Powhatan and the colonists signed a peace agreement; as part of the peace agreement Pocahontas, who was then 16 or 17 years old, converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe. Here Rolfe seeks advice about his feelings towards Pocahontas from Thomas Dale, who was second-in- command of the Jamestown colony. Note the uneasiness he expresses about having feelings towards a non- Christian woman. Unfortunately, we have no written record of what Pocahontas thought about Rolfe, her marriage, or her role as emissary between her people and the colonists. Honorable Sir, and most worthy Governor: … It is a matter of no small moment, concerning my own particular, which here I impart unto you, and which toucheth me so nearly, as the tenderness of my salvation. Howbeit I ...

1. 1
HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
Pocahontas and John Rolfe
1. Letter of John Rolfe to Sir Thomas Dale (1614).
1
In the first decades after the founding of the English
colony at Jamestown, relations between the colonists and the
Powhatan Confederacy were often tense. The
governor of Jamestown Colony, Sir Thomas Gates, came up
with a plan to stabilize relations between the
colony and the Powhatan: he would capture a member of the
Powhatan royal family and use him/her as
leverage to force the Powhatan to help the colonists obtain food
and return the English captives and guns they
had taken. (The colonists were especially concerned about the
number of guns the Powhatan had succeeded in
stealing. During the early days of Jamestown Colony, guns
were the major technological advantage that the
colonists had over Native Americans, and the colonists were
anxious to protect that advantage.) In 1613 the

2. teenage Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan, was
kidnapped by the colonists while she was touring her
father’s lands.
2
Pocahontas was one of dozens of offspring of Chief Powhatan,
who had numerous wives.
Moreover, Pocahontas’ mother was not a member of a royal
family of a neighboring tribe and therefore
Pocahontas was a relatively unimportant member of the royal
family. When Gates triumphantly demanded that
Powhatan return the guns and English captives he had taken in
exchange for Powhatan’s daughter, Powhatan
sent back the captives but not the guns, and so Pocahontas
remained among the colonists. Powhatan
recognized that Pocahontas was more valuable to the colonists
alive, as a potential go-between between the two
peoples, than dead; so he probably did not fear that she would
come to harm at the hands of the colonists.
Powhatan probably also reasoned that if Pocahontas learned the
English language and customs, she would be
better able to help her people control the English. During the
year that she was an English captive, Pocahontas
was well looked-after and the colonists schooled her in English
customs, including the Christian faith. It was

3. during this year that she met John Rolfe, a widowed English
colonist. In 1614 Powhatan and the colonists
signed a peace agreement; as part of the peace agreement
Pocahontas, who was then 16 or 17 years old,
converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe.
Here Rolfe seeks advice about his feelings towards Pocahontas
from Thomas Dale, who was second-in-
command of the Jamestown colony. Note the uneasiness he
expresses about having feelings towards a non-
Christian woman.
Unfortunately, we have no written record of what Pocahontas
thought about Rolfe, her marriage, or her
role as emissary between her people and the colonists.
Honorable Sir, and most worthy Governor:
… It is a matter of no small moment, concerning my own
particular, which here I impart unto you, and which
toucheth me so nearly, as the tenderness of my salvation.
Howbeit I freely subject my selfe to your grave and
1
Philip L. Barbour edited the letter in his Pocahontas and Her
World. A Chronicle of America’s First Settlement in Which Is
Related

4. the Story of the Indians and the Englishmen – Particularly
Captain John Smith, Captain Samuel Argall, and Master John
Rolfe
(Boston, 1970), pp. 247−52. I have modernized the spelling and
punctuation.
2
Powhatan was the name of a person, Pocahontas’ father, as well
as the people he ruled, the Powhatan (or Powhatan
Confederacy).
2
HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
mature judgment, deliberation, approbation, and determination,
assuring myself of your zealous admonitions,
and godly comforts, either persuading me to desist, or
encouraging me to persist therein, with a religious and
godly care…
Let therefore this my well advised protestation, which here I
make between God and my own
conscience, be a sufficient witness, at the dreadful day of
judgment (when the secret of all men’s hearts shall be
opened) to condemn me herein, if my chiefest intent and
purpose be not, to strive with all my power of body
and mind, in the undertaking of so mighty a matter, no way led

