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1608

Smith, John. A True Relation of Such Occurrences of Noate as Hath Happened in Virginia. London, 1608. B3-C3, E3-E4. (Ed. Charles Deane. Boston, 1866. 24-40, 72-73. See esp. footnote 3, pp. 38-40, for comments on the discrepancy in Smith's accounts of his captivity.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1910. 14-21, 38-39.) (Philip L. Barbour, The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606-1609. 2 vols. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1969.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 1. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 43-59, 93-95.) Written by Smith in Virginia, this document contains the first appearance of Pocahontas in the historical record but no mention of the rescue. Powhatan treats the captive Smith with "kindness," and he is sent back to Jamestown without incident. Pocahontas, "a child of tenne yeares old . . . the only Nonpareil of [Powhatan's] Country," is introduced later as part of a diplomatic mission regarding Indian prisoners.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Wingfield, Edward Maria. "A Discourse of Virginia." 1608. Ed. Charles Deane. Archaeologica Americana: Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society 4 (1860): 67-103. Esp. 92 (entry for December 10, 1607) and footnote 8, 92-95, on the omission of the rescue account. (Philip L. Barbour, The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606-1609. 2 vols. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1969. 213-34.) This account by the first president of the Virginia council mentions Smith's captivity and freedom but not the Pocahontas rescue episode -- another piece of evidence for those who question Smith's veracity. Editor Deane, for instance, determines the rescue an "embellishment" that never happened.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

1609

A Gentleman of Elvas. Chapter 9: "How this Christian came to the land of Florida, and who he was: and what conference he had with the Governor." Virginia Richly Valued by a Portuguese gentleman, translated out of Portuguese. Trans. Richard Hakluyt. London, 1609. (The Indians and Their Captives. Ed. James Levernier and Hennig Cohen. Westport: Greenwood, 1977. 3-11.) The story of John Ortiz, of the Narvaez expedition, rescued by the daughter of the chief, an Indian princess, who argued "that one only Christian could do him neither hurt nor good, telling [her father] that it was more for his honour to keepe him as a captive" -- cited by some skeptics as a possible source for Smith's Pocahontas episode.
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

1612

Smith, John. A map of Virginia VVith a description of the countrey, the commodities, people, government and religion. Oxford, 1612. 4r: beginning section on language. (Richmond, 1819.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Edinburgh, 1910. 46.) (New York: Da Capo, 1968.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 1. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 139.) This is not a history of the colony; for that see Symonds' companion Proceedings. Pocahontas appears here only in one sentence exemplifying Indian language that translates as: "Bid Pokahontas bring hither two little Baskets, and I will giue her white beads to make a chaine."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Strachey, William. The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia. 1612. Ed. R. H. Major. London, 1849. 54, 65, 111. (Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia Freund. London: Hakluyt Society, 1953. 62, 72, 113.) Strachey's A true reportory, his account of the shipwreck he survived on the way to Virginia in 1609 (Strachey was in the colony from 1610-1611 and became Secretary), is thought to be a source for Shakespeare's The Tempest. Here in his history of Virginia (not published until Major's edition) he memorably describes Pocahontas as an 11-12 year-old cartwheeling "little wanton," now married to Kocoum, whose right name was Amonute -- but there is no mention of connection with Smith, who had left Virginia by this time.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Symonds, William. The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia. Oxford, 1612. 13-14, 24, 99-103. (Richmond, 1819.) (Narratives of Early Virginia. Ed. Lyon Gardiner Tyler. New York, 1907. 119-204.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Edinburgh, 1910. 98, 107, 165-69.) (New York: Da Capo, 1968.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 1. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 212-13, 220-21, 274.) This is a companion to Smith's A Map of Virginia (it's often called Part II or an appendix), and they may have been published together (though they have separate title pages). Proceedings is a collection of narratives by colonists compiled by Symonds, an English minister who wrote an important justification document for the Virginia Company, and describes Smith's captivity for a third time without the rescue by Pocahontas: instead, Smith "procured his owne liberty." But this work does mention that Powhatan sends Pocahontas to seek freedom for Indian prisoners (which Smith grants for her "sake only"), and there is refutation of the claim that Smith would make himself king by marrying Pocahontas. Smith drew heavily on the Proceedings for his 1624 Generall Historie, where he connects Pocahontas with several of the episodes mentioned in this earlier work.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

1613

Chamberlain, John. Letter 180. To Sir Dudley Carleton. 1613. The Letters of John Chamberlain. Ed. Norman Egbert McClure. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1939. 470-71. Letter of August 1, 1613, by Virginia Company shareholder Chamberlain in England to eminent diplomat Carleton advising of news of Pocahontas's capture and the promise of gold among the terms of ransom. First of five letters by Chamberlain mentioning Pocahontas.

Purchas, Samuel. Purchas his pilgrimage. Or Relations of the vvorld and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered, from the Creation vnto this present In foure parts. 1st. ed. London, 1613. Book 8, chapters 5-6, pp. 634, 638-39. (2nd. ed. London, 1614.) (3rd. ed. London, 1617.) (also see Purchas his pilgrimes. London, 1625.) Purchas, a friend of Smith's and successor to the great Richard Hakluyt as England's premier collector and editor of travel narratives, apparently uses a manuscript of Symonds' 1612 Proceedings here as his source. His account of Virginia and the pertinent Pocahontas episodes grows over the subsequent editions of his work. In this first version there is only mention that "They carryed [Smith] prisoner to Powhatan, and there beganne the English acquaintance with the savage Emperour" -- the fourth published account without mention of a rescue by Pocahontas. The "womens entertainment" or "Virginia Maske" episode is also mentioned, but without reference to Pocahontas.
[Virginia history]

1614

Dale, Thomas. "To the R. and most esteemed friend Mr. D. M. at his house at F. Ch. in London." Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia. London, 1615. 51-59. (Richmond: Virginia State Library Press, 1957, with introduction by A. L. Rowse.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.) Letter of June 18, 1614, by the governor of Virginia, who recounts an unsuccessful voyage to Powhatan to negotiate the ransom of Pocahontas and also his role in her conversion to Christianity, a conversion that preceded her marriage to Rolfe, which, in turn, precipitated a period of peace.
[Electronic Version]

Purchas, Samuel. Purchas his pilgrimage. Or Relations of the vvorld and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered, from the Creation vnto this present In foure parts. 2nd. ed. London, 1614. Book 8, chapters 5-6, pp. 757, 759, 764-65. (1st ed. London, 1613.) (3rd. ed. London, 1617.) (also see Purchas his pilgrimes. London, 1625.) Enhanced account of Virginia in this second edition probably using the published Symonds' 1612 Proceedings as his source. There's more detail about Smith's captivity but still without reference to Pocahontas, for he procures his own liberty: "Smith, with two others, were beset by 200 savages his men slain, & himselfe in a quagmire taken prisoner; but after a moneth he procured himselfe not onely libertie, but great admiration amongst them, and returning, once more stayed the Pinace from flight." Pocahontas's abduction -- just lately happened -- is noted: "they took Pocahuntis (Powhatans deerest daughter) prisoner, and for her ransome had Corne, and redeliverie of their prisoners and weapons."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Rolfe, John. Letter to Sir Thomas Dale. 1614. Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia. London, 1615. 61-69. (Richmond: Virginia State Library Press, 1957, with introduction by A. L. Rowse.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.) In a 1614 letter to the governor, Rolfe details his crisis of conscience over his attraction to Pocahontas and asks if he should "desist" or "persist" in his desire to marry her.
[Electronic Version]

Whitaker, Alexander. "To my verie deere and loving Cosen M. G. Minister of the B. F. in London." 1614. Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia. London, 1615. 59-61. (Richmond: Virginia State Library Press, 1957, with introduction by A. L. Rowse.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.) In a letter of June 18, 1614, Jamestown minister Whitaker, the "Apostle of Virginia," claims that Governor Dale's "best" work has been his "labor" to convert Pocahontas.
[Electronic Version]

1615

Hamor, Ralph. A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia. London, 1615. 3-11, 51-59, 59-61, 61-69. (Richmond: Virginia State Library Press, 1957, with introduction by A. L. Rowse.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.) Hamor, Secretary of the Virginia colony, recounts in detail Captain Argall's capture of Pocahontas, her marriage to Rolfe, and includes the three 1614 letters of Dale, Rolfe, and Whitaker, cited above, as appendices.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

1616

Chamberlain, John. Letter 244. To Sir Dudley Carleton. 1616. The Letters of John Chamberlain. Ed. Norman Egbert McClure. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1939. 12. The second Chamberlain letter, this one June 22, 1616, mentioning Governor Dale's arrival in London with the "most remarquable" Pocahontas.

Maclean, John. Letters from George Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Rowe. 1616. Publications of the Camden Society, vol. 76. Westminster, 1860. 36. Letter of June 20, 1616: "Sir Thomas Dale retourned frome Virginia; he hathe brought divers men and women of thatt countrye to be educated here, and one Rollfe, who maried a daughter of Pohetan, (the barbarous prince,) called Pocahuntas, hathe brought his wife withe him into England. The worst of thatt plantation is past, for our men are well victualled by there owne industrie, but yet no profit is retourned."

Smith, John. Letter to Queen Anne. 1616. John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. London, 1624. Book 4, pp. 121-23. In his 1624 history Smith claims (there seems to be no other corroboration) to have sent this "little booke" to the Queen on Pocahontas's 1616 arrival in England. In it, we learn that Pocahontas (now described as "a child of twelve or thirteen years of age" when he knew her) not only rescued Smith more than once but was instrumental in saving the entire colony from starvation. If this letter is genuine, it contains the first description of "the" rescue, though there is no indication it was publicly known in 1616.
[Electronic Version]

Van de Passe, Simon. "Matoaka als Rebecca." 1616. (John Smith, The generall historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. London, 1624.) (In the Delabrere and Fife copies of the 1618 Baziliologia: A Booke of Kings according to H. C. Levis in his 1913 Grolier Club edition. 158, 170.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 11.) According to the Smithsonian (see link), "This engraved portrait of Pocahontas [was] created from life during her time in England." Rasmussen and Tilton point out that the portrayal may be "unrepresentative" because it pictures her as the Virginia Company wanted her to be seen.
[painting; engraving]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 11]

1617

Chamberlain, John. Letters 257, 259, 262. To Sir Dudley Carleton. 1617. The Letters of John Chamberlain. Ed. Norman Egbert McClure. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1939. 50, 56-57, 66. The third, fourth, and fifth Chamberlain letters mentioning Pocahontas. January 18, 1617: Pocahontas was "graciously used" by the king, "well placed at the masque," and returning to Virginia ("though sore against her will"). February 22, 1617: "Here is a fine picture of no fayre Lady" . . . "with her tricking up and high stile and titles you might thincke her and her worshipfull husband to be somebody," if you did not know they were supported by the poverty-stricken Virginia Company. March 29, 1617: "The Virginian woman (whose picture I sent you) died last weeke at Gravesend."

Jonson, Ben. "The Vision of Delight." 1617. Ben Jonson: Selected Masques. Ed. Stephen Orgel. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970. 149-60. The Christmas masque Pocahontas attended in London.
[play]
[Electronic Version]

Purchas, Samuel. Purchas his pilgrimage. Or Relations of the vvorld and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered, from the Creation vnto this present In foure parts. 3rd. ed. London, 1617. Book 8, chapters 5-6, pp. 943, 950-51. (1st. ed. London, 1613.) (2nd. ed. London, 1614.) (also see Purchas his pilgrimes, London, 1625.) The Pocahontas story is further updated here in the 3rd. edition to note her baptism and marriage, as well as the Indian reason for concealing her real name. "They tooke Pocahuntis (Powhatans dearest daughter) prisoner, a matter of good consequence to them, of best to her, by this meanes being come a Christian, & married to Master Rolfe, an English Gentleman." The Indians concealed her real name of Matokes "in a superstitious feare of hurt by the English if her name were knowne."
[Virginia history]

Rolfe, John. "Letter of John Rolfe [to Sir Edwin Sandys], 1617." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 10 (1902): 134-38. Rolfe explains to a patron why he left their son in England after Pocahontas died and hopes he will not be criticized for doing so: "I know not how I may be censued [sic] for leaving my childe behinde me, nor what hazard I may incurr of yo'r noble love and other of my best frends."

Rolfe, John. A True Relation of the State of Virginia. 1617. Ed. Henry C. Taylor. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1971. Rolfe's rosy picture of Virginia in 1616 was obviously meant to re-energize the flagging fortunes of the Virginia Company in London on the trip that brought Pocahontas to London as well. Though conversion of a "poore, wretched and mysbeleiving people" was the climactic thrust of his justification of the colony, there is no mention of Pocahontas.

1618

Virginia Company letter to Captain Argall. In his 1869 History of the Virginia Company of London, Edward Neill quotes a letter of August 23, 1618, suggesting that Argall has some ulterior motive in advising them that the Indians "have given the country to Mr. Rolfe's child" (98-100).
[Electronic Version]

1621

"Att a Great and Generall Quarter Courte Held for Virginia the 13th of June 1621." Records of the Virginia Company. Ed. Susan Myra Kingsbury. Volume I: Court Book Part A, 1622-1624. 496. "Two Indian maydes" are sent to the Summer Islands -- the Virginia Company finally gets the women who came over with Pocahontas off the payroll. See also entries for 11/15/20 and 6/11/21.
[Electronic Version]

1622

"An Extraordinary Court Holden for Virginia on Monday the 7th of October 1622." Records of the Virginia Company. Ed. Susan Myra Kingsbury. Volume II: Court Book Part B, 1622-1624. 105-6. John Rolfe having died, his brother Henry asks that he be compensated out of the estate for bringing up Thomas, his child with Pocahontas.
[Electronic Version]

Smith, John. New Englands trials Declaring the successe of 80 ships employed thither within these eight yeares. 2nd edition. London, 1622. C2. "Abstract of Letters . . . July 16, 1622." (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1910. 263.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 1. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 432.) Perhaps to establish his credentials for command, Smith responds to the 1622 massacre of colonists in Jamestown with a vigorous assertion of his proven ability to handle the Indians, and he affirms Pocahontas as "the meanes to deliuer me [and who] thereby taught me to know their trecheries to preserue the rest." This slim sentence (in the 1622 edition but not in the 1620) seems to be the first verifiably public reference by Smith to the fabled rescue from captivity.
[Electronic Version]

1623

Captain John Smith's circular or prospectus of his Generall historie of Virginia, New-England, and the summer Isles. 1623. Ed. Luther Samuel Livingston. Cambridge: privately printed, 1914. The document designed to announce and to raise money for the printing of the Generall Historie informs potential readers that Powhatan's "daughter saved his life, sent him to James towne and releeved him and all the English" -- the second verifiably public reference by Smith to the fabled rescue from captivity.
[Virginia history]

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. 1623. Act 3, scene 2, line 98-113. Possible allusion to Smith's famous 1608 description of Pocahontas in A True Relation as a "Nonpareil": "And that most deeply to consider is / The beauty of his daughter. He himself / Calls her a non pareil."
[play; Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

1624

Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling [Stirling, William Alexander]. An Encouragement to Colonies. London, 1624. 28. (Same as The Mapp and Description of New England. London, 1630.) In a survey of New World colonization associated with his grant in Newfoundland, Alexander cites the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas as evidence of the value of intermarriage, "for it is the onely course that vniting minds, free from jealousies, can first make strangers confide in a new friendship."

Smith, John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. London, 1624. "The Epistle Dedicatory" to the Duchess of Richmond and Lenox, 40, 49 [2], 50 [2], 54 [2], 67, 77, 80, 105, 112, 113, 119, 121-23. Illustrations by Simon Van de Passe (see 1616) and Robert Vaughan (see below). (Richmond, 1819.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Vol. 2. Edinburgh, 1910. 276, 382, 400, 401, 402, 403, 410 [2], 436, 455, 460, 498, 511-12, 514, 525, 529-35.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 2. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. 42, 130, 151, 152, 154, 160, 182, 198, 203, 232, 243, 245, 251, 255, 258-62.) This, of course, is the source of the widest range of information about Pocahontas, and the source of the full description of Smith's captivity and subsequent rescue by her. In addition, references to Pocahontas include: her name in an Indian language example (the one listed above from Smith's Map), supplying food to stave off starvation, reviving spirits with her love, making amends for injuries, negotiating for prisoners, entertaining Smith with the "maske," traveling through the "irksome woods" to save Smith from a murder plot, saving Richard Wyffin and Henry Spilman, falling captive herself, marrying Rolfe, visiting England, reunion with Smith, and death.
[illustrated; Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Vaughan, Robert. "King Powhatan Comands C. Smith to be Slayne." John Smith, The generall historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. London, 1624. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 13.) The first image of the rescue here in the book that, as we have seen, contains the first full description of it, if not the first public mention. This first depiction of the rescue, say Rasmussen and Tilton, with elements based on earlier representations of Virginia Indians, is not itself totally original, and, in turn, it stands at the head of a long line of such images, as the image gallery in the archive attests.
[engraving]
[View Images: page 13]

1625

Jonson, Ben. The Staple of News. 1625. Act 2, scene 5, lines 118-26. Mention of Pocahontas in the famous playwright's dialogue between Picklock and Pennyboy Canter. PIC.: "A tauern's as vunfit too, for a Princesse." P.CA.: "No, I haue knowne a Princesse, and a great one, Come forth of a tauerne." PIC.: "Not goe in, Sir, though." P.CA.: "She goe in, if she came forth: the blessed Pocahontas (as the Historian calls her And great Kings daughter of Virginia) Hath bin in womb of a tavern."
[play]
[Electronic Version]

Purchas, Samuel. [Hakluytus Posthumus; or] Purchas his pilgrimes In fiue bookes. The Fourth Part. London, 1625. 1709, 1712, 1731, 1732, 1768, 1771, 1774, 1841. In his fourth and final work on Virginia (see 1613, 1614, 1617), Purchas now uses Smith's Generall Historie to describe the rescue by Pocahontas (p. 1709). Though he includes the 1614 letters by Dale and Whitaker, he only cites three other mentions of Pocahontas from Smith: her diplomatic mission, her "darke night" rescue of Smith, and her rescue of Henry Spilman. Most importantly, Purchas also reports from personal experience that in London Pocahontas "carried her selfe as the Daughter of a King" and, in his presence, was accorded respect by the Bishop of London (p. 1774). Smith's verbatim reference to Pocahontas from the 1622 New Englands trials (p. 1841) is here as well.
[Virginia history]

1630

Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling [Stirling, William Alexander]. The Mapp and Description of New England. London, 1630. 28. (Same as An Encouragement to Colonies, London, 1624.)

Brathwait, R. "To my Worthy Friend, Captain John Smith." John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith. London, 1630. A3. Complimentary Verses. (Richmond, 1819.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Edinburgh, 1910. 814.) (New York: Da Capo, 1968.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 3. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986.) In this brief laudatory poem, Pocahontas is mentioned with other women who did service for Smith.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith. London, 1630. A3 (complimentary verse by Brathwait), 58 [chap. 27]. (Richmond, 1819.) (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Edward Arber, with Biographical and Critical Introduction by A. G. Bradley. Edinburgh, 1910. 814, 911-12.) (New York: Da Capo, 1968.) (The Complete Works of John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Vol. 3. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986.) In addition to the mention of Pocahontas in the poem in the above entry, her rescue of Smith is listed in a summary of his Virginia "exploits": "How [Powhatan's] daughter Pocahontas saved his life, returned him to James towne, releeved him and his famished company, which was but eight and thirty to possesse those large dominions."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

1634

[Pocahontas rescues Smith] America. Ed. Theodor de Bry et. al. Vol. 13. Frankfurt, 1634. (Discovering the New World. Ed. Michael Alexander. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 13.) America was a premier, richly illustrated multi-volume collection on voyages and travel and contains three images from the Pocahontas story. This 3-part image follows Smith's capture, the Indian ritual to explore Smith's threat, and the rescue.
[engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

[Pocahontas visited by her brothers in captivity] America. Ed. Theodor de Bry et. al. Vol. 10. Frankfurt, 1634. (Discovering the New World. Ed. Michael Alexander. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 23.) America was a premier, richly illustrated multi-volume collection on voyages and travel and contains three images from the Pocahontas story. This image records an incident in the attempt by Governor Dale to force Powhatan to deal for hostage Pocahontas or else.
[engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

[The capture of Pocahontas] America. Ed. Theodor de Bry et. al. Vol. 10. Frankfurt, 1634. (Ed. Gereon Sievernich. Madrid: Ediciones Siruela, 1992. 338.) (Discovering the New World. Ed. Michael Alexander. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 21.) America was a premier, richly illustrated multi-volume collection on voyages and travel and contains three images from the Pocahontas story. Captain Argall conspired with the Indians to trick Pocahontas into captivity. Rasmussen and Tilton point out the burning in the background as rationale for the abduction pictured in the foreground and middle image.
[engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

1641

Thomas Rolfe, Pocahontas's son, comes to Virginia. This according to Neill 1869, p. 105, who says the application to Virginia authorities is in the Library of Congress. The reason is to visit Cleopatra, his mother's sister -- the first we hear of this name.
[Electronic Version]

1650

"Pocahontas." Unknown artist. c. 1650. (Frances Mossiker, Pocahontas: The Life and the Legend. New York: Knopf, 1976. Following p. 143.) Mossiker calls this a model for a tavern sign (source is a Smithsonian Anthropology collection).
[painting]
[View Images: page 143]

1662

Fuller, Thomas. The History of the Worthies of England. London, 1662. 179-80. In the Cheshire section. (Ed. John Freeman. London, 1952.) A entry on Smith in what has been called the first attempt at a dictionary of national biography. There is no mention of Pocahontas, and there is a skeptical view of Smith's credibility: "From the Turks in Europe, he passed to the Pagans in America, where towards the latter end of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth, such his Perils, Preservations, Dangers, Deliverances, they seem to most men above belief, to some beyond Truth. Yet have we two witnesses to attest them, the Prose and the Pictures both in his own book, and it soundeth much to the diminution of his deeds, that he alone is the Herauld to publish and proclaime them." Often referenced as the first slur on Smith's credibility as historian, an attack that surfaces big time in the 19th century with Charles Deane and Henry Adams.
[debunking]

1671

Ogilby, John. "The Relation of Captain Smith's being taken Prisoner by Powhatan, and of his being deliverd from Death by his Daughter Pocahonta." America: being the latest, and most accurate description of the new vvorld. London, 1671. 200-5. Ogilby was a pioneer British atlas maker. He introduces a virtually exact copy of a goodly chunk of Smith's account of his capture and rescue by Pocahontas from the Generall Historie thus: "Many other Quarrels and Encounters there were in the Infancy of the Plantation . . . some of which had prov'd very pernicious to the Planters, had they not ben betray'd to Captain Smith by Pocahonta, King Powhatan's Daughter, who upon all occasions shew'd her self a great Friend to the English, having sav'd the Captain's Life, when, being her Father's prisoner, he was just brought to execution. This Lady was afterwards brought into England, Christened by the Name of Rebekah, and Married to one Mr. Rolf, and died at Gravesend in an intended Voyage back to her own Countrey."
[illustrated; colonial history]

1682

Vries, S. de. Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische verwonderens-waerdige dingen. Vol. 2. Utrecht: J. Ribbius, 1682. 833-39. Can anyone translate the Dutch? The "Die Barbarische Liebe" image of the rescue in Happel 1685 is a version of the one in this text.
[foreign language; illustrated; engraving]

1685

Crouch, Nathaniel [pseud. Robert Burton]. The English Empire in America. London, 1685. Crouch, author of perhaps a dozen successful histories, used the 1617 3rd. edition of Purchas for his chapter on "A Prospect of Virginia" and mentions Pocahontas not at all, making, in fact, only passing reference to Smith.
[colonial history]

"Die Barbarische Liebe." Eberhard Werner Happel, Groste Denckwurdigkeiten der Welt Oder so genandte Relationes Curiosae. Hamburg, 1685. 200. (Sabine Kyora and Uwe Schwagmeier, eds., Pocahontas Revisited: Kulturwissenschaftliche Ansichten eines Motivkomplexes. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2005. 26.)
[engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

Happel, Eberhard Werner. Groste Denckwurdigkeiten der Welt Oder so genandte Relationes Curiosae. Hamburg, 1685. 195-205. See above "Die Barbarische Liebe" also in 1685 for the image in this work.
[foreign language; illustrated]

Wharton, Henry. The Life of John Smith, English Soldier. 1685. Ed. Laura Polanyi Striker. U of North Carolina P, 1957. 72, 82, 89. Striker feels that the purpose of this unlikely, unpublished account of Smith's life in Latin by a prolific indefatigable theologian was meant to restore heroic status to a man "thwarted from the start by his being a commoner in an aristocratic venture." Striker feels that Wharton's work on the Virginia part of Smith's life (the account ends with his return to England in 1609) is drawn from the Generall Historie. Be that as it may, there are significant variations (there is no confrontation between Smith and Indians over the murder plot that Pocahontas saves them from in her dark night journey), Wharton embellished significantly at times (calling Pocahontas a "mad woman" at the rescue, describing Pocahontas's dark night journey as inspiring "even those who sleep with terror"), and the charge that Smith wanted to marry Pocahontas is only in Symonds (1612) and Purchas (1625), not the Generall Historie. So in Wharton we first see some tentative free-lancing with the historical record. He plays loose with the story for dramatic purposes, and the result is a very good read, indeed. (In 1834 George Hillard used Wharton in his biography of Smith, so that this unpublished work did have influence in the 19th century.)
[Smith biography]

1705

Beverley, Robert. The History and Present State of Virginia. London, 1705. 25-33. (Rev. ed. London, 1722.) (Ed. Charles Campbell. Richmond, 1855.) (Ed. Louis B. Wright. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1947. 37-44.) Beverley's influential book is the first history by a native Virginian. Beverley mentions the rescue without fanfare but focuses on Pocahontas's marriage with Rolfe and reunion with Smith. For instance, he gives a long litany of reasons why the English would have been better off accepting Indian proposals for intermarriages, and he prints the entire Smith letter to Queen Anne. Beverley's drawing mostly on Smith (the letter is not in Purchas) but he also adds material not found elsewhere: King James's snit over Rolfe marrying royalty, the dialogue with Uttamaccomack (Uttamatamakin/Tomocomo), that Pocahontas would have brought "the Indians to have a kinder Disposition towards the English." Tilton 1994 says this book "contains the first important colonial attempt to reconstruct the Pocahontas narrative," and he finds the topic of intermarriage (cf. Alexander, Oldmixon, Fontaine, Russell, Chastellux, etc.) central to the first phase of Pocahontas representation.
[Virginia history]

1707

Aa, Pieter van der. Naaukeurige versameling der gedenk-waardigste zee en land-reysen na Oost en West-Indiën. Volume 21. Leyden, 1707. 81. Translators should apply.
[foreign language]

1708

Oldmixon, John. The British Empire in America. London, 1708. 225-33. (2nd. ed. London, 1741. Vol. 1. 360-67.) (New York: Kelley, 1969.) Oldmixon is aware of Smith's Generall Historie, referring readers there for a description of the rescue, saying only that Pocahontas's "wonderful Humanity" in saving Smith is a "remarkable Instance, how vain we are to our selves, in thinking that all who do not resemble us in our Customs are barbarous." Instead, he draws from and adds to Beverley (though in the preface to the 1741 edition he mentions a manuscript by William Byrd I), calling the king's snit a "very notable piece of King-Craft" and suggesting that "the Reader may judge" how likely intermarriage would have brought peace, "but the English were not fond of taking the Indian Women to their Beds as their Wives. Whether it was on account of their being Pagan or Barbarians we cannot decide; or whether that Nicety was not very unseasonable in the Infancy of the Settlement." See also 1741.
[colonial history]

1711

Addison, Joseph. Spectator No. 28, 2 April 1711. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 (p. 52) indicate that Addison changed the name of Bell Inn, where Pocahontas stayed in London, to "La Belle Sauvage," but the article does not seem to back that up.
[Electronic Version]

Steele, Richard. [The Story of Inkle and Yarico] The Spectator No. 11, 13 March 1711. One of many versions of the Pocahontas-like story of a shipwrecked Englishman who is aided by a native girl; they become lovers; he is rescued; he sells her into slavery. For discussion of the significance of the story, see Hulme 1986.
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

1730

Woodbury, Mary. "Pocahontas." c.1730. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 35.) According to Rasmussen and Tilton, this 1730s painting by a Boston schoolgirl is "a colonial girl's conception of an ideal woman," with "elements of formal English portrait painting of the Georgian period as it was exported to the American colonies." Tilton 1994 says this painting "is certainly the first original depiction of Pocahontas produced in the New World, and almost surely the first done by a woman" (111).
[painting]
[View Images: page 35]

1732

Churchill, John [Awnsham]. A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English. Vol. 2. London, 1732. 365. A full edition of Smith's 1630 True Travels. As in the original, the rescue is listed in a summary of Smith's Virginia "exploits."
[illustrated; colonial history]

1734

Letter ["Accidentally hearing read a Paragraph"]. Boston Gazette 17-24 June 1734. (Lawrence W. Towner, "Ars Poetica et Sculptura: Pocahontas on the Boston Common." Journal of Southern History 28.4 [1962]: 482-85.) Likely the first proposal, says Towner, "urging the elevation of Pocahontas to the status of American folk heroine" via a poem, a painting, or a statue. The anonymous English correspondent writes: "For my own part I don't recollect any of the celebrated Heroines of Antiquity of half so just a behaviour or that any way exceed her in virtue or true greatness of Mind. How many Statues and Medals would have been made by the Romans in memory of such a Lady?" The letter is followed by an account of the Smith-Pocahontas story from Beverley.

1738

Keith, Sir William. The History of the British Plantations in America. London, 1738. 63-71, 98-99, 125-29. (New York: Arno Press, 1972.) Keith, governor of Pennsylvania from 1717-1726 before returning to England, paraphrases Smith's account in the Generall Historie (except for a last paragraph drawn from Beverley), recounting Pocahontas's two rescues of Smith, her abduction and marriage, the trip to England and the meeting with Smith.
[colonial history]

1739

Nolin, Jean Baptiste, Jr. "Etablissement des Anglois a la Virginie [Settlement of the English in Virginia]." c. 1739. (Stuart E. Brown, Jr., Pocahontas. Berryville: Pocahontas Foundation, 1989. 21.) Not sure where this image comes from. Appears in Brown (the only place I've seen it) without explanatory comment.
[engraving]
[View Images: page 21]

1741

Oldmixon, John. The British Empire in America. 1708. 2nd. ed. London, 1741. Vol. 1. 360-67. (New York: Kelley, 1969.) This revised edition acknowledges use of Beverley and an account by William Bird I in the first edition (see 1708), as well as awareness of Keith's work (see the preface). And this edition contains the curious comments about the rescue and Smith's self-aggrandizement, here marked in italics, a century before the skepticism of Charles Deane, Henry Adams, and others: "The manner of his Treatment among the Indians, and his Escape, his Friendship to Nautaquaus the King's Son, and the surprizing Tenderness of Pocahonta, his Daughter, for him, when he was about to be executed, are Incidents equally agreeable and surprizing, but pretty romantick and suspicious, Capt. Smith having never dropt his main Design to make himself the Hero of his History. . . . Capt. Smith's Relation of his Adventures in this Country relates not so much to the Country, Settlement and Trade, as to himself."
[debunking: colonial history]

1747

Stith, William. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. Williamsburg, 1747. 54-61, 89-93, 127-30, 142-46. (New York: Sabin, 1865.) (Spartanburg: The Reprint Co., 1965.) Stith, well-regarded influential historian of Virginia after Beverley and president of the College of William and Mary, claims dissatisfaction with previous histories and access to original sources. His work on Pocahontas appears mainly, though, a long, long comprehensive paraphrase solely of Smith's Generall Historie (the rescue, Pocahontas as gift-bringer, her second rescue on the dark night, saving Wyffin, abduction) till the trip to England, which is a blend of material from Smith, Beverley (King James's snit), and Purchas (Tomocomo's failed arithmetic). However, what Stith adds to the Pocahontas story comes at the end, information about her son Thomas, who was first left in England with Sir Lewis Stukley, but then transferred to Henry Rolfe, "and afterwards became a Person of Distinction and Fortune in this Country," where the "Imperial Family of Virginia . . . is now encreased and branched out into a very numerous Progeny."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

1749

Goadby, Robert. An Apology for the Life of Mr. Bampfylde-Moore Carew. London, 1749. Chapter 11: 137-41. (9th ed. London, 1775. 145-48.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931.) Englishman Bampfylde-Moore Carew was a real, nationally known character -- swindler, imposter, jokester -- whose life was a best seller in numerous and various editions for a hundred years. In this biography he joins the Gypsies, becomes King of the Beggars, is transported to Maryland, escapes, and sojourns with the Indians, at which point, we get the Smith-Pocahontas story (rescue, abduction, marriage, trip to England, meeting Smith) as an example of noble action by an Indian. Goadby has been described as a key figure in the book trade of the west of England, and his Pocahontas account is copied from Oldmixon.
[Electronic Version]

1750

"Pocahontas and Thomas Rolfe." (The Sedgeford Hall portrait) c. 1750-1800. (Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. 110.) May not be Pocahontas and Thomas. See Tilton 1994 (108, 110). Thomas would not have been this old when Pocahontas died. Someone has suggested that the woman might be one of the Indian women who came to London with Pocahontas and stayed on (see 1621). Sedgeford Hall is a property of the Rolfe family in England.
[painting]
[View Images: page 110]

"Pocahontas." (The Booton Hall portrait) c. 1700-1800. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 33.) Derived from van de Passe, what Rasmussen and Tilton call a "loose copy" (note that Rolfe's name is given as Thomas). Booton Hall is the English ancestral home of the Rolfes.
[painting]
[View Images: page 33]

1755

"A clear and succinct Account of North America." [London] The General Magazine of Arts and Sciences, Philosophical, Philological, Mathematical, and Mechanical 9 (June 1755): 89-95. Smith "is preserved by the affection of a young Indian damsel . . . and by her conducted back to the colony." Also mentions Pocahontas saving Henry Spilman, her abduction, her marriage, and her baptism. Pocahontas "was the first christian Indian of these parts, and, as my author says, perhaps the most worthy that has ever been since, her affection to her husband extremely constant, and on his part to her in every respect reciprocal." "My author" is apparently Stith.
[colonial history]
[Electronic Version]

[Kimber, Edward]. "A Short Account of the British Plantations in America." London Magazine 24 (July 1755): 307-12; 24 (August 1755): 355-58; 24 (September 1755): 431-35. Seems to be chiefly copied from Stith, except for embellishments like this, which may be the first expression of love of Pocahontas for Smith: "By this means he [Smith] got them all to resolve to maintain their fort, and to provide for themselves in the best manner they could; and this resolution was in a few days confirmed by Pocahontas's coming with a great number of attendants, and bringing them plenty of all kinds of provisions, which she continued to do every four or five days for some years afterwards; for Capt. Smith had impressed such an idea upon the Indians of the English courage and knowledge, and such a terror of their instruments of war, that Pocahontas easily prevailed with her father and her countrymen to allow her to indulge her passion for the captain, by often visiting the fort, and always accompanying her visits with a fresh supply of provisions; therefore it may justly be said, that the success of our first settlement in America, was chiefly owing to the love that this young girl had conceived for Capt. Smith, and consequently in this instance, as well as many others, that love does all that's great below" (355). Closing the circle, this account describes the reunion of Smith and Pocahontas in this manner: "She at first shewed great resentment against him, which is a plain sign of her having expected that he would have married her, and indeed it was what he ought in gratitude to have done. However, such is the native modesty of the sex in all countries, that she did not even then insinuate any such expectation" (435). Another first here is the charge of ingratitude to Smith for not marrying Pocahontas.
[colonial history]
[Electronic Version]

1757

Fontaine, Peter. Letter to Moses Fontaine. 1757. James Fontaine, et. al., Memoirs of a Huguenot Family. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1967. 348-53. Virginian Fontaine sees value in intermarriage with the Indians (land inheritance, peace, conversion), "but this our wise politicians at home put an effective stop to at the beginning of our settlement here, for when they heard that Rolfe had married Pocahontas, it was deliberated in Council, whether he had not committed high treason by doing so, that is, marrying an Indian Princess; and had not some troubles intervened which put a stop to the inquiry, the poor man might have ben hanged up for doing the most just, the most natural, the most generous and polite action that ever was done this side of the water."
[Electronic Version]

Prévost, abbé. Histoire générale des voyages, ou Nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre, qui ont été publiées jusqu’à .... Volume 14. Paris, 1757. 468-72. Translators should apply.
[foreign language]

Salmon, Thomas. A new geographical and historical grammar. 5th ed. London, 1757. 615. In what might be the first mention of it since the Generall Historie, the erotic "Virginia Maske" episode that Smith recounts is the subject of a section entitled "Diversions" of the Indians. See Douglass 1758.

