Matoaka's Story/Part 7 The Death of Matoaka

“Princess Pocahontas.” Base of statue by William Ordway Partridge. Memorial at St. George Church, Gravesend, England. Photo: Tracy Jenkins, Art UK. CC.

The Virginia Company’s publicity tour had been a success. Plans were made to send more colonists to Jamestown and to establish schools for religious and English instruction among Native children in Virginia.

Arrangements were made for the party to return to Virginia in the spring of 1617. As the ship set sail, Matoaka and John dined with Captain Argall in his quarters. She became sick soon after. Argall docked the ship at the town of Gravesend. Matoaka died at the Gravesend Inn and was buried at the nearby Church of St. George. Many myths have grown up around her last words, but nothing is known for certain. The party held a funeral for her at the church before setting sail again. Fearing he would not survive the journey, John Rolfe left their son Thomas with relatives.

The Mattaponi Oral History records a different version of the events. It claims that shortly after the dinner with Captain Argall, Matoaka told her sister Mattachana that she thought “the English” put something in her food. Mattachanna tried to care for her, but her condition worsened. She left to get Rolfe and when she returned, Matoaka was dead. The Oral History records that Mattachanna and Uttamatomakkin told Wahunsenaca that Matoaka had been in good health in England, and had not become sick until boarding the ship to return home.

It is impossible to know the whole truth of Matoaka’s final days. Oral traditions were long seen by Western scholars as mere folklore without reliable information. That has changed somewhat, but even scholars who argue for their indispensability point out that they are a different kind of history that, taken out of their oral medium, lose much of their nuance and meaning. As the authors of “The True Story of Pocahontas” state, “There are attributes of oral traditions that are not obtainable in a written format… There is a living connection between the oral historian and his or her ancestors.”

The lethality of eastern diseases to indigenous Americans is well documented and so European and American historians have rarely questioned the circumstances of Matoaka’s death. More skeptical writers have speculated that she may have soured on supporting the Virginia Company’s plans for large-scale conversion of Powhatan children to Christianity, or that her experience in London had not made her the enthusiastic advocate of “civilization” they had expected. Perhaps with her tour of London completed, she was no longer seen as crucial to the company’s plans. Like so much of Matoaka’s life, her death is impossible to be certain about. 

Back in Tsenacomoco, the tenuous peace between the English and the Powhatan would endure for a few more years. But the death of Matoaka left Wahunsenaca stricken with grief. He turned over the leadership of the Powhatan Nation to his brother, Opitchapum. He died in 1618, roughly a year after his daughter.

Sources:

Pocahontas and Gravesend Jamestown/Yorktown Museums

“Indian Princess” sculpture- Pocahontas Archive

Matoaka's Story/Part 5 Captivity and Second Marriage

Haupt, Joe. "John Rolfe Tobacco." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified February 16, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13445/john-rolfe-tobacco/

Who was John Rolfe, the Englishman who would be Matoaka’s second husband?

He was from a middle-class merchant family in England, and his goal was to make his fortune by joining the Virginia Company as a trader. Tobacco was one of the many resources the Spanish reaped from their Caribbean conquests and sold throughout their empire. Rolfe, like many Englishmen, sought to create a competitive English trade. He and his recently married wife joined the ship that wrecked in the Caribbean with Sir Thomas Dale and arrived with him to find Jamestown in ruins. They were among the dismayed colonists who decided to return to England, only to be turned back by the arrival of Lord De La Warre and his reinforcements. Rolfe’s pregnant wife (name unknown) gave birth to a daughter in Bermuda. The child, named after the island on which the colonists had found refuge from the storm, did not survive. Not long after settling in Jamestown, Rolfe’s wife died as well. The cause was not recorded, but the ordeal of her pregnancy at sea and miscarriage on a small island, had likely left her too weak to survive the hardships of life in the colony.

In addition to his agricultural work, Rolfe became the colony’s secretary, and assisted the Reverend Alex Whitaker in teaching Matoaka English and the bible. The letter wherein he revealed his love for Matoaka and requested permission to marry her from the colony’s new governor, Thomas Dale, is the main primary source that mentions their relationship. It was largely a defense of his feelings for a non-Christian woman wherein he sought to refute any assumption that he acted from lust, and declared that his motivation was for the good of Matoaka’s soul and the prosperity of the colony. 

We have no such documentary evidence from Matoaka herself. Some scholars have argued that she was awed by English civilization and rushed to embrace it, while others have claimed she was simply forced to convert and marry an Englishman by the colony’s governors for their own ends. Modern readers truly interested in the answer can only read the sources and retellings and speculate for themselves what may have happened. 

Most indigenous women throughout the Americas were raised with knowledge that they might be targeted by other tribes for kidnapping and could possibly have to resign themselves to an “adoption.” Matoaka’s situation was no different. Her “willingness” to learn the language, religion, and customs of her captors were measures of survival. She may have hoped to contribute to peace between her people and the English, or she may simply have been making the best of her own circumstances. 

