(1614) Pocahontas and John Rolfe marry
Pocahontas was a Native American woman notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribal nations in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia. In a well-known historical anecdote, she saved the life of a captive of the Native Americans, the Englishman John Smith, in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him. A large number of historians doubt the veracity of this story.Born: 1595 · Werowocomoco, United States
Died: Mar 1617 · Gravesend, United Kingdom
Spouse: John Rolfe (m. 1614 – 1617)
Children: Thomas Rolfe (Son)
Parents: Powhatan (Father)Highlights
- 1607: Pocahontas is most famously linked to the English colonist Captain John Smith, who arrived in Virginia with a hundred other settlers in April 1607, at the behest of the London Company.
- 1613: Current Mattaponi tradition holds that Pocahontas’s first husband was Kocoum, brother of the Patawomeck weroance Japazaws, and that Kocoum was killed by the English after his wife’s capture in 1613.
- 1614: Pocahontas married John Rolfe on April 05, 1614.
- 1615: Pocahontas and her husband, John Rolfe, had one child, Thomas Rolfe, who was born in January 1615.
- 1617: On January 5, 1617, she and Tomocomo were brought before the king at the old Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall at a performance of Ben Jonson’s masque The Vision of Delight.
- 1617: In 1617, the Rolfes set sail for Virginia, but Pocahontas died at Gravesend of unknown causes, aged around 20-21.
wiki/Pocahontas
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia. Rolfe was born in Heacham, Norfolk, England, as the son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason, and was baptised on 6 May 1585. At the time, Spain held a virtual monopoly on the lucrative tobacco trade. Most Spanish colonies in the New World were located in southern climates more favourable to tobacco growth than the English settlements, notably Jamestown. As the consumption of tobacco had increased, the balance of trade between England and Spain began to be seriously affected. Rolfe was one of a number of businessmen who saw the opportunity to undercut Spanish imports by growing tobacco in England’s new colony in Virginia. Rolfe had somehow obtained seeds to take with him from a special popular strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America, even though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard.Born: 1585 · Heacham, United Kingdom
Died: 1622 · Varina Plantation, VA
Spouse: Jane Pierce (m. 1619 – 1622) · Pocahontas (m. 1614 – 1617) · Sarah Hacker (m. 1608 – 1610)
Children: Thomas Rolfe (Son) · Elizabeth Rolfe (Daughter)
Parents: Dorothea Mason (Mother) · John Rolfe Sr. (Father)Highlights
- 1608: John Rolfe married Sarah Hacker in 1608; their marriage lasted 2 years till 1610.
- 1612: In 1612, Rolfe established Varina Farms, a plantation along the James River about 30 miles (50 km) upstream from Jamestown, and across the river from Sir Thomas Dale’s progressive development at Henricus.
- 1614: The first harvest of four barrels of tobacco leaf was exported from Virginia to England in March 1614, and soon, Rolfe and others were exporting vast quantities of the new cash crop.
- 1614: Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of the local Native American leader Powhatan, on 5 April 1614.
- 1615: John and Rebecca Rolfe traveled to England on the Treasurer, commanded by Samuel Argall, in 1615 with their young son.
- 1622: Rolfe died in 1622 and his widow Jane married Englishman Captain Roger Smith three years later.
wiki/John_Rolfe
John Gadsby Chapman depicts Pocahontas, wearing white, being baptized Rebecca by Anglican minister Alexander Whiteaker in Jamestown, Virginia; this event is believed to have taken place in 1613 or 1614. She kneels, surrounded by family members and colonists. Her brother Nantequaus turns away from the ceremony. The baptism took place before her marriage to Englishman John Rolfe, who stands behind her. Their union is said to be the first recorded marriage between a European and a Native American. The scene symbolizes the belief of Americans at the time that Native Americans should accept Christianity and other European ways.
Chapman (1808-1889), born in Alexandria, Virginia, studied art in Italy and became known for his portrait and historical paintings and his rich use of color.
The dimensions of this oil painting on canvas are 365.76 cm by 548.64 cm (144.00 in by 216.00 in).
(1614) Pocahontas and John Rolfe marry.
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