1758

Douglass, William. A Summary, Historical and Political, Of the First Planting. Vol. 2. Boston, 1758 [re-issue of 1753 ed.]. 422-23. Reprints from Salmon (1757) the section based on the erotic "Virginia Maske" episode that Smith recounts.

1759

"History of North America." ["The History of the Northern Continent of America"] [Woodbridge, New Jersey] New American Magazine 2.14-20 (February-August 1759): 173-224. Specifically 178-81, 194, 213-24. The introduction to this long series of articles (Jan. 1758) is a justification document, laying out the contending claims of European powers and seemingly anti-French due to the recent war. Copies accounts by Stith of Pocahontas's two rescues of Smith, her abduction, marriage, trip to England, and reunion with Smith, even including Smith's letter to Queen Anne (these last two points do not seem directly drawn from Stith and may go back to Beverley).
[colonial history]

1767

Winkfield, Unca Eliza. [pseud.] The Female American, or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield. London, 1767. (Rpt. sometimes as The Female American, or, The Extraordinary Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield or The Female American in 1800, 1814, 1970, 1974, 2001.) This early novel, which Burnham (editor of the 2001 edition) says "adds a great deal to our understanding of the cross-articulation of gender, empire, and race," begins with a version of the Pocahontas story in which rescuer and rescued marry. Captured in the 1622 massacre, the narrator's father is about to be executed when the king's daughter "stroked my father with a wand, the signal for deliverance." The Indian declares her love: "Though a complexion so different, as that of the princess from an European, cannot but at first disgust, yet by degrees my father grew insensible to the difference, and in other respects her person was not inferior to that of the greatest beauty; but what was more, her understanding was uncommonly great, pleasantly lively, and wonderfully comprehensive, even of subjects unknown to her, till informed of them by my father, who took extraordinary pains to instruct her; for now he loved in his turn." Marriage to a "Pagan" is out of the question, however, but she "became convinced of her errors" and converts. So "happy was my father . . . that he began to look upon the country he was in as his own." (Interestingly, though we just saw the introduction of Pocahontas's love for Smith in 1755, Smith will not be a romantic partner for a long time.)
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

1771

Rose, Johann Wilhelm. Pocahontas, Schauspiel mit Gesang. 1771. Ansbach, 1784. Not yet seen. Can anyone locate and supply this text?
[play; foreign language; music]

1778

Alvarez, Francisco, Asturian. Noticia del establecimiento y poblacion de las colonias inglesas en la America Septentrional. Madrid, 1778. 29-37. The Rolfe part of Pocahontas's life.
[foreign language]
[Electronic Version]

Russell, William. The History of America, from its Discovery by Columbus to the Conclusion of the Late War. Volume 2. London, 1778. 166-70. Russell, a successful historian who also published major works on modern and ancient Europe, wrote this history during the Revolutionary War, which he calls in his sub-title "the present unhappy contest." Russell footnotes the Generall Historie several times but covers only and briefly Pocahontas's rescuing actions (suggesting her love for Smith) and her marriage with Rolfe (without, amazingly, any indication at all that she was a hostage at the time). For instance, he says, the "kindness of this fair Indian" did not stop with the rescue of Smith, but "Pocahontas supplied her favourite so plentifully with provisions, that he was enabled to save the lives of many, who must otherwise have perished for want." And also "but what contributed more especially to the safety as well as advancement of the colony, was the marriage of John Rolfe, a young gentleman of great merit, to the princess Pocahontas, who had formerly shown such a predilection for captain Smith." This latter point, followed up with a rosy picture of Powhatan's resulting "cordial amity" with the English, generates a footnote about the value of intermarriage similar to Beverley and Oldmixon.
[colonial history]

1779

Granger, James. A Biographical History of England. Vol. 1. London, 1779. 399-400. This enormously successful work is a catalogue of engraved historical portraits, and Granger is important for devising a system, a taxonomy for collectors. But he has nothing to say about Pocahontas in his Smith entry: "He afterwards went to America, where he was taken prisoner by the savage Indians, from whom he found means to escape."

1780

Chalmers, George. Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from Their Settlement to the Peace of 1763. Vol. 1. London, 1780. 12-51. Chalmers, a loyalist forced to leave America in 1775, wrote to arouse opinions against the Americans. While the notes show he was aware of Smith, Purchas, and Stith, Chalmers (like Crouch a century before) doesn't mention Pocahontas at all, and, in fact, finds little exciting at all in his chapter on Virginia: "In vain shall we search their history for the fate of battles, the sack of cities, the conquest of provinces, for those objects that fix the attention or melt the heart." Apparently, the Smith-Pocahontas narrative did not enliven "the uninteresting turmoils of a few men, stationed in a desert, whose principal pursuit was for some time only in quest of food." What became national mythology for us is not even on his radar screen -- an interesting point relating to the construction of history.
[colonial history]

1781

Scheibler, Carl Friedrich. Leben und Schicksale der Pokahuntas, einer edelmuthigen Americanischen Prinzessin; eine wahre und lehrreiche Geschichte. Berlin, 1781. Not yet seen. Can anyone locate and supply this text?
[novel; foreign language]

1782

Scheibler, Carl Friedrich. Reisen, Entdeckungen und Unternehmungen des Schifs-Capitain Johann Schmidt oder John Smith. Berlin, 1782. Not yet seen. Can anyone locate and supply this text?
[foreign language]

1784

Rose, Johann Wilhelm. Pocahontas, Schauspiel mit Gesang. 1771. Ansbach, 1784.
[play; foreign language; music]

1785

Kent, John. Biographia Nautica: or, Memoirs of those Illustrious Seamen, to whose ... Conduct the English are Indebted. Vol. 3. Dublin, 1785. 385, 433-34, 456-57. Standard mentions of the rescue and the abduction, but the section on Pocahontas in England has this claim, which, though the notes only mention Smith, smells of Beverley: "When preparing for her departure, she expressed a grateful sense of the honours which she had received, and asserted that it was her firm intention to avail herself of every measure that could effect the establishment of an uninterrupted harmony betwixt the English and the Indians. . . . and died rejoicing at having been instructed in the principles of the christian faith."

1786

Chastellux, Marquis de. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782. Paris, 1786. (Translated by George Grieve. Vol. 2. London, 1787. 135-49.) (New York, 1827. 266-74.) (Translated and notes by Howard C. Rice, Jr. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1963. 419-26.) The Marquis de Chastellux was one of the French Generals who aided the Revolutionary cause. He recounts a visit to the Bollings where he was surprised to find the descendant of Pocahontas -- whom he calls "the protectress of the English" and an "angel of peace" -- quite European looking. His version of Pocahontas's life -- very influential, quite colorful, much copied (even as late as Blake 1825) -- has some interesting touches: savages "more affected by the tears of infancy, than the voice of humanity," begging Smith to "spare her family" and "to terminate all their differences by a new treaty," bitterly deploring her fate as a captive, throwing herself into Smith's arms in England, living "several years" as model wife there. Chastellux also, like Beverley, raises the issue of intermarriage, nailing James I for being "so infatuated with the prerogatives of royalty" to be upset that one of his subjects married a princess. Tilton 1994 believes Chastellux to be the "most important purveyor" of the Pocahontas narrative before John Davis.
[foreign language]
[Electronic Version]

1787

"Anecdote of Pocahunta, a Savage Princess, and Captain Smith, an Englishman." [London] Daily Universal Register 16 April 1787: 3. A bit loosely but clearly drawn from Chastellux. Perhaps for the first time, Pocahontas is given a voice in direct discourse at the rescue scene: at the "fatal moment" Pocahontas cries out, "if you kill him the first blow must fall on me." And Powhatan's "heart melted with sympathy." And thus another small step away from simple reporting of the event.

"Anecdotes of Pocahunta, an Indian Princess, from whom several respectable families in Virginia are descended." [Philadelphia] Columbian Magazine 1 (July 1787): 548-51. Directly from Chastellux. The last clause in the title is interesting, no? Indicative of the emphasis on the intermarriage and its positive value in this early period.
[genealogy]

Smith, Samuel Stanhope. An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species. Philadelphia, 1787. Appendix on Lord Kaims's Discourse, 19-20. (New York, 1810. 332-33.) (Ed. Winthrop D. Jordan. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1965. 201-2.) Relevant to the topic of intermarriage that we've seen raised several times so far in the archive. Smith argues, against Kaims, that in four or five generations, the "dark tinge" in mixing of races "may be entirely effaced." As evidence, he points to two male descendants of Pocahontas, in which Indian characteristics "appear to be entirely obliterated." One in particular is "perfectly Anglo-American." Thus, like Chastellux, there is evidence that what we might call the bad part of the interracial marriage, Indian color, fades while the good characteristics remain.
[Electronic Version]

1788

"A Letter from Capt. John Smith to the Queen, concerning Pocahontas." ["To the Most High and Virtuous Princess QUEEN ANN (wife of James I.) of Great-Britain."] [New York] American Magazine, Containing a Miscellaneous Collection of Original and Other Valuable Essays in Prose and Verse, and Calculated Both for Instruction and Amusement 1.11 (October 1788): 776-78. Reprints exactly and without editorial comment the 1616 "little booke" relating to Pocahontas's London visit, as well as his description of their meeting, that Smith published in the Generall Historie. But the excerpt is noteworthy for its footnotes critical of whites (Noah Webster is editor of the magazine): Pocahontas's charge that Englishmen lie much is "just"; "civilized men lie more than savages"; "How ought christians to blush to be charged with lying and ingratitude by savages!"

[Belknap, Jeremy.] "Memoirs of Captain John Smith." [Philadelphia] Columbian Magazine 2 (August 1788): 418-21; 2 (October 1788): 549-54; 2 (November 1788): 637-41; 2 (December 1788): 699-703; 2 (Supplement 1788): 721-27. (The key pages are 638-40, 702, 722, 725-26.) The American Plutarch series title tells us that this anonymous piece was by Belknap, who published this again in his very influential 1794 American Biography: contains accounts of the rescues, the "Virginia Maske" (perhaps the first time in an historical account since Smith), the reunion in England, and the death. Belknap notes his sources as Smith and Purchas.
[Smith biography]

1789

Morse, Jedidiah. The American geography; or, A view of the present situation of the United States of America. Elizabeth Town, 1789. 398. (2nd. ed. London, 1792.) Morse was the most eminent geographer of his day, author of the first textbook on American geography published in the United States. Brief mention of Pocahontas's marriage, her trip to England (where she was treated by merited "attention and respect"), and her death, leaving a son who eventually returned to Virginia "where he lived and died in affluence and honour." (Same account as Winterbotham 1795)
[Electronic Version]

1790

Castiglioni, Luigi. Viaggio: Travels in the United States of North America, 1785-87. 1790. Ed. Antonio Pace. Syracuse: Syracuse UP: 1983. 190-92. Interesting script by the Italian Naturalist. Smith is condemned to be burned alive. Pocahontas pleads for him, and he was "united with his liberator, and was respected by the Indians, who regard as one of their nation the prisoners that they allow to live." Both go to England, where, when Smith "no longer showed her the affection that he manifested in America, she became disgusted with him and the ingratitude with which she was treated," whereupon she left him, returned to Virginia, and married Rolfe.
[foreign language]

1791

Morse, Jedidiah. Geography made easy: being an abridgement of the American geography. 3rd edition. Boston, 1791. 192-93. The account is the same as 1789.
[Electronic Version]

Webster, Noah. "Story of Capt. John Smith, Who First Settled Virginia." The Little Reader's Assistant. 2nd ed. Northampton, 1791. 6-12. Webster, of course, is the premier early American educator and dictionary maker. This story, likely adapted from Belknap, of Smith as a model hero ("Such a man affords a noble example for all to follow when they resolve to be good and brave") describes Pocahontas saving him from death, warning him about another plot ("Thus this kind and friendly young Indian saved the English from her father's snares"), and their meeting in England ("an agreeable interview with the amiable Pocahontas"). In what is perhaps her first appearance in a schoolbook, Pocahontas is climactically represented as an "excellent woman, who would have done honor to christianity itself."
[illustrated; school book]

1793

"Pocahontas." 1793. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 32.) According to Rasmussen and Tilton, in this re-issue of the van de Passe engraving, Pocahontas's "features have become more those of an Englishwoman": "To eighteenth-century European eyes, this less 'native' Pocahontas perhaps comes closer to achieving the beauty that would have been expected of the 'Indian princess' of legend."
[engraving]

1794

Belknap, Jeremy. "John Smith." American Biography. Vol. 1. Boston, 1794. 240-319. Specifically 269-71, 284-85, 293, 307-9. Published in magazine form 1788. Belknap's collection of biographies was very influential and much copied. The Smith life contains accounts of the rescues, the "Virginia Maske," the reunion in England, and the death. In the magazine publication, Belknap notes his sources as Smith and Purchas. The book version is the same as the magazine version except for the deletion of a transition into the Virginia section and the addition of several paragraphs at the end -- the Pocahontas sections are the same in both versions.
[Smith biography]

1795

Hardie, James. The American Remembrancer, and Universal Tablet of Memory: containing a List of the Most Eminent Men. Philadelphia, 1795. 32. A list of not only eminent men but memorable events. Entry for Rolfe, "married to Pocahontas" -- no entry for Smith.

Latrobe, Benjamin. "The Pocahontas-Rolfe-Bolling Pedigree." The Virginia Journals of Benjamin Latrobe, 1795-1798. Ed. Edward C. Carter, et. al. Vol. 1. New Haven: Yale UP for the Maryland Historical Society, 1977. 111-22. Latrobe, thought of as the father of the American architectural profession and the most important engineer of his day, covers eight generations of genealogy here. Rather fascinating: this edition contains images of Latrobe's handwritten chart. "Should Monarchy and its concomitant, Nobility of blood, ever come again into fashion in this Country, an event which at this moment is most seriously apprehended by, and disturbs the sleep of many of our good citizens, I hope the blood of Powhatan will not be neglected, unless the great good sense, and merit of many of his descendants whom I know, should be thought less necessary to a man of title, than to a plain commoner. It is somewhat singular that, though the family are rather proud of their royal Indian blood, not one of them should have preferred the names of their Ancestors in their own family excepting Robert Bolling, son of Colonel John Bolling who named a son and a daughter Powhatan and Pocahontas. He was a man of great wit and learning."
[genealogy]

Lendrum, John. A Concise and Impartial History of the American Revolution. Boston, 1795. 126-27. (Trenton, 1811. 110-11.) The marriage with Rolfe -- "an opening for friendly intercourse with the natives" -- is given primacy in this brief two-paragraph account.
[U.S. history]

Winterbotham, William. An historical, geographical, commercial and philosophical view of the American United States, and of the European settlements in America. Volume 3. London, 1795. 5. Same account as Morse.

1796

Robertson, William. The History of America. Books IX and X. Edinburgh, 1796. 72-73, 92-95. One of the foremost historians of his day, Robertson, head of the University of Edinburgh, moved in intellectual circles with such men as David Hume, Adam Smith, and Thomas Carlyle. His section on Virginia draws on Smith, Stith, Beverley, and Purchas -- with some interesting variations. Pocahontas's motivation in saving Smith is "that fond attachment of the American women to their European invaders," and her marriage to Rolfe is the consequence of frequent visits to Jamestown, "where her admiration of their arts and manners continued to increase," not to being a prisoner (which is not mentioned at all), as well as the impression her superior beauty made on Rolfe. She seems to have been baptized in England, that is, after her marriage, and Robertson follows Beverley regarding intermarriage in criticizing the English for failure to intermarry (the result of cultural shyness and lack of flexibility), which the Indians "naturally imputed . . . to pride and to their contempt of them as an inferior order of beings."
[U.S. history; colonial history]

1797

Bingham, Caleb. "History of Pocahuntas." The American Preceptor; being a New Selection of Lessons for Reading and Speaking. Designed for the Use of Schools. 4th edition. Boston, 1797. 148-51. Same as Webster this year. From Chastellux. Perhaps her first appearance in a school book under her own heading.
[school book]
[Electronic Version]

Walker, John. Elements of Geography, and of Natural and Civil History. 3rd edition. Dublin, 1797. 534. In a succinct listing for historical events arranged chronologically, there is no mention of Smith's captivity, but the listing for 1613 reads: "John Rolfe was married to Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, the famous Indian chief. This connection, which was very agreeable, both to the English and Indians, was the foundation of a friendly and advantageous commerce between them."

Webster, Noah. "History of Pocahontas." An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking. 12th edition. Hartford, 1797. 95-97. A collection of essays designed to "form the morals as well as improve the knowledge of youth." Same as Bingham this year. From Chastellux. Perhaps Pocahontas's first appearance in a school book under her own heading.
[school book]
[Electronic Version]

1798

Foster, Hannah Webster. The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to her Pupils. Boston, 1798. 207. (Boston, 1829. 184.) Letter to Maria Williams from Sophia Manchester. In what is basically a treatise, Webster, author of the noted early novel The Coquette, presents through an extended correspondence between schoolgirls her ideas on female education. Reacting to the section in Belknap on Smith: "While we tremble and recoil at his dreadful situation, when bending his neck to receive the murderous stroke of death, the native virtues of our sex suddenly reanimate our frame; and, with sensations of rapture, we behold compassion, benevolence, and humanity triumphant even in a savage breast; and conspicuously displayed in the conduct of the amiable, though uncivilized Pocahontas!" An early example of a woman treating Pocahontas as a model woman.
[novel; gender]
[Electronic Version]

1800

Davis, John. The Farmer of New-Jersey, or, A Picture of Domestic Life. New York, 1800. 10-12. This is the beginning of the Davis cottage industry on Pocahontas that would include eight or so works and extend into the 1820s. Here in a chapter seemingly unrelated to the rest of the plot, the narrator's son tells the family a "once upon a time" story of Pocahuntas, an "Indian Queen," not a "squaw," who saves Captain Smith from death by burning at the stake. This tale, drawn from Chastellux and modified only by fire as the death tool, is tame compared to Davis's following works, which are credited with blowing Pocahontas representations wide open. Tilton 1994 says that Davis removes the Pocahontas story from the "exclusive preserve of historians and biographers."
[novel]

Winkfield, Unca Eliza. The Female American, or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield. Newburyport, 1800. First American edition: see 1767.
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

1801

Chateaubriand, François-René de. Atala. Paris, 1801. (Atala, or, The Love and Constancy of Two Savages in the Desert. Boston, 1802.) (Ed. Irving Putter. Berkeley: U of California P, 1952.) Chactas, a Natchez Indian, is saved from death by the half-Spanish and Christian Atala, but she cannot marry him because she has taken a vow of virginity -- and she commits suicide. See Lombard 1981 and Tilton 1994 for discussion of the effect of Chateaubriand's depiction of Indians on the Pocahontas story, though Tilton says it is "far more likely" that the Pocahontas story influenced Chateaubriand. But Tilton makes the point that "the catastrophic power of the mixing of the races" was an important factor in the fear of miscegenation that characterized the early 19th century.
[foreign language; Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

Heaton, Nathaniel. "History of Pocahontas." The Columbian Preceptor Containing a Variety of New Pieces in Prose, Poetry, and Dialogues, with Rules for Reading . . . for the Use of Schools in the United States. Wrentham, 1801. 127-30. From Chastellux.
[school book]

1802

Chateaubriand, François-René de. Rene: ou, Les Effets des Passions. Paris, 1802. (Rene: A Tale. Boston, 1815.) (Ed. Irving Putter. Berkeley: U of California P, 1952.) Companion story to Chateaubriand's Atala (1801). See Lombard 1981 and Tilton 1994 for discussion of the effect of Chateaubriand's depiction of Indians on the Pocahontas story, though Tilton says it is "far more likely" that the Pocahontas story influenced Chateaubriand. But Tilton makes the point that "the catastrophic power of the mixing of the races" was an important factor in the fear of miscegenation that characterized the early 19th century.
[foreign language]

Croswell, Joseph. A New World Planted; or, The Adventures of the Forefathers of New-England. Boston, 1802. Pocahonte plays a bit part as an Indian princess (daughter of Massasoit) in love with a white man in this story of the Pilgrim forefathers overcoming dissension in the early days of Plymouth. She's "whiter far, than other natives are," but her lover has to worry "How will it sound, that you are close ally'd / In marriage vows, with a young tawny savage?" The play concludes with a treaty of peace and a vision of the "future destiny" of the colony that is representative of the nationalistic thrust of the time.
[play; Pocahontas-like]

1803

Bolling, Robert. Memoirs of the Bolling Family. 1803. A Memoir of a Portion of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia. Ed. T. H. W. Richmond, 1868. Written in French by Bolling, translated by family member John Robertson, with notes added by John Randolph. Bolling is the husband of Jane Rolf, the grand-daughter of Pocahontas. It is this Mrs. Robert Bolling whom Chastellux visits in 1786. "The memoir relates only to that branch of the family . . . descended from Pocahontas." In the notes we find this in regard to her marriage to Rolfe: "She must have been very beautiful to have won the heart of an Oxford scholar of independent circumstances at a time when the Indian race were regarded as savages and beyond the pale of the affections of a native of Europe."
[illustrated; genealogy]

Davis, John. "Within Powhatans calm retreat." Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, New York, 1803. (Ed. Alfred J. Morrison. New York: Holt, 1909. 317.) With Pocahontas within Powhatan's calm retreat, Rolfe envies "not the gaudy great."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Davis, John. Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, New York, 1803. Contains four poems within the section on Pocahontas. (Ed. Alfred J. Morrison. New York: Holt, 1909. 285-322. Poems: 309, 310, 311, 317.) (Rpt. as Personal Adventures and Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America. London, 1817.) The second of Davis's book work on Pocahontas, containing perhaps the first poems written about her, and containing the wildest representation of her yet -- initiating future directions. Drawing on Smith and Beverley for his basic "facts" and motivated to best Chastellux as a memorialist ("No Traveller before me has erected a monument to her memory, by a display of her virtues"), Davis completely romanticizes Pocahontas for the first time. Davis's main contribution to the developing representation of Pocahontas is to make love her primary motivation (see Kimber 1755). Pocahontas falls deeply in love with Smith at first sight; he recognizes her love, cultivates it, but doesn't reciprocate it. When Smith leaves, Rolfe capitalizes on her emotional devastation, catches her on the rebound, and eventually marries her, taking her to England, where there is reunion with Smith. For the first time, Pocahontas is "hot."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Davis, John. "Sonnet to Pocahontas." ["WHERE from the shore, I oft have view'd the sail"] Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, New York, 1803. (Ed. Alfred J. Morrison. New York: Holt, 1909. 311.) (Also in John Davis, Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas, An Indian Tale. Philadelphia, 1805. 92.) (Also in John Davis, The First Settlers of Virginia, An Historical Novel. New York, 1805. 172.) Lovesick Rolfe: "Here as I pensive wander through the glade, / I sigh and call upon my Indian Maid."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Davis, John. "To Pocahontas." ["HE who thy lovely face beholds"] Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, New York, 1803. (Ed. Alfred J. Morrison. New York: Holt, 1909. 310.) Rolfe listing the sensuous joys of loving Pocahontas: "But more than mortal is the bliss / Of him who ravishes a kiss."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Davis, John. "To Pocahontas." ["WHY, sweet Nymph, that heart-fetchd sigh"] Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. London, New York, 1803. (Ed. Alfred J. Morrison. New York: Holt, 1909. 309.) Rolfe turning Pocahontas away from Smith: should your thoughts recall "a faithless lover," then "disclaim his fickle love."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Hays, Mary. "Matoaks." Female Biography, or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of all Ages and Countries. Volume 5. London, 1803. 498. (Philadelphia, 1807. Vol. 2, 501.) A one-paragraph biography in an enormous collection of women's lives from all over the world (the volume begins with Mary, Queen of Scots) by this English radical, a member of the Godwin-Wollstonecraft circle, who fought for the freedom and equality of women. "The infant colony of Virginia owed its preservation" to Matoaks (so interesting that Hays uses Pocahontas's "real" name!), "who may be considered as a national benefactress." "Her good sense raised her above the prejudices of her education, and the barbarous customs of her country." Perhaps the first of several books in the mid- to late 19th century in which Pocahontas is enshrined in a pantheon of model women -- see, for instance, Knapp, Child, Sarah Hale, Clarke, Frank Goodrich, S. W. Williams.
[gender]
[Electronic Version]

Latrobe, Benjamin. "Account of the descendants of Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, king or chief of the tribe of Powhatan, who inhabited the country about the falls of the James River, Virginia." 1803. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 23 (1885): 33. Simply notes that Latrobe gave a talk with this title on February 18. See Latrobe 1795.
[genealogy]

Review of John Davis, Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States. Edinburgh Review 2.4 (July 1803): 443-53, esp. 451-52. In a quite tepid review overall, the Pocahontas part gets the booby prize: "We never met with any thing more abominably stupid than this story, and must be excused for passing it over with very little notice."

Wirt, William. The Letters of the British Spy. Richmond, 1803. 37-42 (Letter IV). (New York, 1875. 161-70) (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1970. 161-70. Introduction by Richard Beale Davis.) A visit to Pocahontas’s birthplace spurs a melancholy meditation on the plight of the Indians on the part of this prominent lawyer who, in the 1830s, would defend the Cherokee before the Supreme Court. Virginians have “no right to this country,” and it is “no wonder” that the “poor wretches” are so “implacably vindictive against the white people." Wirt’s “soul melts with pity and shame," and he states that if he were president he would “bury the tomahawk” by asking for forgiveness and permission to remain in their homeland. But Pocahontas, “the patron deity of the enterprise” worthy of “a better fate,” undoubtedly sought in her marriage "the abolition of all distinction between Indians and white men," and deserves a festival “in honour of her memory." Without this “sensible and amiable woman,” “the anniversary cannon of the Fourth of July would never have resounded throughout the United States." And thus this essay is one of the earliest indications of what would be called the "Indian problem" and one of the earliest calls for public canonization of the “unfortunate princess.” (See Ruricola 1831 for testimony to the lasting influence of this essay.)
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

1804

Burk, John. The History of Virginia from its First Settlement to the Present Day. Vol. 1. Petersburg, 1804. 111-15, 168-70, 181-90. This lively, almost literary, historical account of early Virginia, has two very prophetic insights. First, Burk heralds the pictorial potential that would flower in the 19th century: “The spectacle of Pocahontas in an attitude of entreaty, with her hair loose, and her eyes streaming with tears . . . is a situation equal to the genius of Raphael [and in which] the painter will discover a new occasion for exercising his talents.” And, secondly, Burk foresees the emergence of a Smith-Pocahontas romance: “It is not even improbable, that, considering everything relating to captain Smith and Pocahontas as a mere fiction, [posterity] may vent their spleen against the historian, for impairing the interest of his plot, by marrying the princess of Powhatan to a Mr. Rolfe, of whom nothing had previously been said, in defiance of all the expectations raised by the foregoing parts of the fable.”
[Virginia history]

Marshall, John. The Life of George Washington. Vol. 1. London, 1804. 35-36, 52-53. (New York: AMS Press, 1969. 30-31, 43-44.) The influential Supreme Court Justice includes accounts of the rescue, abduction, and marriage as part of a "narrative of principal events" before the Revolution in his biography of Washington, making him, says Tilton 1994, a "figurative descendant of the Jamestown planters."
[Electronic Version]

Review of John Davis, Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States. The Annual Review, and History of Literature; for 1803. Ed. Arthur Aiken. Vol. 2. London, 1804. 54-59, esp. 57. "The poetry with which the volume is interspersed is very inferior to the prose. It is introduced with peculiar impropriety, in the history of captain Smith and the female Indian Pocahontas. This history, Mr. Davis assures us, has been related with an inviolable adherence to truth, every circumstance being rejected that had not evidence to support it: but by attributing his own verses to one of the personages, he has given a character of fiction to the story which was in itself too romantic to be believed without a solemn affirmation of its authenticity." But the description of the young Indian girl who reminds Smith of Pocahontas is quoted liberally.

"A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." [Boston] Monthly Anthology 1.4 (February 1804): 170-74. Not clear if this is by Davis or drawn from his 1803 Travels. Begins right at Smith's capture rather than developing his previous history as in Travels, but the basic plot is the same and some phrases are exact or similar. Most obvious difference is the classical reference: Pocahontas is Dido, Hortensia, the Goddess of Plenty. And ends with: "When we reflect that so much virtue, heroism, intellect and piety adorned so young a native of our country, we cannot but regard America as the natural clime of greatness, and consider Pocahontas, as exhibiting proof of the powers and capacity of savage nature, rather than an exception to common degeneracy." Could well be Davis because a comparison of the 1805 Captain Smith and Pocahontas with Travels shows that Davis recycles his basic plot with variation, and Tilton 1994 (p. 51) shows Davis quoting the Aeneid about Dido. Striking article; reprinted several times -- see below -- through 1814.
[Electronic Version]

"A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." [Hanover, N. H.] The Literary Tablet 1.24 (July 12, 1804): 94-95. Reprinted from the Monthly Anthology this year, same title.

1805

Arrowsmith, Aaron. A New and Elegant General Atlas. Comprising All the New Discoveries, to the Present Time. Boston, 1805. 645-46. Brief notice of the marriage of Pocahontas and Rolfe and their honorable descendants, as well as the anecdote about Tomocomo counting the inhabitants of England.

Davis, John. Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas, An Indian Tale. Philadelphia, 1805. Also contains the 1803 poem "Sonnet to Pocahontas" ["Where from the shore, I oft have view'd the sail"]: 92. Davis's third work on this topic, this one boasting Thomas Jefferson as subscriber. Tilton 1994 calls this the first admittedly fictional representation of Pocahontas's life. Same basic story of Pocahontas smitten with Smith who transfers her passion immediately to Rolfe when he is presumed dead as in the 1803 Travels, but there is considerable exotic and erotic elaboration in descriptions of Pocahontas (cherub lips, luxuriant tresses, filling bosom) and events (the happy couple's "first intercourse" and "conjugal endearments"). Pocahontas is even "hotter" than she was in 1803.
[illustrated; novel; poetry]
[View Images: frontispiece]

Davis, John. The First Settlers of Virginia, An Historical Novel. New York, 1805. Also contains the 1803 poem "Sonnet to Pocahontas" ["Where from the shore, I oft have view'd the sail"]: 172. In this fourth work on Pocahontas, by far the longest, Davis continues to flesh in the whole Pocahontas story from Travels to Captain with more details, like, for instance, adding in the abduction portion of her story.
[novel; poetry]

Holmes, Abiel. American Annals, or, A Chronological History of America from Its Discovery in MCCCCXCII to MDCCCV. Vol. 1. Cambridge, 1805. 158-91. (2nd. ed. 1829.)
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

"Memoirs of Pocahontas, from first vol. of Burke's history of Virginia." [Philadelphia] Aurora General Advertiser 7 November 1805: 2; 8 November 1805: 2. See Burk 1804. The excerpt hits the Pocahontas high points: the rescue, the abduction, meeting with Smith in London, her death. Also reprints the prophetic insight about a Smith-Pocahontas romance.

"New History of Virginia." [Bridgeport, Connecticut] Republican Farmer 27 November 1805: 4. Selection from Burk 1804, on the rescue and the abduction.

Pinkerton, John. Pinkerton's Geography Epitomised for the Use of Schools by David Doyle. Philadelphia, 1805. 174-75. Brief note on Pocahontas and Rolfe as in Arrowsmith above, prefaced by the fact that "the first settlement of Virginia" dates from the permanency brought by the 1610 arrival of Lord Delaware. No mention of Smith.
[school book]

"A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." The Philadelphia Repository 5.1 (January 5, 1805): 5-6. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

Wilmer, James Jones. The American Nepos: A Collection of the Lives of the Most Remarkable and the Most Eminent Men, Who Have Contributed to the Discovery, the Settlement, and the Independence of America. Baltimore, 1805. 69-86. Life of Smith from Belknap 1794.
[school book; Smith biography]

1807

Barlow, Joel. The Columbiad: A Poem. Philadelphia, 1807. Book IV. Lines 285-98. (London, 1809. 120-23.) In a major revision of his earlier "Vision of Columbus," in this epic poem (think Aeneid) fueled by nationalistic need the imprisoned Columbus is granted a vision of the future glory of America in which Smith, the "wise chief" of the "queen of colonies," leads "the best of men to wake to fruitful life" the "slumbering soil" of America and "rear an empire with the hand of toil." Pocahontas, a New World Medea, is urged to "Let virtue's voice o'er filial fears prevail" and lead Smith to safety, "For thine shall be his friends, his heart, his name; His camp shall shout, his nation boast thy fame."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Caritat, Hocquet. "Memories des Pocahontas." Bibliotheque américaine, contenant des mémoires sur l’agriculture, le commerce, les manufactures, les moeurs et les usages de l’Amériques. Volume 1. Paris, 1807. 179-86. Selections from Burk.
[foreign language]

"Jubilee Ode for 13th May, 1807." [Philadelphia] Port-Folio 4.3 (July 18, 1807): 47-48. A Bicentennial poem delivered in Jamestown. Defeat of the Indians. A preface notes that the author "has not found place to mention the celebrated Pocahontas," even though the poem is long.
[poetry]

"An Ode delivered by Master C. K. Blanchard, at the Jubilee of Jamestown." [Richmond] American Gleaner and Virginia Magazine 1.10 (1807): 157-60. Same as the Jubilee ode just above, with a similar afterword: "The Verse writers for the next 'Virginiad,' are requested to pay their respects to Princess Pocahontas, unavoidably neglected in this first essay."
[poetry]

Report of the Proceedings of the Late Jubilee at James-Town. Petersburg, 1807. 5, 8, 18, 19, 20, 42, 43. A collection of "orations, odes, and toasts" (including the one in the entries above) delivered at the Bicentennial celebration (the first) on May 13th. The amiable, tender, compassionate Pocahontas is remembered several times, especially in regard to the rescue, and toasted thus: "The benignant spirit, whose humanity and courage so often snatched our ancestors from famine and the sword . . . Her ashes lie neglected in a strange land, without monument or device; without Barrow, or string of Wampum, but her gentle spirit is in the midst of us, and we hail her with reverence and admiration, as the guardian genius of our fathers, or our infancy, of our cradles."

"Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas, The celebrated American Indian Princess." [New York] Lady's Weekly Miscellany 5.31 (May 30, 1807): 244-45. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

1808

Barker, James Nelson. The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage. Philadelphia, 1808. Music by John Bray. (Representative Plays by American Dramatists. Ed. Montrose J. Moses. New York: Dutton, 1918.) (The Romantic Indian. Ed. Charles M. Lombard. Vol. 2. Delmar: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1981.) (Early American Drama. Ed. Jeffrey H. Richards. New York: Penguin, 1997.) (John Bray, The Indian Princess. New World Records NW-232.) (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972.) The first play in English about Pocahontas and based, says Barker, on Smith's Generall Historie and "as close an adherence to historic truth has been preserved as dramatic rules would allow of." Which is not much. The English come to the New World for altruistic purposes, to bring civilization to the Indians. Their presence creates a division among the Indians, and the English actually fight with the "good" against the "bad" (led by Pocahontas's Indian lover). Twice Pocahontas saves Smith, whom she treats as a "brother" (asserting the first time, "White man, thou shalt not die; or I will die with thee!"), for it is Rolfe she loves ("I lived not till I saw thee"), though they do not marry within the play. The play ends with a thumpingly patriotic speech by Smith envisioning "a great, yet virtuous empire in the west" disjoined "from old licentious Europe" that underscores Barker's nationalistic purpose.
[play; music]
[Electronic Version]

Bray, John. The Indian Princess, or La Belle Sauvage. 1808. New York: Da Capo Press, 1972. The complete musical score for James Nelson Barker's play.
[music]
[View Images: cover]

Hubbard, John. "Observations on the Indians of Virginia." The American Reader Containing a Selection of Narration, Harangues, Addresses, Orations, Dialogues, Odes, Hymns, Poems . . . Designed for the Use of Schools. Troy, 1808. 212-15. This is a selection of the first seven paragraphs from the 1803 Wirt essay, the part with the very tough comments about the dire state of the Indians. The trip to Pocahontas's birthplace is simply the occasion for this excerpt; the parts of the original Wirt essay relating to her are not included.
[school book; Indian problem]

"Retrospective Notice of American Literature." [Boston] Monthly Analog [Boston Review] 5 (August 1808): 455-60. This was a series of essays on valuable older books begun in March 1808 and here dealing with a London 1627 edition of Smith's Generall Historie. The author finds Smith's letter to Queen Anne a "curious morsel," and he quotes at length the reunion with Pocahontas in England, comparing it to Beverley's account.

"Song, in the Indian Princess by J. N. Barker." The National Songster. Containing a Collection of the Most Modern and Admired Patriotic, Sentimental, Anacreontic, Comic and Masonic Songs, Original and Selected to Which is Added a Number of Selected Toasts and Sentiments. Philadelphia, 1808. 28-36. About a dozen John Bray songs from Barker's play about Pocahontas this same year. Also see Bray 1996.
[music]

1809

Allen, William. An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary. Boston, 1809. 480-81, 516, 564. (2nd. ed. Boston, 1832. 654-55, 694-95.) Standard encyclopedia entries in what is the first work of general biography published in the United States.
[Electronic Version]

Kingston, John. "Speeches for and against Captain Smith, (while a captive) husband of Pocahontas, addressed to Powhatan, the King, in the presence of the High Priest and the Chief War Captains." The Reader's Cabinet: Consisting of More Than a Hundred Papers, Original and Extract, in Prose and Verse Calculated to Instruct the Mind, Reform the Morals, and Amend the Heart. Baltimore, 1809. 153-55. Smith as the husband of Pocahontas?? That's an interesting slippage given the history of Pocahontas representations. But included here are the fictional speeches from Davis's 1805 First Settlers of Virginia by Opitchapan, Kahoky, and Nantaquas before Powhatan, arguing for and against killing the captive Smith (pp.47-50).
[Electronic Version]

Marcy, William. An Oration on the Three Hundred and Eighteenth Anniversary of the Discovery of America Delivered before the Tammany Society or Columbian Order. Troy, 1809. 47. The Tammany Society, best known for being a powerful and corrupt political force in New York in the mid-19th century, was named after a Lenape Indian and promoted a positive view of Indian culture. This speech by William L. Marcy (later Governor of New York and U. S. Secretary of State and not to be confused with William Marcy Tweed -- the infamous Boss Tweed) reminds hearers that "our social felicity and national importance spring from the misfortunes" of the Indians. What should we do? "Let us recollect they are the same race, and believe they are capable of the same friendship and generosity -- the same independence of soul and love of liberty, which distinguished a Pocahontas or a Logan. Justice and humanity demand that we should cast off our illiberal and barbarous notions concerning the Indians, and no longer amuse ourselves with the unreal picture of their unmerciful cruelty, savage ferocity, and barbarous inhumanity."
[Indian problem]

Picket, Albert. "History of Pocahontas." The Juvenile Mentor, Being the Second Part of the Juvenile Spelling-Book, Containing Progressive Reading Lessons in Prose and Verse. New York, 1809. 104-7. (Third Part New York, 1818. 109-12) Same as Bingham and Webster 1797 and based on Chastellux.
[school book]
[Electronic Version]

Randolph, Edmund. History of Virginia. 1809-1813. Ed. Arthur H. Shaffer. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1970. 24, 61-64. Randolph, a powerful political figure (governor of Virginia and first U.S. Attorney General) was a descendant of Pocahontas, and his basic facts come from Stith. In regard to Pocahontas, he says some "sudden impulse of love or compassion" saved Smith, "the soul of the Virginian enterprise," and "With whatever justice soever the character of an uncivilized Indian may have been drawn as cool, cruel, sullen, suspicious, and designing, a better class ought to be assigned to hers."
[Virginia history]

Review of "Tears and Smiles, a Comedy, by J. N. Barker / The Indian Princess or La Belle Sauvage, an Operatich Melo-Drama, in three acts, by J. N. Barker." The Ordeal; a Critical Journal of Politicks and Literature 1.21 (May 27, 1809): 322-26. The reviewer notes the difficulty American dramatists have in garnering respect, and he holds the two Barker plays up for worthy attention. The "principal interest" in the latter play is the Rolfe-Pocahontas romance, and a love scene "is well wrought, replete with tenderness, and superiour to the composition of most of the modern European play-compilers."

"A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." [Philadelphia] The Tickler 2.227 (1809): 22. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

"A Sketch of the Life of the Princess Pocahontas." [Richmond] The Visitor 1.12 (July 15, 1809): 89-90. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

1810

"Life of John Smith." Philadelphia Repertory 1.13 (July 28, 1810): 97-98; 1.14 (August 4, 1810): 105-6; 1.15 (August 11, 1810): 113-14; 1.16 (August 18, 1810): 121-22; 1.17 (August 25, 1810): 129-30; 1.18 (September 1, 1810): 137-38; 1.19 (September 8, 1810): 145-46. Drawn from Belknap 1794.
[Smith biography]

Trumbull, Benjamin. A General History of the United States of America; From the Discovery in 1492, to 1792: or, Sketches of the Divine Agency. Vol. 1. Boston, 1810. 56-64. Trumbull, a minister who also published a history of Connecticut, keyed on the element of "divine agency," not so much in Pocahontas's baptism and marriage but surely in her rescue of Smith: "In this critical moment providence wrought wonderfully, both for his own and the colony's preservation."
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Watterston, George. Glencarn; or, The Disappointments of Youth. Alexandria, 1810. 160. "Old Pocahontas" has brief mention as an African American servant in this novel by Watterston, who was later Librarian of Congress under President Madison.
[novel; slavery]

1811

Bozman, John Leeds. A Sketch of the History of Maryland during the Three First Years after its Settlement. Baltimore, 1811. 144. Bozman's section on Virginia contains only a brief account of Smith "miraculously saved" by Pocahontas.
[Electronic Version]

1812

C. "Notice of Captain John Smith, The Father of American Colonization." [Philadelphia] Port-Folio 8.3 (Sept. 1812): 218-33. The unknown "C" does not seem to be slavishly following past accounts. He covers only one episode in the Virginia period of Smith's life: the capture/rescue/conspiracy events. At the "critical moment," a "protecting Providence" snatched Smith from destruction. Pocahontas was "deeply interested in the fate of Smith." Her rescue, "which, in point of benevolence and romantickness of character, has scarcely a parallel in the records of fable, was crowned with success." The "thirst for blood" in the crowd "was converted, as by magic, into a sentiment of humanity," and Powhatan was "softened and subdued by this more than human daring of his daughter."

Davis, John. "Jamestown, An Elegy." [Philadelphia] Port Folio new series, 8.2 (August 1812): 213-15. Davis has four poems entirely relating to Pocahontas in his prose works, but she receives just a brief mention in this individually published ubi sunt elegy occasioned, he says in the headnote, by a visit to the cemetery next to the "dilapidated and forlorn" Jamestown church: "And here oft roam'd the tawny maid / Whose bosom heav'd at passion's call; / For in the town, or savage glade, / Resistless love is lord of all." Davis banging the love drum again.
[poetry]

Maxwell, William. "To William Wirt, Esq." Poems. Philadelphia, 1812. 57-60. The poet, who also edited the Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Companion, asks lawyer Wirt (see 1803) for help courting a reluctant lover and uses the Pocahontas of the "dark night" rescue (not the first rescue when Smith was captive) as a point of reference for strong love by a woman: "Yes! worthy of the nuptial knot, / False to her sire, she came, / And true to Love, betray'd his plot, / And won immortal fame."
[poetry]

Melish, John. Travels in the United States of America, in the years 1806 & 1807, and 1809, 1810, & 1811. Volume 1. Philadelphia, 1812. 235. (London, 1813, 171.) Melish, a prominent mapmaker and geographer, briefly mentions only the Rolfe-Pocahontas connection in his chapter on Virginia, dating the first permanent settlement as 1610, not 1607.

Pinkerton, John. A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World. Volume 13. London, 1812. 54-60, 74, 85-88, 111-13, 119-23. Known as the "English Strabo," Pinkerton includes Smith's Generall Historie in this huge collection of documents.

Sanders, Daniel. A History of the Indian Wars with the First Settlers of the United States, Particularly in New-England. Montpelier, 1812. 32-33. (Rochester, 1828. 22.) In a book that's been called unusual for its criticism of colonial bigotry and cruelty to the Indians, Sanders, president of the University of Vermont, finds "one of the most memorable instances of friendly dispositions towards the English is that of the amiable Pocahontas."
[Electronic Version]

"Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." [Hudson] The Casket 1.19 (April 11, 1812): 217-19; 1.20 (April 18, 1812): 229-31. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

Williamson, Hugh. The History of North Carolina. Volume 1. Philadelphia, 1812. 71-72, 77-78. Williamson, who represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention, blasts Emperor Powhatan in his only mention of Pocahontas: "As the destruction of the colony was certainly prevented by the exertions of Captain Smith, and his life was saved by the signal humanity of a young savage; we learn with pleasure that the posterity of Pocahontas, now called by different names, are numerous and respectable in Virginia, though every other branch of the imperial family, without fruit or leaf, has long since mouldered in the dust."

1813

Campbell, J. W. A History of Virginia from Its Discovery Till the Year 1781. Philadelphia, 1813. 39-40, 45, 50-52. It is not clear whether the rescue of Smith "be imputed to generous sorrow, or the softer sympathies of the mind," but it is clear that Pocahontas's "sylvan virtues were untarnished by the manners of the courts and the false delicacy of civilized life." In regard to her descendants, "Thus while the government of Powhatan has crumbled into dust under the arms of the European invaders, the imperial blood has flowed into new channels, and infused its virtues into the veins of those who tread on the ruins of his empire" (an echo of Williamson 1812 and even Stith 1747?).
[Virginia history]

[Davis, John.] Life and Surprising Adventures of the Celebrated John Smith, First Settler of Virginia; Interspersed with Interesting Anecdotes of Pocahontas, an Indian Princess. Pittsburgh, 1813. 26-33, 41-42, 52-55. Though attributed without question to Davis in Shaw & Shoemaker, this anonymously published work, which also contains a biography of John Robinson, is clearly from Belknap 1794. Both biographies are shortened a bit, the Smith one by 15-20 paragraphs. The only Pocahontas episode cut is the Virginia Maske.
[Smith biography]

Hening, Elizabeth. "Savage Magnanimity." 1813. Blair Bolling, "Commonplace Book." Mss. Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. 6-10. The Bollings are descendants of Pocahontas. Not sure what Hening's 84-line poem about Pocahontas's "dark night" journey to warn Smith of Powhatan's murder plot is doing in Blair's commonplace book: "Heroic maid thine is that hallowed love, / That flows unmingled from a source above, / From earthly dross refined by angels art, / The pure emotion of a spotless heart, / Let those who bend at Mammon's golden shrine, / And take with falsehoods lips the vow divine / Who wed the gold that fills the misers chest, / And swear to love while hatred fills the breast, / Blush if they can that in a savage mind, / A love should dwell so noble so refined."
[poetry]

Life and Adventures of Capt. John Smith, Founder of the Virginia Colony. Philadelphia, 1813. 30-38, 58-59, 73-75. Similar in title to the other anonymous work this year that has been attributed mistakenly to Davis and at quick glance they seem the same work, but this edition is clearly copied directly from Belknap 1794.
[Smith biography]

1814

"A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas." [Annapolis] Maryland Gazette and Political Intelligencer 1 December 1814. Reprint of the anonymous 1804 Monthly Anthology selection that might be by Davis.

"The Beauties of York. Inscribed to Thomas S. Pleasants." [Philadelphia] Port-Folio 3rd series, 3.6 (June 1814): 594-97. The headnote by the editor (presumably Charles Caldwell) seeks to canonize Pocahontas: "But our strongest motive for printing [the poem] is, the elegant tribute it pays to the amiable, the heroic, the neglected Pocahontas -- a princess who, in other countries, if not actually deified, would have been worshipped, at least, as a tutelary saint; but who, in this, where virtue, talents, and worth constitute the only legitimate title to distinction, has been suffered to be almost lost to fame. . . . Under Providence, she was more instrumental than any other being in the original colonization of these United States. The poet, the painter, the sculptor, and the statuary should vie with each other in doing justice to her achievements and in perpetuating her renown." The poem itself continues the theme of her unrequited love for Smith started by Davis: love for Smith "usurped the empire of her soul" but turned "to torment, to despair," and she was "left at last to nurse consuming cares, / And weep thy woes in unavailing tears."
[poetry]

Bromley, Walter. Mr. Bromley’s Second Address, on the Deplorable State of the Indians. Halifax, 1814. 9-11. Bromley, who one commentator has called an "enigmatic reformer," gave this address at his Royal Acadian School in Halifax, a school founded, in his own words, on the most liberal principles. His project was to produce a "sensation of comiseration in the minds of the public" for the Indians and to develop plans for the benefit of "these poor neglected fellow-creatures." In this speech he strove "to prove the great capability of the Indians to become a civilized people, the idea of which the white inhabitants of this colony generally consider chimerical and problematical." He includes, without attribution, the section from Chastellux on Pocahontas.
[Indian problem]

Davis, John. "The Angel of the Wild." [Philadelphia] Port Folio 3rd series, 3.4 (April 1814): 374-75. In this second poem on "Mercy's meekest child" published outside his prose works, Davis focuses squarely on the rescue moment. Pocahontas's appeal is so powerful that Powhatan immediately stays the execution and gathers her in his arms: "When lo! with scream of anguish loud, / A tender child, in gorgeous vest, / Runs to the stranger, through the crowd, / And, kneeling, clasps him to her breast. / See, see her arms around him twined, / And hear her pour her piteous wail, / As if for hopeless love she pined, / Her tresses loose, her dear cheek pale." The footnote indicating Pocahontas was eleven seems to qualify what might be meant by "hopeless love."
[poetry]

1815

Carey, Mathew. The olive branch; or, Faults on both sides, federal and democratic. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, 1815. 326. First published shortly after the sack of Washington by the British, this book argued for our two political parties to come together and avoid civil war. Defending the Irish against charges of treason, when Americans with Indian blood or claiming descent from the Pilgrims were the problem: "I said there is no country that owes more to foreigners than the United States. . . . But now, like the squeezed orange, they are to be thrown aside, and trodden under foot. The illustrious La Fayette, Gen. Lee, Gen. Gates . . . and hundreds of others, eminent during the revolution, were foreigners, and many of them were not excelled for services, and merits by any native American, whether the dingy blood of a Pocahontas crawled through his veins, or whether he descended in a right line from any of 'the Pilgrims' that waged war against the potent Massasoit."

1816

Ramsay, David. History of the United States, from Their First Settlement as English Colonies. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1816. 15-25. The rescue is the only Pocahontas event included: Smith "was the father of Virginia, and one of the first links of the chain of causes, which has filled a great part of North America, with civilized inhabitants." He, the "life and soul of the settlement," was "providentially preserved" by Pocahontas.
[U.S. history]

[Tucker, St. George.] "Letter XVII: To Mr. Henry D---." Letters from Virginia. Baltimore, 1816. 149-59, esp. 150-51. Tucker was an eminent lawyer (the "American Blackstone") and man of letters. This letter, an ubi sunt meditation at Jamestown like Davis 1812 or like Wirt 1803, stirs images of Pocahontas: "I naturally look upon the scenes of [Virginia's] history with the eyes of a patriotic lover. A thousand ideas and emotions . . . rushed thro' my mind in an instant. I thought upon Smith, that gallant and romantic spirit, who deserves to be honoured as the founder of the state. I thought upon Pocahontas, that incomparable Indian, who is now perhaps its tutelary angel. . . . I discovered the Indians moving over the little isthmus, dressed off in their finest feathers, with Pocahontas before them, like another fabulous Ceres, bearing presents of corn and fruit to the poor perishing strangers -- they meet together -- they embrace -- they smoke the pipe of peace -- they lead off the dance of simple innocence and joy. Who would not gaze forever on such a vision of delight?" (Attributed also to William Maxwell and to James Kirke Paulding, who uses the phrase "tutelary angel" in his 1817 Letters, but see Strobia 1817 as well.)

1817

Paulding, James Kirke. Letters from the South. New York, 1817. 16, 18-19. (New York, 1835. 23, 25.) Letter 2, 1816. Prolific Paulding was once thought of as one of the premier American writers. His remarks here are triggered more by reading Smith's Generall Historie than by a Southern landmark: "Neither Neptune, nor Jupiter, nor Minerva, took [the colonists] under their protection; nor did Medea assist them in overcoming the obstacles in their way by any of the arts of magic. Fortitude, valour, perseverance, industry, and little Pocahontas, were their tutelary deities, and their golden fleece, fields of corn, and plantations of tobacco."
[Electronic Version]

Review of William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry. [Philadelphia] Analectic Magazine 10 (1817): 463. See Wirt 1823. ""Mr. Henry's scheme of 1784, for rearing a red and white progeny to Pocahontas, and other Indian ladies, we have not time to describe; but think it ingenious enough."

Strobia, John Henry. “Journal of an Excursion to the North and East in the Summer of 1817.” Manuscript in the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. Abrams' quotes from this ms. seem exactly as in Tucker 1816. Not sure what to make of that. (See Abrams 1999, 47.)

Virginian, A. The Lives of Sir Walter Raleigh and Capt. John Smith. Shepherd's-Town, 1817. Copy of Belknap 1794,
[Smith biography]

Wirt, William. Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry. Philadelphia, 1817. 238-42. (Philadelphia, 1836, 1841. 255-60.) Henry introduced legislation providing a financial reward for intermarriage, which he considered a way of mitigating the "unremitting war" on the borders "which eclipse the wildest fictions of the legendary tale." To which Wirt footnotes, "The adventure of Captain Smith and Pocahontas, if you put aside the dignity of their characters, is cold and tame, when compared with some which are related among the western inhabitants of this state."
[Electronic Version]

1818

"Indian Philanthropy." [Annapolis] Maryland Gazette and Political Intelligencer 10 December 1818. Same as "Traits of Indian Character" below this year.

"Modern Pocahontas." Trenton Federalist 26 October 1818: 2. A Pocahontas-like act: a Seminole woman saves the life of a Georgia militia man. See other entries this year: we begin to find Pocahontas as the model for Indian women actively aiding whites.
[Pocahontas-like]

"Pocahontas." [New York] Weekly Visitor and Ladies' Museum 1.23 (April 4, 1818): 364-65. Dramatization of the rescue: "But ne'er shall it fall, for one bosom is nigh, / That grieves for his fate, and laments he should die, / Oh! maiden! thy name from our minds should efface, / The crimes of thy sire, and the guilt of thy race." Affection and hatred strive for mastery in Powhatan, but affection prevails.
[poetry]

Reflector. [Chillicothe] "A Second Pocahontas!" The Supporter 16 December 1818. A Pocahontas-like rescue. Full story of the Seminole woman mentioned above and below this year who saves a Georgia militia man who now seeks to marry her.
[Pocahontas-like]

"Traits of Indian Character." [New York] American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review 4.2 (December 1818): 157-58. Three episodes trigger the comment that "we occasionally meet with traits of Indian character, so disinterested and noble, so humane and generous, as to produce in the civilized mind, mingled emotion of astonishment and delight." One is Pocahontas, a second is Cherokee Attakullakulla ("always the friend of peace of white men") who guides an Army officer nine days through a wilderness to safety, and the third is the Seminole mentioned above, now courted by the man she saved. "It thus appears, that rude and uncultivated minds are susceptible of the finest sensibility, of the warmest attachments, of the most inviolable friendship -- and that they sometimes practice virtues, which would do credit to a people the most refined and enlightened."
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

1819

"Historical Fact." [London] La Belle Assemblee October, 1819. 154-55. (Rpt. "An Araucanian Pocahontas." The Researcher 1.4 [July 1927]: 235-36.) La Belle Assemblee was a fashionable woman's magazine. The story of Smith's rescue is told in the traditional way till the end, when Pocahontes tells Smith, while resting "at her father's palace," that her mother was the only child of the South American Indian hero Lautaro, who led resistance against the Spanish in Chile in the mid-16th century, and that "she gloried in her Araucanian ancestors." The story of Lautaro -- as "matchless in courage, in warlike resources, and presence of mind, as in lofty stature and perfect beauty . . . and performing prodigies of valour" but who died fighting for his country -- is then told without apparent connection to Pocahontas's act except, perhaps, by implication, to the source of her heroic qualities. However, this may be the first representation of Pocahontas's mother. Webster 1840 will make the mother of Norse descent.

Sanford, Ezekiel. A History of the United States before the Revolution. Philadelphia, 1819. 14-20. Standard mentions of the rescue, the abduction, and her marriage as a foundation for peace. Nothing about the trip to England.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Scott, Moses Y. "Pocahontas." Fatal Jest, A Tale: and Other Poems. New York, 1819. 45-46. (Specimens of American Poetry. Ed. Samuel Kettell. Vol. 3. Boston, 1829. 117-18.) (Songs, Odes, and Other Poems on National Subjects. Ed. William McCarty. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1842. 370-71.) Pocahontas's dark night journey through what Smith calls "the irksome woods" to save Smith from Powhatan's plot to murder him and his men: wind whipping her hair away from her bare bosom, Pocahontas warns of Powhatan who would drink your blood and devour your children, asking, when it's all over, if she'll ever be betrayed or forgotten.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africke, and America beginning about the Yeere 1593, and Continued to this Present 1629. Vol. 2 is The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. Ed. John Holt Rice and Francis Walker Gilmer. Richmond, 1819. This is the first American edition of Smith's Generall Historie, which is, of course, the main source of information about and later representations of Pocahontas. For information about this edition: Richard Beale Davis, "The First American Edition of Capt. John Smith's True Travels and General Historie." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 47 (1939): 97-108.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Woodward, Thomas. "Smith." The Columbian Plutarch, or, An Exemplification of Several Distinguished American Characters. Philadelphia, 1819. 34-37. One of the post-revolutionary attempts to foster American identity by collecting biographies. Description of the rescue in this brief biography of Smith.

1820

Belknap, Jeremy. The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Captain John Smith. London, 1820. See Belknap 1794.
[Smith biography]

Eastburn, James Wallis, and Robert Sands. Yamoyden, A Tale of the Wars of King Philip. New York, 1820. No specific mention of Pocahontas in this early poem, but Tilton 1994 (64-65) suggests a connection because of the way the intermarriage of Indian and White is handled, specifically its failure.
[poetry; Pocahontas-like]

Grimshaw, William. History of the United States, from Their First Settlement as Colonies, to the Peace of Ghent. Philadelphia, 1820. 26-36, esp. 29, 32-34. Grimshaw, author of several history books, was not quite true to the "facts" here: the Pocahontas rescue happens the second time Smith is captured, Pocahontas frequently visited the English after Smith left and was captured there, her marriage was celebrated "with extraordinary pomp," and she was "publicly baptized" in England.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Hillhouse, William. Pocahontas; A Proclamation: With Plates. New Haven, 1820. In this satirical pamphlet, "Pocahontas" addresses the non-slave holding states, proclaiming that "the welfare and happiness of the body politic, depends on the subordination of the inferior members to the head" and initiating "a crusade for unlimited slavery." Tilton 1994 says that Hillhouse used "Pocahontas" because "she was the the literal and/or figurative progenetrix of the Virginia gentry," and he was able "to express the foolishness of having a mixed-blood aristocracy in a society where racial separation is mandatory," thus questioning "the essential distinctions upon which the southern planter ideology was based." Written just after the Missouri Compromise, this pamphlet is, perhaps, the first use of Pocahontas in North/South hostilities.
[slavery]

Prentiss, Charles. History of the United States of America. Keene, 1820. 23-24. Relatively standard account of Smith and Pocahontas matters until a final comment about her descendants, "who, instead of mortification, ought to glory in the virtues of their illustrious ancestor." Now where does that come from!
[school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Sabine, James. An Ecclesiastical History, from the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time. Boston, 1820. 531-32. Brief mention. The Southern colonies "furnish but a very brief ecclesiastical history. . . . The only object of adventurers to Virginia was commerce. . . . the history of Virginia is virtually barren of spiritual affairs [but] the conversion of Pocahontas as Indian princess is one of the chief events of these times."

Ship's Figurehead of Pocahontas. c. 1820. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 41.) Rasmussen and Tilton say that the carving they show "once adorned a merchant ship owned by the wealthy Philadelphian Stephen Girard. . . . Indeed, it is one of the more spectacular of early nineteenth-century American ship carvings to survive." Since Pocahontas took a long sea voyage from which she did not return, it was a natural romantic notion to name ships or carve figureheads after her.
[artifact; illustrated]
[View Images: artifact]

[Tudor, William.] Letter XII: "On the past, present, and future State of the Indians." Letters on the Eastern States. New York, 1820. 245-46. (2nd ed. Boston, 1821. 290-91.) Tudor was an esteemed literary figure -- first editor, for instance, of the North American Review -- and we see him here ruminating on the Indian problem that Jackson would pursue at the end of the decade and that would lead to the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. Tudor mentions Pocahontas as one of the few positive points of reference in the otherwise dismal present state of the Indians: "Attempts have been occasionally made . . . to give individuals an education . . . . but notwithstanding all these attempts, I do not at this moment recollect that one civilized Indian has ever discovered any kind of superiority; not a single family of them has been kept up in a tame state. There has never been even a scion ingrafted on the wild stock, that has produced fruit of any value. The only example that I know of is in Virginia, where it is said some of the descendants of Pocahontas are proud of their descent from that interesting Indian princess. . . . There are one or two characters preserved in our histories that interest us in a degree, like Pocahontas. But the prejudice against the Indians, even when they were our equals in some things, and our superiors in power, prevented all intermarriages. They were treated with contempt, and of course with injustice."
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Waln, Robert. American Bards: A Satire. Philadelphia, 1820. 29. Byron's "The cry is up and scribblers are my game" is one of Waln's epigraphs in this satirical survey romp through American poets. John Davis's 1814 "Angel of the Wild" -- "alias Miss Pocahontas" -- is the subject of Waln's barb. Davis is described as "famous for seldom being read, and never understood."
[poetry]

1821

By a Virginian. [Carter, St. Leger Landon.] The Land of Powhatan. Baltimore, 1821. 9, 68-102. The notes show Carter, a literary man who was a long time contributor to the Southern Literary Messenger, familiar with Stith and especially Burk, but this version of Pocahontas as traitor to her people is totally his own: "I have availed myself of the unbounded license of versification in fashion at the present day." Pocahontas saves Smith, but Powhatan has already promised her as bride to Japasaws. Someone, probably Smith, kills Japasaws and abducts Pocahontas, incurring the wrath of Opechancanough and Powhatan. The upshot of the rescue, then, is Powhatan regret that the moment for freeing his country passed because of giving in to Pocahontas (a shameful daughter) in a weak moment and "revenge be now his only care."
[poetry]

Deffebach, Lewis. Oolaita; or, The Indian Heroine. Philadelphia, 1821. The chief's daughter intercedes for two white lovers, not for love but for the principle of love. Discussed in Sollors 1986.
[Pocahontas-like]

Harris, William Tell. Remarks Made during a Tour through the United States of America in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819. London, 1821. 6, 52.

"The Indian Character." [Charleston] City Gazette 15 August 1821: 2. The Indian problem that's starting to get attended to; see Tudor 1820. This article meditating a bit melancholily on the gradual and inevitable disappearance of the Indians includes a section from the Boston Patriot: the education of Indians had not been properly conducted and has not been successful, but "let a plan for instructing the Indian youth be adopted. . . . we may then consider the experiment fairly tried, whether our red brethren, the descendants of Massasoit and Pocahontas, are not capable of becoming at some future period useful citizens of our happy country."
[Indian problem]

Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
[homage]
[Electronic Version]

Review of The Land of Powhatan, By a Virginian [St. Leger Landon Carter]. Evangelical and Literary Magazine and Missionary Chronicle 4.7 (July 1821): 356. Liberally quotes from the description of the rescue ("one of the finest incidents in all romance") and expands on how the poem then "dallies a little with history."

Wright, Frances. Views of society and manners in America, in a series of letters from that country to a friend in England, during the years 1818, 1819, and 1820. London, 1821. 211. Fanny Wright, engaged in radical projects involving the status of slaves, women, and the working man, was a leading social reformer of the early 19th century. In her "Observations of the Indians" during her first tour of America, this young "liberated woman," though sympathetic, saw a race rightly destined to fade: "The increase and spread of the white population at the expense of the red is . . . the triumph of peace over violence." The mixed race that is the result of Spanish intermarriage with the Indians may soon rival in strength the nations of the Old World, but "the marriage of Rolfe . . . with the amiable Pocahontas is almost the only instance on record of a legal engagement contracted by the early [English] settlers with the women of this country."
[Electronic Version]

1822

Davis, John. American Mariners, or, The Atlantic Voyage. London, 1822. Lines 218-20. Probably based on his return voyage to England, the purpose of this book in a post-War of 1812 period was to paint a positive picture of Americans, and it contains the last product of Davis's cottage industry on Pocahontas begun in 1800. "Sunrise in the English Channel" on the first sight of England ("This is the land where love and pity mourn / O'er the soft Indian's monumental urn; / Virginia's jewel, and her sex's pride, / Who on a foreign shore untimely died") triggers an emotional telling of the Pocahontas rescue of Smith: "She flies on seraph's wing, and through the crowd, / With piercing cry, 'mid acclamations loud, / Seeks the pale victim, by compassion led, / And in her arms sustains his languid head / . . . Streams from her eyes -- sobs from her bosom flow -- / And pale that cheek where the rose loves to glow." A footnote indicates that Pocahontas's life exemplified that "Fine Spirits / Are touch'd to fine Issues" and that her descendants are the "patricians of Virginia": the Bowlings, Murrays, Jeffersons, Randolphs, Middletons, and Pierpoints.
[poetry]

Gardiner, W. H. Review of James Fenimore Cooper, The Spy. [Boston] North American Review 6.11 (July 1822): 250-82, esp. 255-56. Smarting from English criticism after the 1812 war, nationalism reared its head. In a review important to our literary history for its promotion of native materials ripe for an "American" literature, Gardiner lists Smith, the man of martial adventure in his youth, who spent "his riper years, amidst the cares of a colonial government, in the arms of the renowned Pocahontas."

Goodrich, Charles A. A History of the United States of America, on a Plan Adapted to the Capacity of Youths. 35th ed. Boston, 1822. 19-24. Rather substantial account of the rescue is the only event elaborated in the section on early Virginia. Doomed to death "as a man whose courage and genius were peculiarly dangerous to the Indians," Smith was saved by Pocahontas, who sought his life with "the eloquence of mute, but impassioned sorrow," causing a sympathy that "melted the savage throng." Brief mention of her second rescue and the marriage to Rolfe. (In the 1853 [28-30] edition, all the Smith and Pocahontas material is moved to footnotes.)
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]

Hamilton, Augusta, Lady. Marriage Rites, Customs, and Ceremonies, of All Nations of the Universe. London, 1822. 327, 330-33. "Women form so prominent a feature in the history of the universe, that whatever respects their various ranks and conditions must be important and entertaining," says Hamilton, and the information she has compiled from travelers, navigators, and missionaries "have powerfully attacked the demons of Superstition and Terror." Her purpose seems to be "to render women more virtuous." After sections on Native Americans, Canada, Massachusetts, New England, and Pennsylvania, Hamilton's discussion of Virginia mores is straight out of Davis's 1803 Travels, copying his description of the fashionable Indian girl with the pretty feet who reminds him of Pocahontas and recounting at length the Pocahontas-Smith-Rolfe affairs, though without especial comment except that the story "has lately been a subject of theatrical exhibition."
[gender]
[Electronic Version]

"On American Literature." Alexandria Herald 17 June 1822: 4. Like Gardiner, this essay promotes an American national literature: "America has resources, which are as yet almost untouched, and which will not suffer by comparison with any." Among incidents to be snatched "from the shades of oblivion by the hand of genius, and inscribed forever on the roll of fame" is the story of Pocahontas. "The day may come when Pocahontas will breathe in productions of the painter and the statuary and animate the glowing lines of the poet" (to which the writer adds that since writing the essay he has come across Carter's 1821 work).

