Pocahontas saves Captain Smith's life
About this illustration
Edmund Ollier, Cassell's History of the United States (1874–1877).
- Date created
- 1874–1877
- License
- This work is believed to be in the public domain. Users are advised to make their own copyright assessment and to understand their rights to fair use.
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- Colonial North Carolina: Colonial North Carolina from the establishment of the Carolina in 1663 to the eve of the American Revolution in 1763. Compares the original vision for the colony with the way it actually developed. Covers the people who settled North Carolina; the growth of institutions, trade, and slavery; the impact of colonization on American Indians; and significant events such as Culpeper's Rebellion, the Tuscarora War, and the French and Indian Wars. (Page 1.1)
- North Carolina History: A Sampler: A sample of the more than 800 pages of our digital textbook for North Carolina history, including background readings, various kinds of primary sources, and multimedia. Also includes an overview of the textbook and how to use it. (Page 2.3)
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for American Indians, Jamestown, John Smith, Pocahontas, Powhatan, and Virginia.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
This illustration from the late nineteenth century shows Pocahontas, the young daughter of Powhatan, the chief of the Algonquian Indians of the Chesapeake, pleading for the life of John Smith, a leader of the Jamestown colony.
According to Smith, he was captured by Indian hunters and taken to a chief village of the Powhatan Empire. He was then laid across a stone and was about to be executed, when Pocahontas threw herself across his body. Smith wrote in a 1616 letter to Queen Anne that “at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown.”
Smith’s story may or may not have been true; no other account of the event exists. Pocahontas later was married to colonist John Rolfe to make an alliance between Powhatan and the Jamestown colony. She traveled to England with Rolfe, and Smith may have invented the story to gain respect for Pocahontas among the English. If it occurred, it may have been a ritual in which Smith was symbolically killed and “reborn” as a member of the Powhatan people. Although no one really knows what happened in 1607, the event has become a part of the mythology of American history.
