Pocahontas And The Powhamma

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“POCAHONTAS AND THE POWHATAN DILEMMA”
Camilla Townsend

History is usually written from the perspective of those doing the writing. In the case of Pocahontas, we do not have any of her written words and must rely on those of the colonists. Obviously, rich white men, supposedly religious and “doing the right thing”, trying to project themselves in the best possible light, will write stories that are just not true. What is unfortunate is that these stories go down in history as true, not folklore or myth. However, they should probably all be taken “with a grain of salt”. The story that we all grew up with regarding Pocahontas is a myth, yet as children, we don’t question it. Even now, there are probably adults out there who don’t question …show more content…

Since Pocahontas herself left no written record regarding her experiences, we are left with the white man’s written record: that of John Smith, who wrote his famous account of Pocahontas saving his life 17 years after it happened, and after she had died. Why do we picture her as a sexy young woman of late teenage years when in actuality she was 10 or 11 years old at the time she supposedly saved John Smith’s life? Possibly because, as Townsend tells us, “Captain John Smith later claimed that a smitten Pocahontas had thrown herself in front of him to save his life when, at their very first meeting, Powhatan meant to kill him.” (x) It is impossible to believe that a 10 or 11 year old girl could be “smitten” by a grown man, so Smith implies in his writing that she is older. Smith did write an account of his stay with the Powhatan people right afterward, yet never mentioned being saved by Pocahontas. This is probably because the …show more content…

Since the dawn of time (okay, maybe not that far back) but at least since biblical times it seems that rich white men have controlled, or at least tried to control, exactly what information the general public receives. It happened with the Bible with so many books being left out. The books that were omitted are not as favorable to the view the church wanted portrayed, and one was written by a woman! Blasphemy! It seems that information that was released was on a “this is what’s good for you and how you should behave” basis. Much of the information that has funneled down through time is “sugar coated”. Heaven forbid that history students should actually learn the truth about what really

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