Sigourney, Lydia H. Traits of the Aborigines of America, A Poem. Cambridge, 1822. 74-79. The prolific Sigourney, the "Sweet Singer of Hartford," was one of that "damned mob of scribbling women" responsible for the rise of feminized, sentimental fiction in the early nineteenth century that Hawthorne complained about. In this, the first of several writings about or mentions of Pocahontas, and one of her earliest works, Pocahontas is, memorably, like the maid who saved the infant Moses, who then overcame the Pharaoh.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

1823

Carey, Henry Charles. The Geography, History and Statistics of America and the West Indies. London, 1823. 206-7. Short historical sketch of Virginia from 1607-1783. The colony is indebted to Smith for its preservation, and the Pocahontas rescue is "an incident which occurred during this period [that] has lent to his history the attractions of romance."
[Electronic Version]

Everett, John. Review of John Smith's True Travels and Generall Historie. North American Review 16 (April 1823): 270-83. Longish summaries of both these works hits the main Pocahontas reference points: the two rescues, providing food, the "Virginia Maske" (interestingly, "bearing a pretty fair comparison in point of social, intellectual delight, with certain more refined assemblies in later days") abduction, marriage, reunion with Smith, and death. As if answering an implied question about a relationship, the reviewer affirms Pocahontas's "love for Smith," but, though "he had found leisure in the tumults of the new colony, to cultivate her friendship," he stresses that Smith "never alludes to her in any other terms than gratitude for her protection."

"First Lessons in History." New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 1.2 (August 9, 1823): 14-15. Favorable review of Thayer 1823, with accounts of Pocahontas's two rescues of Smith the only example quoted from a book that "has conferred an invaluable benefit on the rising generation."

Goodrich, Charles A. A History of the United States of America. Hartford, 1823. 17-20. (Hartford, 1833. 46-53.) The material in the 1822 Goodrich is now preceded by a detailed account of Smith's life before Virginia, making, in effect, Smith's biography equal to the history of Virginia up to 1609.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Haywood, John. The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee. Knoxville, 1823. 47-48. Another Pocahontas-like figure. During the Revolutionary War, the British policy was to arm the Indians and wreak havoc on the Americans. The attack of the Cherokee around the Tennessee-Virginia border "was rendered much less destructive than was intended, by the address and humanity of another Pocahontas, Nancy Ward, who was nearly allied to some of the principal chiefs, obtained their plan of attack, and without delay communicated it" to the Americans.
[Pocahontas-like]

Hulbert, Charles. "Princess Pocahontas." Museum Americanum, or, Select Antiquities. London, 1823. 312-15. Description of the capture of Smith and the rescue of Pocahontas given at some length, as well as the lengthy excerpt from Robertson on her marriage to Rolfe and baptism that links her far superior beauty to Rolfe's attraction -- all under what looks like a series title: "Instances of Extraordinary Personal Beauty." The story of the "Princess Pocahontas will live while gratitude and feeling exists in the minds of Englishmen and Americans." Hulbert regrets "he has not at hand more detailed and circumstantial particulars of this lovely and heroic Indian."
[Electronic Version]

Paulding, James Kirke. Koningsmarke, The Long Finne. New York, 1823. This novel has a Pocahontas-like plot element that Tilton 1994 (76-77) sees as a parody of the rescue, suggesting Paulding's sense that such scenes were "ridiculous."
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

Thayer, Caroline Matilda. First Lessons in the History of the United States. New York, 1823. Amiable account of this "amiable child" and later the "amiable princess," with a great misprint: in England Pocahontas "became very formal and evil [sic] in her manners, after the English fashion." O, those wicked English etiquetters.
[school book; U.S. history]

1824

American Society for Promoting the Civilization and General Improvement of the Indian Tribes within the United States. [Jedidiah Morse] "A Plea for the Indians." The First Annual Report of the American Society for Promoting the Civilization and General Improvement of the Indian Tribes in the United States. New-Haven, 1824. 71-74. Another reference to Pocahontas in the context of the Indian problem that we first saw here in Tudor 1820. Morse, the Father of American Geography (see 1789), promoted civilizing and Christianizing Indians, and in 1820 headed a government commission visiting various tribes to devise the most suitable means for their improvement. This essay is described in the headnote as "A Speech which might be delivered in Congress, on the motion of the Hon. Mr. Cobb, from Georgia, to discontinue the annual appropriation of $10,000 for the civilization of the Indians." "We have a right to infer that if nothing is done to preserve the Indians, they will soon cease from the earth, and not a memorial remain but the mounds which cover their ashes. . . . Are the services of Uncas, and the good Pocahontas, to be forgotten, or requited with the extirpation of the Indian race?"
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

"An Account of the first English settlement in Virginia, founded by captain Smith." Columbian Historian 1.14-1.17 (Oct. 22-Dec. 9, 1824): 110-37. Interesting that this series of articles, posing as real "history," is, rather, from John Davis's First Settlers 1805.

Barbaroux, Charles Ogé. Résumé de l’histoire des États-Unis de’Amérique. 2 éd. Paris, 1824. 45-50. (Philadelphia, 1848. 33-37.) The 1848 edition is for students learning French, "a book as flattering to our national pride, as it is favourable to the cultivation of patriotic feelings and sentiments."
[foreign language; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Buckingham, Joseph T. "Jamestown." Miscellanies Selected from the Public Journals. Volume 2. Boston, 1824. 33-37. A collection of newspaper pieces by Buckingham, prominent journalist and editor of the Boston Courier. A traveller meditates on the past at this deserted, dilapidated, but "romantic spot." "Here, too, the cunning and insidious Powhatan, swayed his savage sceptre; here his daughter, the humane, and ever memorable Pocahontas displayed those virtues which, as they have given her an immortality, have proved to the world, that the warmest sensibility and most disinterested friendship are not confined to civilized life. Who can think of her vigilance, her humanity, her despairing intreaties in behalf of captain Smith, while in the power of her inexorable father, without emotion? So much virtue, constancy, and magnanimity, even to the savage heart, was irresistible."
[Electronic Version]

Carter, Bernard M. "Pocahontas." Poems. London, 1824. 9-20. Maybe I'm just having a series of bad days, but I can't make anything of this poem. Inscrutable. Impenetrable.
[poetry]

Child, Lydia Maria. Hobomok, A Tale of Early Times. New York, 1824. No specific mention of Pocahontas in this early novel, but Tilton 1994 (65-66) suggests a connection because of the way the intermarriage of Indian and White is handled, specifically its failure.
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

Cooper, Thomas. Strictures Addressed to James Madison on the Celebrated Report of William H. Crawford, Recommending the Intermarriage of Americans with the .... Philadelphia, 1824. 12-14. Another entry related to the Indian problem. To weaken the presidential prospects of William H. Crawford in 1824, Cooper republishes his earlier letters in answer to Crawford's 1816 Indian Report that suggested possible Native American assimilation and inter-marriage with whites. Cooper is vicious: "You can no more convert an Indian into a civilized man, than you can convert a negro into a white man." "Let any man look at the strange, wild, forbidding, doubtful features of the person who boasts of his descent from the princess Pocahontas [John Randolph?], and let him ask himself 'Would I wish my child to look like this man?' I protest and vow with all seriousness that I would not." "How many sweet little cherubs, beautiful as John Randolph, the princess Pocahontas might have added to our population when she condescended to let some naughty foreigner take liberties with her lovely person I do not pretend to say."
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

"Copy of an Interview with Thomas Jefferson by My Father, the Late Samuel Whitcomb, Formerly of Dorchester, Mass., June 1, 1824." Jefferson Papers. Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. Cited by Sheehan 1973 as containing the record of a conversation in which Thomas Jefferson said proudly that both his daughters married descendants of Pocahontas. Peden 1949 prints the manuscript but says it's in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Davis, John. "Sonnet to Pocahontas." Columbian Historian 1.17 (December 9, 1824): 130. Within the Columbian Historian cited above. The poem that begins "WHERE from the shore, I oft have view'd the sail."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

"Newark Bible Society." The Religious Intelligencer 9.16 (Sept. 18, 1824): 248. Yet another entry addressing the Indian problem. Extract of a speech by William W. Miller, June 13, exhorting the Bible Society to work with the Indians "or they will be exterminated." "Having been for three centuries in the immediate neighborhoud of christians, and within the echo of the songs of Zion, they are still rude heathens, and know not the God who made them. Why is it thus? Cannot the Aboriginies be converted to christianity? Are the brethren of Pocahontas and Logan too base, too degraded, to be affected even by word which is sharper than any two edged sword? Have you tried it? . . . . Are ye willing to witness their utter extinction? Are ye willing that the dying moan of the last Indian should reach the ear of Him who is no respecter of persons?"
[Indian problem]

1825

"The American Love of Country." Christian Watchman 6.41 (September 16, 1825): 164. The excerpt from Stow's speech quoted in the entry below.

Anderson, Rufus. Memoir of Catherine Brown. Philadelphia, 1825. Cherokee woman attends Moravian mission school and becomes the first convert. Her life is such a sterling example of saint-like Christianity that she becomes a kind of poster woman for the potential of the Indians, like Pocahontas was: "Shall her people, of whom, by the purifying and ennobling influences of the gospel, so much can be made, be abandoned to ignorance and wo? Shall beings, who are capable of knowing God, of understanding the grand economy of his grace, of enjoying the imperishable blessings of his salvation, be shut out eternally from such wisdom, and debarred for ever from such enjoyment? Are they not susceptible of whatever is useful, and beautiful, and even sublime, in character? Can they not appreciate, and will they not use, the means of Christian civilization, if placed within their reach?" (See Knapp 1842)
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

Blake, Rev. J. L. " The Indian Princess." The Historical Reader, Designed for the Use of Schools and Families. Concord, 1825. 238-41. An excerpt from Chastellux, still circulating from 1786.
[school book]
[Electronic Version]

By The Stranger. [Hiram Haines.] "The Virginiad." Mountain Buds and Blossoms, Wove in a Rustic Garland. Petersburg, 1825. 30-33. Haines, poet and newspaper editor, hosted the honeymoon of Poe and Virginia Clemm at his house. "Virginia hail! thou loveliest land on Earth" begins this hymn of praise to the land, the people, and the principles of Virginia by an author who declares, "Born and reared in the Old Dominion, I wish never to go permanently beyond its boundaries." Pocahontas, not Smith, stands with Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Monroe -- "Virginia's Sons of lustrous Fame" -- in this regional celebration. Like in Davis, "him, for whom her chaste affections burned, / Ne'er from his breast, love's echoing notes returned." But there is no Rolfe to assuage Pocahontas's passion this time. Smith, "cruel man," leaves his "guardian angel" weeping over his "imagined grave."
[poetry]

Capellano, Antonio. "Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas." 1825. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 14.) Rasmussen and Tilton point out that the rescue was so accepted that it was chosen for inclusion in the Capitol building in a relief by the Italian sculptor Capellano that emphasized the reaction of Powhatan's "grim courtiers" to Powhatan rather than his response to Pocahontas.
[sculpture]
[View Images: page 14]

"Captain John Smith." [Worcester] Rural Repository 1 (1825): 100. Relatively brief biographical sketch of Smith notes his rescue by Pocahontas.

Halkett, John. Historical Notes Respecting the Indians of North America. London, 1825. 98-118. Scotsman Halkett, one of whose official posts was governor of the Bahamas, traveled in America in the early 1820s, and this book recommended a more sympathetic policy toward the Indians. The story of Pocahontas (drawn from Smith, Purchas, and Stith as the notes show) dominates his chapter on "Friendly Conduct of the North American Indians towards the Early European Settlers" and ends with an appreciative nod to Virginia statesman John Randolph, who "perhaps esteems himself in nothing more fortunate than that there flows in his veins the blood of Pocahontas."
[Electronic Version]

Kanki, Vicente Pazos . Compendio de la historia de los Estados Unidos de America. Nueva York, 1825. 30, 34. (La Paz, 1976. 49, 55.)
[foreign language]

Robertson, John. Virginia: or, The Fatal Patent. A Metrical Romance. In three cantos. Washington, 1825. Robertson, later Attorney General of Virginia and member of the United States House of Representatives, creates a tale in which a "lone exile," the last of the Roanoke colonists (and based on a character from Scott's Waverly novels), saves Pocahontas, who then saves Smith. Powhatan, enraged that Pocahontas has become Christian, is not permanently reconciled and chases the trio for days through the wilderness. The story ends with the "exile" having a vision of the future glory of America and of Pocahontas "on her nuptial day . . . array'd in white . . . blessed with every Christian rite" -- apparently marrying Smith.
[poetry]

Stow, Baron. Oration, delivered at the Columbian College, in the District of Columbia, July 4, 1825. Washington City, 1825. 11. Stow, who would become a prominent Baptist minister in New England with a special interest in missions, exhorts his jubilee year audience at what is now George Washington University to engage "in a cause which aims at the civil and moral redemption of a world; and cease not, till the banner of enlightened freedom wave over the demolished battlements of despotism." In doing so, he enjoins this "new people" to shed a tear for the doomed Indians: "We tread, however, upon the ashes of aboriginies; -- and while the mounds that enclose their sacred relics may be distinguished from the everlasting hills, we shall cherish towards them the sentiments of solemn respect. All the heroes of Ossian can never to us possess that thrilling and mournful interest which we feel in the characters and deeds of a Logan, an Alknomok, a Pocahontas. Their fate, and the fate of the many tribes that fished in our rivers, and hunted in our forests, should excite the sympathy of every heart not dead to the feelings of humanity."
[Indian problem]

1826

"Pocahontas. From Darby's 14th Lecture, extracted from the Philadelphia Democratic Press." [Lexington] Western Luminary 2.37 (March 22, 1826): 585-87. Pocahontas's life from her abduction on; some quotes from Burk. Her marriage "contributed but little to her own earthly felicity," and in England she met with some kindness, but "more of idle obtrusive authority." She needed to learn only the ceremonies of Christianity, for "its genuine spirit was infused into her heart from infancy." "Pocahontas's "name is sanctified and incorporated in history; not for acts of splendid eclat. With Joan d'Arc, Isabella, Elizabeth or Catherine II she cannot be compared. Their feat, their fortunes and their characters were unlike. But in deeds of tender heroism, where tears, flowing from the warmest sensibility; where supplications, and soul-subduing expressions of mercy, which no man could ever withstand, and in contests where all the most delicate attentions of female kindness were the weapons, Pocahontas was a heroine who stands without a rival." See Darby entry below.

[Hemans, Felicia] F. H. "The American Forest-Girl." New Monthly Magazine 16 (April 1826): 407-8. (Records of Woman: With Other Poems. Boston, 1828. 131-35.) (Poetical Works. Boston, 1857. 157-60.) Author of probably twenty volumes and 400 poems, Hemans is one of the most noted English poets of the early 19th century. Records of Woman, called her most personal and profitable book, chronicles the lives of both famous and unknown women, women of strong but humble spiritual strength and faith. This poem, perhaps like no other, humanizes Smith at the moment of death, taking us inside his head to his thoughts of happy home, of mother's love, of dying with his father's courage, of God. Pocahontas knows death -- she's "mourn'd a playmate brother" -- and thus she pities Smith. At her "He shall not die," the Indians' "dark souls bow'd before the maid," overpowered by "Something of heaven."
[poetry; gender]
[Electronic Version]

1827

Chateaubriand, François-René de. The Natchez: An Indian Tale. London, 1827. The fuller version of Chateaubriand's Indian tales. See Atala (1801) and Rene (1802).
[foreign language]
[Electronic Version]

Grahame, James. The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America. Vol. 1. London, 1827. 50-61, 74-75. The notes to the Virginia section show Grahame familiar with and drawing on Smith, Stith, Robertson, and Marshall, and for the most part he's writing a straightforward account, without surprises. But when he does embellish, Smith, not Pocahontas, is his subject, and often grandly so: "he bequeathed a valuable lesson to his successors in the American colonies, and to all succeeding settlers in the vicinity of savage tribes; and in exemplifying the power to anticipate the cruel and vulgar issue of battle, and to prevail over an inferior race without either extirpating or enslaving them, he obtained a victory which Caesar, with all his boasted superiority to the rest of mankind, was too ungenerous to appreciate, or was incompetent to achieve."
[U.S. history]

Hale, Salma. History of the United States; from Their First Settlement as Colonies, to the Close of the War with Great Britain in 1815. London, 1827. 13-23. (Keene, 1832. 15-20.) Pocahontas is "a constant friend" in this rather standard opening chapter on the history of Virginia, with Smith as the hero and central character, and Pocahontas saving him twice. What's a bit remarkable in this popular book often adapted for school use (and not found in Smith, his source) is the description of the Indians: "The whole country was then a wilderness, in which a few Indians roamed in pursuit of their enemies, or of wild beasts for food. In colour they were darker than the Europeans, but not so black as the negro. They possessed all the vices and virtues of the savage state; were cunning in strategem, ferocious in battle, cruel to their conquered enemies, kind and hospitable to their friends. . . . From such neighbors the emigrants could expect but little aid or comfort."
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Mellen, Grenville. Our Chronicle of ’26: A Satirical Poem. Boston, 1827. 14. In a satire on the year's congressional activity, Mellen pronounces shame on Virginia for a particular senator: "Not Pocahontas' self would own you a son of hers!"
[poetry]

Sedgwick, Catherine Maria. Hope Leslie, or, Early Times in Massachusetts. New York, 1827. Pocahontas-like plot element in a novel sympathetic to Indians, and even countenancing intermarriage, by one of our important early writers. Indian woman sacrifices herself for the white man: "Magawisca, springing from the precipitous side of the rock, screamed -- 'Forbear!' and interposed her arm. It was too late. The blow was leveled -- force and direction given -- the stroke aimed at Everell's neck, severed his defender's arm, and left him unharmed."
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

"What Can be Done by a Mother." [New Haven] Religious Intelligencer 12.4 (June 23, 1827): 57-58. An article promoting the recognition of the influence of women "on our personal and national character and happiness." Mothers, for sure, to whom we owe "our mental and moral conformation," but daughters too. "How conspicuous a place in the early history of Virginia, is held by the celebrated Pocahontas, -- throwing herself between the knife of her father Powhattan, and his prostrate captive, Smith? But for the influence of that heroic and affectionate daughter, where now the 'Ancient dominion?'"
[gender]

1828

Barber, J. W. Interesting Events in the History of the United States. New Haven, 1828. 15-18. Apparently, the only two interesting events in Virginia were Pocahontas's two rescues!

Child, Lydia Maria. "Capt. John Smith." Biographical Sketches of Great and Good Men. Boston, 1828. 16-28. The first of several references to Smith and Pocahontas in the writings of this important activist for women, African Americans, and Indians (she published An Appeal for the Indians, and there is intermarriage in her novel Hobomok). Child's focus is on Smith, but for whose "courage and ingenuity" the "infant settlement must have perished." But this "brave and intelligent friend of the colony" would have himself perished twice were it not for the "deep attachment" Pocahontas had for him. "This charming Indian girl," however, stolen, "did not meet with all the gratitude she deserved," and ended up in England, where "Captain Smith has been accused, perhaps falsely, of being sufficiently cold and selfish, to blush for his acquaintance with the generous North American savage."
[illustrated; juvenile; Smith biography]

Cooper, James Fenimore. Notions of the Americans. Volume 2. London, 1828. 36, 381. (Volume 2. Philadelphia, 1848. 29, 287.) The first of several references that our first important novelist, and one who dwelled significantly on Indian-White interaction, made to Pocahontas. Here in a note about the bas-reliefs in the Capitol, Cooper notes the one [Capellano 1825] on "the beautiful and touching story of Pocahontas saving the life of Captain Smith," along with three others chosen to depict historical events from the four principal regions of the Country. "More illustrious incidents might have been chosen, beyond a doubt: but there is certainly nothing discreditable to the American character in those they have selected for this purpose." Since there is less reluctance to intermarriage between Indians and whites than blacks and whites, Cooper believes that "an amalgamation of the two races" can occur: "Those families of America who are thought to have any of the Indian blood, are rather proud of their descent; and it is a matter of boast among many of the most considerable persons of Virginia, that they are descended from the renowned Pocahontas."
[Electronic Version]

Crafts, William. "Address Delivered before the New England Society of South-Carolina . . . being the Two Hundreth Anniversary of the Landing at Plymouth." A Selection, in Prose and Poetry. Charleston, 1828. 203. Crafts was a South Carolina legislator and a prolific contributor to the local newspaper and other rhetorical occasions. On the occasion of this important anniversary Crafts touches on the Indian problem that we saw raised at the beginning of this decade and which erupts in the near future and into the 1830s. "It is not true as a general proposition, that the soil of this continent ever belonged to the savage." The land belongs to the cultivators: "Shall the hunter stand at the mouth of the forest and oppose the entrance of civilized man?" So the Indians are headed to extinction, no problem, for Greece and Rome show that "nations are not immortal." What have the Indians done to escape their fate? "Nothing . . . Nothing . . . Nothing." "Yet in their history there will remain redeeming virtues. Many a monarch might covet the noble consistency of Montezuma, and the pure fame of Massasoit -- and many a maiden emulate the sweet acts of Pocahontas."
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Darby, William. Lectures on the Discovery of America and Colonization of North America by the English. Baltimore, 1828. 173-94. Darby, a geographer and surveyor who worked fixing the boundary with Canada, tells the story of the "saving angel," the "guardian angel," with extensive quotation from Burk but ends with a long, melancholy personal response. He must "record the cold ingratitude of the man, whose life she contributed so much to prolong. Two hundred and eleven years have now rolled away since Pocahontas ceased to live in this world of pain and sorrow. Two centuries have consecrated her spotless name to well deserved immortality; and the same terrible lapse of time, has affixed upon the name of Smith an indelible and the only blemish that tarnishes its lustre; the black and shameful indifference to the finer feelings, of one of the purest hearts that ever warmed a human breast." Darby recalls in fancy dropping a tear over reading about Pocahontas's death: "I saw her unspotted soul, departing to the regions of peace and everlasting bliss . . . before the occurrence of that murderous warfare [the 1622 events], in which all that was dear to her, was involved in deadly strife; and in which, her brothers, kindred and countrymen, fell before the men whose lives she humanely saved."

1829

Child, Lydia Maria Francis. The First Settlers of New-England, or Conquest of the Pequods. Boston, 1829. 255. In conversational format, "As Related by a Mother to her Children" (female children, Caroline and Elizabeth), reads the title page. This is the year President Jackson legislatively promotes Indian removal. The Indian problem is front and center. The Mother hopes that the arguments for "usurpation of Indian territory . . . will hereafter be too unjust and unsound to be tolerated." She approves of John Neal, who "has given a high and glowing picture of [Indian] character and manners" and quotes his description of the "ten or eleven years of age" Pocahontas separating from her father to save Smith.
[juvenile; Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Wept of Wish Ton-Wish. Philadelphia, 1829. vii. (New York, 1871. vii.) Mention of Pocahontas in the preface to the first edition but not in all editions: "The early annals of our history are not wanting in touching and noble examples of savage heroism. Virginia has its legend of the powerful Powhatan and his magnanimous daughter, the ill-requited Pocahontas; and the chronicles of New-England are filled with the bold designs and daring enterprises of Miantonimoh, of Metacom, and of Conanchet." Tilton 1994 (67-69) suggests another connection with representation of Pocahontas because of the failed intermarriage between Indian and White here.
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Borderers: A Tale. Volume 1. London, 1829. ix. Alternate title in England for Cooper's The Wept of Wish ton-Wish.
[novel]

"Female Education: What Can Be Done by a Mother." The Religious Intelligencer 14.8 (July 18, 1829): 113-14. Same as the similarly titled article in 1827.

Gilliam, Albert M. "Virginia, or Love and Bravery." 1829. See Martin Shockley, "American Plays in the Richmond Theatre, 1819-1838." Studies in Philology 37 (January 1940), 109-10. (See also Tilton 1994, 72.) The second play on a Pocahontas theme (after Barker 1808), opened in Richmond May 27, 1829, and no copies are known to have survived. Apparently reviewed in The Whig of June 10, 1829.
[play]

Goodrich, Samuel G. Stories about Captain John Smith for the Instruction and Amusement of Children. Hartford, 1829. 68-77, 86-100. Another one of the prolific publishing Goodrich family. Descriptions of the two rescues and the reunion in England. A paean to Pocahontas: "What a worthy girl was this! She was a savage, but her deed was noble! She had never been taught to love her enemies; but she shewed a benevolent disposition. Indians are cruel, and, at times, excessively so; but they sometimes show kind and generous feelings. The name of Pocahontas, and her generous deed, ought to be remembered, and will be remembered while America lasts."
[illustrated; juvenile]
[View Images: page 68]

Holmes, Abiel. The Annals of America, from the Discovery by Columbus in the Year 1492, to the Year 1826. 2nd. ed. Vol. 1. Cambridge, 1829. 126-59. Factual account, and the annals format means material from other areas is joined with the Jamestown story. Substantial number of notes show that Holmes was familiar with and drawing from several sources.
[Electronic Version]

Knapp, Samuel L. Lectures on American Literature. New York, 1829. 146. This is a work noted for its nationalistic purpose, "to establish the claims of the United States to that intellectual, literary, and scientifick eminence, which we say, she deserves to have, and ought to maintain." Knapp collects "a few scraps" of Smith's poetry -- assuming that it was always original -- including a piece after the Pocahontas rescue in which he assumes "as lively a countenance as possible."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Levasseur, Auguste. Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825. Volume 1. Philadelphia, 1829. 198-99. A journal kept by Lafayette's secretary during his year-long return visit to America in 1824-1825 has mention of Pocahontas's rescue of Smith and marriage in a brief sketch of Virginia history. The failure of more general intermarriage yields this comment: "How much is it to be regretted that Rolfe's example had not been followed by his companions! It would have been easy for them to have secured their own prosperity by such alliances, and they would have spared humanity much blood and tears."

McKenney, Thomas Loraine. "Address." Memoirs, Official and Personal. 1829. Volume 1. New York, 1846. 229-31. In this speech advocating removal as the humane and rational solution to the Indian problem, McKenney, head of the U.S. Department of the Indians, asks his audience to imagine Massasoit and Pocahontas making claims for their race. Pocahontas: 'And what . . . would have been the fate of Captain Smith . . . had not a gush of pity forced itself on my heart. . . . Where would now be their descendants?" Who can doubt, says McKenney, "that those generous savages gave us this country; or that, with other dispositions than those which animated them, we might not have possessed it for centuries to come, if ever?" (See 1844 for his mammoth memorial to the disappearing Indians.)
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Murray, Hugh. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America. Vol. 1. London, 1829. 208-23. Murray, a Scots geographer best known for the mammoth Encyclopaedia of Geography that contained eighty-two maps and over a thousand woodcuts, gives a rather standard account, except that, for the first time I've seen, he draws on and argues with Prevost, specifically his speculation that it was a "breach of plighted love" that was the cause of Pocahontas's snit in the reunion with Smith in England. "It would not have been in much unison with her applauded discretion to have resented a wrong of this nature in such a time and manner," says Murray, who believes that she was angry that Smith did not pay her back by interceeding for her while she was in captivity.

Paulding, James Kirke. "Old Times in the New World." Tales of the Good Woman. New York, 1829. 253-367 (esp. 268, 297-98). Tale of adventure and love in early Jamestown -- mainly fighting Indians in what resembles the 1622 massacre attempt. Smith plays a small part as the tough leader who forces the aristocrats to work and is accused of being better off because of the attention of the "copper-coloured Siren of the Woods." Another colonist, in search of a copper-colored wife, makes "a glorious declaration to the heiress of Pamunkey; but she mistook the language of love for that of hunger" and offers him a piece of bear meat instead. But Pocahontas is otherwise not a character in the story.
[short story]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas." [Oxford, Ohio] Literary Register, A Weekly Paper 2.24 (June 6, 1829): 187-88. See the Darby entries for 1826 and 1828.

Thomas, Benjamin F. "Address." The Brunonian 1 (July 1829): 58. Brown University publication.

Tuscarora. "Pocahontas." [Greenville, SC] The Mountaineer 14 November 1829, 21 November 1829, 28 November 1829. Reprinted from the Petersburg Intelligencer. Longish account of all the relevant episodes, virtually without inflection, except for, perhaps, the following about her marriage: "The flame was mutual. We have no detailed account of the courtship. . . . Were the particulars of this courtship preserved, it would present a touching instance of the simplicity of innocence, the purity of love, and the ardor of affection."

1830

Bolling, William. "History of Two Portraits Said to be Those of John Rolfe and Pocahontas." William Bolling Papers, Virginia Historical Society. 1830s? Abrams 1994 (p.301) cites this document. No date is given, but for convenience we'll ascribe it to the 1830s.
[painting]

Brodigan, Thomas. A Botanical, Historical, and Practical Treatise on the Tobacco Plant. London, 1830. 61-64. Irishman who visited America in 1817 to learn to grow tobacco and then did so at home and wrote about it here has an unremarkable brief account of the Smith and Pocahontas story.

Custis, George Washington. Pocahontas; or, The Settlers of Virginia, A National Drama. Philadelphia, 1830. (Representative American Plays from 1767 to the Present. Ed. Arthur Hobson Quinn. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1917. 181-208.) This play by Custis, the grandson of President Washington’s wife Martha through her first marriage, is the second extant play on Pocahontas and part of the early cluster of plays about her that includes work by the earlier Barker and the later Owen, Barnes, and Brougham. Through the influence of the last survivor of the previous Virginia expeditions, “the light of Christian doctrine” has already shone on Pocahontas’s “before benighted soul.” “The light of true faith [has] dispell’d the first darkness of [her] mind,” and she immediately perceives Smith’s group “like beings from a higher world,” falling for her “English cavalier” Rolfe in a flash. “Pocahontas the friend of the English” is literally the English soldiers’ password in time of trouble, and the rescue of Smith is the climax of the action, as “rising with dignity,” she assaults her father Powhatan with “Attend but first to me. Cruel king, the ties of blood which bound me to thee are dissever’d, as have been long those of thy sanguinary religion; for know that I have abjur’d thy senseless gods, and now worship the Supreme Being, the true Manitou, and the Father of the Universe; ‘Tis his Almighty hand that sustains me, ‘Tis his divine spirit that breathes in my soul, and prompts Pocahontas to a deed which future ages will admire.” This is a “national story,” and the final vision of the rising glory of America, interestingly, is given to Powhatan. Remember that this is the year of the Indian Removal Act.
[play]
[Electronic Version]

Hinton, John Howard. The History and Topography of the United States. Volume 1. London, 1830. 28-34. Rather extensive but basically standard account drawn from a variety of sources: Smith, Stith, Belknap, Beverley, Purchas, Chalmers, Grahame. Footnote contains Smith's letter to Queen Anne.

Letter of Linnaeus Bolling to William Bolling, 14 September 1830. William Bolling Papers, Virginia Historical Society. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 quote Linnaeus siding with William (see 1838) disapproving of the Turkey Hill portrait of Pocahontas (see Rice and Clark 1842): Robert Matthew Sully's "Dowdy, Gross, coarse, & homely picture" must not be forced on the family as a likeness of Pocahontas, who would have been a "delicate, slender, & beautiful young Girl."
[painting]

[Hunt, Freeman.] "LXXVII. Captain Smith and Pocahontas." American Anecdotes. Vol. 1. Boston, 1830. 96-98. Brief, rather standard account (but noting John Randolph as a Pocahontas descendant) in a book of anecdotes designed to "illustrate the principles, and to display the characters of those who achieved our revolution." Our duo textually resides in the company of Franklin, Washington, Lafayette, etc.

1831

Goodrich, Charles A. The Child's History of the United States. Designed as a First Book of History for Schools. Boston, 1831. 12-23. Chapters divided into "lessons" and "stories." "Learn the lesson first," says the narrator, "then read the story." The Indians, we learn, were "very brave, but cruel and revengeful" and "delight in war." "Of the true God they knew nothing." In the story, Pocahontas saves Smith because he was a "brave man." This was a "noble" act. Pocahontas may have been "brought up among savages, but she had kind feelings."
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Hildreth, Hosea. An Abridged History of the United States of America: For the Use of Schools. Boston, 1831. 9-12. Standard "bare facts" coverage of the events for school kids: the two rescues, marriage, descendants, etc.
[school book; U.S. history]

O. "Pocahontas." The Brunonian 12 (March 1831): 362-63. A Brown University publication. Smith doesn't shrink from the approaching death blow, but "a beautiful raven-tress'd maiden is there, / A lamb, from the tiger to rescue the prey."
[poetry]

Ruricola. "Mr. Wirt and the Indians." (New Echota, GA) Cherokee Phoenix, and Indians’ Advocate 31 December 1831. The occasion for reprinting William Wirt's essay on Pocahontas (1803) is a conversation with an "intelligent foreigner" about President Jackson's Indian policy. After enduring the "bitter sarcasms of my foreign companion, upon our National honour tarnished -- our plighted faith broken -- and our character as a Christian community foully blotted, what defence could I make? -- What apology offer? . . . . What could I say? Nothing -- Except indignantly to heap the disgrace, where it ought to be, on the heads of our rulers; and refer to the following letter, as a proof that some of us felt as a man should feel, towards an injured, persecuted, wronged, but noble race." "I had read the letters of the British Spy, again and again, when a boy. . . . but never, until that evening -- never, until after the cold hearted policy, of this administration towards the Indians, had been fully developed -- never until after I had felt the biting jeers of a foreigner, over my country's honour fallen! -- degraded! sneered at! never until then! did the sentiments expressed in that story come home to my heart."
[Indian problem]

Severance, Moses. The American Manual, or, New English Reader. Waterloo, 1831. 229-35. (Cazenovia, NY, 1841. 229-35.) In this usual account, Smith is "emphatically the father of Virginia," and Pocahontas is called "amiable" twice.
[school book]
[Electronic Version]

Taylor, C. B. A Universal History of the United States of America. New York, 1831. 13-26. Traditional sketch of events with nothing out of the ordinary about Pocahontas.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1832

Drake, Samuel G. Indian Biography. Boston, 1832. 270-78, 289-303. As the Indian problem mounts and the Trail of Tears nears, Drake and Thatcher (see below this year) start publishing large and sympathetic collections of material as memorials to cultures many people think will soon be extinct. Drake -- an eminent antiquarian, book collector, book seller, and editor and compiler of historical texts -- has generous entries covering the usual episodes drawn from Smith and Stith on both Pocahontas and Powhatan in this collection of biographical sketches. Powhatan, more the key figure to Drake, is praised as "one of the most celebrated chiefs recorded in history," and "the uncommonly amiable, virtuous, and feeling disposition of his daughter will always be brought to mind in reading his history."
[Indian problem; Indian history]

Dunlap, William. A History of the American Theatre. 1832. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2005. 376-85. James Nelson Barker responds to Dunlap's request for information with a letter that includes some factual information about his Indian Princess.
[Electronic Version]

Encyclopaedia Americana: A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics and Biography. Volume 10. Philadelphia, 1832. 194-95. A standard biographical sketch by now, hitting all the main points with little inflection, except, perhaps, that "during her stay in England, she advanced greatly in the knowledge of the English language, and her conversation was much sought after at court."
[Electronic Version]

Hale, Salma. History of the United States: from Their First Settlement as Colonies, to the Close of the War with Great Britain in 1815: to Which Are Added Questions, Adapted to the Use of Schools. Keene, 1832. 15-20.
[school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

J. M. "Virginia." [Boston] The New-England Magazine 2 (January 1832): 37-45. This witty and vigorous description, maybe I should say celebration, of Virginia and Virginians begins with a page or two on Smith and Pocahontas. Virginia should have been named "rather from the generous Pocahontas, the most amiable person in all history," instead of Queen Elizabeth, who was the least. Speaking rhetorically to Pocahontas descendant John Randolph, the writer says that he would give all Randolph's material advantages "to be a descendant of Powhatan's daughter -- a descent that is emblazoned on the vellum of your own skin."

