Was there actually a love affair between Pocahontas and John Smith?

Question

If not, Disney succeeded in making the most beautiful love story ever to hit the screen.... Opinions, facts, theories people!

Answer 1

Sorry, it's all nonsense. Check this out from Chief Roy Crazy Horse of the Powhatan tribe:

"In 1995, Roy Disney decided to release an animated movie about a Powhatan woman known as 'Pocahontas'. In answer to a complaint by the Powhatan Nation, he claims the film is 'responsible, accurate, and respectful.'

"We of the Powhatan Nation disagree. The film distorts history beyond recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical accuracy were rejected. Our efforts urging him to reconsider his misguided mission were spurred.

"'Pocahontas' was a nickname, meaning 'the naughty one' or 'spoiled child'. Her real name was Matoaka. The legend is that she saved a heroic John Smith from being clubbed to death by her father in 1607 - she would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. The truth is that Smith's fellow colonists described him as an abrasive, ambitious, self-promoting mercenary soldier. . . ."

". . . Of all of Powhatan's children, only 'Pocahontas' is known, primarily because she became the hero of Euro-Americans as the 'good Indian', one who saved the life of a white man. Not only is the 'good Indian/bad Indian theme' inevitably given new life by Disney, but the history, as recorded by the English themselves, is badly falsified in the name of 'entertainment'."

Read the whole essay from the website listed below:

Answer 2

Pocahontas And John Smith Relationship

Answer 3

That movie is a little inaccurate. Pocahontas was a real indian girl but she never got into an affair with John Smith. They never even met. It was another person called John Rolfe. She married him and moved to England but then died. Probably the air in the city took her life.

Answer 4

NO to the "romance" -- as others have noted, Pocohontas was but a child when she knew Smith; nor did anyone involved ever hint at any romance (this was a much later invention, based no doubt in the interest in each of these characters and esp. in the "Pocohontas risked her life to save Smith" story)

But also 'no' to the purely negative view of Smith espoused by Chief Crazy Horse.

In any case, there is much more interest to EACH of their stories... and perhaps even to their relationship

For a good piece of popular historical reading on all this I highly recommend David A Price's book, *Love and Hate in Jamestown : John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation* (2003).

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Smith -- For the first 250 years the view was positive. Only in the late 19th century did an opposite view begin to take hold, based on the statements of some of his fellow colonists. Chief Crazy Horse represents it's most extreme form -- he can acknowledge no good in the man, and deems him simply an arrogant liar. More recently the pendulum has swung back a bit. Smith has gained several able defenders, including J.A. Leo Lemay The American Dream of Captain John Smith (1991). See also:
http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com/Defense%20of%20Smith.htm
http://vision.stanford.edu/%7Ebirch/pocahontas.html

There is no doubt that Smith was a very proud man, "ambitious and abrasive", and also that he was opposed and criticized by some of his fellow colonists. But this does not prove his stories untrue, nor that he was a despot! What the the critics seem to ignore is the evidence that Smith was very competent (and that his leadership likely saved the colony from extinction on more than one occasion) and that his severest critics were highly motivated by their OWN convictions that THEY should be in charge (and perhaps a need to defend some of their own failed and foolish actions). In other words, if there was some politics and desire for power involved we have to look at the motives and moves of the OTHERS involved as well!

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Pocohontas -- Chief Crazy Horse again takes the most negative view. But it appears that this nickname may not have been QUITE so negative as he suggests. It is perhaps better rendered "playful or "willful" one.

Pocohontas apparently WAS very pleased when, on her arrival in England, she discovered that Smith was alive (she had been told he was dead). There is enough in the stories to suggest that there was a real FONDNESS -- a friendship, or perhaps viewing him as a father figure -- and Smith himself in 1612 wrote about her affection for him.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/pocahontas/p/pocahontas.htm


As for THE story -- of Pocohontas's saving Smith's life. This all remains confusing and much debated. Many of Smith's critics, having already decided he was an arrogant liar, simply dismiss his account as a later fabrication. But if we allow that SOMETHING may have happened it is possible that there was some misunderstanding involved, e.g., a tribal rite that Smith did not understand the meaning of.

See: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mythsofwomenshistory/a/pocahontas.htm
(which also addresses the question of whether Pocohontas had an Indian husband before her marriage to John Rolfe)

and "Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?" by Stan Birchfield
http://vision.stanford.edu/~birch/pocahontas.html

Answer 5

No. Pocahontas never had a relationship with John Smith. She was only child of 12 when he came to America.

Answer 6

Disney has a knack of hiding the truth.

Pochontas was about 12 when John Smith came to Jamestown. He was an old fart.


Oh... and Hercules? Another loved Disney movie. Hera hated him. Hercules's mother wasn't Hera.

Answer 7

No, there wasn't. Pocahontas was about 14, when the English arrived. John Smith was much older, and has spent most of his adult life as a mercenary.

Answer 8

No.

Pocahontas never had a relationship with John Smith - she was only a small child when he came to America.

She did eventually marry an European man, then died when she got to Europe!

Answer 9

Nope. John Smith was significantly older, and Pocahantas ended up marrying another Englishman named John Rolfe. He took her back to England where she became "the Belle of the Ball," then unfortunately, got sick and died.

Answer 10

pocahontas did save john smith's life but there was no love affair. she was captured by the english and kept in jamestown until peace was made. she was baptised a christian. she then married Sir Rolfe and in 1616 they sailed to england. she was welcomed as a princess to the king and queen. in 1619, she was to return to virginia when she became ill and died. she was buried in gravesend, england. she had one son who was educated in england, returned to virginia as a very wealthy man.