Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

One of the new arrivals at Jamestown in 1610 is a man named John Rolfe. Though he will one day be Pocahontas’s husband, they are, at the time, both married to other people. John Rolfe’s pregnant wife arrives at Jamestown with him; meanwhile, Pocahontas, then 12 or 13, is newly married to a warrior named Kocoom, likely from the Patowomeck (or Potomac, as it was Anglicized) nation. Because of Pocahontas’s mother’s “lack of political significance,” Townsend writes, Pocahontas would have been free to choose her own partner. Not much is known about Kocoom, but what is clear is that Pocahontas must have liked him to have chosen him out of all the suitors available to her once she reached marriageable age.

It is likely that Kocoom died a few years after the marriage, as there is no record of him beyond a certain year—and given Pocahontas’s later marriage to a colonist, it seems unlikely that her union with John Rolfe would’ve been condoned had she had a living ex- or “common law” husband. Pocahontas seems not to have had any children by Kocoom, though Townsend doesn’t rule out the possibility that Pocahontas suffered miscarriages, stillbirths, or even an infant death. 

Meanwhile, back in England in 1609, the Virginia Company has just undergone a major restructuring and is no longer a private venture but a public joint-stock company in which men might buy shares or trade their labor for passage to the New World. The backers do all they can to round up interested investors and laborers, knowing that in order to turn a profit, the New World will need many more people to work in it. The restructuring is successful: within just 20 days, a new expedition has raised much more than 40,000 ducats. There are still some who oppose colonization and the seizure of the Indians’ land, having heard of the violent struggles settlers have faced so far—but with so much money now in the mix, there is no stopping the Virginia Company from sending more English overseas.

John Rolfe, Townsend writes, was likely aware of the dangers in the New World. Clashes with the native population and the moral question of whether the English had any right to be there at all were part of the discourse at the time, and Rolfe surely would’ve had to wrestle with these questions. Nevertheless, he  harbors hopes of becoming a merchant trader—and so he and his wife set off for Virginia.

The seven-week journey launches in June of 1609—in July, sidelined by a hurricane in the Caribbean, the ship bearing Rolfe and his wife runs aground off the coast of Bermuda. Over the next several months, an impromptu colony springs up on the island—many feel they’ve been given an opportunity to live in paradise. In February, Rolfe’s wife gives birth to a girl who dies shortly after. By May, Rolfe, his wife, and the other settlers decide to move on after all. Having built two ships, they set sail. By the end of the month, they reached Jamestown, but find the colony in poor shape. They help the colonists living there prepare to leave, but have their fateful encounter with Lord De La Warr on their way down the river and decide to stay. Months later, Rolfe’s wife—whose name is lost to history—dies. Rolfe must know that had they stayed in England, he might have had a family. 

Within months of De La Warr’s arrival, Jamestown descends into war with the surrounding tribes. Settlers are instructed to have no contact, either violent or benign, with the Indians, while Powhatan orders his people to attack any settlers who stray beyond the bounds of the fort. De La Warr attempts to extort land and friendship from the mamanitowik, but Powhatan’s position remains immovable: he wants the colonists gone and warns them that if they encroach any farther onto native lands, there will be consequences. In August of 1610, the colonists massacre a Paspahegh village. Over the next several months, they continue expanding in direct defiance of Powhatan’s orders—any Indians who approach these new settlements are killed.

As months turned into years, colonists seek to take valuable hostages from the surrounding tribes, for both retribution and political strategy. Captain Samuel Argall, a favorite of De La Warr, is sent over from England to find a way to stop the deterioration of relations with the Indians. In December of 1610, Argall visits Patowomeck country and is able to successfully negotiate the return of an English hostage of the tribe. Argall’s return to negotiation tactics rather than blind escalation of violence signals a turn in settler-Indian relations. Throughout 1612, Argall continues negotiating for food and hostages with the neighboring tribes, establishing a precedent for fair trade of both goods and people—hostages are valuable as translators and peacemakers to both settlers and natives. 

In 1613, during a visit to the Patowomeck nation, Argall hears that Pocahontas is stationed at the nearby village of Pasptanzie, the home of a Patowomeck werowance named Yapassus. Argall tells the chief that if he does not accept the exchange of several English hostages for Pocahontas, their alliance—and the goodwill that has been hard-won between them—will be severed forever. The chief agrees to turn Pocahontas over to Argall. Argall’s move is strategic—he knows that the Patowomeck are among the northernmost Algonkian tribes and benefit least overall from Powhatan’s protection, and thus harbor resentment toward him.

Pocahontas has been in the company of the Patowomeck for about three months—they were her late husband’s people, but she is likely there on political business for Powhatan. One afternoon, Yapassus and his wife invite Pocahontas to come look at the large English ship anchored on the shores of their village. Yapassus’s wife claims she wants to go aboard and take a look inside—she asks Pocahontas to accompany her. According to a later report, Pocahontas was wary of going on board—she knew many Indians had been kidnapped recently, and was more than aware that her father was at war with the English. Nevertheless, Yapassus and his wife cajole her aboard, where Argall declares her his prisoner.

Confronted with the realization that she is now a prisoner, Pocahontas descends into a “pensive” silence. She knows, no doubt, that silence is a tactic in and of itself. Pocahontas speaks at last, but not to her captors—instead, she speaks to Yapassus. Though the English cannot understand what she says, it is clear from their report that she is “enraged.”

Within two days, a messenger from Powhatan arrives with news that if the English bring their ship to Powhatan’s village, he will give them anything they demand for the safe return of his daughter. Rather than bring Pocahontas to her father’s village, however, Argall steers course for Jamestown to bring her to the governor, Sir Thomas Gates. As Pocahontas returns to Jamestown for the first time in years—no longer an emissary of her people, but a prisoner of the English—she holds her head high as the crowds gape at her. She is no doubt afraid, however, knowing how bad things are between the settlers and her people. Pocahontas is led into the house where she is to stay—the girl, 16 at the most, is now a hostage.