In 1614, Thomas Dale resolved to confront Wahunseneca and force the Paramount Werowance into recognizing the English as an independent regional power and renewing tribute in corn from Powhatan villages. The region had suffered a drought and the English were finding it harder and harder to coerce food out of their neighbors, by both trade and force. There were simply not enough resources to meet the demand. Argall ferried Dale and an armed force up the river again, taking Matoaka and John Rolfe along. The Mattaponi Oral History claimed that the expedition was largely designed to convince Matoaka that her father had abandoned her in favor of keeping English weapons and continuing his policy of starving the colonists out. 

Argall’s ship was heckled throughout its journey by Native warriors eager for a fight. Matoaka witnessed the burning of several villages. At the town of Matchut, Dale sent a message demanding the unreasonable amount of corn, any remaining English prisoners and arms, as well as Rolfe’s marriage proposal. Rolfe himself, along with translator Rob Sparkes, carried the message to Wahunseca’s brother Opechancanough, who consented to the marriage on his brother’s behalf. He also committed to delivering the demanded corn and any remaining arms. Any English prisoners, he reported, had either died or ran away. Declaring themselves victorious, the English sailed back down the river to Jamestown.

Wahunsenaca agreed to the union, but did not attend the wedding himself, believing the English intended to take him prisoner as well. Instead he sent several of Matoaka’s uncles to represent him. 

In the legend of Pocahontas, she was dismayed that her father would not pay the ransom and came to love the English even more. In reality she likely knew the ransom was impossible to meet. It is telling that Matoaka did not convert to Christianity until after the truce between her people and the English was reached, despite having been a prisoner at Henrico, receiving instruction from Reverend Whitaker for over a year. Far from being awed by English religion and technology, she may have been seeking to play her part in binding the English to her people, either independently, or in concert with her father.

There are several primary sources that record colonial governors and their messengers conducting business with the Paramount Werowance after this point, wherein he mentions that his “dearest daughter” lives with the English. They also record Thomas Dale’s request to marry another of his daughters, Wahunseneca’s refusal, along with his displeasure that the English refused to meet unarmed or to leave any Englishmen in his village as they had in the past. These exchanges depict one side of diplomatic discussions and do not provide any insight into Wahunseneca’s thinking, but they do imply a tense and fragile peace very different from the sunny reports most of the colonists sent back to England. Did he genuinely hope Matoaka’s marriage to a colonist would create a lasting peace? Was he simply buying time? Or was he crushed by indecision, seeing no way to secure his daughter’s release, or his people’s position in the region in the long run as the colonists’ numbers grew?

The Mattaponi Oral History recorded Matoaka’s captivity and marriage very differently. Again, this information was derived from the testimony of her sister Mattachanna. Early in her captivity, Matoaka became so depressed that Gates requested Wahunsenaca send a few of her relatives to comfort her. When her sister arrived, Matoaka told her she had been raped and that she believed she was pregnant. 

The Oral History contends that Rolfe was likely not the father at all, and that Matoaka was sent to Henrico where there were no Native people, unlike Jamestown where many Native women lived with Englishmen, in order to hide her pregnancy while her conversion and marriage were arranged. 

The name of her attacker was either not revealed, or not shared in the 2007 transcription of the oral history. But the fact that her mixed-race son was named Thomas has led some to speculate that Thomas Dale, Gate’s right hand man who ruled Jamestown under martial law when Matoaka was imprisoned there, may have been the boy’s biological father.

Matoaka was renamed Rebecca after her baptism, a name likely suggested by the Reverend Whitaker, referring to a biblical story wherein a woman gives birth to twin sons of different “nations,” ultimately favoring the fairer-skinned child. Rolfe’s tobacco venture was eventually successful, almost certainly as a direct result of his marriage to Matoaka, after gaining knowledge in curing the plant from her or her relatives. Once his product could compete with Spanish tobacco, the colony could make a credible claim to its investors that their money was sure to earn dividends. Predictably, colonists raced to plant their own and get in on the profits. The governing council mandated that they plant food for their own sustenance before the new cash crop. The tobacco trade flourished in Virginia, but due to the toll it took on farmland, it produced as many losers as winners in its economic boom. Nevertheless, the Virginia Company now had a product to ensure its future growth throughout Tsenacomoco.

Sources:

John Rolfe- Historic Jamestown

Pocahontas’ Marriage and Death- Henricus Historical Park

Matoaka's Story/Part 4 War and Peace in Tsenacomoco

The Abduction of Pocahontas, copper engraving by Johann Theodore de Bry, 1618. Public Domain.

