Read the following introduction. Then examine the portrait carefully while bearing in mind the questions listed below. Post a response to it of at least 200 words. We care about critical thinking and meaningful content, not about getting the right answers. For full credit, go beyond stating the obvious. You must speculate, but please also point to specific elements of the image/text as evidence. After posting, read a few other posts and respond to at least one. Dont combative or rude in this response, obviously. Our goals here are to consider how primary sources (documents or other records created in the past) can be interpreted; to reflect on how marginalized historical subjects have been represented; and consider whether early contact among peoples in North America was just cultural exchange and adaptation, or conquest and genocide.
Introduction
Pocahontas, or Matoaka, was the daughter of Powhatan, leader of most Chesapeake Indians when the English settled Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. After the fact, Captain Smith claimed that she saved him from execution, though historians continue to have doubts about the rescue. What we do know is that Pocahontas showed an interest in the English and even acted as something of a diplomatic go between for Powhatan. In 1613, colonists kidnapped her when she was about age 13. In the following year, Pocahontas was baptized, took the name Rebecca and married the settler John Rolfe with whom she had a son, Thomas, the following year. Now bilingual and at least nominally Christian, in 1616 she went to London to help promote the Virginia Company, which had sponsored Jamestown and was now seeking additional financial support and more settlers. The following year Pocahontas died just before heading home.
This engraving by De Passe was based on his sketch of Pocahontas while she was in London in 1616; it is the only portrait we have of her that is not simply an imaginative representation. Look at it closely, examining the text as well as her posture, expression, clothing and props. Consider, too, the historical context of the portrait, including the mixed relations between the English and Indians as well as her circumstances. Feel free to reference the textbook as well if you would like. Respond to any of the questions below.
How is she being portrayed here?
What story is the artist telling?
Why might she be portrayed this way?
Do you believe the message being conveyed?
Do you think the portrait reflects her subordination?
Or does it show a woman whose identity and loyalties have genuinely changed?
Why was social and cultural mixing relatively rare between English and Indians?
Why might such mixing have been much more common in Spanish America?
Why might Americans have honored her and those like her (e.g., Sacajawea)?