Kennedy, John Pendleton. "Chronicle of the Life of John Smith." Swallow Barn, or, A Sojourn in the Old Dominion. Vol. 2. Philadelphia, 1832. Separate part of "Clouds" (chapter 20): 231-315, esp. 303-15. Kennedy, a member of Congress and Secretary of the Navy, is known literarily as an important writer of regional romances like this one that examine plantation and Cavalier Virginia society. In Swallow Barn he describes the life of Smith and expresses a "renewed admiration for the hero of the Old Dominion" -- his "plain sense, mingled with the glory of manhood," "the homely thought and wise precept sustaining dauntless bravery," "so much gay and chivalrous adventure set off with such sturdy honesty." The Pocahontas episode "has given him a renown that has long made his name a pleasant sound to a lady's ear." Pocahontas -- whom he never speaks of without "a tender remembrance, and a strain of the softest and gentlest gratitude" -- loved Smith with that instinctive love that nature kindles in the breast of unsophisticated woman for a noble and valiant cavalier." In the revised one-volume edition all this material is cut from the "Clouds" chapter (chap. 48). I wonder why.
[novel]

Lilly, Lambert. [Hawks, Francis L.] The Early History of the Southern States: Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Philadelphia, 1832. 76-89, 100-6. Very full account written in colloquial direct address to younger readers. Only a few embellishments on the basic facts told many times by others, such as "Not long after this Mr. Rolfe proposed marriage to Pocahontas. He had long been attached to her, it is said, Indian as she was; and she had no great dislike for him." Now there's a rousing basis for a successful marriage.
[illustrated; juvenile]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 85]

Morrell, Benjamin. A Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea. New York, 1832. 426. Pocahontas reference in description of Micronesian women: "Their countenances ever express vivacity and cheerfulness; their movements are elastic and sylph-like; even the Virginian Pocahontas, on the score of personal attractions and tenderness of disposition, would be thrown in the shade by a comparison with the fascinating females of Bergh's group."
[Electronic Version]

Review of Indian Biography by B. B. Thatcher. The Parthenon 1 (1832): 150-53.

Thatcher, B. B. Indian Biography. Vol. 1. New York, 1832. 9-24, 40-47, 66-76. Similar in goal to Drake (see above this year) -- memorializing the fading Indian cultures. Expansive account of early Virginia history drawn from Smith, Stith, Hamor, Burk. Perhaps paraphrasing Burk, Thatcher bestows lavish praise on Pocahontas: "For those qualities more especially which do honor to our nature -- a human and feeling heart, an ardor and unshaken constancy on her attachments -- she stands almost without a rival. She gave evidence, indeed, of possessing in a high degree every attribute of mind and heart, which should be and has been the ornament and pride of civilized woman in all countries and times. . . . She asked nothing of Smith in recompense for whatever she had done, but the boon of being looked upon as his child. . . . Her dignity, her energy, her independence, and the dauntless courage which never deserted her for a moment, were worthy of Powhatan's daughter."
[Indian problem; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

1833

Blake, John Lauris. American Universal Geography, for Schools and Academies. Boston, 1833. 16. Has the rescue by this "extraordinary Indian female" occur during Smith's second captivity, makes no mention of an abduction in relation to her use in "preserving peace," has her baptized in England.
[school book]

"Death of Pocahontas." [Hudson, N.Y.] Rural Repository 10 (1833): 204-5. Same as next entry.

"The Death of Pocahontas." [New York] American Monthly Magazine 2.4 (December 1, 1833): 274-77. John Rolfe and John Smith at the deathbed of Pocahontas, in what must be the first fictional representation of this moment. Very teary. Pocahontas still beautiful: "Eyes still swimming in unutterable tenderness, although the mists of death were gathering fast around them, a mouth, which might have rivalled in its voluptuous curve, the smile of her of the Medicis, and a form, which though wasted from the fullness of its exquisite proportions by protracted illness, yet bore the traces of surpassing loveliness, would have rendered her, before the evil days had come upon her, a dangerous rival for the proudest beauty of European climes." Rolfe anxious and not fully sure of his Christian beliefs about afterlife. Smith, hair blanched by years of toil but showing no symptom of decay, feeling guilt, almost "the murderer of her, who had so nobly, so devotedly rescued him, the natural foeman of her race." She, trusting in the Rock of Ages, charges Smith to be a father to her husband and to her son, and dies asking that her bones be carried back to her valley and that her country never be forgotten. Wow!

Goodrich, Charles A. A History of the United States from the Discovery of the Continent by Christopher Columbus, to the Present Time. Hartford, 1833. 51-53. Illustrations by John Warner Barber. Revised and enlarged over Goodrich's previous histories but basically the same account of Smith and Pocahontas as 1823.
[illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania. Volume 11.3, no. 264 (January 19, 1833): 39. Minutes of the anniversary meeting of the Philadelphia Typographical Society at which Thomas McKenney (see 1829, 1842, 1844) was toasted for being "an able leader in distributing benevolence to the Indians of America," to which in his reply he "appealed to history for their vindication, and said that from the time Pocahontas had flew to the rescue of Captain Smith, there were innumerable proofs of elevation of character. On his approach to the Indian, he had perceived in him an eye lighted by intelligence . . . gain his confidence -- smoke with him the calumet of peace -- and it must be a stronger arm than his that does you harm. [But] There was one thing he was well assured of -- the Indians can not live happily near the whites."
[Indian problem]

Review of Indian Biography by B. B. Thatcher. The American Monthly Review 3.1 (1833): 63-72. The reviewer praises Thatcher's book "as an act of historical justice to a much abused race" and for "assuming the task of vindicating [Indian] claims to historic justice." The review starts with the section on Indians in Virginia in which we find: "Every body is familiar with the chivalrous character and romantic adventures of Captain Smith. The name of Pocahontas is dear to every friend of native virtue and simple purity. Her spotless life, her heroic character, her gentleness of soul, stand recorded in history, and will stand for ever."
[Indian problem]

Tufts, M. "Virginia Water." Shores of Vespucci, or, Romance without Fiction. Lexington, 1833. 41-54. Tufts has an interesting ambition here in this collection of sketches: "to combine . . . the interest of romance with the truth of history." "The design is believed to be original," for the book does not just contain "deluding romances," which are basically novels, nor, on the other hand, "merely popular abridgements of national history," which can be dull. For the contents are both interesting and "authentic" -- "not a single fictitious sentence is knowingly allowed in it." But could Tufts not know that the Pocahontas story in Davis's Travels was trumped up? In the first part he (she?) liberally quotes from Smith with only an occasionally interesting interjection, such as "A dance of the fairies indeed" after the Virginia "maske" episode. But the second part is totally the highly romantic clap-trap from Davis. Perhaps a case of invincible ignorance. (To give you an idea what else was in the book, the next sketch is on Lope de Aguirre.)

[Simms, William Gilmore.] A Bachelor Knight. "The Forest Maiden." The Book of My Lady: A Melange. Boston, 1833. 52-59. The first of several Pocahontas representations by Simms, perhaps the foremost ante-bellum Southern writer, and perhaps most noted for The Yemassee. The rendering of the rescue here, Simms says, has additions (Powhatan's passion, the death of his son) "intended to place in a stronger light the amiable spirit of Pocahontas, and the great sacrifice, by her father, of his personal feeling and native impulse, in his compliance with her entreaties." Pocahontas's brother has died in the battle with the now captive Smith, fueling Powhatan's revenge and her sorrow, but still she "stayed the club in its descent." "How could that dark old king forbear, / Though writhing with his own despair, / To still her plaint -- to grant her pray'r! / How could he check the angel grace, / That gave such beauty to her face, -- / How stay the more than sweet control, / That, to the savage could impart, / Tho' all untaught, the Christian soul, / The woman's mood, the human heart!"
[poetry]

1834

Baldwin, Ebenezer. Observations on the Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Qualities of Our Colored Population. New Haven, 1834. 38-46. We've been seeing Pocahontas referenced in regard to the Indian problem, but now we see her referenced in regard to the slave problem (but see Hillhouse 1820 too). The question Baldwin asks in this chapter is can emancipated slaves be amalgamated with whites? For discussion purposes, he adduces fourteen objections. The one in which Pocahontas is mentioned -- amalgamation means nothing without intermarriage -- is a tough one to overcome. "Prejudices existing in relation to complexion are so strong, that the [Indian] mission school at Cornwall was broken up, in consequence of violations of public sensibility in that particular. And yet the disrelish for Indian alliances is by no means as strong as exists in regard to Africans. The Randolphs of Virginia are proud of the blood of Pocahontas, and their white kindred do not feel ashamed to acknowledge the descendants of Eunice Williams [a New England captive]. Mr. Crawford strongly commended the practice in an official report to Congress as a means of civilizing and christianizing the natives, and from the earliest settlement of the western country, the French, Spanish, and other European residents, were accustomed to form such alliances. Still the prejudice exists, and we are warranted in believing will never be conquered; but if unconquerable with regard to Indians, how remote from possibility in relation to Africans."
[slavery]

"The Death of Pocahontas." Literary Journal and Weekly Register of Science and the Arts 1.37 (February 15, 1834): 289. See entry with the same title in 1833.

Dunlap, William. History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States. Volume 2. New York, 1834. 398. Regarding the painting of Pocahontas by Robert M. Sully from the Turkey Island portrait, "which is crumbling so rapidly that it might be considered as having already passed out of existence."
[painting]

Hillard, George S. "The Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith." The Library of American Biography. Ed. Jared Sparks. Vol. 2. New York, 1834. Esp. chapters 5, 8, 9, 16. (Rpt. Lives of Eminent Individuals, Celebrated in American History. Ed. Jared Sparks. Volume 1. Boston, 1839.) (Rpt. George S. Hillard, Makers of American History: Captain John Smith. New York: University Society, 1904.) First major Smith biography after Belknap. Hillard doesn't claim to do anything new, and throughout cites Smith, Stith, Grahame, Bancroft, Wharton, etc. -- but it is curious that he says the True Relation "does not differ materially" from the Generall Historie. Hillard does, however, wax eloquently and at length about Pocahontas. Of the rescue, he says, "Innumerable bosoms have throbbed and are yet to throb with generous admiration for this daughter of a people, whom we have been too ready to underrate." And in several wrap-up pages devoted solely to Pocahontas, we find such comments as "She reminds one of a delicate wild-flower, growing up in the cleft of a rock, where the eye can discern no soil for its roots to grasp, and sustain its slender stalk"; "We behold her as she came from the hands of her Maker, who seems to have created her in a spirit of rebuke to the pride of civilization"; "She has been a powerful, though silent advocate in behalf of the race to which she belonged. Her deeds have covered a multitude of their sins. When disgusted with numerous recitals of their cruelty and treachery, and about to pass an unfavorable judgment in our minds upon the Indian character, at the thought of Pocahontas our 'rigor relents.' With a softened heart we are ready to admit that there must have been fine elements in a people, from among whom such a being could spring."
[Smith biography]
[Electronic Version]

Jones, Charles L. S. "Pocahontas: Second Sapphic Ode." American Lyrics: Comprising The Discovery, a Poem: Sapphic, Pindaric and Common Odes: Songs and Tales on American and Patriotic Subjects. Mobile, 1834. 85-87. Pocahontas successful at the moment of truth: "What could not then the power of man accomplish, / Beauty and infant innocence effected, / And the red war chief melting into softness, / Yielded his victim."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas." [Augusta] Maine Farmer and Journal of the Useful Arts 2.20 (May 30, 1834):160. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [Boston] Christian Register 13.19 (May 10, 1834): 76. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [Charlestown] Virginia Free Press 15 May 1834. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [Concord, N.H.] The Literary Gazette 1.5 (October 24, 1834): 33-34. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [Hudson, N.Y.] Rural Repository 11 (1834): 101-2. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [New York] The Man 2.34 (June 23,1834):136. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." Nashville Banner & Nashville Whig 10 June 1834: 2. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

"Pocahontas." [Charleston] Southern Patriot 19 May 1834: 2. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

["Pocahontas"]. [Portland, ME] The Christian Intelligencer and Eastern Chronicle 14.22 (May 30, 1834): 88. Excerpt from Hillard/Sparks this year.

Reed, Anna C. Vie de George Washington. Translated by Prof A. N. Girault. Philadelphia, 1834. xviii-xxi. (Philadelphia, 1856. xix-xxii.) Part of the Girault's French Teacher series, a text used for the teaching of French. Has a short section on Smith and Pocahontas in the introduction with a neat illustration. Somehow it all seems even more romantic in French: "Cette jeune fille n'avait que treize ans, et son pere qui l'aimait trop tendrement pour lui refuser sa demande, accors au Capitaine Smith la liberte de retourner a Jamestown."
[foreign language; illustrated; school book]

Review of The Library of American Biography by Jared Sparks. [Boston] The American Quarterly Observer. 3.5 (July 1834): 201-2. Brief notice of Hillard's life of Smith that is part of this series. "The traditionary exploits of the 'Father of Virginia,' are as familiar as nursery tales. The romantic and magnanimous heroism of Pocahontas is in the mouth of every school boy."

Reynal, Rafael. Viage por los Estados Unidos del Norte. Cincinnati, 1834. 86.
[foreign language]

Tudor, Henry. Narrative of a tour in North America, comprising Mexico, the mines of the Real Del Monte, the United States, and the British colonies. Volume 1. London, 1834. 61. Tourist Tudor describes the Capellano sculpture in the Capitol building (see 1825): "The sweetly expressive countenance of the female savage, and her delightfully supplicating attitude to her father, who, with uplifted war-club, is on the point of sacrificing his prostrate foe, are most feelingly and beautifully delineated."
[Electronic Version]

1835

"Captain John Smith." [Boston] American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge 2 (October 1835): 73-74. Brief biographical sketch of Smith, matter-of-factly mentioning the rescue, and not referring to Pocahontas by name but simply as the "Sachem's daughter."

Caruthers, William A. The Cavaliers of Virginia, or the Recluse of Jamestown. Volume 2. New York, 1835. 3-19. (Ridgewood: Gregg Press, 1968.) Caruthers, termed by his biographer "the chronicler of the Cavaliers," uses, like Winkfield and Sedgwick, a Pocahontas-like plot element in this novel about the 1676 Bacon's rebellion: Indian princess Wyanokee rescues captive hero Nathaniel Bacon and is later given a set piece defending her race and criticizing white justice. Positioning herself before the already tortured Bacon tied to a stake, Wyanokee proclaims, "Strike your tomahawks here, into the daughter of your chief, of him who led you on to battles and to victory, but harm not the defenceless stranger." Never will you kill him "unless you first cleave off these hands with which I will protect him from your fury." Wyanokee staves off the violence by promising to marry Bacon, which, interestingly, he later refuses.
[novel; Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

Child, Lydia Maria Francis. The History of the Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations. Vol. 2. Boston, 1835. 235-37. Same as Child 1845.
[gender]
[Electronic Version]

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Monikins: A Tale. Volume 2. London, 1835. 221.
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

Drake, Samuel Gardner. Biography and History of the Indians of North America. 4th ed. Boston, 1835. 10-19. (Seems to have appeared under the title The Book of the Indians of North America. Book IV. Boston, 1835. 10-19.) (11th ed. Boston, 1857. 348-59.) Detailed account but nothing exceptional in the telling except, perhaps, calling Tomocomo's response to Powhatan about the size of the English population, "Count the stars in the sky" etc., "the golden rule of Confucius." Notes show Drake drawing on Smith ("minutely") but also Stith, Bancroft, Oldmixon, Keith, Purchas, etc.
[illustrated; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

"Early Modern History." [Cincinnati] Chronicles of the North American Savages 1.2 (June 1835): 18-25; 1.3 (July 1835): 33-45. The familiar story -- prefaced by critical comments about how Europeans justified their rights in Native American territory ("the absurd superstition which disregarded the private rights of infidels") -- is drawn from Ramsay, Thatcher, Stith, and at least one other unnamed historian. The author's (editor Isaac Galland?) tone toward the story is a bit strange, almost debunking at least once, indicating that "it is obvious to the common sense of every reader" that Smith "delighted in the marvelous" and took advantage of the fact that he wrote without the possibility of detection or contradiction. Though nothing negative is said specifically about Pocahontas, the author says that "Who but a believer in the supernatural gifts of unknown tongues, can give credit to the story which Smith has related of his 'astronomical lecture'" and the role it played in his release.
[debunking]

[Brockenbrough, W. W.] "A History of Virginia from Its First Settlement to the Year 1754." Appended to Joseph Martin, A New and Comprehensive Gazeteer of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Charlottesville, 1835. 549-52, 561-64. Rather standard account (with Brockenbrough's notes and text showing reference to Smith, Stith, Bancroft, Burk, Robertson) with this concluding comment about Pocahontas: "Peace to her gentle spirit, her memory will not perish whilst the commonwealth of Virginia endures, or noble and generous actions are valued by her sons."

1836

A Citizen of South Carolina. "Pocahontas: An Extract." The Genius of Erin, Columbia’s Freedom, Flights of Fancy, Lucinda. Charleston, 1836. 81-84. The preface asserts that "the South no less requires a literary, than a commercial independence" and laments that an author, in violation of patriotism and sentiment, must go to New York to publish. It's a matter of the "honor of the South" to produce her "own literature." And what better Southern topic. The moment of truth. Pocahontas, weeping, prays: "Spare, parent, spare -- The warrior begs to spare -- / A friendless stranger on Powhatan's hearth; / Or if you strike the blow -- you cannot tear / My mangled body from this gory earth! / Hark! how the spirit of Powhatan's sire, / Frowns down in wrath from out yon mutt'ring cloud -- / See, see the mighty spirits vengeful fire, / Bursting in awful thunder peals aloud! Slay not the wretch -- slay not the wretch my sire; / But let my life appease the chieftains' ire!"
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Chapman, John Gadsby. "Pocahontas Saving the Life of Captain John Smith." 1836. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 15.) Rasmussen and Tilton note that Chapman anticipated (by almost a decade -- see 1842) Simms's suggestions for painting the rescue scene. "As in a scene by Caravaggio of the martyrdom of a saint, Chapman silhouettes Pocahontas against a cloud of white smoke and bathes her in light. The smoke and light seem to sanctify her."
[painting]
[View Images: page 15]

Chapman, John Gadsby. "The Warning of Pocahontas." 1836. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 19.) This is Chapman's painting of the "second" rescue, Pocahontas's dark night journey through the irksome woods to warn Smith of her father's murder plot. Rasmussen and Tilton note that the composition is meant to complement Chapman's painting of the coronation of Powhatan and that Chapman had clearly read Smith's account. "For enhanced drama, [the other soldiers] sleep through the incident like guards at the tomb in Renaissance paintings of Christ's resurrection." (See White's "warning" painting 1852.)
[painting]
[View Images: page 19]

Dielman, Henry. Pocahontas Grand March. [Grand March to the National Drama Pocahontas, written by G.W. Custiss Esq. of Arlington] Philadelphia: James G. Osbourn's Music Saloon, 1836. Dielman received the first Doctor of Music degree at Georgetown. Written for the "piano forte," as the sheet music quaintly says -- see Custis's play 1830. Interesting that the publisher's address is "opposite the Indian Queen Hotel"!
[illustrated; music; engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

Hawks, Francis L. Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States of America. Volume 1. New York, 1836. 28-29. Hawks -- an Episcopal priest, captivating speaker, and eminent authority on church history -- wrote this about Rev. Alexander Whitaker, "the Apostle of Virginia": "What would have been the emotions of this devoted missionary, when he admitted Pocahontas to baptism, could he have foreseen that, after the lapse of more than two hundred years, the blood of this noble-hearted Indian maiden would be flowing in the veins of some of the most distinguished members of that church, the foundations of which he was then laying?"

Jay, William. "Remarks on Professor Dew's Vindication of Perpetual Slavery." The Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine 1 (April 1836): 215. Professor Dew published a treatise justifying slavery after an insurrection in Southampton in 1831 caused the Virginia legislature to consider abolishing the practice. Jay rips Dew's arguments based on the law of war, invoking Pocahontas (see Hillhouse 1820 and Badlwin 1834 for other connections between Pocahontas and slavery): "Let us suppose that one of the ancestors of our Virginia Professor had been captured by the royal but savage father of Pocahontas, and had, after the peace effected by that generous damsel, been sold as a slave to one of the Colonists. The whole transaction, according to the teacher of 'Political Law' in William and Mary College, would have been strictly legal, sanctioned not only by the example of Julius Caesar, Paulus Emilius, and other great men of antiquity, and above all, by the conduct of 'the children of Israel under the guidance of Jehovah.' The posterity of the hapless captive, would of course through successive generations have been lawfully held in bondage, and the professor, instead of publishing theories about slavery, would at the present day, by his own shewing, be fairly, justly and honestly experiencing in his own person the blessings of hopeless interminable servitude, with the assurance that his own fate would be the inheritance of his children after him."
[slavery]
[Electronic Version]

Paulding, James Kirke. "Ode to Jamestown." 1836. The Magnolia. 1836. Edited by Henry W. Herbert. New York: Monson Bancroft, 1836. (The Magnolia; or, Gift-Book of Friendship. Ed. Clara Arnold. New York: Leavitt and Allen, 1843. 33-35.) (The Poets and Poetry of America. Ed. Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Philadelphia, 1856. 83-84.) (Poems of American History. Ed. Burton Egbert Stevenson. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1922. 46-47.) Wandering among the "old stones" of Jamestown, Paulding has visions backward and forward and can't imagine anyone not shedding a tear "of reverent gratitude to those that moulder here." Singled out -- though both are buried in England -- are Smith and Pocahontas, she "the glorious Indian maid," "the tutelary of this land," "the angel of the woodland shade," "Sister of charity and love," "goddess of the sylvan grove," "flower of the forest," and "nature's pride."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas--Born, 1594--Died, 1617." [New York] Family Magazine; or, Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge 4 (1836): 88-91. Relatively lengthy biographical sketch of traditional nature, most of which is credited as having come from Drake.
[Electronic Version]

"The Rescue of Captain John Smith, by Pocahontas." [New York] Family Magazine; or, Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge 4 (1836): 361-64. Excerpt from Smith of the key episode, from the killing of Robinson and Emry through Pocahontas doing her rescuing.
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

"Virginia. Extracts from an unpublished Abridgment of the History of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 2.2 (January 1836): 108-9. Has bad words in dense language about the abduction: "Power was never yet at a loss for plausible pretexts to palliate its outrage on virtue: policy, expediency, necessity, are the hackneyed themes resorted to, to mitigate the merited reprobation; but the human heart will not be answered so. Insulted, not convinced, by the proffered palliative, it recoils from the false and unnatural subterfuge, and true to its connate susceptibilities, entertains forever the same sentiment of instinctive abhorrence. As long as the memory of the compassionate Pocahontas shall be cherished by a remote and admiring posterity in Virginia, so long will the unhallowed names of Argall and Jappassas be associated with deep and bitter execrations." And good words in dense language about Pocahontas: "The simplest narrative of her life, is the profoundest eulogy to her memory. Born in an age too rude to afford her the precepts and the instructions of virtue, while the condition of her sex seemingly precluded her from opportunities for the display of shining merit, she has yet left examples so signal, that after-times will best evince their progress to refinement by their successful emulation of her mercy" and on and on. You get the idea.
[Electronic Version]

1837

Bancroft, George. History of the Colonization of the United States. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Boston, 1837. 117-58. Prominent statesman (as Secretary of the Navy he established the Naval Academy), Bancroft was also probably the pre-eminent historian of the 19th century. This multi-volume history went through many (changing) editions in various forms for forty years. Bancroft embellishes a bit, for instance, indicating that "Smith had [previously?] won the confiding fondness of the Indian maiden," and he describes her successful reception in London thus: "The daughter of the wilderness possessed the mild elements of female loveliness, half concealed, as if in the bud, and rendered the more beautiful by the child-like simplicity with which her education in the savannas of the New World had invested her. How could she fail to be caressed at court, and admired in the city?" Bancroft's description of the rescue footnotes Smith's Generall Historie but contains this curious comment as well: "This account is fully contained in the oldest book printed on Virginia, in our Cambridge library. It is a thin quarto, in black letter, by John Smith, printed in 1608 -- 'A True Relation . . . .'" But the True Relation, of course, does not contain the Pocahontas rescue. In any event, Bancroft is later moved by the debunking efforts of the 1860s to alter his description of Smith's captivity. See Bancroft 1853, 1866, 1876. (No link to an early edition is available at this time, so the link is to the 1853 version so you can see the curious footnote, but note that 1853 is different in some other respects than 1837.)
[U.S. history; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Chevalier, Michel. Lettres sur l’Amérique du Nord: avec une carte des Etats-Unis d’Amérique. Volume 1. Bruxelles, 1837. 209-11. French economist, advocated industrial development as the key to social progress, a proponent of free trade, negotiated the Anglo-French trade treaty of 1860, positive about the United States in his Lettres.
[foreign language]

Davison, Gideon M. The traveller’s guide through the middle and northern states and the provinces of Canada. 7th ed. Saratoga Springs, 1837. 32-34. Davison is known for writing the first American tourist guidebook (1822), and here in his description of Jamestown (no vestige except a steeple and a cemetery) the only historical connection he makes is with the "celebrated Pocahontas," copying a few paragraphs from another publication on her London experience and descendants now in Virginia.
[Electronic Version]

"Four Great National Pictures." New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 15.10 (September 2, 1837): 80. Announcement that John Gadsby Chapman is one of four painters chosen to finish off the spaces in the Capitol rotunda. Chapman's work will be "The Baptism of Pocahontas" (1840).
[painting]

Frost, John. History of the United States: For the Use of Common Schools. Philadelphia, 1837. 31-36. (Philadelphia, 1852: 27-36.) See the other Frost entry this year. The 1852 edition is slightly revised but not in regard to Pocahontas.
[school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Frost, John. History of the United States: For the Use of Schools and Academies. Philadelphia, 1837. 35-49. In this account in the first year of his several accounts of the colonization of Virginia (and basically the same as his other account this year), Frost describes but does not trumpet the rescue (though there is an illustration). More emphasis is given to the marriage of Pocahontas, "which has always been regarded with great interest by the Virginians," "was hailed as an auspicious event at the time," but "never operated as an example": "The English and Indians would not intermarry, and the races have always remained distinct." Nothing about England.
[U.S. history; school book]

Olney, J. A History of the United States, on a New Plan. New Haven, 1837. 35-40. "Adapted to the capacity of youth," the title page says. Interestingly, this is one place "the" rescue is not highlighted, though the students can find it described in the fine print of the notes. Instead, Pocahontas's "other" rescue, the dark night journey, is the one highlighted in the text. And there's nothing about the abduction or the England experience.
[illustrated; juvenile; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas." A famous mid-19th century thoroughbred.
[homage]
[Electronic Version]

Review of Robert Dale Owen, Pocahontas: A Historical Drama. New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 15.19 (November 4, 1837): 149-50. Positive review, made up almost entirely of a long quote as Smith and Rolfe learn of the abduction and chaining of Pocahontas.

Review of Robert Dale Owen, Pocahontas: A Historical Drama. [New York] American Monthly Magazine new series, 4 (1837): 489-90. "We are not disposed to do the writer of Pocahontas injustice, nor can we deny him poetical power. . . . There is frequently a mistake in the love-language of Pocahontas and Nomony. It is not the language of such women. The endearing expressions are unnatural, and savour too much of the drawing-room -- and not at all of the wigwam or the forest. The best poetry in the drama, it strikes us, is that of the awakened spirits of Powhatan and Smith. Rolfe and Pocahontas sometimes equal them in their outbreaks."

Review of Robert Dale Owen, [The Editors' Table] Pocahontas: A Historical Drama. [New York] Knickerbocker 10 (1837): 180-81. "[This play] is a production of a man of genius, learning, taste, and morality. It adheres to historical truth, and exhibits, in an instructive light, the vices and virtues of both savage and civilized society."

Review of Samuel G. Drake, Biography and History of the Indians of North America. North American Review 44.95 (April 1837): 301-33. "We next meet with an account of Powhatan; the romantic and daring adventures of Captain John Smith; and the eventful history of the heroic and high-souled Pocahontas. But these are familiar themes. The universal symphony of mankind has reared to the memory of Pocahontas a monument as enduring as the human heart's reverence for virtue."

Roux de Rochelle, [Jean]. Etats-Unis d’Amerique. Paris, 1837. 31-38.
[foreign language]

"Selections from New Works. The Speaking Leaf.-- from 'Pocahontas.'" New-York Mirror: a Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 15.20 (November 11, 1837): 157-58. The section from the Custis play in which Rolfe and Smith amaze Pocahontas and Nomony with the reality of writing on paper is herewith printed.

[Owen, Robert Dale] A Citizen of the West. Pocahontas: A Historical Drama. New York, 1837. Another of the cluster of Ante-bellum plays about Pocahontas (see Barker, Barnes, Custis, and Brougham). Owen, later member of Congress and minister to Italy, was an active social reformer, a collaborator with Fanny Wright (see 1821), who was involved in promoting such radical issues as utopian communities, socialism, the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, free secular education, birth control, changes in the marriage and divorce laws. The dozen or more sources in the notes show that Owen did his homework, but he re-arranges events and invents a few for dramatic rather than historical purposes. The rescue of Smith occurs in Act Two, Pocahontas claiming him as "father," and the tearful climax is Smith leaving for England, severely wounded in a battle to free Pocahontas from her abductors (repaying his debt), and celebrating her approaching marriage with Rolfe. An interesting aspect of Pocahontas's character is her awakening sense of the equality of women: "Nomony! thinkest thou / Woman was made to be the friend of man, / To share man’s confidence – win his respect -- / To be – to be – his EQUAL? That’s the word, / Are not these strange – strange thoughts?" (Perhaps we should remember that the Trail of Tears will occur next year.)
[play; gender]
[Electronic Version]

1838

Howitt, William. Colonization and Christianity: A Popular History of the Treatment of the Natives by the Europeans in all their Colonies. London, 1838. 337-39. The goal of this book by English writer Howitt is, as he says in the introduction, to lay open to the public the most extensive and extraordinary system of crime which the world ever witnessed. Forget favorable comparisons with the Spanish, he continues, for, except for one or two "beautiful exceptions," "English and American treatment of the aborigines of their colonies is but Spanish cruelty repeated." Even Smith, good as he was, "was not sufficiently aware of the power of friendship" and chose to attack rather than treat with the Indians. "The better nature of the Indians saved him" from death, however, in the person of "the Indian beauty" Pocahontas. Though Rolfe would eventually marry Pocahontas, "the rest of the colonists of the period held aloof from Indian marriages as beneath them. They looked on the Indians rather as creatures to be driven to the woods -- for, unlike the negroes, they could not be compelled to become slaves -- than to be raised and civilized." The result was the Indian massacre of 1622 and the ensuing war of extermination. "Such was the mode of settling Virginia."
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Knapp, Samuel L. "Sketch of the Life of John Smith, the Father of Virginia." [New York] Family Magazine 5 (1838): 443-44. A sketch of Smith's life must inevitably linger on Pocahontas saving that life: "Poetry, painting, and sculpture, have tried to give immortality to this event: but they have added nothing to the moral beauty of the scene -- that is inherent in the story: no meagre terms can diminish its interest; no swell of language increase its lustre; even the cold chronologist stops to say something affecting upon it, and the annalist grows eloquent as he puts it upon his record."
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 442]

Letter of John Gadsby Chapman to William Bolling, 27 January 1838. William Bolling Papers, Virginia Historical Society. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994: "In 1838 John Gadsby Chapman saw the Robert Matthew Sully copy from which [the Rice and Clark 1842 lithograph] derives and called the figure 'coarse and unpoetical.'" Chapman thanked Bolling from having to use this figure as a model for his own work, for it would "break the beau ideal . . . and the romance of her story."
[painting]

"Pocahontas, The Indian Princess." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 4.4 (April 1838): 227-28. Elegiac -- the writer remembers remembering Pocahontas at the "Basin of Pocahontas" in Petersburg, in the cemetery at Jamestown, before what is believed to be her "veritable portrait" at Cobbs (the one Robert Matthew Sully copied from -- see 1842). For instance, "How often . . . have I figured to myself the form of this beauteous princess, meditating the protection of the white man, from the wiles of her ferocious countrymen, and the vengeance of her father, advancing to her ablutions, and perhaps lifting up her orisons to the Great Spirit for the welfare of the white man, as standing by this stone, she looked towards the orient, radiant with the pencilled messengers of the morning." "Who gave to this dark daughter of the red man, nurtured in the wigwam of the savage, and familiar with blood, these gentle emotions, those generous feelings, that delicate sensibility, that maidenly decorum, and yet that princely and exalted heroism, which have ranked this Indian girl among the loftiest of her sex in any age or clime." The piece ends with a poem -- see next entry.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

"The Preservation of the Early Colonists from Massacre." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 4.4 (April 1838): 228. A poem appended to the essay in the previous entry that commemorates the "signal service" of this "untutored child of the wilderness" in warning Smith of Powhatan's treacherous plot to murder him and his band (the subject of paintings by Chapman 1836 and White 1852). "I have saved thee before from his terrible ire, / When the club was uplifted, and kindled the fire, / And thy death was decreed by his oath; Thy head on the block as my arms did entwine, / Between it and the club I then interposed mine, / And I told them to strike at us both. / Then believe me, my Chieftain, and hasten away; / I return, or suspicion will blacken my stay, / And the morning my embassy tell. / May thy God e'er protect thee, and give thee his aid, -- / Oh, live mindful of me, tho' a poor Indian maid -- / Pocahontas now bids thee farewell."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Smith, Russell, Mrs. "The Indian Maid. Translated from the French. Chapter I. Chapter II. Pocahontas in England." Gentleman's Magazine 3.2 (August 1838): 108-18. Can't locate -- must be a bum citation.
[foreign language]

William Bolling, statement, May 1838. William Bolling Papers, Virginia Historical Society. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 quote Bolling, a prominent descendant of Pocahontas, as denying the lifelikeness of the Turkey Island portrait (see 1842): "it represented a large, fat, sallow [person of] rather a dead white skin, enormously large breasts much exposed, brown curly hair, with blue Eyes."
[painting]

1839

C. C. [Charles Campbell?]. "The History of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 5.12 (December 1839): 788-92. A concise but rather comprehensive sketch of early Virginia history with the purpose of calling attention to its often overlooked value and attraction. The Indians all groped "within a narrow circle of animal instincts, and the necessities of a precarious subsistence; strangers to that Arcadian paradise, those Elysian scenes, of which youthful poets have fondly dreamed. Yet here and there a solitary gleam of light shoots across the surrounding gloom. In Opechancanough we perceive perfidy blended with heroism; in Powhatan the cruelty of a savage despot, and the tenderness of a doting father; and in Pocahontas the graces of some guardian angel descended from the heavens." Pocahontas regarded Smith as a father not a lover, and here is but the second mention in the archive so far of a sister to Pocahontas named Cleopatra. Campbell, the probable author, wrote histories of Virginia in 1847 and 1860.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Hillard, George. "The Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith." Lives of Eminent Individuals, Celebrated in American History. Ed. Jared Sparks. Volume 1. Boston, 1839. 250-58, 280-90, 337-47. (New York, 1847. 250-58, 280-90, 337-47.) See Hillard 1834.
[Smith biography]
[Electronic Version]

Phillips, Richard, Sir. A Million of Facts, Connected with the Studies, Pursuits, and Interests of Mankind. 4th ed. New York, 1839. 287. Brief mention punctuated with "History scarcely furnishes a character, which, in so few years of human life, was a greater benefactor of mankind than Pocahontas."