5. (so far forth as man’s weakness may permit)
with the unbridled desire of carnal affection: but for the good of
this plantation, for the honor of our country, for
the glory of God, for my own salvation, and for the converting
to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,
an unbelieving creature, namely Pocahontas. To whom my
hearty and best thoughts are, and have a long time
been so entangled, and enthralled in so intricate a labyrinth, that
I was even awearied to unwind myself
thereout…
…I never failed to offer my daily and faithful prayers to God,
for his sacred and holy assistance…
Nor am I ignorant of the heavy displeasure which almighty God
conceived against the sons of Levi and
Israel for marrying strange wives,
3
nor of the inconveniences which may thereby arise, with other
the like good
motions which made me look about warily and with good
circumspection, into the grounds and principal
agitations, which thus should provoke me to be in love with one
whose education hath bin rude, her manners
barbarous, her generation accursed, and so discrepant in all
nurtriture [background] from myself, that oftentimes

6. with fear and trembling, I have ended my private controversy
with this: surely these are wicked instigations,
hatched by him who seeketh and delighteth in man’s
destruction; and so with fervent prayers to be ever
preserved from such diabolical assaults (as I took those to be) I
have taken some rest. Thus, when I have
thought I have obtained my peace and quietness, behold
another, but more gracious temptation hath made
breaches into my holiest and strongest meditations … why dost
not thou endeavor to make her a Christian[?]
… Now if the vulgar sort, who square all men’s actions by the
base rule of their own filthiness, shall tax
or taunt me in this my godly labor: let them know, it is not any
hungry appetite, to gorge myself with
incontinency; sure (if I would, and were so sensually inclined) I
might satisfy such desire, though not without a
seared conscience, yet with Christians more pleasing to the eye,
and less fearful in the offence unlawfully
committed. Nor am I in so desperate an estate, that I regard not
what becometh of me; nor am I out of hope but
one day to see my Country, nor so void of friends, nor mean in
birth, but there to obtain a match to my great
content: nor have I ignorantly passed over my hopes there, or
regardlesly seek to lose the love of my friends, by

7. taking this course: I know them all, and have not rashly
overslipped any. …I take my leave, beseeching
Almighty God to rain down upon you, such plenitude of his
heavenly graces, as your heart can wish and desire,
and so I rest,
At your command most willing
to be disposed [of].
John Rolfe
3
By “strange” wives, Rolfe means “foreign” wives.
3
HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
2. Portrait of Pocahontas by Simon Van de Passe (1616). This
engraving is based on a sketch of
Pocahontas done by a young Dutch artist, Simon Van de Passe,
when Pocahontas and John Rolfe visited
England. She was then about 19 or 20 years old. Pocahontas,
who was treated as a princess in England,

8. became an instant celebrity: those she met were gratified and
amazed by her command of the English language
and English customs. When compared with portraits of other
royal women done in the early 1600s, however,
this one stands out as unusual for a number of reasons.
Historians have seen in these unusual features hints
that perhaps Pocahontas directed Van de Passe in his depiction
of her. That is: this picture may represent how
Pocahontas wanted herself to be seen. For instance, in this
portrait Pocahontas has the high cheekbones and
almond-shaped eyes of a Native American. Usually, European
artists gave Native Americans European
features. (Compare the picture pp. 13, 16, 34 of Out of Many in
which the Native Americans depicted have
markedly European features. Compare also the picture of Chief
Opechancanough, Pocahontas’ uncle, on p. 44
of Out of Many.) Second, Pocahontas is wearing pearl
earrings: among the Native Americans of the Atlantic
Coast pearls were a sign of royal status. Third, Pocahontas
holds ostrich feathers which, in European
paintings of the time, were a symbol of royal status. Fourth,
Pocahontas is wearing a hat, which is very
unusual in pictures of aristocratic or royal European women.
Europeans considered hats unfeminine.

