The real story, with details that Disney didn't tell: Who is Pocahontas?

Most people who have watched the 1995 cartoon Pocahontas know the love story between a Native American girl named Pocahontas and a British officer John Smith. As you can imagine, Disney reflected the story differently than it was. The real Pocahontas life story was a little different.

Pocahontas was born approximately in 1595 as the daughter of the Powhatan Tribe. Her real name was Matoaka. The name Pocahontas, for which she is known in popular culture, meant a spoiled child or a naughty child. Matoaka's tribe was one of 30 separate Algoanquain-speaking tribes living in what is now Virginia. Today, this language has completely disappeared. But words such as raccoon and moccasin passed into English from this language.

During Matoaka's childhood, British settlers reached the New World, establishing colonies and fighting with the natives. In 1607, an explorer named John Smith, an English officer and 100 settlers he brought with him, brought their ships to the coast of Virginia and began preparations to establish a colony.

One day, the man we call John Smith while wandering around the Chickahominy river is caught by the hunters of the Powhatan tribe and taken to Werowocomoco, the homeland of the Powhatans. What happens after this part of the story is based on rumors based on different versions. According to John Smith's memoirs, he relates that after a great dinner, he had a conversation with the chief of the Powhatan tribe. However, the same John Smith, in the letters he wrote to Queen Ann 17 years after the event, states that Matoaka saved his execution by covering herself with her body. The prevailing belief is that John Smith aimed to increase his reputation by exaggerating the story and making it sound good.

While Matoaka is portrayed as a young woman in the Disney-made cartoon, she was actually only a 10-year-old girl when John Smith fell into the hands of the Powhatans. Therefore, it would be a bit of an expectation to assume that there will be a romantic rapprochement between them.

Matoaka frequently visited the Jamestown colony and sought help during times of food shortages. The colony was having a hard time adjusting to the harsh living conditions and only 34 of the 100 were left. During one of these visits on April 13, 1613, an Englishman named Samuell Argall took her, hostage. His goal was to save his friends captured by Matoaka's father. Matoaka was held captive in this way for about a year. During this period when she was held hostage, a tobacco farmer named John Rolfe had her released in return for marrying him. Matoaka, who was baptized and named Rebecca, actually made the first recorded Native and English marriage.

Two years later, John Rolfe took Matoaka to England to use it as a propaganda tool in support of the Virginia colony. Matoaka, who took the name of Rebecca, was used as a propaganda tool in England so that the natives could also be educated and civilized. Her husband, John Rolfe, was even praised for introducing Christianity to the native tribes.

While in England, Matoaka met John Smith in an interesting way. She hesitated to speak to him, and she left, turning her head. In 1617, John Rolfe and his wife Rebecca boarded the ship again and sailed for Virginia. Unfortunately, Matoaka was unable to complete the journey. It is said that she died from incurable diseases such as pneumonia, smallpox, or tuberculosis, and she was even killed by poisoning.

She was 21 years old at the time of Matoaka's death, breathing her last in a place called Gravesend. She left behind a son named Thomas Rolfe, and the children born to this son became known as Red Rolfes.