"Pocahontas." New-Yorker 8.14 (December 21, 1839): 216. Same as following entry: brief biographical sketch from Stith.

"Pocahontas." [Hudson, N.Y.] Rural Repository 16 (1839): 134. Brief biographical sketch from Stith.

1840

Bolles, John. "Essay on a Congress of Nations." Prize Essays on a Congress of Nations, For the Adjustment of International Disputes, and for the Promotion of Universal Peace without Resort to Arms. Boston, 1840. 15. A collection of essays gathered by the American Peace Society on the subject of a Congress of Nations, in which Bolles says, "Amongst those elements of character which are found in every condition of human existence, and which are developed and strengthened by the progress of civilization, one powerful principle is humanity, -- that quality of mind which leads us to pity and weep over the sufferings of others. In the breast of the savage, this principle is scarcely felt, and in his conduct seldom seen; but, though small and feeble, it does exist even there; and occasionally it has stayed the uplifted tomahawk, extinguished the blazing brand, or, perhaps, urged some, of gentle mood, like Pocahontas, to interpose their own persons between the object and the instrument of barbarous vengeance."
[Electronic Version]

Chapman, John Gadsby. "The Baptism of Pocahontas." 1840. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 24.) (See preliminary oil sketch in Abrams 1999. 123.) One of the eight large paintings hanging in the rotunda of the United States Capitol building in Washington. There are no details in the historical record about Pocahontas's baptism (no one up to this time in the Archive entries here has even elaborated on it), so Chapman was introducing a new visual element into her representation in American consciousness. Rather than the familar rescue scene, for instance, Chapman chooses as his subject for this august location the moment "Pocahontas" becomes "Rebecca," the moment Indian becomes (literally) white, the moment of absorption. Tilton 1994 devotes a chapter to analysis of the painting.
[painting]
[View Images: painting]

Chapman, John Gadsby. The Picture of the Baptism of Pocahontas. Washington, 1840. A small pamphlet by Chapman describing his painting for the U.S. Capitol rotunda (see previous entry). Chapman justifies the subject on political and religious grounds. She is, after all, "the great benefactress, the tutelary genius of the first successful Colony planted within the limits of the United States; who, when famine raged or conspiracy menaced it with swift destruction, ever interposed her benign and gentle influence to supply their wants and ward off their dangers." But, also, "She stands foremost in the train of those wandering children of the forest who have at different times -- few, indeed, and far between -- been snatched from the fangs of a barbarous idolatry, to become lambs in the fold of the Divine Shepherd." There's a helpful diagram identifying the characters in the painting.
[painting]

"Continuation of the Description of the Capitol." [Baltimore] The Sun 21 August 1840: 1. The other stone panels in the Rotunda are "indifferently executed," but Capellano's rescue of Smith is "more skillfully grouped and executed than any of the others."
[sculpture]

Cooper, James Fenimore. Mercedes of Castile, or, The Voyage to Cathay. Volume 2. [Chapter 7] Philadelphia, 1840. 113. Pocahontas-like actions. "It was not easy to escape from such a combined assault, and our hero received one or two bruises from glancing arrows, though no blood followed the blows. A second attempt of the same nature was about to be made, when the alarmed girl, rushed from her place of concealment, and, like the Pocahontas of our own history, threw herself before Luis, with her arms meekly placed on her bosom."
[novel; Pocahontas-like]

Correspondent. "Preparations in the Capitol -- Paintings in the Rotunda." New York Herald 6.64 (December 3, 1840): 2.
[painting]

Landscape. "Mr. Chapman’s Picture—The Baptism of Pocahontas." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 21 December 1840: 3. Positive response to the Chapman rotunda painting. "When out of the swarthy hordes of arrow-sending barbarians there budded forth the flower of the desert, when the rose sprang up beneath the everlasting forests, and Christianity blew upon and expanded its leaves, there was a sublimity in the incident that certainly must have touched the hearts of those bold settlers. . . . The first barbarian brought in the knowledge of the living God! It is an incident full of the solemn, the beautiful, and the grand, and Chapman has shown a high and noble sense of right in selecting it."
[painting]

Morris, George P. "The Chieftain's Daughter." [New York] Godey's Lady's Book, and Ladies' American Magazine 21 (November 1840): 202. Morris was a highly successful journalist and editor (co-founder of the New York Mirror) and critic and writer ("Woodman, Spare That Tree"). This is perhaps the first appearance of the poem that just might be the most reprinted poem about Pocahontas in the 19th century. Three stanzas focusing on the crucial moment: "Above his head in air, / The savage war-club swung; / The frantic girl, in wild despair, / Her arms about him flung. / Then shook the warriors of the shade, / Like leaves on aspen-limb, / Subdued by that heroic maid / Who breathed a prayer for him." The poem is introduced by a prose description of the rescue from an unidentified work called Sketches of Virginia.
[poetry]

"Mr. Chapman's Painting of the Baptism of Pocahontas." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 1 December 1840: 3. Marks the opening of Chapman's painting in the Capitol rotunda the previous day with a long quote from Chapman's own pamphlet about it.
[painting]

"Mrs. Webster’s Pocahontas." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 9 October 1840. Positive notice of Mary Mosby Webster's book this year. "It is a traditional and genuine history of the romantic incidents in the life of a woman whose parallel is scarcely to be found in the annals of the world." The prominent fault of the book about the "young, beautiful, noble, and generous" Pocahontas is "want of connexion in the incidents," but "every American should get a copy."

"Pocahontas." New York Evangelist 11.3 (January 18, 1840): 12. Same as entries in 1839.

"Pocahontas." New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 18.3 (July 11, 1840): 17. Illustration by W. D. Redfield. A passionate panegyric! On Pocahontas as woman. Accompanied by an engraving based on the 1616 van de Passe from life. "Welcome, sweet woman . . . rather would we see thee as thou wert arrayed when thy bare arm was interposed between the brow of Virginia's first hero and the uplifted arm of the smiter." Pocahontas was not beautiful (the picture shows that) nor wise (like Powhatan who foresaw Smith as "the destroyer of his race"). But she was a woman. She saw Smith a hero, a human being in distress, and she pitied him. "Her woman's heart melted." Smith's bravery would not have saved him for Powhatan, for "the safety of a nation was at stake." But he yielded to her. "He was a father." Pocahontas did not love Smith; he was "elderly"; and her actions were disinterested. "She saved the colony; and the motto of the armorial shield of Virginia ought to be -- 'Woman!' Fare thee well, sweet flower of the forest. When every quality that endears woman to man shall have fallen into contempt, then wilt thou be forgotten."
[illustrated; gender]
[View Images: page 17]

"Pocahontas." [Boston] Prisoner's Friend: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Criminal Reform, Philosophy, Science, Literature, and Art 16.17 (February 1, 1840): 134. Can't locate; must be faulty citation.

"Romance of Indian History. Sketch of Pocahontas." New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 17.34 (February 15, 1840): 270. Her actions furnish "evidence of noble and disinterested benevolence that have scarcely any parallel in the whole range of history. There is a beautiful symmetry in her character which could only be found in woman. Every part of her short but glorious history, is calculated to produce a thrill of admiration and to reflect the highest honour on her name." Capellano's 1825 sculpture "failed to give the features and costume of the Indian, and made a figure which resembles more a Grecian Venus than an Indian princess."

Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince. "The Worthies of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 6.1 (January 1840): 49-51. Virginia is "holy ground," "soil consecrated by the ashes of the great and good," says "Mrs. Seba" Smith (not as well known now as Seba -- see 1841 -- Elizabeth was an active writer in her own right). So, who are the worthies of Virginia? Raleigh, Smith, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patrick Henry, and . . . Pocahontas: "the beautiful personation of all that is loveliest in woman -- the meek, loving child of the forest, whose history seems like a tale of romance, with its sad melancholy close -- who rises like a beam of beauty upon the sight, winning the admiration and gratitude of every heart, capable of one solitary response to all that is lovely in woman and heroic in our race." Pocahontas "beams forth in those dark and perilous times, like some kindly spirit, hushing the tempest of savage passion, dispensing comfort and succor to the disheartened exile, and with her own gentle bosom warding off all the evils that threaten the infant colony of Jamestown."
[Electronic Version]

T. J. S. "Pocahontas—A Legend." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 28 September 1840. Positive notice of Mary Mosby Webster's book this year: "the perusal exceeded far our expectations." On Pocahontas herself: "It is in vain we ask of History, how it was that such a character was formed. . . . History gives no answer. It lifts the curtain that for ages had concealed the Western world, and discloses, amid the shade of its forests, a being of as bright perfections as any that figure within the drama of human action, without detailing the steps by which she reached this height of moral worth. It furnished, however, in its very brief details, the outline of a character so free from stain, so marked with rarest excellence, uniting so much of woman's heart with all the loftier virtues of man's better nature, that, it would seem, the only reason why History left the picture thus imperfect was, that Poetry might finish it with such exquisite art that it would win for virtue the love and admiration of the world."

Virginia. "Pocahontas." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 25 September 1840. Positive notice of Mary Mosby Webster's book this year, which "will be welcomed cordially and find peculiar favor with the sons and daughters of Virginia, to the sympathy of so many of whom its narrative has hereditary claims." "We never see the name of Pocahontas without being transported in imagination to the days of 'chivalry and chain armor,' or to the more practical exploits of Joan of Arc, or Margaret of Anjou."

Watterston, George. "Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas." A Picture of Washington. Washington, 1840. 22-23. Description of the 1825 Capellano sculpture in the Capitol. "There is an evident want of truth in their delineation and costume. The face and head-dress of Pocahontas are Grecian, and the features of Powhatan are less like an Indian than an European."
[sculpture]
[Electronic Version]

Webster, Mrs. M. [Mary] M. [Mosby] Pocahontas: A Legend. Philadelphia, 1840. (very short excerpt in Burton Stevenson, My Country: Poems of History for Young Americans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932. 20-21.) Mosby, who identifies herself as a seventh generation descendant of Pocahontas, indulges in the "wildest fancy," the "poetic mixture of unvarnished truth [the notes to established sources are many] with time-worn legends. . . a few speculative opinions and occasional snatches of the purely ideal." The story is melancholy, moving from Pocahontas's attachment to her mother Ila (descendant of a Norseman), who dies; to her attachment to the son of Powhatan's other wife, Ergina, who also dies; to exile from her father for not marrying as he demands; to saving Smith who is not interested in any connection; to seer Manatowa's vision; to Japazaw's treachery; to her baptism and marriage, barely saving Rolfe from murder by her father; to escape from a storm on the way to England; and ending without elaboration of events in England with an image of her faithful page (Tomocomoco?) returning to Virginia to die wandering alone.
[poetry]

1841

[A. P. H.]. "The Baptism of Pocahontas. On the Picture in the Rotunda at Washington." [Philadelphia] Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 19.4 (October 1841): 178. No sooner does that Chapman painting (1840) open the door to the baptism as a subject of representation than we get a poem adding to the scene: "From thy dark shades of superstitious lore, / Thou com’st arrayed in purest vestal white, / That he, the man of God, might on thee pour / Jordan’s still wave, to give thy blindness sight."
[poetry; painting]
[Electronic Version]

"About Tight Lacing -- A Word to Young Men." [Baltimore] The Sun 19 July 1841: 54. The absence of corsets is not necessarily followed by a deformity in the female figure: "Did Pocahontas practice tight lacing?"

Bancroft, George. History of the Colonization of the United States. Vol. 1. Boston, 1841. 58-82. An abridged edition, one of many forms of the basic work by perhaps the pre-eminent historian of the 19th century (see 1837). Same account of the rescue as earlier versions but without the True Relation footnote.
[U.S. history]

"The Baptism of Pocahontas." [Louisville] Christian Observer 20.1 (January 1, 1841): 1. Approvingly marks the completion of the Chapman 1840 painting by quoting from his 1840 pamphlet.
[painting]

"The Baptism of Pocahontas." [New York] Family Magazine; or, Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge 8 (May 1, 1841): 307-9. Approvingly marks the completion of the Chapman 1840 painting by quoting from his 1840 pamphlet and by quoting information from Hamor on Pocahontas's abduction and Dale's efforts to convert her.
[painting]

Barber, John Warner, and Henry Howe. Historical Collections of the State of New York: Containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, and etc.. New York, 1841. 376-77. An amazing incident "which furnishes a parallel to the rescue of Capt. Smith by Pocahontas." An Indian council decides that, according to their belief in what is necessary for the happiness of the deceased, a certain (innocent) white man must die in reparation, in atonement for the murder of one of their own by a white. The man argues for his life, seemingly to no avail. Against all custom, three Indian women, all wives of chiefs, appear, carrying knives, disrupting the proceedings. The women pledge to kill themselves if their husbands carry out the unjust death sentence. And the man's life was saved.
[Pocahontas-like]

Brandburn, George. "House Report, No. 7, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the House of Representatives, Jan. 19. 1841." 1841. Qtd. in James Hugo Johnston, Race Relations in Virginia and Miscegenation in the South. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1970. 335-39. The report argues for repeal of the state law against miscegenation: "No white person shall intermarry with a Negro, Indian, or Mulatto." Among the arguments we find: "It were vain to imagine it impossible for virtuous persons to form such alliances, since the facts prove they may. One of America's most distinguished orators and statesmen [John Randolph] was accustomed to boast that he owed his birth to the union of Pocahontas and a certain Anglo-American, -- a union from which, history tells us, have 'descended some respectable families of Virginia.'"
[Electronic Version]

Buckingham, James Silk. America, historical, statistic, and descriptive. Volume 1. New York, 1841. 71, 200-1. Playing off a resolution by the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church that slavery is a civil and domestic institution, is not a moral evil, and thus the Church has nothing to do with its existence, Buckingham finds it "remarkable that this prejudice against dark complexion does not extend to the aboriginal Indians." "On the contrary, to have a mixture of dark Indian blood is rather a matter of pride than reproach," and as an example he describes a well attended lecture on Pocahontas by Reverend Francis Lister Hawks (see 1836, 1842, 1852), who "placed his hand upon his heart, and apologized for the pride which he must naturally feel in the recollection that some of the blood of Pocahontas flowed in his own veins [and] the sympathy of the audience manifested itself in marks of universal approbation." And yet Hawks as well as most of his audience were anti-abolitionist.
[slavery]
[Electronic Version]

Denton, Miss M. S. "Character and Condition of Woman." New-York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts 19.27 (July 3, 1841): 213. In what appears to be a kind of valedictory address to graduates of a girl's school, the condition of women is traced from the Garden of Eden through the savage state, Egypt, India, China, Rome, and into England, and finally to America, where the very first words are about Pocahontas. "In turning to America we find on the first page of history, an infant colony saved by the heroism of a woman -- and that woman a savage. The name of Pocahontas is never pronounced by the Virginian without a thrill of gratitude. Self-denying and self-sacrificing, she was truly the friend of our fathers. And cannot the American look with pride to his own loved country as distinguished for good, virtuous, and learned women?"
[gender]

Foote, Henry S. Texas and the Texans, or, Advance of the Anglo-Americans to the South-West. Volume 2. Philadelphia, 1841. 245. Pocahontas-like nurturing during the Mexican war. Describing a time when American captives were being executed and their bodies burned, Foote finds it "not inappropriate to mention one female, Pacheta Alevesco; the wife of Captain A. She was indeed an angel of mercy -- a second Pocahontas. All that she could do to administer to our comfort, -- to pour 'oil into our wounds,' was done. She had likewise been to Major Miller and men, a 'ministering angel.'"
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

Morris, George P., and Henry Russell. The Chieftain's Daughter. New York: Firth Pond & Co., 1841. Morris's 1840 poem set to music.
[illustrated; music; engraving]
[View Images: cover]

"Pocahontas--A Poetical Legend." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 7.1 (January 1841): 78. Review of Webster 1840. "We never read the story of Pocahontas without the solemn conviction that she was raised up by Divine Providence to protect and nourish the first germ of Christian civilization in the Western World. Her high-souled courage -- her gentleness and humanity -- her extra-ordinary sympathies -- her inflexible sense of justice, -- and above all, her devotional spirit, which found nothing satisfying in the senseless rites of Paganism, -- were all so opposed to the habits and prejudices formed by education, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to account for their existence upon mere human principles." Interestingly, though, the reviewer would like more attention to the more familiar heroic historical incidents (that is, the rescues) than to the legendary.
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas." [Harper's Ferry] Ladies' Garland and Family Wreath Embracing Tales, Sketches, Incidents, History, Poetry, Music 4.7 (January 1841): 175. George P. Morris's 1840 "The Chieftain's Daughter."
[poetry]

"Powhatan: A Poem by Mr. Seba Smith." [New York] Knickerbocker 17.4 (April, 1841): 350. Promising a longer review of this year's work in the future, the reviewer quotes the single passage in which Powhatan tries to get Pocahontas to remember her mother.
[Electronic Version]

Publicola. "Baptism of Pocahontas." [Boston] Christian Reflector 4.3 (January 20, 1841): 9. The Chapman 1840 painting hanging in the Capitol rotunda cost $10,000, and it is "broadly sectarian"! Which is cause for concern to this writer and his audience. Reprehensible is the fact that "there is no baptistery in sight, and nothing but a small vessel calculated to hold very little water." "Small as it may seem, it is, nevertheless, an unintentional outrage on the known religious principles of millions of people of this country. It is taking their money to propagate, in one of the most winning methods over which the genius of man has control, an error that has done more than almost every thing else to divide and cripple the church of God. It is by such exhibitions of the Fine Arts . . . that the most subtle and most dangerous delusions have been foisted on the people, at the people's expense."
[painting]

R. R. "Pocahontas." [Washington] Daily National Intelligencer 4 March 1841. The writer -- a fifth generation descendant -- is "thrilled with admiration" at seeing the Chapman 1840 painting in the Rotunda but wishes that he had first painted her marriage and then "shown her as a matron." Hmmm, curious and unexplained hierarchy.
[painting]

Review of Seba Smith, Powhatan: A Metrical Romance. [Philadelphia] Graham's Magazine 19.1 (July 1841): 46-47. The reviewer says nothing of the historical substance of the poem. He is too wrapped up in how bad it is: "We never saw any one so uncommonly bad."

Review of Seba Smith, Powhatan: A Metrical Romance. [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 7.7 (July 1841): 588-89. Brief review notes the "heroic tenderness of Pocahontas" and quotes a description of her and a conversation with Powhatan.
[Electronic Version]

Sigourney, Lydia H. "Pocahontas." Pocahontas and Other Poems. London, 1841. 13-37. (Illustrated Poems. Philadelphia, 1849. 181-209.) Sigourney significantly elaborates the story in this her second work on Pocahontas. The tone is distinctly sentimental (for instance, scenes of remembering her father while in England and with her child on her deathbed), and the frame seems to be guilt and regret over what has happened to the Indians. "I wish we had not to your mad lip prest / The fiery poison-cup, nor on you turn'd / The blood-tooth'd ban-dog, foaming, as he burn'd / To tear your flesh." The Indians have fled, only to be heard are their "exiled murmurings" from the far west. "Forgotten race, farewell!" "But thou, O forest-princess, true of heart, / When o’er our fathers waved destruction’s dart, / Shalt in their children’s loving hearts be shrined; / Pure, lonely star, o’er dark oblivion’s wave, / It is not meet they name should moulder in the grave."
[poetry; Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Sinclair, Thomas. "Captain Smith Rescued by Pocahontas." 1841. James Wimer, Events of Indian History. Lancaster, 1841. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 15.) Rasmussen and Tilton point out that Smith is a handsome young officer in 19th century dress and Pocahontas is "petite, beautiful, and seemingly Caucasian" (look at her hairstyle!) -- Sinclair apparently disregarding historical accuracy, feeling that his depiction "would find admirers among both the readers of Sir Walter Scott and the large, often female readership of sentimental fiction."
[lithograph]
[View Images: page 15]

Smith, Seba. Powhatan: A Metrical Romance. New York, 1841. Smith, best known as one of the first vernacular humorists with his Maine Jack Downing character, here focuses on Powhatan, the man, not the tribe. Pocahontas does not play a major role (though there's a long note about her taken from Burk in the notes). She has a tender, loving relationship with her father, knows she cannot love the Indian picked out for her ("He has a cruel heart / . . . . He never saves a captive’s life, / But a scalp will always bring: / How could I live with such a man"), but feels "something" (pity? love?) for Smith and saves him. Powhatan is emotionally devasted at the English threat to kill the hostage Pocahontas if he doesn't agree to peace terms, sending him into self-imposed exile. Opechancanough takes over and engineers a massacre (like the 1622 one), triggering a war that brings Powhatan back as a fierce warrior. But Pocahontas is forgotten in the story, which ends with a solitary, sorrowful Powhatan heading west alone.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Waldron, William Watson. "Pocahontas, Princess of Virginia." Pocahontas, Princess of Virginia and Other Poems. New York, 1841. Not the clearest of poems. In canto one, without contextual background, Pocahontas saves Alcanzor (why not use "Smith"?) from burning to death (?), and they seem to part friends. In canto two Pocahontas marries Rodolph (why not use "Rolfe"?). They travel to England, where on the dock Pocahontas meets Alcanzor again and forces contrition out of him. But for what, exactly? After many years in England the "pensive exile" wants to return to Virginia but dies first. Really not much in the way of adherence to the "facts" here nor any interesting flights of fancy.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

[Wimer, James.] Events in Indian History, Beginning with an Account of the Origin of the American Indians, and Early Settlements in North America. Lancaster, 1841. 72-116. Illustrated by Thomas Sinclair. See Sinclair entry to view image. Longish description of the main events in our narrative drawn from Smith, Stith, Hamor, Burk, Beverley -- and ending with a long excerpt from Seba Smith 1841.
[illustrated; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

1842

Baker, Miss. "Last Wish of Pocahontas." Songs, Odes, and Other Poems on National Subjects. Ed. William McCarty. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1842. 282-83. See the "Death of Pocahontas" articles 1833. This short poem is similarly sentimental and similar too in Pocahontas's wish to be buried with "my fathers" back in Virginia: "I wish for my lowly grave to be made / In my native vale, 'neath the wild-wood shade. / When the dying strife in my bosom is o'er, / And closes mine eye to wake no more, / Then bear ye my pallid corse away / To my own green vale, where the sunbeams play -- / Where the streams with a gentle murmur flow, / The wild birds sing, and the fresh winds blow. / There first I sported when wild and free, / And there may the place of my resting be."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Barstow, George. The History of New Hampshire, From its discovery, in 1614, to the Passage of the Toleration Act, in 1819. Concord, 1842. 14-16. "While history retains a record of the generous affection of Pocahontas, the name of Smith cannot be lost," and the rescue of this man whose name will "be forever associated with the noblest achievements in navigation" is described as part of the series of exciting adventures in his life.
[Electronic Version]

Buckingham, James Silk. The Slave States of America. Volume 2. London, 1842. 498-510. A standard account highlighting the rescue and reunion in England but ending with interesting comments on Pocahontas's descendants. The "celebrated" John Randolph " was as proud of his ancestry, as any peer of England who could trace his descent from some Norman baron brought over in the train of William the Conqueror." And then further: "The pride of ancestry, from an Indian stock, is much stronger in the few Americans who have so descended, than it appears to be in any possessing unmixed European blood. . . . This is more remarkable, when it is contrasted with the cruel treatment which the Indians have generally received from the American nation and people; and still more remarkable when we consider that there is nothing so repulsive to American feeling, as an intermarriage with persons having the least taint of colour from an African stock."
[slavery]

Ella. "Pocahontas." Lowell Offering 3 (October 1842): 14-20. An intriguing magazine. The Lowell Offering -- written, edited, and published by the female operatives of the Lowell, Massachusetts, woolen mills -- was the most prominent of several magazines produced by New England factory employees. And this is a very striking essay, morphing from an analysis of Pocahontas's distinctive character to reflections on the state of the Indians and back again. Pocahontas, "like a visitant from the ethereal world," must have led a "lonely life" in her culture, "yearning for communion with those she could not find," and it is no wonder how quickly she moved to "assimilate" with the whites. And the Indians recognized her power: "Powhatan treated her not as a child –- but as a woman. Aye, there and then, she was treated as a man."
[Electronic Version]

Everett, Alexander H. "Mrs. Sigourney." [New York] United States Magazine, and Democratic Review 11.51 (September 1842): 246-49. Review of Sigourney 1841. "[Pocahontas] is perhaps better fitted for a historical romance, in the manner of the Waverly novels, than for a poem; and waits, in order to receive entire justice, for the pen of some American Walter Scott. We rather wonder that Cooper. . . never happened to direct his view to this attractive point."

[Hawks, Francis Lister.] The Adventures of Captain John Smith, the Founder of the Colony of Virginia. New York, 1842. 71-87, 142-44, 194-99. Standard telling of the story (notes indicate he was drawing from Smith and Stith) except for a few things. Such as a strange interpolation questioning the reality of the rescue: "The king's daughter, Pocahontas, (it seems,) had entreated that [Smith's] life might be spared." And it's "the providence of God" that renders Pocahontas the "friend" who saves him the second time from Powhatan's murder plot.
[juvenile; Smith biography]
[Electronic Version]

Kemble, Fanny. Pocahontas. London, 1842. A ballet according to Margaret Armstrong (Fanny Kemble: A Passionate Victorian, New York: Macmillan, 1938: 266.) by an English woman who was one of the most prominent actresses of her day as well as a successful writer and who visited America and spent time on a plantation.
[music]

Knapp, Samuel L. "Pocahontas." Female Biography: Containing Notices of Distinguished Women, in Different Nations and Ages. Philadelphia, 1842. Illustrations by W. Croome. Frontispiece, 100, 381-86. We noted the coming of these kinds of collections of model women with Hays 1807. Catherine Brown, who "must be ranked with Pocahontas," and Pocahontas herself are among dozens of women so distinguished here (Joan of Arc, Abigail Adams, Anne Boleyn, Queen Isabella, etc.). But Pocahontas is special: "In every age and nation, rare instances of benevolence have been found; but in the whole range of educated nations, no female can be produced that has superior claims to Pocahontas. . . . The whole of her story surpasses all that fiction could create, and the embellishments were not wanted along side of the simple character of this child of nature. A thousand artificial flowers, in gilded vases, have not, to the true botanist, the beauty and perfume of one in the garden where it grew; nor can the Geraldines and Cherubines, those monsters of loveliness in fiction, reach the unsophisticated elegance of character displayed in Pocahontas."
[illustrated; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Moore, William V. [John Frost]. Indian Wars of the United States, from the Discovery to the Present Time. Philadelphia, 1842. 90-110. Same old basic story here. Doesn't deal with the English phase of Pocahontas's life, no doubt because of the focus of the book on Indian wars.
[illustrated; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

Morris, George P. "Pocahontas." ["The Chieftain's Daughter"] Songs, Odes, and Other Poems on National Subjects. Ed. William McCarty. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1842. 287-88. (My Country: Poems of History for Young Americans. Ed. Burton Stevenson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932. 19-20.) See Morris 1840.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Rice, Daniel, and James Clark. "Pocahontas." 1842. (Thomas McKenney and James Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Vol. 3. Philadelphia, 1844.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 35.) Rasmussen and Tilton say that this is a lithograph of a painting by Robert Matthew Sully, which, in turn, was a copy of the so-called Turkey Island portrait of Pocahontas that Ryland Randolph, a descendant of Pocahontas, acquired in England. And they point out that the figure of Pocahontas here "was invented to provide an alternative image" for the "rigid, formal, and Europeanized" 1616 van de Passe figure. This lithograph would later appear famously in McKenney and Hall 1844. Sully did three later paintings of Pocahontas in the 1850s. The Turkey Island portrait (Turkey Island was the Randolph home) was in bad shape and disappeared.
[lithograph; painting]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 35]

[Simms, William Gilmore.] "Pocahontas; A Study for the Historical Painter." The Magnolia (May 1842): 305-6. (Views and Reviews in American Literature, History and Fiction. New York, 1845. 88-101.) (Ed. C. Hugh Holman. Cambridge: Belknap Press of the Harvard UP, 1962.) Simms, in his second work on the Pocahontas story, gives a wonderfully dramatic reading of how the scene should be painted, indicating that Chapman's rotunda painting on her baptism (1840) is the wrong topic and without realizing that Chapman had indeed painted the rescue (1836). "She darts from her seat. . . . He looks only upon her. . . . [Powhatan's face] is full of surprise and anger." "What arrests the blow? What has arrested the blow of the murderer, so frequently and in all ages? – what but the interposition of an Angel. A form of light – that loveliest creation of human beauty, a young girl, just budding into womanhood – is this interposing angel."
[painting]
[Electronic Version]

Watterston, George. A New Guide to Washington. Washington, 1842. 47-51. Very positive tour book kind of description of Chapman's Capitol rotunda painting of the baptism of Pocahontas (1840), dotted with some quotes from Webster's poem (1840), and noting the lack of previous representations of this event: "It is an incident in the early settlement of our country, which is scarcely known, and not susceptible, from its character, of very great ornament. Pocahontas was certainly an extraordinary girl, and one that we rarely meet with, with either in savage or civilized life."
[painting]
[Electronic Version]

White, J. W. De la F. [Pittsburgh] "Character and Treatment of the Indians." Literary Casket 3.6 (December 1842): 126-29. We boast of our freedom, but we seldom "reflect on the inconsistency of our conduct," for instance, concerning treatment of African Americans and Indians. "These are dark, deep spots on the American character." There is an active anti-slavery movement, however, yet "how seldom is it the poor Indian receives so much as one pitying thought." The Indian may be savage but has virtues. "Who is there among us who has not heard of the beautiful Pocahontas? whose virtues and amiable qualities would grace the highest circles of civilized societies, and put to the blush many of our fashionable ladies. Yet she was born and raised in the forest amidst the yells and war-whoops of the savages. Brought into existence and educated in Nature's own bower she early imbibed those heaven-born sentiments which a contemplation of her works inspire. Pocahontas is a name destined for eternal remembrance. It will live -- will bid defiance to the pelting storms of Time, or the reckless hand that would attempt to bury it in the past. On the page of history it is written in characters of living light, encircled by a chaplet of fadeless green -- the grateful tribute of the poet and the historian; there it shall ever remain, an honor to the Indian character, and a disgrace to the European."
[slavery; Indian problem]

1843

Child, Lydia Maria Francis. Letter XVIII [May 26, 1842: Origin of Manhattan] Letters from New York. New York, 1843. 110. (New York, 1845. 122.) A walk on the Battery invokes Pocahontas as a point of reference in a gnarly meditation on societal progress. "What have we gained by civilization? . . . there is much to be said in favour of that wild life of savage freedom, as well as much against it." So, "should I have learned more of the spirit's life, could I have wandered at midnight with Pocahontas, on this fair island of Manhattan? I should have, at least, learned all; the soul of Nature's child might have lisped, and stammered in broken sentences, but it would not have muttered through a mask."
[Electronic Version]

Conrad, Judge. "The Sons of the Wilderness. Reflections Beside an Indian Mound." [Philadelphia] Graham's Lady's and Gentlemen's Magazine 23.1 (July 1843): 39-47. Robert Taylor Conrad was indeed a judge but also mayor of Philadelphia as well as a journal editor. This longish poem with longish notes is a meditation on the wrongs -- "the heritage of blood" -- committed against the Indians. How has a race of God ceased to be? One of the notes, in fact, sharply criticizes the right of discovery used to justify European claims in America. Smith, whom Pocahontas saved, of course, shrank from no treachery or outrage and was no better than the "chief of banditti," and Pocahontas was later imprisoned, triggering this reaction: "Vain was thy love, fond Pocahontas! Thou / Dreamed not so false the race which thou hadst saved: / Yet – though with fainting heart – thy flashing brow, / Queenly and cold, that scene of torture braved. / Loving and lost, thy grief and scorn were graved / Where no one turned the leaf. Didst thou not think, / Fawn of the desert! of the day when waved / The war club o’er his head, and thou didst sink / Between him and the death? Alas, that love / Young, yearning, truthful, hath no home save that above!" What can the Indians do but die. "It is their doom."
[poetry; Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Cruden, Robert Peirce. The History of the Town of Gravesend. London, 1843. 286-87. Brief notice drawing on Smith in this history of the town in which Pocahontas died and was buried is prefaced with "It is not inconsistent with the proposed arrangement of an account of the presence of royal and noble personages at Gravesend, to offer here the notice of an event, interesting to the cause of humanity."

Frost, John. The Pictorial History of the United States of America. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1843. 86-106. (Boston, 1852. 80-106.) Illustrations by W. Croome. Lively but standard version of events, with longest attention given to events in England in a quote from Salmon (?).
[illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 91, page 96]

[Goodrich, Samuel G.] By the Author of Peter Parley's Tales. "Pocahontas." Lives of the Celebrated American Indians. Boston, 1843. 169-89. This Goodrich, of the family of publishing Goodrich's represented in this archive, began the widely popular Peter Parley books for young people in the 1820s and wrote many of them. The preface indicates that the purpose of this book is to correct the "misrepresentations" and "deep prejudice," confirmed by evidence of their current wasted condition, that characterizes knowledge of the Indians. His account of Pocahontas here is of quite generous length, of quite generous praise (the rescue is the "most striking and dramatic incident in the whole history of the North American Indians"), and ends with this paean: "The name of Pocahontas adorns the brightest page in the history of the natives of America. In whatever light we view her character, either as maiden, a wife, or a mother, she is equally entitled to our respect and admiration. Heroic and amiable, constant and courageous, human, generous, discreet and pious, she combined in an extraordinary manner the virtues and perfections of both savage and civilized nature. The union of so many qualities honorable to the female sex and to the human species, should never be forgotten, in forming our estimate of the human race."
[illustrated; juvenile]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 170]

Hitchcock, E. A., and J. C. Spencer. "A Second Pocahontas." [New York] Spirit of the Times 13.10 (May 6, 1843): 116. Hitchcock is an army officer who sought out the Seminole woman, Milly Francis, whom we saw reports of several times here in the archive in 1818 for her Pocahontas-like rescue. Hitchcock verified the story, reports the details, and reports that he is asking for a pension for the woman, who is now suffering hard times. One of the details: the American proposed marriage, but she declined: "she did not save his life for that," she said. See the Boston Recorder entry below, and see also 1855.
[Pocahontas-like]

Hitchcock, Hon. J. C. Spencer. "A Second Pocahontas." Pensacola Gazette 13 May 1843: 4. See previous entry.
[Pocahontas-like]

"Indians in Washington." [Amherst, NH] Farmer's Cabinet 28 December 1843: 2. Fox Indians touring the Rotunda: "Chapman's picture of the baptism of Pocahontas . . . called up a shrug of the shoulder and a grunt of a few words which were all Indian to me. Their looks, however, seemed anything but favorable criticism of the painting." Instead they were interested in the picture of the marriage of Pocahontas, the landing of the Pilgrims, and William Penn's treaty.
[painting]

"Jamestown." [Bradford, VT] Green Mountain Gem; A Monthly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Arts 1.2 (January 21, 1843): 15. Standing on the neglected ruins of Jamestown triggers a meditation on Smith and Pocahontas, "that unsuspecting, sincere, confiding child of the forest . . . who loved Smith with all the natural ardor of maiden's love [and] for his sake, loved the colony." It is shameful "to think of the deception played on this artless child of the woods, by designing men, for political and interested purposes." "She was led to believe that Smith was dead, or he had forgtten her, until after she was Mrs. Ralph. She was greatly affected, as all lovers are in such cases, on seeing him for the first time after her nuptials. Shame shame on such conduct!"

