Adult Education Winter 2017 – For All the Saints
CLASS 3 – FEB 11: PRINCESS MATOAKA OF TSENACOMMACAH (POCAHONTAS OF POWHATAN)
We [King James I] greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their desires for the
furtherance of so noble a work, which may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to
the glory of his divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian religion to such people, as yet live in
darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time
bring the infidels and savages, living in those parts, to human civility, and to a settled and quiet
government…
—First Charter of Virginia (1606)
I. EARLY LIFE Pocahontas 1595–1617:
A. She was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Algonquian Indians in the tidewater
region. In 1610 she married Kocoum.We do not know what happened to her first
husband. The Amerindians of the Powhatan were polygamist and matrilineal. Girls were
as valuable as boys. Though one of several children, Matoaka was the most notable. Her
nickname Pocahontas was given because of her playful and teasing nature. It means
"little wanton or little brat." She was a keen intellect and shrewd.
II. CONTEXT
A. English Colonialism: King James granted the London company a charter to
explore, colonize, christianize, capitalize lands found in the Americas..
B. Jamestown and John Smith: May 14 1607 the English make land and begin
building their first settlement: Jamestowne. Soon they meet the Powhatan and he
young Pocahontas. She delighted in meeting the English and playing games with
them. She often visited Jamestowne. Jamestowne struggle to survive due to
deficiencies in the English plan of settlement.
C. Break down in relations: In 1608, Smith became president of the Jamestown
colony. Tensions increased and after an accidental fire destroyed much of the
town, they were desperate. Skirmishes occurred with the Powhatan. Even so,
Pocahontas continued visiting Jamestowne, often bearing gifts and bringing her
father's good wishes. She befriended the settlers and became acquainted with
English ways. In 1609, Smith was severely wounded when his gunpowder bad
exploded -in his lap- was forced to return to England. This eventually contributed
to the First Anglo-Powhatan War which lasted from 1609-1613.
III. CHRISTIANITY
A. Conversion: Pocahontas was abducted by the English during the war. This was
unplanned and done be lone initiative of an English soldier in the vicinity. The
English kept her and she was placed in the care of Reverend Alexander Whitaker a
devout Anglican educated at Cambridge. He undertook to catechize Pocahontas
and spent a year doing so, during which time she learned English and was treated
as a foreign princess. Acting Governor Thomas Dale reported the conversion as
"the best news" from Virginia. During this time Pocahontas fell in love with
widowed Englishman John Rolfe. She married John Rolfe on 5 April 1614. As the
only one who could see both sides of the dispute she also helped to broker a peace
with the Powhatan and the English. She and Rolfe had one child, Thomas. She
also was given the baptismal name Rebeca.
IV. DEATH AND LEGACY
A. In the spring of 1616 the young family departed for England, where Pocahontas
met King James I and sat for a sketching from which we have her only known
likeness preserved. Pocahontas and her husband were granted funding for the
establishment a college to educate and convert the Powhatan. Sadly at the
commencement of the voyage she contracted a disease, possibly bloody-flux and
died "unexpectedly," March 1617, at Gravesend, England, where she is buried.
“24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if
he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he
marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did
this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is
not far from any one of us.”
St Paul, Acts 17:24-27
!2