9. Pocahontas died in 1617, as she and her family were returning
home. (Note: Pocahontas was her
nickname; it means “Little Playful One”. Her given name was
Mataoka, which means “One Who Kindles”.
When she was baptized as a Christian, as part of the peace-
agreement whereby she married Rolfe, Pocahontas
was given the name Rebecca.)
HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
Topic 2
European and Native American Worlds Collide II: Focus on the
First English Colonies
For this topic, in addition to the textbook reading, you have a
couple of primary sources written in sixteenth-
and seventeenth-century English (Harriot’s Briefe and True
Report and John Rolfe’s letter), which can be
difficult for the modern reader to understand. Be prepared to
read the sources a couple of times before you
begin to get a handle on them.

10. Because these sources are tricky, I have written a number of
brief introductions to go with the sources:
these appear in italics. These introductions are not part of the
sources themselves! They are just my
explanatory introductions. You should not quote them. Any
information contained in them should be put into
your own words in your focus-question answers.
by John White and published in Harriot’s
Briefe and True Report, and a portrait of Pocahontas. When
using visual sources be sure to discuss specific
features of the picture and try to figure out what perspectives or
biases may have influenced how the picture
was drawn. (Remember: visual sources, just like written
sources, have biases: see the Tips for Doing the
Reading and Writing.)
Also remember:
answer should be least 300 words long.
subject-line of your post.
have
answered. If you answer a question that several

11. other students have already answered you may find it difficult
to shed new light on the question in your
own answer, making it difficult for you to earn the full 20
points. And remember: if all of the focus
questions are answered at least once by the Sunday 10 PM
deadline, everyone who submitted an answer
gets a point of extra credit!
th
century = the 1500s; 17
th
century = the 1600s.
Key Terms (Discuss relevant key terms into your post.)
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh
Thomas Harriot and John White
forest efficiency
Protestant Reformation
Huguenots
defeat of the Spanish armada (1588)

12. Popé and the Pueblo Revolt (1680)
Juan de Oñate
New France
New Netherland
frontier of inclusion
frontier of exclusion
the Chesapeake
Virginia Company
Jamestown (est. 1607)
Powhatan Confederacy
John Rolfe
Pocahontas
headright grants
Opechancanough
proprietary colony
indentured servitude

13. HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer
Focus Questions
Tying the Readings Together (Clearly draw on Out of Many and
one or more of the assigned
primary sources for this topic.)
1. How were the first attempts of the English to colonize the
Americas similar to and different from
the early Spanish colonies? (Draw on both Out of Many
[Chapters 1‒3] and your sources for this
topic.)
2. Why did Harriot write A Briefe and True Report? (Hint:
think about some of the following
questions. Why, according to Harriot, did the first colony of
Roanoke fail? What was going on
in the Atlantic world in the late 1580s, when Harriot was
writing this book? According to
Harriot, what types of commodities were to be found in Virginia
and why might these
commodities be profitable to the English?)
3. John Rolfe worried what Sir Thomas Dale would think about
Rolfe’s interest in Pocahontas but
Dale fully supported it. What different perspective on the
match did Dale’s leadership role in the

14. colony give him? (Draw on Out of Many, as well as the sources
on Pocahontas and John Rolfe.)
4. Supposing that Pocahontas did influence how she was
depicted in the sketch by Simon Van de
Passe, what messages do you think she was trying to convey?
Discuss specific aspects of the
portrait and what you know about the Chesapeake during
Pocahontas’ lifetime to support your
argument.
Out of Many, Ch. 2 (p. 32 to end) and Ch. 3 (up to p. 46): see
the “tying the readings together”
questions, above.
Pocahontas and John Rolfe
5. Why did John Rolfe want to marry Pocahontas? What
concerns did he have about marrying her?
What concerns did Rolfe think others might have about his
wanting to marry Pocahontas?
Excerpt from Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the
New Found Land of Virginia
6. How credible are Harriot and White as sources for what life
would be like for English colonists
who settled in Roanoke? How credible is the information they
provide about the Native

15. Americans who lived in the area around Roanoke? Discuss
specific aspects of the Briefe and
True Report to support your argument.
7. How does Harriot characterize the Native Americans whom
he encountered? Were they
peaceful or warlike? Did the colonists have anything to fear
from them? Basing your answers
on White’s pictures, how would you answer these questions?