Lilly, Lambert. The Adventures of John Smith, The Founder of the Colony of Virginia. New York, 1843. Same as Hawks 1842.

Morris, George P. "Pocahontas." [Bradford, VT] Green Mountain Gem; a Monthly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Arts 1.12 (June 17, 1843): 92. Another reprint of Morris's "Chieftain's Daughter." This is the second Pocahontas piece in this New England journal this year?!
[poetry]

Prescott, William Hickling. History of the Conquest of Mexico. New York, 1843. (New York: Modern Library, 1998. Chapter 6: City of Cholula, 1519, 356-57.) A good place for information about Dona Marina/Malinche, Cortes's mistress and interpreter, the Native American who conspired against her people, and who is often paired with Pocahontas. Here the "amiable manners of the Indian girl" enable her to win the confidence of a cacique's wife, exposing a plot against Cortes, enabling her to save him.
[Pocahontas-like]

"A Second Pocahontas." Boston Recorder 28.18 (May 4, 1843): 71. See Hitchcock entry above. Reports that Milly Francis did indeed receive a pension for her Pocahontas-like rescue and "to show to the Indian tribes how mercy and humanity are appreciated by the government."
[Pocahontas-like]

Smith, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes. "The Worthies of Virginia." [New York] The Rover: A Weekly Magazine of Tales, Poetry, and Engravings 1.17 (June 21, 1843): 271-72. Same as 1840.

"The Indian Princess Pocahontas." Pensacola Gazette 11 February 1843: 1. One-paragraph sketch, expands on her life after the rescue -- Rolfe's struggle of conscience, her baptism, marriage, trip to England (noting King James's snit), death, celebrated descendants. Nothing on reason for rescuing Smith or meeting him in England.

[The Anniversary of the Ladies Home Missionary Society.] [Baltimore] The Sun 8 May 1843: 4. Reports that in a sermon on "Female Influence and Power," a Rev. John Smith (I kid you not) extolled Pocahontas in the company of Queen Esther, Cleopatra, Charlotte Corday, and Hannah More: "retrograding for a moment we enter the thicket, and on the banks of the James river, armed savage like, unalleviated and unenlightened by christianity, we find our own Pocahontas, then but a child, offering her own life to save that of Captain John Smith."
[gender]

[The Pocahontas Tribe of Improved Order of Red Men.] [Baltimore] The Sun 15 February 1843: 2. This group gave a ball -- "truly a fancy and romantic affair" -- for the benefit of their school fund.

1844

Archer, Armstrong. A Compendium of Slavery as It Exists in the Present Day in the United States of America. London, 1844. 11-24. The purpose here: to contribute "my mite towards the exposure of so barbarous a traffic in human flesh and bones." Archer, son of a freed African American slave and an Indian mother, literally interjects a longish account of Pocahontas (drawn from Smith, Stith, and Thatcher) between an account of his grandfather's enslavement and a series of essays detailing the contemporary horrors of slavery. Archer claims descent from Powhatan on his mother's side through the chief's other daughter, Powcanoe (the first we've heard of her in this archive, I believe), and his purpose in telling the Pocahontas story is "to establish my claims on the sympathy and patronage of Englishmen, by the memorable services which the illustrious Pocahontas rendered the first English colony that settled in Virginia." In contrast, the present treatment of the Indians in "the most bloodthirsty and slave breeding state in all the union," is a "disgrace," and in a few centuries the Indians "will live only on the pages of history." Archer wants to show that "the Indians have been most shamefully abused, by a people who boast so loudly of being the only free nation on earth." For previous uses of Pocahontas in connection with slavery, see Hillhouse 1820, Baldwin 1834, and Jay 1836.
[illustrated; slavery; Indian problem]

Balch, Rev. T. B. "Pocahontas, Burr, and Wirt." [Bradford, VT] Green Mountain Gem; A Monthly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Arts 2 (1844): 19-20. Balch was a literary Southern minister, and this piece about a trip to Richmond seems a selection from another work, as yet unidentfied. Pocahontas, "a kind of tawny Shepherdess," is also "a Princess of blessed memory" and must ever be "the presiding genius of Richmond": "Her image seemed continually present during my stay at Richmond. She seemed to stand at every sylvan gate, and to be reflected in every setting sun. When the imagination unfolded its saloon, she entered as a welcome but pensive guest; and amid all its gay and vernal creations, she seemed to pluck nothing but cypress leaves, and suspend her wampum belt among its golden willows. Child of the forest! hadst thou been in Wyoming, that helmet never would have perished, and the tones of that tragic story would never have echoed among the slopes of Parnassus." (Is that a reference to Thomas Campbell's "Gertrude of Wyoming"?)

Barnes, Charlotte Mary Sanford. The Forest Princess, or Two Centuries Ago. 1844. Plays, Prose and Poetry. Philadelphia, 1848. 145-270. (Plays by Early American Women, 1775-1850. Ed. Amelia Howe Kritzer. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.) Barnes -- active in our early theater as an actress, playwright, and director -- is one of the cluster of ante-bellum dramatists working on Pocahontas that includes Barker, Custis, Owen, and Brougham. She calls her Pocahontas "the animated type of mercy and peace, unselfishness and truth," focusing on her "benevolence," and, eschewing the temptation to attribute romance to her motivation with Smith, her "disinterestedness" -- her simple dedication to mercy and justice. But her Pocahontas is also a "warrior," strong in the face of adversity and tough in her indictment of English policies. The rescue of Smith happens dramatically at the end of the first act, and Smith is already gone from Virginia at the beginning of the second act, whose climax is the marriage with Rolfe, the "first of the two nations joined," uniting "in peace and love the old world and the new." After saving Rolfe in the third act, the play ends with a glorious death-bed "Vision of Pocahontas," in which the figures of Time, Peace, the Genius of Columbia, and Washington prophesy a future in which the arms of "the island mother and her giant child" exchange the "grasp of lasting friendship."
[play]
[Electronic Version]

Blake, John. "Captain John Smith." Anecdotes of the American Indians. New York, 1844. 99-102. Short sketch of Smith's capture followed by Pocahontas's rescue.
[Electronic Version]

"Captain Smith and Pocahontas." [New York] The Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 2 (November 1844): 236-38. Here is another one of those hints that we've seen two or three times thus far in the archive of the debunking of Smith that will get serious at the end of the next decade. The author raises the possibility that the legend around Pocahontas is false, only to say truth doesn't matter. Why should we believe Captain Smith more than Captain Gulliver? Perhaps he used his imagination. Perhaps he wanted to puff up his service. Perhaps the story is an elaborate allegory of civilization struggling with barbarism. But who cares and what good would it do to disprove the story? "The story as it stands is a beautiful and touching story; one very worthy of belief; and for the sake of Pocahontas, I would not have it disproved if I could. . . . let us believe the story; let it be sacred in our memories and our faith."
[illustrated; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Hawes, Barbara. "Pocahontas and Captain Smith." Tales of the North American Indians. London, 1844. 278-309. Some chapters of this book deal with real people, some with legends, some nature. Nothing especially remarkable in this account drawn totally and without elaboration from the usual sources, some of which are mentioned in the introductory material.
[juvenile; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

McKenney, Thomas, and James Hall. "Po-ca-hon-tas." History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Vol. 3. Philadelphia, 1844. 65-69, 197-98. One of the most beautiful and important books on Indians in the 19th century. A collection of 120 visual and verbal portraits of Indian leaders spearheaded by McKenney, who had been head of the U.S. Department of the Indians. Contains appreciative and historical material on Pocahontas in the essay by James Hall (author of a story called "The Indian Hater"), as well as the lithograph by Rice and Clark (see 1842), and a note on "The Genuineness of the Portrait of Pocahantas" gives evidence for same. About the rescue, Hall says, "The motive of that noble action was benevolence, the purest and most lofty principle of human action. It was not the caprice of a thoughtless girl, it was not a momentary passion for the condemned stranger, pleading at a susceptible heart, for her affections were reserved for another, and the purity as well as the dignity of her after life, shewed that they were truly and cautiously bestowed. . . . Yet this woman was a savage! A daughter of a race doomed to eternal barbarism by the decree of a philosophy which pronounces the soil of their minds too sterile to germinate the seeds of civilization!"
[lithograph; painting; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

Murray, Hugh. The United States of America; Their History from the Earliest Period. Vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1844. 92-112. Murray's second standard account, without elaboration, drawn from Smith, Purchas, Hamor, Pinkerton, Hillard.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1845

Anderson, James S. M. The History of the Church of England in the Colonies and Foreign Dependencies of the British Empire. Vol. 1. London, 1845. 294-300. (2nd. ed. Vol. 1. London, 1856. 178-79, 238-44.) Often noted as an important early book on this subject, but the Pocahontas account is standard, except, perhaps, for this comment in regard to her abduction: "It was a cruel and shameful act to ensnare and take captive one who had rendered such signal services as these; and, albeit in the end it was overruled for good, the contrivers of the scheme must still bear the burden of its reproach."
[Electronic Version]

"Antiquities of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 11.6 (June 1845): 351-53. Sketch of early Virginia history to 1613 mentions Pocahontas's blowing the whistle on Powhatan's murder plot and her abduction and marriage, but, surprisingly, not "the" original rescue.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

"Buried Alive." [Baltimore] The Sun 13 November 1845: 1. Under the sub-heading of "A Question Settled," we are told that "a writer in the Richmond Enquirer, after a prolonged argument, concluded that Pocahontas had no claim for damages for breach of promises against Captain Smith."

Child, Lydia Maria Francis. Brief History of the Condition of Women in Various Ages and Nations. 5th ed. Volume 2. New York, 1845. 235-37. Perhaps the fifth mention of Pocahontas by Child here in the archive. Saying that "dancing was a common amusement with the Indians," Child quotes the Virginia Maske episode from Smith, punctuating it with: "Captain Smith does not give a very gallant account of an entertainment intended as a particular compliment to his arrival. The dance, like most savage dances, was unquestionably a pantomine; and he probably did not understand what it was intended to represent." Well, what was it intended to represent?
[illustrated; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Commuck, Thomas. Indian Melodies. New York, 1845. 64. An original collection of airs, on religious themes, by a Narraganset. The names of the pieces are all Indian tribes, people, or places, but out of respect or acquaintance, not because of any connection. So the lyric on this one has nothing particular to do with Pocahontas: "Jesus, shall I never be Firmly grounded upon thee? Never by thy work abide? Never in thy wounds reside?"
[music]

"The Epochs and Events of American History, as Suited to the Purposes of Art in Fiction. Pocahontas, A Subject for the Historical Painter." [Charlestown] Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review 2.3 (September 1845): 145-54. See Simms 1842 and this year. Simms edited this magazine.

Goodrich, Samuel G. Peter Parley's Geography for Beginners. New York, 1845. 70. Another Parley volume; another entry by a Goodrich. Brief mention of the rescue.
[school book; illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

Hale, Mrs. Sarah Josepha. "The Empire of Woman." [New York] Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book 31 (July 1845): 12. (Three Hours; or, The Vigil of Love: and Other Poems. Philadelphia, 1848. 86-90.) Hale was a prolific writer and long-time editor of Godey's, which, as the most popular woman's magazine of its era, wielded enormous influence, focusing mainly on the domestic role of women. In this poem "the outward World" is given to "Man's dominion," and Hale, in separate stanzas, sketches women's role as daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Pocahontas and Powhatan embody the father/daughter relationship, showing what influence in the outside world a female can have: "The iron cares that load and press men down / A father can, like school-boy tasks, lay by, / When gazing in his Daughter’s loving eye, / Her soft arm like a spell around him thrown; / The passions that, like Upas’ leaves, have grown / Most deadly in dark places, which defy / Earth, heaven and human will, even these were shown / All powerless to resist the pleading cry / Which pierced a savage but a father’s ear, / And shook a soul where pity’s pulse seemed dead; / When Pocahontas, heeding not the fear / That daunted boldest warriors, laid her head / Beside the doomed! Now with our country’s fame, / Sweet forest Daughter, we blent thy name."
[poetry; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Virginia. Charleston, 1845. 22-51. Great frontispiece image showing the rescue of Smith as the "base" for future Virginia history and glory. The account itself is substantial and notes a handful of respected sources, but it does not especially trumpet Pocahontas. At execution time, though, "an advocate appeared, as unexpected as would have been the appearance of an angel sent immediately from heaven to ask his release." And the requiem: "Peace to her gentle spirit! Her memory will not perish while the commonwealth of Virginia endures, or noble and generous actions are valued by her sons."
[illustrated; Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: frontispiece, page 20]

Lewis, Alonzo. "Love: Canto II." Love, Forest Flowers, and Sea Shells. Boston, 1845. 19-30, esp. 20. In this long popular poem (10 editions) by the "Lynn Bard," Pocahontas is referenced as a model lover and positioned in good company: "How pure and fond the love that Mary knew, / When her warm tears bespangled Calvary's dew! / What sweet regard the Roman daughter moved, / When her fond instinct saved the life she loved! / What proud affection Pocahontas felt, / When by the fatal stone she boldly knelt; / Or when, to serve the tribe she loved in vain, / Her noble form was drenched in midnight rain, / As through the trackless wild her footsteps sped, / Risking her own to save the stranger's head."
[poetry]

"Pocahontas." [New York] Dwight's American Magazine [American Penny Magazine], and Family Newspaper 1.22 (July 5, 1845): 337-39. Calls attention to Pocahontas's young age at the time of her rescue of Smith: "nothing could have directed her in the course she pursued, but a strong natural dictate of humanity. Yet why she should have been so affected in that case, it is difficult to say, as it may be presumed that she had witnessed scenes of cruelty, bloodshed and murder, among the savage race, and in the savage family to which she belonged." So what about the fierce Powhatan? "The character of Powhatan is a very marked one. His attachment to his daughter alone would be enough to vindicate the red race from the charge of being without natural affection."
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

Sigourney, L. H., Mrs. "First Church at Jamestown, Virginia." Scenes in My Native Land . Boston, 1845. 25-26. "Now, all are swept away." Even Pocahontas, where, perhaps here, she, "moved with pity, sighed, / O'er the pale victim, by her firmness saved." One of the several ubi sunt Jamestown meditations in the archive so far.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Simms, William Gilmore. "Pocahontas: A Subject for the Historical Painter." Views and Reviews in American Literature, History and Fiction. New York, 1845. 88-101. (Ed. C. Hugh Holman. Cambridge: Belknap Press of the Harvard UP, 1962.) See 1842.
[painting]
[Electronic Version]

"Virginia's Rebecca." [Chicago] Christian Advocate and Journal 19.22 (January 8, 1845): 88. Reprinted from the American Messenger. Focuses on her second life as a Christian, for instance, her baptism: "With folded arms before the font she stood, / Encircled by the hushed and reverent air; / Her upward glance was a sweet hymn to God, / Her downward look a soul-suffusing prayer."
[poetry]

Willard, Emma. History of the United States, or, Republic of America. New York, 1845. 21-27. Willard, pioneer in education for women and founder of a school in Troy, New York, that still exists, dutifully records that Pocahontas rescued Smith at a "tender age," that she "repeatedly saved the life of Smith," that "Smith was penetrated with gratitude," and that she ranks high "not merely on the roll of savages and of women, but of humanity itself."
[illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

[Smith, John.] "A True relation of such occurrences and accidents of note, as hath hapned in VIRGINIA." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 11.1 (Jan. 1845): 65-67. No mention of the rescues or other Pocahontas acts in this advertisement for an edition of Smith's 1608 work that appears in the next issue. Curious that nothing else was worthy of mention or that the discrepancy with Generall Historie escapes notice.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

[Smith, John.] "A True relation of such occurrences and accidents of note, as hath hapned in VIRGINIA." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 11.2 (Feb. 1845): 69-82. Edition of Smith's 1608 work.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

1846

Belloc, H. Histoires d’Amérique et d’Océanie. Paris, 1846. 29-33.
[foreign language; illustrated]

[Campbell, Charles.] "Contributions to the History of Virginia, Chapter VII." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 12.9 (September 1846): 533-38. Campbell's book-length history of Virginia would come out in 1847. This chapter dealing with the rescue ascribes, since "nature often implants noble and tender emotions in the least cultivated mind, especially in that of woman," to Pocahontas motivations "something stronger and more sacred than pity or that mysterious reverence with which he had inspired her countrymen." Campbell revised his work, and this interesting remark is not in the 1847 or 1860 book versions.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Howison, Robert R. A History of Virginia. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1846. 119-27, 150, 189-205. Howison draws from a bevy of sources, as his notes make clear, and writes a pretty standard history in pretty familiar language. Noteworthy, perhaps, is his description of the young Pocahontas (who is "budding into womanhood, and cotemporary writers tell us of her beauty, her intelligence, her sensitive modesty"), her reaction to imprisonment ("we cannot doubt that she found her present position more congenial to her taste than the rude scenes of an Indian wigwam"), and a rebuttal to slurs against the quality of her descendants ("it would be easy . . . to find, in man, those gifts of nature which cause the few to govern the many, and in woman, the most brilliant personal beauty, united with the highest of mental endowments."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Sigourney, Mrs. L. H. "The Emigrant Bride." Myrtis: With Other Etchings and Sketchings. New York, 1846. 49. See Sigourney, Water-drops, 1848, 144.
[short story]
[Electronic Version]

Simms, William Gilmore. The Life of Captain John Smith, The Founder of Virginia. New York, 1846. 143-61, 182-90, 251-71, 326-36, 355-67. (Freeport: Books for Libraries, 1970.) This third involvement with Smith and Pocahontas by Simms is strictly biography and history rather than fiction. His approach is lush and expansive but basically quite straightforward. There are, however, several lyrical passages about Pocahontas. For instance: "As these virtues were not of the time or the people among whom she was born and nurtured, so they denote a degree of excellence which lifts her beyond her race and period, and links her name and reputation with those of the few noble spirits, like herself, of whom the universal heart everywhere keeps a tenacious memory. A more incomparable creature never did honor to her sex. A more feminine spirit never was sent to earth for the purpose of humanity." Quite provocative, though, is Simms' view of the relationship between rebellious daughter and stern father: "We have no reproaches for Pocahontas, and her conduct is to be justified. She obeyed laws of nature and humanity, of tenderness and love, which were far superior, in their force and efficacy, in a heart like hers, to any which spring simply from ties of blood. But, even though his designs be ill, we cannot but regard the savage prince, in his age and infirmities, thus betrayed by child and subject, somewhat as another Lear. He, too, was fond of his Cordelia."
[illustrated; Smith biography]
[View Images: frontispiece, title page]

"Sketch of Pocahontas." The Weekly Raleigh Register, and North Carolina Gazette 30 October 1846. Fears her story "will be regarded as a romance." Standard retelling with direct quotes from a source prefaced by this incredible run-on sentence of awe: "To see one brought up among, a fierce, warlike, and cruel race, herself the daughter of an emperor, and still almost in her infancy, voluntarily rushing forward, and encountering difficulties, dangers and fatigue, to save a total stranger from death, who was thought to be the deadly enemy of her race, and fearlessly and generously persisting in extending relief and assistance to him and rescuing from famine and death his destitute companions, who had invaded the land of her birth and the country of her fathers, and from whom she could expect nothing in return for her kindness, cannot but excite the highest admiration, as furnishing evidences of noble and disinterested benevolence that has scarcely any parallel in the whole range of history." Whew! But there's a "There's a beautiful symmetry in her character which could only be found in woman" thrown in there too. Reference to Capellano's sculpture points to the basis for this article in the 1845 "Romance of Indian History."

Thompson, Waddy. Recollections of Mexico. New York, 1846. 29. Thompson was sent as minister to Mexico during hostilities on the border to demand the release of prisoners who were United States citizens and to require that Texan prisoners be treated with consideration. In this book about his tenure there, Thompson praises Cortes, Santa Anna, and some other elements of Mexican culture, making an almost off-hand comment about Pocahontas that triggers a defensive response by Pickett next year. Thompson says, "The [Cholulan] plot [against Cortes] was discovered through the address and sagacity of that miracle of a woman Dona Marina, the Indian interpreter of Cortes, whose great qualities throw into the shade our own Pocahontas." That's all. And that's enough to set Pickett about "vindicating" Pocahontas's reputation!
[Electronic Version]

"Touching Incident." Milwaukee Sentinel 31 August 1846: 2. A story of "self-sacrificing attachment" the equal of Pocahontas and Smith. A little girl saves a dog from being shot by the Marshal, saying, "he's not mad, Mr. Marshal -- he's not mad." The marshal then said that "he would not kill that dog for all the mayors and aldermen in creation."
[Pocahonas-like]

Warburton, George. Hochelaga, or, England in the New World. Part 2. New York, 1846. 163. Hochelaga, the ancient name for area around Montreal, is the account of the author's visits to Canada and America. "Many of my observations may, perhaps, be distasteful to an American reader," says Warburton, and one can imagine that in the context of his Pocahontas reference. "The treatment of the Indian races in America by the Europeans, has generally been contemptuous and cruel. . . The people of the gentle and generous Pocahontas have perished from the land, and the magnanimous Mohicans are only remembered through the pages of a romance. . . . The negro lives in chains -- the Indian dies in freedom."
[Indian problem; slavery]

1847

Campbell, Charles. "History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 13.2 (February 1847): 67-80. Here are portions of the book-length history also published this year: chapters 1-4. The notes show that Campbell was drawing from the usual suspects, so, since there is no editorializing of much note, the account is solid but not exceptional in any way.
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

Campbell, Charles. "History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 13.3 (March 1847): 129-44. Continuation of the previous entry: chapters 5-9. A straight-arrow telling (the interesting comment about Pocahontas's rescue motivation in the 1846 entry is dropped), though Campbell does say, anticipating the debunking controversy that will begin in earnest with Palfrey 1858, that "it is remarkable that [True Relation] contained no allusion to [Smith's] rescue by Pocahontas" (see toward the end of chapter 7).
[Virginia history; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Campbell, Charles. Introduction to the History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Richmond, 1847. 14-40. Campbell, as we've seen in the above two entries, is little given to straying from the facts and a sober historian's approach, but at the end of his account here in his first book version (there's another in 1860) he argues that the "integrity of Smith stands untarnished" from censures sometimes cast on him for "having failed to marry Pocahontas. History, however, has no where given any ground for such a reproach. . . . [for] Pocahontas seems to have regarded [him only] with a sort of filial affection." Note again, also, though, that, as mentioned in the previous entry, Campbell does pick up on the fact that there is no mention of a rescue in 1608.
[Virginia history; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Chapman, John Gadsby. "The Chief's Daughter." The Evergreen for MDCCCXLVII a present for all seasons embellished with ten elegant engravings, from designs by eminent artists. Philadelphia, 1847. Title page. Engraved by Rawdon. Another one of the various images done by Chapman, best known for his 1840 Capitol rotunda painting on the baptism of Pocahontas. An illustration to accompany the poem in the following entry. The Evergreen was a popular, annual "gift book."
[engraving]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: engraving]

"The Chief's Daughter." The Evergreen for MDCCCXLVII a present for all seasons embellished with ten elegant engravings, from designs by eminent artists. Philadelphia, 1847. 234-35. With that title, we might think this is another reprinting of the Morris 1840 poem, but it isn't. "A change has come," the result of a "despotic fate," and the Indians must leave "their ancient home." Pocahontas must "say farewell to every hallowed scene." How will her romantic stream rejoice, when once "its nymph, its charm" is gone?
[poetry; illustrated]

Child, Lydia Maria Francis. "The Youthful Emigrant: A True Story of the Early Settlement of New Jersey." Fact and Fiction: A Collection of Stories. New York, 1847. 44. The probably mainly true story of Elizabeth Haddon, an English Quaker who developed a love for America as a child during a visit from William Penn and eventually moved there, giving her name to Haddonfield, New Jersey. Penn whetted her imagination by telling of Indians, and immediately thereafter Elizabeth named her doll Pocahontas and called her kitten a papoose.
[short story]
[Electronic Version]

Hall, James. "Pocahontas." The Hemans Reader for Female Schools: Containing Extracts in Prose and Poetry Selected from the Writings of More Than One Hundred and Thirty Different Authors. [The Hemans Young Ladies' Reader.] Ed. T. S. Pinneo. New York, 1847. 269-70. The preface says that "every article has been carefully studied with reference to its . . . adaptedness to the cultivation of the female mind and heart. The development of correct sentiment and taste, the encouragement of gentle and amiable feeling, and the regulating and maturing of the social affections, have been objects constantly prominent." So, Pocahontas as model for women. Hall's selection is from McKenney and Hall 1844.
[school book; gender]

Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio. Cincinnati, 1847. 40. A Pocahontas-like person. A white man about to be burned to death was saved by a "young squaw" who was "touched by sympathy" and used some fur and money to free him," an act "which entitles her name to be honorably recorded with that of Pocahontas, among the good and the virtuous of every age." Ha! of course the Indian is not named!
[Pocahontas-like]

Juvenille. "The Sketcher. Passages in the Life of Pocahontas." [Ashland, OH] Amaranth. A Semi-Monthly Publication, Devoted to Polite Literature, Science, Poetry and Amusement 1.2 (March 6, 1847): 5-6. The rescue scene with some meaningless changes is depicted in a short sketch. For instance, Moxahaba, "the Wild Flower of the Forest," daughter of Powhatan, has a dream that the Great Spirit wants the "doomed stranger" saved. Once done, the scene shifts to an English cathedral where royalty and nobility wait in "breathless silence" as the Wild Flower is baptized, becoming the "Christian Woman."

Morris, George P. "The Chieftain's Daughter." The Hemans Reader for Female Schools: Containing Extracts in Prose and Poetry Selected from the Writings of More Than One Hundred and Thirty Different Authors. [The Hemans Young Ladies' Reader.] Ed. T. S. Pinneo. New York, 1847. 271. Morris's well-traveled 1840 poem. See the Hall entry above this year for info on the goal of the reader.
[poetry; school book; gender]

[Pickett, James Chamberlayne] By a Kentuckian. The Memory of Pocahontas Vindicated against the Erroneous Judgment of the Hon. Waddy Thompson. Washington, 1847. 4-6, 15-16, 25-39. Here is Pickett responding to what he considers a slur against Pocahontas in Thompson 1846: "In all history and in all romance it would be difficult to find a more perfect character than Pocahontas. . . . It is impossible to become acquainted with her story without loving and admiring a being so good, so gentle, so humane, and so heroic. . . . Being by birth a Virginian, with strong attachments for my native State . . . and the memory of Pocahontas being dear to every son and daughter of the 'Old Dominion,' I trust that in vindicating her memory, I am doing nothing culpable, presumptuous, or officious." Among his arguments that Pocahontas was better than Marina are the fact that Pocahontas was a princess, that she converted, and that Smith was a better man than Cortes. The appendix contains extracts about Pocahontas from a dozen or more histories, including some foreign language works (with only partial citations).
[foreign language]
[Electronic Version]

Review of Robert Howison, A History of Virginia. [Richmond] Southern and Western Literary Messenger and Review 13 (Jan. 1847): 1-13. In a positive review that describes and assesses all the prior historians of Virginia, we find: "Although Virginia may be blotted from the map of nations, and although the English race may become as totally extinct within its confines as the Indian has done, the legend of Smith and Pocahontas will be remembered so long as the human heart retains its nature."
[Electronic Version]

Sears, Robert. The Pictorial History of the American Revolution. New York, 1847. 56-63. Pocahontas, "seized with those tender emotions which form the ornament of her sex," rescues Smith.
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

"Southern Justice." [Boston] The Emancipator 17 November 1847:2. Reports that a South Carolina court ruled that a person of Indian descent is colored, and "consequently an incompetent witness in a court of justice." So John Randolph would be incompetent since he boasted of his descent from Pocahontas.
[slavery]

Willson, Marcius. History of the United States, for the Use of Schools. New York, 1847. 47-56. (History of the United States, from the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time. New York, 1854. 47-56.) Willson, who was offered the position of founding president of Vassar, authored three popular reading series over a period of three decades, and his history books, which began around this time, were also constantly in print during the same period. Pocahontas's rescue of Smith and her marriage to Rolfe are covered in this survey of early Virginia history, but students are not told of her abduction.
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 47]

Willson, Marcius. Juvenile American History for Primary Schools. New York, 1847. 36-45. (Primary American History for Primary Schools. New York, 1863. 36-45.) Interestingly, Willson's history book for the younger students has more detail than the one for older students in the previous entry -- including a comment that the justice of the way the "artful white people" treated the "ignorant Indians" is "greatly to be doubted," that Pocahontas was abducted, but that her "grief subsided" when told the reason was to foster a peace treaty.
[illustrated; school book: U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1848

"Affairs in Washington." New York Herald 1 April 1848: 3. Brief notice: "Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Conner played tonight in Mrs. Conner's drama of Pocahontas, which was received in a very flattering manner."
[play]

"Another Fight in Washington. 'Personal Explanation' between Pocahontas and the Greek Slave." [New York] The John-Donkey 1.19 (May 6, 1848): 295. This satire magazine's three-pictured sketch involves a naked female wrestling match between the statues of Pocahontas and the Greek Slave, precipitated by the slave's vulgar gesture to the statue of John Smith. Pocahontas, who "showed more bottom than her slender antagonist," won!
[illustrated; cartoon]
[View Images: page 295]

Barnes, Charlotte Mary Sanford. The Forest Princess, or Two Centuries Ago. 1844. Plays, Prose and Poetry. Philadelphia, 1848. 145-270. (Plays by Early American Women, 1775-1850. Ed. Amelia Howe Kritzer. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.) Publication of the play first performed in 1844. See 1844.
[play]
[Electronic Version]

Bibaud, Maximilien. Biographie des sagamos illustres de l’Amérique Septentrionale. Montréal, 1848. 67-85.
[foreign language]

"Capt. Smith and Pocahontas." [New York] The John-Donkey 2.6 (August 5, 1848): 58. Smith, who went to Virginia to relieve the aborigines "of a superabundance of the mopusses," is the butt of the satiric humor in this article. Just as Smith was about to be clubbed by Powhatan, "a respectable old red rascal, who dealt in hogs-fat and homony," up rushed "Miss Pocahontas, and throwing herself on her narrow bones, after the manner of Alexina Fisher, in her melodrama, implored her pappy -- 'not -- for -- to -- go -- for -- to -- come -- to -- do -- it -- no how!' Like a dutiful old cock o' wax, old Powhatan put his club on one side, whistled, and made Captain John Smith a great chief."

"From the Sandwich Islands." [Boston] Daily Evening Transcript 7 August 1848: 2. American whaler escapes death by Sydenham's Island natives when a chief's wife "threw herself betwixt" him and the executioner: "This is the story of Pocahontas over again."
[Pocahontas-like]

Guernsey, Egbert. History of the United States of America, Designed for Schools. New York, 1848. 84-99. Guernsey's school book, like Willson's, portrays the rescue and, without mentioning her abduction, her marriage and trip to England. Pocahontas died, "saved, as if by the hand of mercy, from beholding the extermination of the tribes from which she sprung, leaving a spotless name, and dwelling in memory under the form of perpetual youth."
[school book; U.S.history]

Odard. "Pocahontas, The Indian Heroine." [London] Bentley's Miscellany 24 (1848): 41-52. The framework for talking about Pocahontas here is the sad disappearance of the Indians: "I speak of them in the past tense, for the aboriginal children of the lake and wood are gone for ever from the shores of the Atlantic. . . . [and] in the course of a few generations [will] utterly disappear from the face of the earth." The reason? The result? "The repudiating Yankee now treads the hunting-grounds where the honest, faithful Indian roamed of yore, and the breeze that fanned his free bosom is heavy and polluted with the breath of slavery." But, for example the life of Pocahontas, there are studies of great interest. Significantly, Odard makes Pocahontas sixteen and notes that the "proper thing" would have been for Smith "to fall violently in love" with her, creating "many interesting consequences" for a good story. But "not thus went the reality." Her beauty, dignity, sensibility, and intelligence attracted Rolfe, however, but "was Pocahontas happy? Had the grand peut-etre of a woman's career resulted in her case in weal or woe?" Weal, not even shaken by the reunion with Smith. And, after a year in England tolerably acclimated and entirely reconciled to her new life, she died: at the moment the sun set "over the land of her fathers," "her gentle spirit passed away."
[Indian problem; slavery]

"Old Virginia Vs. Suckerdom." [Amherst, NH] The Farmers' Cabinet 17 August 1848: 1. Comic anecdote of an "Illinois Sucker" who, disturbed by a young Virginian's self-promotion as a member of the First Family, baits him into a fight by declaring, "I never seed a Virginnyin that didn't claim to be either decended from an Injin, John Randolph, or a nigger."
[slavery]

"Our Indian Gallery." [New York] The John-Donkey 2.7 (August 12, 1848): 73. The third appearance of the Smith-Pocahontas story in the short life of this satirical magazine. Here we are invited to "contemplate that most extraordinary event to whose occurrence we owe the existence of so many of the F.F.V.'s."
[cartoon]
[View Images: page 73]

"Pocahontas." [Boston] Christian Reflector 11.2 (January 13, 1848): 8. Same as Dwight's American Magazine 1845.

"Pocahontas." [Hudson, New York] Rural Repository 24.14 (March 25, 1848): 105. A sketch Based on Sigourney's Child's Book (see 1851).
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 105]

"Pocahontas." [Philadelphia] Friends' Weekly Intelligencer 4.50 (March 11, 1848): 395-96. Same as Dwight's American Magazine 1845.

Sigourney, Mrs. "Pocahontas." Prisoner's Friend: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Criminal Reform, Philosophy, Science, Literature, and Art 24.14 (March 25, 1848): 105. Erroneous citation?

