Pocahontas/Amonute/Matoaka/Rebecca
The historical figure most people know as Pocahontas was born Amonute circa 1597. Her name, Townsend shows, is not the only thing that many individuals get wrong about the young Powhatan woman whose story…
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Camilla Townsend
Camilla Townsend is an academic and historian whose work focuses on the study of Indigenous North and Latin American tribes. In 2005’s Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, one of her best-known books, Townsend endeavors…
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Powhatan/Wahunsenacaw
Pocahontas’s father, Powhatan—who was born Wahunsenacaw but adopted the name of his tribe as he consolidated power—was a politically savvy and powerful man who brought 30 tribes and over 20,000 people under his command…
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John Rolfe
Pocahontas’s second husband, John Rolfe, traveled to the New World in 1609, dreaming of making his fortune as a merchant by farming tobacco. After being shipwrecked on Bermuda for several months—during which time Rolfe’s…
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John Smith
A naval captain and explorer who had already lived a well-traveled—and, by his own account, quite sensational—life by the time he sailed to the New World with the fledgling Virginia Company in 1606. Smith was…
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Get the entire Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma LitChart as a printable PDF.
Opechankeno
A kinsman of Powhatan who was werowance (chief) of the Pamunkey tribe. Opechankeno was the one to first capture John Smith and bring him to Powhatan. As the years went by, Opechankeno remained an important…
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Uttamatomakin
An adviser and son-in-law to Powhatan who likely held a position of spiritual and political authority within the Powhatan tribe. As a trusted adviser and kinsman, Uttamatomakin was bade to accompany Pocahontas on her journey…
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Captain Samuel Argall
A military veteran and naval captain who was a favorite of Lord De La Warr and who served as deputy governor of Virginia under him, having been brought over from England in 1610 to try…
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Reverend Alexander Whitaker
A reverend from a well-to-do scholarly family in England who traveled to Jamestown in hopes of converting as many members of the surrounding tribes as he could to Christianity. While captive in Jamestown and nearby…
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Thomas Rolfe
The son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. Thomas Rolfe was a young boy when his mother died. John, rather than bringing Thomas back overseas to Virginia, left his son in England, in the care…
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Captain Christopher Newport
The English captain of the Virginia Company’s maiden voyage in 1606. He sailed back to England to gather supplies and make a report just months after helping to establish Jamestown, and returned with…
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Kocoom
Pocahontas’s first husband and a warrior of the Patowomeck tribe. Townsend states that though there is little information about Kocoom and his marriage to Pocahontas, it is likely that the two of them married…
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Thomas Savage
A young Englishman who was traded to the Powhatan as a hostage or ward in exchange for Namontack, a “son” of Powhatan. The English claimed that Thomas Savage was the son of the…
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Namontack
A young Powhatan man who was traded to the English as a hostage or ward in exchange for a young Englishman, Thomas Savage. Though Powhatan claimed Namontack was one of his sons—and thus “royal”…
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Lord De La Warr
The official title of a man named Thomas West who served as “governor-for-life” and general of Virginia beginning in 1610, stepping in after John Smith left the position. His arrival came at a crucial moment—his…
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Sir Thomas Dale
A tough and cruel English military commander who served as marshal and later governor of Jamestown. Dale established a smaller colony upriver from Jamestown at Henrico. After giving John Rolfe permission to marry the…
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Sir Edwin Sandys
A member of Parliament and a wealthy backer of the Virginia Company. Hoping to raise the company’s esteem in the eyes of potential investors (and potential colonists), he took special interest in John Rolfe…
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Simon Van de Passe
A Dutch-German engraver of some renown who was commissioned to sketch Pocahontas for an engraving. The portrait was used to create a collectible piece of memorabilia—essentially propaganda and recruiting material for the Virginia Company…
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King James I
The king of England and Scotland from 1603 until his death in 1625. King James provided the charter for the Virginia Company and was invested in the colonization of Virginia, hoping that England would be…
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Minor Characters
“Rawhunt”
A Powhatan translator who accompanied Pocahontas on her first visit to Jamestown. His name was described as “Rawhunt” by colonists who wrote about him, but Townsend posits this name is inaccurate and based on a phonetic spelling of the man’s true name.
Yapassus
A Patowomeck werowance (chief) whom the English coerced into betraying Pocahontas and delivering her into captivity.
Luis
The Algonkian subject of an anecdote which Townsend offers early on in the book in order to illustrate the ways in which the Indigenous tribes of the New World had been struggling against attempts at colonization by the Spanish and English alike for years before the establishment of Jamestown.
Sir Thomas Gates
A military veteran who served as the deputy governor of Virginia from 1611-1614.
George Villiers
A favorite (and possibly a lover) of King James I. Villiers was the guest of honor at a Twelfth Night masque, or elaborate performance, attended by Pocahontas and John Rolfe in 1617.
Queen Cockacoeske
The leader of the Pamunkey tribe in the 1640s. Though she and her people fought against the Jamestown colonists, she was eventually forced to sign a peace treaty and give away many of her people’s lands.
Sir Louis Stukely
A vice admiral in England. After the death of Pocahontas, John Rolfe decides to leave his and Pocahontas's son, Thomas Rolfe, under Stukely's care. John Rolfe soon came to regret this choice, but he and Thomas never saw each other again.
