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Captain Samuel Argall
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 Henrico, Pocahontas lived in Whitaker’s, taking daily classes in language and religion at his behest and accompanying him to his weekly Sunday services. Whitaker, Townsend posits, showed Pocahontas a measure of kindness—but fundamentally viewed her more as an experiment for his conversion tactics than an autonomous human being. Whitaker bestowed the name Rebecca on Pocahontas, hoping that she would, like the biblical Rebekah who favored her pale son Jacob over her darker son Esau, come to favor the white colonizers over her own darker-skinned people.
Reverend Alexander Whitaker Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by Reverend Alexander Whitaker or refer to Reverend Alexander Whitaker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7 Quotes
The [Biblical] name Rebecca was almost certainly Whitaker’s choice. […] By Isaac, Rebekah conceived twins […] Rebekah favored [Jacob] the pale son over [Esau] the red one [and] it is more than likely that Whitaker thought the parallel perfect. Pocahontas’s children would be by nature both Indian and Christian, both red and pale. […] If Whitaker read the story this way, however, Pocahontas likely did not. She could easily have focused her attention on the passages narrated from the perspective of Rebekah’s people, in which […] her siblings bless her for being willing to go and bear children among the enemy.
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Pocahontas became Rebecca. She would not have found the idea of a renaming traumatic: it was in keeping with her culture for her to change her name as she proceeded through her life and had new experiences. Men, in fact, said that they aspired to earning many names, and women may well have, too.
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Reverend Alexander Whitaker Character Timeline in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The timeline below shows where the character Reverend Alexander Whitaker appears in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: Imprisonment
...Indian captives make up the population. Pocahontas is delivered to the household of Reverend Alexander Whitaker, who has built a church across the river. Here, Pocahontas is dressed in English clothing,...
(full context)
During the week, Pocahontas has lessons in language, conversation, and religion with Whitaker—who viewed her less as a person, Townsend writes, and more as a way to test...
(full context)
Chapter 7: Pocahontas and John
...likely waiting until a declaration of peace, her and her father’s goal, had been made. Whitaker and Dale each believe, Townsend says, that they’ve “won”—they had no idea, most likely, about...
(full context)
The name “Rebecca,” Townsend says, was likely chosen by Whitaker. It is symbolic: the biblical figure of Rebekah gave birth to twins after marrying a...
(full context)
Chapter 9: 1622, and Queen Cockacoeske
...Rolfe returns to find Jamestown in a “pitiful state.” The well has been ruined, and Whitaker has died. While Argall begins damage control, Rolfe goes to the woods to meet with...
(full context)