Not everyone remembered John Smith as fondly as later generations. George Percy, Smith’s successor as president of the colony, described him as an “Ambityous unworthy and vayneglorious fellowe” who tried to “ingrose all authorety into his owne hands.” Percy’s report of his time in office, “A Trewe Relacyon of the Proceedings and Ocurrentes of Momente which have happened in Virginia from …1609, until…1612,” remains one of the most examined primary resources regarding the colony’s early years. In it he recounts some of the more macabre incidents of “the Starving Time” in Jamestown. 

Soon after Smith’s departure, the English found Werowocomoco deserted, just as Wahunsenaca had threatened. A succession of Virginia Company governors took a heavy handed approach in trying to restore communications. The Paramount Werowance did not take kindly to being treated as a subject by immigrants and made it clear that the English should either leave his country or confine themselves to Jamestown. He warned that any Englishmen found beyond the fort were not safe. This did not discourage the English from raiding and often confiscating the cleared fertile lands along the rivers, which in turn sparked more attacks from the Powhatan and other tribes. 

In 1609 George Percy sent Captain John Ratcliffe to trade for corn with the Powhatan. This incident is most often portrayed as a trap set by an invitation from Wahunseneca, however that is not entirely clear from Percy’s account, which also mentioned that Radcliffe had “Powhatans sonne and dowghter [no names mentioned] aboard his pinesse [small boat].” Percy commented that Radcliffe unwisely let these supposed hostages flee too early, resulting in the death of most of his company. Radcliffe himself was bound to a tree and tortured to death. This method was generally used to execute enemy warriors, giving them the opportunity to display their bravery before death. 

Battles with the Natives outside of the forts, and theft and murder within them, marked the next year of the colony’s existence. Percy’s report recorded several instances of cannibalism as well.

In 1610 Sir Thomas Gates arrived from Bermuda where he had been shipwrecked on his way to take over the governorship of the colony. Finding Jamestown’s population drastically reduced and the survivors malnourished, they resolved to abandon the colony and return to England. On their way down the river they were intercepted by a ship carrying Lord De La Warr, yet another new governor for the colony, as the Virginia Company had believed Gates dead. De La Warr brought enough new men and supplies to replenish the colony, so it was decided to reclaim Jamestown. The remainder of Percy’s “Relacyon” recounts numerous acts of revenge on neighboring villages led by Percy, Gates, and others. The English burned the crops and homes of any tribes they felt had wronged them. Native people who visited the fort under the guise of trade were subjected to closer scrutiny, the colonists suspecting them of being sent as spies. One Native man found guilty had his hand severed as a warning to others. 

Mattaponi Oral History recorded that the intention of the English to capture royal hostages became known to the Powhatan. For this reason, Matoaka’s marriage to a Patawomeck warrior named Kakoum was a far more discreet affair than it would have been normally. They had a son together and lived in a Patawomeck village. 

In 1612 Captain Samuel Argall, a Virginia Company rising star, discovered Matoaka was living in a Patawomeck village on one of his many trading expeditions. In his own words he recorded that he became committed to capturing her “by any stratagem.” 

Argall told the village werowance, Japazaw, that he knew “Pocahontas” was in his village and that he demanded his help in getting her on his ship. Japazaw refused initially, stating that such an act would incur the wrath of Wahunseneca and his people would be destroyed. Argall replied that that he and the English could protect him from Wahunsenaca, and furthermore, would destroy Japazaw’s people themselves if he refused again. Japazaw was resigned to play his part in the charade. He enlisted the aid of his wife, who pretended the next day to want to visit the English ship docked outside the village. She, Japazaw, and Matoaka all boarded and dined with Captain Argall. When Matoaka excused herself to leave, Argall informed her that she was his prisoner. 

Japazaw and his wife feigned surprise and Argall directed him to send a message to Wahunsenaca demanding the release of all English prisoners and arms, with a shipment of corn in return for his daughter. 

The Paramount Werowance responded that he would submit to the demands and invited Argall to bring his ship to the Pamunkey River to collect the ransom. Confident in having the upper hand, Argall instead sailed to Jamestown to deliver his prisoner to Thomas Gates. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that Argall sent men to kill Matoaka’s husband and son before departing, and without her knowledge. 

When the ransom arrived, Gates still declined to release his hostage, sending her instead to the nearby colony of Henrico. Gates intended to keep her prisoner to wring concessions from the Powhatan, or at least stave off a full-on attack on the English colonies, which they continued establishing, largely by confiscating land the Natives had already cleared for their own crops. 

Numerous Virginia Company men reported to their superiors in England that Matoaka’s capture had secured a solid peace and that the colony had since flourished. This was only the first concern the colonists needed to lay to rest- they had still not found minerals or crops that could be cultivated to produce a profit for their investors.

