Dispelling the clouds of romance and legend that have surrounded
Pocahontas throughout the more than two centuries since her death,
Grace Steele Woodward here re-creates the life of the Powhatan
Indian princess. Indeed, the true story, as it emerges from these
pages, is probably more dramatic and certainly more significant for
American history than the legend.
The story of Pocahontas coincides with the founding of
Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in the New World. Her
story begins with her first visit to the colony as a child of ten
and ends with her journey to England with her English husband, John
Rolfe, and their young son.
The event which catapulted her to fame was, of course, her
rescue of Captain John Smith from murder at the hands of her
father, Chief Powhatan, and his warriors. But the more significant
contribution she made was her almost singlehanded deliverance of
the Jamestown colonists from starvation and massacre. Without her
compassionate gifts of food and warnings about her father's plots
against them, the Jamestown settlers would probably have met the
same fate as that of the Roanoke settlers.
Pocahontas' visit to London was arranged by the Virginia
Company, which established the Jamestown colony, not only as a
gesture of appreciation to the young princess but also as a means
of stimulating further interest in New World colonization. It was
Pocahontas' final act of devotion to the colonists. She was never
to see her homeland again.
In preparation for writing this biography, Mrs. Woodward
searched out the Virginia settings where Pocahontas lived as a
child and those in England which she visited in adulthood. The
author studied every pertinent document of the period, from
official records of the Virginia Company to letters of highborn
Londoners telling about Pocahontas' visit to England and its
sorrowful aftermath.
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