R Newebecca The
A Pocahontas Mystery R BY JAMES RING ADAMS ebecca Rolfe. This
was the name chosen by Pocahontas,
the
spirited daughter of Powhatan, when she grew up to be a wife and mother.
This phase of her life was
even more historically significant than her legendary childhood. Defying barriers raised by her own people and by the English, it was marked by a name change of great meaning, just as her birth name Matoaka was replaced by a nickname meaning willful child. But in all the writing about this fascinating woman, very few ask why she selected Rebecca, a Biblical figure fraught with significance for Jamestown. Part of the answer lies with the two men
involved in her marriage, her husband John Rolfe (1585–1622) and the minister who con- verted her, Alexander Whitaker (1585–1617). They both became involved with Matoaka in 1613 when she had been kidnapped and brought to Jamestown as a hostage against renewed hostilities with her father, head of the Powhatan tribal empire. The governor, Sir Thomas Dale, entrusted her to the young minister Whitaker at the new, well-fortified outpost, Henrico,
for Christian instruction
and conversion. The widower Rolfe was a fre- quent visitor. Governor Dale sent Powhatan a series of demands for the return of the hostage. The
old chief reluctantly complied with most, the return of eight English captives and some of the muskets, swords and tools he had seized, but he tried to hold onto the rest, “which it delighted him to view, and look upon.” After a year of delay, Dale forced the issue,
leading an expedition to Powhatan’s territory with Pocahontas in tow. In the midst of the parleys, Pocahontas sprang a series of sur- prises. During her long captivity, she and her sometime guard Rolfe had fallen in love. She went ashore to talk to her brothers, ignoring her other tribesmen, and said coolly that if her father had loved her, he would not value her less than old swords, muskets and axes. Therefore she would stay with the English- men, who loved her. At the same time, Rolfe, the Englishman
who did love her, sent a letter to Dale ask- ing permission to marry her. This double announcement, apparently orchestrated by the two, gave Dale and Powhatan a way out of their impasse. Both leaders approved the match and Rolfe married Pocahontas, now Rebecca, the following month, on April 5,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 33 E
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