Sources:

Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma- Kirkus Reviews

Powhatan War Clubs- Jamestown Yorktown Museum

Jamestown: Primary Source Set- Library of Congress

Matoaka's Story/Part 1

Pocahontas’ real name was Matoaka (Mat-oh-ah-ka). She was the daughter of Wahunsenaca (Wah-hoon-sen’-ah-ca), the leader of a nation of indigenous Virginia tribes that the English came to call the Powhatan (Pow’-ah-tan) Confederacy or Powhatan Chieftainship.

Matoaka is believed to have been 10 or 11 in 1607 when the Virginia Company colonists established Jamestown. Her mother’s tribe was the Mattaponi (Mat-ah-pō-nī’). The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that Matoaka’s mother, Pocahontas, died in childbirth. That is why her people referred to her as Pocahontas, the name the English would make famous. According to the Oral History it means “Laughing and Joyous One.” It was most often translated by non-Native writers as “mischief,” “Little mischief,” and “little playful one.” 

The legend of Pocahontas claims that she saved an early colonial leader, John Smith, from execution because she instantly fell in love with him, and that she convinced her father to provide the colonists of Jamestown with food. Even with scarce historical sources, it is easy to see through such a fairytale. No child in any society would have wielded such influence over such a crucial decision. Europeans were not unknown to the Powhatan. Wahunsenaca offered the English colonists membership in the Powhatan Nation in order to access their weapons and contain their spread throughout his country. 

Matoaka frequently visited Jamestown along with the Powhatan delegations that brought food and other trade goods to Jamestown. Several primary sources recorded her as an outgoing child who was fond of playing with the English children she met there. John Smith wrote that he learned many Algonquian words from her and shared English ones in return. Smith continued as the colony’s representative in military and trade matters with the Native population for its first 2 years, but he had many enemies in Jamestown and struggled to maintain authority. After suffering serious burns in a gunpowder accident in 1609, he returned to England for treatment, never to see Virginia again. His fellow colonists told Wahunsenaca that Smith was dead.

From this point on, relations between the English and the Powhatan deteriorated. Although Smith had repeatedly acted outside of his agreements with Wahunsenaca by raiding for more food than the Powhatan had gifted, he had also tried to limit these excesses to maintain the alliance as long as he could. After he departed, the English colonists and his diplomatic successors tried to take a harder line with their hosts. Raids increased and fertile land along the river banks was taken by force. As a result, Wahunsenaca put an end to the gifts of food and attempted to starve the English out by moving Powhatan villages further inland. He sent word that the colonists should leave his country or confine themselves to Jamestown. He would no longer guarantee their safety beyond the fort.

The colonists of Jamestown experienced many struggles over the following years, but Matoaka did not reappear until she was kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall in 1612. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that before this she had married a Patawomeck (pat-ah-ow-mek) warrior named Kakoum and had a son. She was living with her family in a Patawomeck village when Argall found her. The colony’s governing council used her as leverage against Wahunsenaca to secure food, land, and stave off any direct attacks on their growing settlements. 

In 1614 Matoaka converted to Christianity, was renamed Rebecca, and married the colony’s secretary, a tobacco planter named John Rolfe. She gave birth to a son named Thomas soon after. In 1616, the Virginia Company brought Matoaka, her family, Captain Argall, and the colony’s governor to London in order to promote the venture and secure more investment. Matoaka’s sister, Mattachana, also accompanied her. It was Mattachanna’s testimony after her return from England that informed the Mattaponi Oral History about what happened there. Matoaka spent a year in England where she learned more about the English and their intentions in her country. In the spring of 1617 the party set sail to return to Virginia, but Matoaka became sick before they reached the sea. She died and was buried in Gravesend, England. 

Some European and American histories claim she fell ill days before setting sail, and others only after boarding the ship. The Mattaponi Oral History recorded that she only became sick after dining with her husband and Captain Argall on the ship, and that she told her sister that she believed “the English” had put something in her food.

In the following weeks I will explore these stories and sources in more detail. Why would Matoaka consent to marry an Englishman after being kidnapped? Was Wahunsenaca unwilling to attack Jamestown for fear of her safety, the English guns, or some other reason? Why would the Virginia Company want to murder Matoaka after having used her so successfully to wring concessions from her father and to present the image of a successful colonial project to the English public, royalty, and prospective investors?

There are no easy answers to any of these questions. I will explore them through several primary and secondary sources. The Mattaponi Oral History regarding Matoaka, published for the first time in 2007 as “The True Story of Pocahontas” is an invaluable resource that previous generations had no access to. It adds a much needed perspective from Matoaka’s own people to a story that has been told and retold by European and American authors with little or no regard for the woman behind the myth.

Sources:

The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History, From the Sacred History of the Mattaponi Reservation People.

Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star.” Fulcrum Publishing: Golden, Colorado, 2007.

Video interview with Angela L. Daniel and Linwood Custalow- Book TV, C-Span

Book Review- The One Feather