Sigourney, Mrs. L. H. "The Emigrant Bride." Water-drops. New York, 1848. 144. Classic Sigourney. Orphan maiden who "staked her all on love" elopes on the 1587 John White expedition to Roanoke only to find her husband worthless and the Indians restless, with "no Powhatan to succor the strangers, -- no Pocahontas to save the victim, at the jeopardy of her own life." Left alone by her husband, the woman is scalped and killed while seeking consolation from the Bible for her loss of earthly love. "Blood-stained Bible, from Virginia sands! we thank thee for thine enduring friendship, -- for thy last holy offices to the Emigrant Bride." (Also in Sigourney's Myrtis, 1846.)
[short story]
[Electronic Version]

Stearns, Junius Brutus. "The Death of Pocahontas." 1848. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 31.) Say Rasmussen and Tilton: "[Stearns] presents a fully Anglicized figure who had been transformed from her savage origins and thereby made worthy of Christian salvation," closing the circle begun with her baptism (Chapman 1840). "Stearns's stunning reconstruction of a scene for which no record survives is a remarkable display of history painting. He conceives a setting that is believable as provincial England. He paints muted paneled walls as a foil for lush fabrics that call to mind her social achievement. He juxtaposes English and Indian figures to suggest the bringing together of cultures that was the meaningful accomplishment of Pocahontas. Her youthful appearance, her beauty, and the distraught postures of her husband and son establish the pathos of the event."
[painting]
[View Images: page 31]

1849

"The Baptism of Pocahontas." [Dayton] The Western Miscellany 1.12 (June 1849): 374. Short sketch, perhaps based on Chapman's 1840 painting of the scene. Church bells called "the pioneers of civilization and Christianity in the new world to witness the sublime spectacle of this converted heathen girl . . . turning from her idols to God." "They indulged in pious exultation at the glorious beginning, and the prospect of peace, security, and prosperity, that seemed to dawn upon the colony."

Bolton, Mrs. Sarah T. "Pocahontas. Suggested by Reading Robert Dale Owen's Drama." [New York] Home Journal 8.158 (February 17, 1849): 4. Bolton was a rather well known popular poet in her day and associated with Owen (for the play referenced here, see 1837) in radical causes like property rights for women. And this journal, edited by Nathaniel Parker Willis and George Morris (represented several times in this archive), was a very popular journal. The poem has three parts, the first two very familiar descriptions of the rescues. But the third describes Rolfe freeing Pocahontas from imprisonment that was not as hospitable as the traditional historical account holds: "Then there was the sound of conflict by the massive prison door: / . . . It was Rolfe, her Yengeese lover, who stood beside her now; / She felt his arms around her, felt his kisses on her brow; / Sweet words of love were falling, like a bird-song on her ear, / Doubt and danger were forgotten, there was nothing more to fear. / Forgotten was the prison, with its darkness and its chain, / She loved, and she was conscious that she was loved again."
[poetry]

Cabell, Mrs. "A Sketch from Nature." [New York] Godey's Lady's Book 38 (June 1849): 394. The occasion for the poem is a visit to a "beautiful, time-honored mansion, the hereditary seat of the Mayo family." The mansion is renown as the former seat of Powhatan and Pocahontas. "Traditionary lore informs us (and who would wish to doubt?) that it was the scene of her romantic attachment and interposition for her ungrateful lover, Captain Smith." There is a stone thought to be the site of the proposed execution, as well as one thought to be marking the grave of Powhatan. The poem itself is a meditation on the family dead in the Mayo cemetery and not about Pocahontas events.
[poetry]

Frost, John. Remarkable Events in the History of America, from the Earliest Times to the Year 1848. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1849. 147-70. A different and more detailed account than in Frost's other book this year but still basically nothing new. Frost seems to be staying quite close to his sources here.
[illustrated; U.S. history]

Frost, John. The Book of the Colonies. Hartford, 1849. 86-110. A thorough but thoroughly stock account of early Virginia history.
[illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Hildreth, Richard. The History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the Continent to the Organization of Government under the Federal Constitution. Vol. 1. New York, 1849. 103-17. Hildreth, who, among other things, founded a newspaper and wrote in opposition to slavery, published this six-volume history, but this is a quite standard account of our subject.
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Landis, Robert W. Liberty’s Triumph: A Poem. Book II. New York, 1849. 27. In this huge (544-page) epic poem on the American Revolution, "the model revolution of the world," this Presbyterian minister mentions Pocahontas in his survey of early history in her characteristic role as savior: "Virginia too / Established late by Rawleigh's enterprise, / Extends north, south, and west her wide domain, / Protected by her Pocahontas fair, / Her warden-angel."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Letter to the Editor. Savannah Republican 16 May 1849: 2. Reprints Smith's letter to Queen Anne as "embracing an event the most romantic in our history, in fact a romance of real life." Added information referring to the "imperial family" suggests that the author's resource is Stith 1747.

Martin, Charles Wykeham. "The Burial of Pocahontas." [Richmond] Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Advertiser 2.4 (October 1849): 187-89. Martin, member of Parliament, sends the entry from the parish register at Gravesend to the Virginia Historical Society, saying that if there were further memorial it would have been destroyed in a 1727 fire: "1616 [our 1617]. March 21. -- Rebecca Wrothe wyffe of Thomas Wrothe gent. A Virginia lady borne was buried in the Chauncell." Note that the record gets Rolfe's first name wrong.

P. S. "A Brief Sketch of the Life and Character of the Princess Pocahontas." [Chillicothe, OH] The Scioto Gazette 29 August 1849: 1. Surprisingly interesting and apparently original sketch, especially for a newspaper. In regard to the rescue: "It may be said, by those whose souls were never inspired by this heaven-born principle of benevolence, that Pocahontas loved Capt. Smith, and indulged the hope of a matrimonial connection, and was actuated by no higher motive than self-aggrandizement, in thus exposing her life to save his. She was, no doubt, attached to Capt. Smith: but such was her innate modesty, sound discretion and true dignity of character, that she never betrayed her feelings, nor infringed the most rigid rules of female delicacy and politeness. Capt. Smith loved her above all others [this is not a common view as yet], but such was the pride of his heart, 'the fear of the world's dread laugh,' and the displeasure of the king, that he could not think of presenting her, as his wife, to the English Court, and consequently her hand was reserved for one more worthy" [Smith has been blamed previously for ingratitude but not, I believe, for a failure to follow through on his love]. In regard to the founding of America: "The same being, who inspired Columbus with wisdom, and nerved his soul with more than mortal energy, heroism and perseverance to make the discovery of this fair country, impressed upon the heart of this young Princess the lineaments of his own character, that, through her meditation and instrumentality, His design of peopling this vast continent should be effected." In regard to her gender: "Let American females, then, revere her memory, do homage to her character, and imitate her heroic virtue and God-like example." (The idea of Smith loving Pocahontas is beginning to take hold: see Brougham 1855, the Frank Leslie's piece 1856, and Cooke 1858.)

"Pocahontas." [Boston] The Massachusetts Teacher 2.1 (January 1849): 27-28. Reprints without comment in this journal of school and home education Smith's "little booke," introducing Pocahontas to Queen Anne -- at least the part of that letter dealing with her two rescues of him.

"Pocahontas." [Rusk, Texas] Rusk Pioneer 15 August 1849: 1. Reprinted from the Tennessee Organ. In this short, short story, it's moments before Pocahontas marries Rolfe, and her bower-ladies -- Widow Forrest and Anne Laydon -- are dressing the bride. It's an emotional time, a time for bridal jitters. The Widow thinks of her dead husband. Pocahontas, "covering her face with her hands, preserved for a long time a fearful and impressive silence." For a moment -- remembering her free childhood, her status as a princess, her simple pleasures -- she repents that love has changed her forest nature. But, then, remembering what she did for Smith and her love for Rolfe, "she awoke from the long trance of the past, and with a loud cry of joy threw herself into [Rolfe's] outstretched arms."
[short story]

Pritts, J. Mirror of Olden Time Border Life. Abingdon, 1849. 69-76. (Rpt. Lewisburg: Wennawoods, 2004.) Rather lean sketch has an unattributed direct quote from Campbell 1813, and thus is no doubt highly derivative, and has at least one interesting error in saying that Smith left Virginia because he was "tired of the quarrels and jealousies of his countrymen, and anxious to visit his native land."

Review of Geschicte der Colonisation von Neu-England. [Boston] North American Review 69 (October 1849): 495. Brief mention of Pocahontas as an adjunct to Smith, not really in her own right: "It is true we have no Past, no mist, no myths. We had one hero of romance, but his name was John Smith. That warrior's steel corslet and peaked beard, his perilous adventures by flood and field, in every land, among Moslems or Savages, Infidels or Christians, the charms of his Turkish princess and of the gentle Pocahontas, are all associated with the early chapter of New England colonization."

Smith, L. Virginia. "Pocahontas." [Philadelphia and New York] Peterson's Magazine 15.2 (February 1849): 58-61. Rather lengthy and sentimental poem begins with Pocahontas's abduction and moves through her marriage and death, -- which, interestingly, leaves Smith totally out of the picture. Powhatan is ready for war so that the "stain upon [his] name be washed away in blood." But from Rolfe's soul "the tide of passion rolled" for the captive Pocahontas, and before you know it "the pride of the Powhatans" stood amid both white and red as a bride. In England the "Western Princess shone amid the gay and mighty throng," but before long "the dews of death" gather on her "holy brow," and "the lovely and the beautiful [Pocahontas] has laid her down to die." "Death prest its icy kiss on that sweet beloved face," and Rolfe must weep, for the "wild-dove of the mountain" will sing to him no more.
[poetry]

Warburton, George. The Conquest of Canada. Volume 1. London, 1849. 289-97. (New York, 1850. 229-31.) Thin, standard account. Draws on Thatcher, Bancroft, etc. Calls John Rolfe "Thomas."
[Electronic Version]

1850

Bryant, William Cullen. Letters of a Traveller; or, Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America. New York, 1850. 73. In a trip down Richmond-way, Bryant, one of the grand old men of early American literature, remembers that "a place was pointed out to us, a little way down the river, which bears the name of Powhatan; and here, I was told, a flat rock is still shown as the one on which Captain Smith was placed by his captors, in order to be put to death, when the intercession of Pocahontas saved his life."
[Electronic Version]

Cheney, Mrs. Harriet Vaughan. A Peep at the Pilgrims in Sixteen Hundred Thirty Six: A Tale of Olden Times. Boston, 1850. 144. One of the characters in this novel contemplates visiting Virginia, which is "associated with so many pleasing and romantic recollections. The adventurous courage of Smith, the chivalrous spirit of the unfortunate Raleigh, and the devoted heroism of Pocahontas, would alone render it immortal."
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

Copway, George. The Life, Letters and Speeches of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh or G. Copway, chief Ojibway Nation. New York, 1850. 155-56. (Ed. A LaVonne Brown Ruoff and Donald B. Smith. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1997. 160-63.) The Christian Indian speaks out: Don't give up on missionary work. The whites "have driven us from our nation, our homes, and possessions; compelled us to seek a refuge in Missouri, among strangers, and wild beasts; and will, perhaps, soon compel us to scale the Rocky Mountains; and, for aught I can tell, we may yet be driven to the Pacific Ocean, there to find our graves? My only trust is, that there is a just God. Was it to perpetrate such acts that you have been exalted above all other nations?" Will you send missionaries to Burma and let the Indians perish? "Is it not well known that the Indians have a generous and magnanimous heart." "And what have we received since in return? Is it for the deeds of a Pocahontas, a Massasoit, and a host of others, that we have been plundered and oppressed, and expelled from the hallowed graves of our ancestors?"
[Native American; Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Corbould, Edward-Henry. "Smith Rescued by Pocahontas." c. 1850. Also engraving by George Virtue and lithograph by Christian Inger. (Ann Uhry Abrams, The Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999. 63, 299.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 16.) See Inger 1870 entry to view image. According to Rasmussen and Tilton, "Here, a great story is given the richest of treatments. Pocahontas saves Smith from beheading at the hand of Opechancanough, who wields a magnificent metal sword, a weapon as foreign to his civilization as are the rich costumes and the horses also offered."
[painting; engraving; lithograph]

Foote, William Henry. Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1850. 14-18. (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1966.) "Powhatan never loved the whitemen. He made every effort, a sagacious savage could devise, for their destruction. The influence of that admirable girl, Pocahontas, was wonderful and extensive but temporary. It is an exhibition of the power of loveliness and gentleness over barbarians. She was the beauty of her tribe, -- of Virginia; as gentle and kind as she was beautiful. Her father loved her passionately. The nation admired her. The father's love, and the nation's admiration were the Englishman's shield." "Among all the Indian women of Virginia, Pocahontas had no rival, and posterity will love to think that few if any race either either in England or America could claim to be her superior."
[Virginia history]

Glass, James William. "John Rolfe and Pocahontas." c. 1850. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 27.) According to Rasmussen and Tilton, "Glass no doubt conceived his painting to supplement Chapman's [1840] mural by providing an earlier, foundational event. His figures are cruder than those of Chapman but bear a noticeable resemblance to them." Glass saw more "than a teacher-student relationship in their sessions. Rolfe embraces Pocahontas, and neither's eyes are directed at the crucifix to which he gestures."
[painting]
[View Images: page 27]

Goodrich, S. G. A Pictorial History of America. Hartford, 1850. 339-50. Verbally enhances the usual sources at the rescue: "Regardless of the savage hearts and barbarous manners of her countrymen, and discarding all thoughts of the dignity of her birth, [Pocahontas] rushed to her father, and pleaded for the life of the stranger. Her interposition was repelled with coolness and obstinacy by the haughty chieftain. . . . The romantic intrepdity of this savage maiden at length touched the heart of the barbarous king
[illustrated; U.S. history]

Goodrich, Samuel G. "Story of Pocahontas." A Pictorial History of the United States . . . for the Use of Schools. New York, 1850. 30-32. At least partially drawn from Bancroft. Short, but can be pretty dramatic for the kiddies: Pocahontas, hair loose, eyes wild, tears streaming, throws herself on Smith "with a shriek." And Goodrich makes it sound like Pocahontas's "eloquence" in their England meeting is what caused Smith to introduce her to the gentry. Ugh.
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Kerney, M. J. "The Settlement of Virginia." Catechism of the History of the United States. Baltimore, 1850. 15-18. (6th ed. 1882. 16-19.) History via a question and answer format. Smith is Virginia's "distinguished man," and the Pocahontas connection is the main, the only elaboration. Of Pocahontas: "Was her prayer heard?" "What happened to her on another visit to Jamestown?" "Whom did she marry?" etc. Straightforward answers.
[Electronic Version]

Lucas, Samuel. Charters of the Old English Colonies in America. London, 1850. 9. In the brief introduction to Virginia's first charter, we find: "The influence, however, of Captain Smith with the colonists, resulting from the force of his genius and character, added to the ascendency he gained over the Indians, partly through the romantic attachment of Pocahontas, enabled him to make up for the faults of his predecessor."
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas and Captain Smith." [Boston] Robert Merry's Museum 20 (July 1, 1850): 14-15. This popular children's magazine has a short sketch explicating a Croome illustration of Pocahontas pleading for Smith's life (see Frost 1843) that literally begins with "Every one knows the story of Pocahontas. . . . the heroine of the most touching episode in the history of the natives of America." Most of the text seems lifted from others, but an interesting element is "no doubt [that] most of our young readers, if they could have the ordering of events, would take care to finish this adventure" with Smith marrying Pocahontas. Burk's 1804 prophesy rings true.
[juvenile]

Sully, Robert Matthew. "Pocahontas." c. 1850. (Ann Uhry Abrams, The Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999. 70.) This is the "younger" Sully, the nephew of Thomas Sully. Earlier (see 1842) he did the copy of the Turkey Island portrait that appeared in McKenney and Hall (see 1844). There appear to be three other, different portraits by Robert Matthew Sully around the same time in the early 1850s, though Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 and Abrams 1999 both seem to deal with only two, but not the same two. This is the first of the three (shown only in Abrams), an attempt to picture a "forest girl" as a complement to the "civilized" Princess. Pocahontas, Robert Matthew Sully said, should be "Crowned with wild Flowers" and wear "pearls from the ear and on the neck." (This painting is owned by the Wisconsin State Historical Society.)
[painting]
[View Images: page 70]

Sully, Robert Matthew. "Pocahontas." c. 1850. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 37.) This is the second of three different portraits by Robert Matthew Sully (the "younger" Sully, nephew of Thomas) around the same time in the early 1850s (see the above entry for the first) and, according to Abrams 1994, is a revision of the first. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 do not show the first painting and associate Robert Matthew Sully's "forest girl" goal with this one. See 1852 for the third painting. (This painting is owned by the Virginia Historical Society.)
[painting]
[View Images: page 37]

Warren, A. C. "Captain Smith Rescued by Pocahontas." c. 1850. (Ann Uhry Abrams, The Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999. 63.) Abrams mentions this image in terms of pervasive depiction of Indian nudity.
[engraving]
[View Images: page 63]

Willard, Emma. Abridged History of the United States. New York, 1850. 38-48. Big changes for Pocahontas in this version (see 1845). For instance, she is "young" now not "tender," and the other references cited in the previous entry are cut out.
[school book; illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1851

"Anniversary Dinner of the Maryland Historical Society." [Baltimore] The Sun 12 May 1851: 1. Main speaker Sir H. L. Bulwer calls Pocahontas "noble" but not "fair," for "royal and noble as she was, she certainly was not fair" -- all such references to Pocahontas and Powhatan being met with "great merriment."

Clement, Jesse. "Humane Spirit of a Forest Maid." Noble Deeds of American Women. Buffalo, 1851. 104-7. Celebration of all "the good, and grand, and glorious deeds" of American women -- several dozen of them, in fact: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, a Kentucky Amazon (!), Hannah Dustin, Mary Rowlandson, etc., etc. Citing Hildreth and quoting two stanzas from Sigourney, Clement tells the story of Pocahontas's several rescues. "Some of the noblest attrubutes of humanity are sometimes exhibited by the wild children of the forest. . . . She was lovely in the broadest as well as the noblest sense of that word -- lovely in features, lovely in disposition, lovely in the highest adornments of Christian grace."
[gender]
[Electronic Version]

"On a Portraicture [sic] of Pocahontas." [Richmond] Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Note Book 4.2 (April 1851): 120. (reprinted Julia Wyatt Bullard, Jamestown Tributes and Toasts. Lynchburg: J. P. Bell, 1907: 25.) A flattering little ditty later used as a toast at the Jamestown tricentennial: "This maiden of the Indian race / Had but a copper-colour'd face; / But heare her storie trulie tolde, / You'll say her hearte was virgin golde."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Philo. "Strachey's Account of Pocahontas." [Richmond] Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Note Book 4.1 (January 1851): 36-40. Our poor Philo is upset at reading in Strachey that Pocahontas is married to Kocoum: "Now I own I was a little startled at reading this novel piece of intelligence; for though I am not exactly a monogamist, and have no objection, of course, to a young widow's marrying again (after a reasonable time allowed for mourning) I confess I felt a little hurt to learn in this way, that my incomparable Indian maid, (as I have always thought of her) had turned out to be one who had worn weeds." And what follows is a rather torturous attempt to prove Strachey wrong. Perhaps the serious point here is how resilient the Pocahontas story is. And how strong the need to keep her "pure" for white history.

Pierson, Emily Catharine. [Pearson? see 1855.] Jamie Parker, the Fugitive. Hartford, 1851. 49, 63, 127. In this abolitionist work, slaves escape from a Virginia plantation at which the daughters, minor characters, are named Pocahontas and Virginia, both described as helplessly dependent on their slaves.
[novel; Pocahontas-like; slavery]

"Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith." [Montgomery] Daily Alabama Journal 2 January 1851: 2. Reports that the Richmond Inquirer reports that sculptor Hiram Powers is contemplating a work on Pocahontas, whose story he does not remember "well enough" to be specific about design but he knows "the history of our country affords few subjects, so exquisitely adapted to the chisel as this."
[sculpture]

"Pocahontas. The Chieftain's Daughter." [Boston] The Youth's Companion 25.14 (July 31, 1851): 55. George P. Morris's poem (1840) with introductory sketch that has language borrowed from Thatcher (1832) in this magazine that ran for about 100 years.
[poetry; juvenile]

"Pocahontas." [New York] Home Journal 28.283 (July 12, 1851): 1. Description of the rescue from Foote 1850.

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers. Philadelphia, 1851. 138-39, 208. Schoolcraft -- renowned ethnologist and Indian agent whose wife was part Ojibwe (and whom he calls here the "northern Pocahontas") makes this realistic comment: "It should not be an object of disappointment to find that the Indians do not, in their ordinary intercourse, evince those striking traits of exalted and disinterested character which we are naturally accustomed to expect from reading books. Books are, after all, but men's holiday opinions. It requires observation on real life to be able to set a true estimate upon things. The instances in which an Indian is enabled to give proofs of a noble or heroic spirit cannot be expected to occur frequently. In all the history of the sea-board tribes there was but one Pocahontas, one Uncas, and one Philip. Whereas, every day is calling for the exercise of less splendid, but more generally useful virtues. To spare the life of a prisoner, or to relieve a friend from imminent peril, may give applause, and carry a name down to posterity. But it is the constant practice of every day virtues and duties, domestic diligence, and common sense, that renders life comfortable, and society prosperous and happy. How much of this every-day stamina the Indians possess, it would be presumptuous in me, with so short an opportunity of observation, to decide. But I am inclined to the opinion that their defect of character lies here."
[Pocahontas-like]
[Electronic Version]

Sigourney, Mrs. L. H. "Pocahontas." The Child's Book. New York, 1851. 116-22. Sigourney this time with a pretty straightforward historical sketch for children, one of only a few real persons in the collection (Henry I, Moses, Washington, Napoleon). Pocahontas's aid to the colonists precedes (and perhaps accounts for ) her rescue of Smith. In England, the gentry "admired the rich, flowing black hair, and the gentle ladylike manners of the forest princess." The climactic image is of the aged, white-haired Powhatan, sitting on a high hill, "watching the waters, and hoping that every speck which appeared among the mist, was the vessel bearing her to his arms." "But he saw her no more [and] mourned for her till he died."
[illustrated; juvenile]
[View Images: page 116]

1852

"Albany Female Academy." Albany Journal 9 July 1852: 1. An essay on "the Life of Pocahontas" was among those found worthy of special commendation.
[juvenile]

Arthur, T. S., and W. H. Carpenter. The History of Virginia. Philadelphia, 1852. 55-66, 110-20. Fairly straightforward account following Smith or his close followers, but the rescue is embellished a bit. Pocahontas, in a "prettily fringed" robe, "musical with tinkling ornaments," "gazed eagerly upon the bearded face of the wonderful white warrior," and then "broke away from those who would have restrained her" in order to save Smith, "making her name immortal in the annals of the new world."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

"Athenaeum Gallery." [Boston] Daily Evening Transcript 19 August 1852: 2. Ames's Pocahontas is "a striking and gorgeous picture."
[painting]

Banvard, Joseph. Romance of American History. Boston, 1852. 159-281. Long and leisurely Virginia account, amply paraphrasing and quoting from his sources. So only a few interesting touches, like including Morris's 1840 poem with the description of the rescue; like a bit of dramatic rendering of the saving of Richard Wyffin; like, baptized after her marriage, Pocahontas converted, "convinced of the sinfulness of idolatry"; and like, especially, open questioning of why Smith did not keep up some sort of correspondence with Pocahontas after leaving Virginia: "it would not have been difficult for him to have occasionally sent her some trifling present as a testimony of his remembrance of the many favors which she had conferred upon him." Lest there be bad feelings about our hero, though, "Of one thing we may be certain," Banvard claims, "and that is, that it did not arise from ingratitude." That's a relief.
[illustrated; U.S. history]

Chambers, William and Robert. "Captain John Smith, Founder of the Colony of Virginia." Chambers's Repository of Instructive and Amusing Tracts. London & Edinburgh, 1852. 1-31. Elements out of the ordinary here are that the Indians were going to eat Smith, that Pocahontas felt "ungratefully neglected at the palace," that the king and queen were finally "shamed into their duty," and that partying in London "probably destroyed her constitution, and hastened her death."
[illustrated]

"Departure of Mr. Clay's Remains." [Baltimore] The Sun 3 July 1852:1. Clay's comic duel with John Randolph, called "the eccentric descendant of Pocahontas," is recalled.

[Hawks, Francis Lister.] Historical Tales for Youth [American Historical Tales for Youth]. New York, 1852. Same as Hawks 1842.
[juvenile; Smith biography]

Lee, Hannah Farnham Sawyer. The Huguenots in France and America. New ed. Volume 2. Boston, 1852. 95-97. Those who visit Richmond will find Pocahontas, "the heroine of her race whose line contains many "who boast of their Indian blood," one of the many "interesting recollections." It is easy for the imagination to conjure images of "the heroine with her beads, plumes, and wampum belt, with her glittering mocasins, and embroidered sandals; -- her eyes first sparkling with indignation as she beholds the English captive bound for slaughter, then melting with pity as she lays her own head on his, to meet the first blow. Is it too much to say, that it is characteristic of the best part of woman's nature?"

Melville, Herman. Pierre or The Ambiguities. New York, 1852. 8-13. Book I, chapter III. In an opening chapter of this dark novel (did he write any other kind?) that seems to be criticizing the meaning of lineages and heritages, Melville includes this reference "to the Randolphs for example, one of whose ancestors, in King James' time, married Pocahontas the Indian Princess, and in whose blood therefore an underived aboriginal royalty was flowing over two hundred years ago."
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

Murray, M. History of the United States of America. Boston, 1852. 33-38. The rendering of early Virginia is rather slim, the rescue -- no big deal -- is minimally mentioned, and the fact of an abduction is softened considerably.
[U.S. history]

"The North American Indians." [Boston] Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion 3.8 (August 21, 1852): 124. Curious triptych of images with explanatory text: two grim, one -- on Pocahontas -- positive. A picture of an Indian encampment sees them as "the hunters of our era," "fast disapearing" and "dying off." An image of a scalp dance calls up "one of the diabolical orgies of savage life, and a frantic scene of savage revels." Then an image of the rescue -- with nothing in the text to relate it to the other two images, as one might expect.
[illustrated]
[View Images: page 124]

P. "On Sully's Portrait of Pocahontas." Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Companion 5.6 (October 1852): 240. Appreciation on viewing Sully's painting: "'Tis Pocahontas that you see; / As lovely as she ought to be; / For Sully, by his matchless art, / Has drawn her visage from her heart." Interesting reaction, given controversy over the accuracy of her likeness within Pocahontas descendants as well as the public. But which Sully -- Thomas or Robert Matthew -- for both had paintings this year? Or might this be a response to one of the two earlier paintings by Robert Matthew (see 1850)?
[poetry; painting]

"Poccahontas [sic]: A Story of the First English Emigrants to North America, Founded on Fact." Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation. 1.37 (September 9, 1852): 577-82; 1.38 (September 16, 1852): 594-97; 1.39 (September 23, 1852): 610-12; 1.40 (September 30, 1852): 625-27. Serialized novel loosely based on the "real" story. Smith is 36, with a wife and family in England; Pocahontas is 17 and falls in love at first sight. Neither Smith nor Powhatan are anxious for war; the villain is a spurned lover of Pocahontas, Jukka. Pocahontas makes a night journey to warn Smith; Smith has Powhatan in custody and releases him. Smith is wounded in battle and captured, leading to the climactic act of Pocahontas. "The noble self-denial of the girl's conduct to their chief was indeed universally acknowledged; not the shadow of a doubt existed in a single breast of the purity of her motives, nor was her partiality for him ever made the subject of a ribald jest. As for the governor himself, need we say that he entertained the sincerest regard for Poccahontas. Most unfeeling, had he felt otherwise, must he have been. Twice had she saved his life, and preserved at the same time the infant colony from destruction. But a dark passage at this point rests upon his memory. It is said that he promised his Indian deliverer that she should be his wife -- a promise dictated by state policy, and made but to delude."
[novel; illustrated]
[View Images: page 577, page 593, page 609, page 625]

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Volume 2. Philadelphia, 1852. 29. "The Virginia tribes literally sustained the colony planted at Jamestown with supplies of Indian-corn from their own fields, and one of the prominent services which Capt. John Smith mentioned in his letter to Queen Anne, in recounting the friendliness of Pocahontas, was her leading these 'conductas' of grain herself to the suffering colonists, without which they must have perished. The track of its spreading among the tribes along the Atlantic Coast is clearly traced along the shores of the Atlantic into Massachusetts and all New England, where they raised the small and nutritious variety of white and yellow flint corn, and where the 'no-ka-hik' constituted the sustaining food of their warriors."

"Sullivan's Rambles in North and South America." Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 72.446 (December 1852): 680-92. In this review of the book by Sullivan, the author begins reviewing representations of the Indians. "We are beginning to entertain serious and painful doubts whether all the notions which we have hitherto entertained regarding the innate nobility of the Red Indian are not absolute exaggerations. We pass Pocahontas and Captain Smith. . . . She became aware, through a process of intuitive logic, that the possession of the sinewy Smith, with his radiant locks intact above his brow, would be more valuable to her than the separated radiance would be, if girt around the leggings of her uncle, 'The Grizzly Bear;' and so, with sweet woman's instinct, she struck in, and no 'brave' dared forbid the banns. What could Smith do less than take her to his hairy bosom?" By the way, the author is not keen on Indians: like some animals cannot be tamed, some races cannot be civilized.
[Electronic Version]

Sully, Robert Matthew. "Pocahontas." c. 1852. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 38.) This is the third of three different portraits by Robert Matthew Sully (the "younger" Sully, nephew of Thomas) around the same time in the early 1850s (see two entries in 1850). It is shown in Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 but not in Abrams 1999. Rasmussen and Tilton say that "Sully presents Pocahontas with a crown, and in garments of regal colors, red and green. This Pocahontas is a gentle, amiable girl who is totally a figure of fantasy. She wears the clothing of a European princess, which suggests a conception about royalty that had no counterpart in the Powhatan political system." Frankly, it is not clear to me how this painting is an evolution of the other two.
[painting]
[View Images: page 38]

Sully, Thomas. "Pocahontas." 1852. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 39.) This is the "elder" Sully, uncle of Robert Matthew Sully. Abrams 1999 calls this painting a copy of Robert Matthew Sully's painting that appeared in McKenney and Hall 1844. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 call it "perhaps the best-known representation of the princess." They see her portrayed for the Virginia gentry at her best moment, "after her absorption into English culture but before her fateful trip to England." A person of "obvious grooming and deportment" (note the necklace and brooch), a person of "remarkable refinement and grace," she is far removed from Indianness.
[painting]
[View Images: page 39]

"The Capitol on Fire." Boston Daily Atlas 6 January 1852: 2. The Boston Museum is said to have "a sketch founded on a historical incident, entitled, 'The Death Council of the Oneidas, or The Second Pocahontas.'"
[Pocahontas-like; painting]

White, Edwin. "Pocahontas Informing John Smith of a Conspiracy of the Indians." c. 1852. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 20.) This is White's painting of the "second" rescue, Pocahontas's dark night journey through the irksome woods to warn Smith of her father's murder plot. (Cf. Chapman's "Warning" 1836.)
[painting]
[View Images: page 120]

1853

Avon. "The Indians -- Their Treatment and Destiny." Nacogdoches Chronicle [Nacogdoches, Texas] 22 February 1853: 2. Melancholy meditation over the degradation of and passing of the Indian. Some cannot understand their refusal to assimilate. But the Indian's hate is rooted in "the numerous wrongs which he has suffered at the hands of the sons of civilization." "His great quest for blood and torture, it is the result of wanton cruelty on our part." "Search the rolls of ancient and modern time and where will you find so striking an exemplification of noble, disinterested generosity as in the conduct of the beautiful Pocahontas?" Suppose the white man had "reciprocated these acts of kindness?" There is good reason to suppose as good a result as Penn got.
[Indian problem]

Baldwin, Joseph G. "Samuel Hele, Esq." The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi: A Series of Sketches. 2d ed. New York, 1853. 301. (New York: Sagamore, 1957. 220.) In this viciously humorous story by local color humorist Baldwin, the irascible town lawyer ("he had no tenderness for the creeds of others") verbally works out on a recently imported northern schoolmistress ("The ugliest woman I ever saw"), playing to her wholehearted belief in the evils of slavery in an incredibly exaggerated way. "Pocahontas negroes" = "halfbreed stock."
[short story; slavery]

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. 15th ed. Vol. 1. Boston, 1853. 117-58. See Bancroft 1837, 1866, and 1876. Bancroft treats the rescue the same here, but he expands the 1837 edition significantly on Rolfe and includes a description of the baptism and marriage. Rolfe is a "troubled soul" who hears a voice "daily, hourly, and as it were, in his very sleep . . . crying in his ears" that he should make Pocahontas a Christian, and Bancroft pictures her standing before a hollowed out tree trunk for a baptismal font and, memorably, "stammering" her marriage vows.
[U.S. history; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Brownell, Charles de Wolf. The Indian Races of North and South America. Boston, 1853. 151-90. In the beginning of the prose text of the Virginia section, Brownell credits Smith with the best history of Virginia, and his list of sources contains Smith and Simms's biography of Smith. Standard text with plenty of direct quotes from sources. But Brownell was a famous artist, and the book is prized for its color plates.
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

"Captain John Smith, Founder of the Colony of Virginia." Littell's Living Age 2.484 (August 27 1853): 515-32. Same as Chambers 1852.

"The Chieftain's Daughter." George P. Morris, Poems. New York, 1853. 54. Illustrations by Weir and Darley. See Morris below this year.
[engraving]
[View Images: page 54]

Finch, Marianne. An Englishwoman’s Experience in America. London, 1853. 291-92. (Rpt. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.) Traveler Finch describes visiting a white gentleman "whose garden encloses the spot" where Pocahontas saved Smith and notes that the Randolphs "are all very proud of their descent from this heroic Indian girl" -- this in the same chapter where she visits a slave cabin, attends a black church, witnesses a slave auction: "It is painful, and humiliating, when we think how seldom, laws and institutions are changed because they are unjust. However bad, they are generally retained; till those, most oppressed by them, become strong enough to compel their abolitIon."
[slavery]

Hale, Sarah Josepha. "Pocahontas." Woman's Record; or, Sketches of all Distinguished Women from "The Beginning" till A. D. 1850. New York, 1853. 474-75. Pocahontas is sketch 139 of 229 in this huge compendium of female genius. "Pocahontas has been the heroine of fiction and of song; but the simple truth of her story is more interesting than any ideal description. She is another proof of the many already recorded in this work, of the intuitive moral sense of woman, and the importance of her aid in carrying forward the progress of human improvement. . . . She was like a guardian angel to the white strangers who had come to the land of the red men; by her the races were united; thus proving the unity of the human family through the spiritual nature of the woman; ever, in its highest development, seeking the good, and at 'enmity' with the evil; the preserver, the inspirer, the exemplar of the noblest virtues of humanity." But Hale's Pocahontas is not all spirituality: "the dusky maiden had no doubt learned to love the gallant soldier," thus explaining her emotional reaction at the unexpected reunion with Smith in England.
[illustrated; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Jones, A. D. The Illustrated American Biography. New York, 1853. 21-22, 33-34. Sketches of both Smith and Pocahontas, the latter a little skewed. For instance, perhaps thinking of the "Virginia Maske" episode, the sketch of Pocahontas claims that "We first hear of her on a visit of Smith to Powhatan. That chief being absent, Pocahontas did the barbarous honors on a grand scale, nearly frightening Smith and his associates out of their wits." And the sketch also seems to confuse Pocahontas's rescue of Richard Wyffin with another rescue of Smith. Pocahontas acts out of a "partiality" for Smith, a strong attachment, but whether love or reverence, it is impossible to say.
[illustrated]

McIntosh, John. "Powhattans." The Origin of the North American Indians. New York, 1853. 227-28. This entry about the Powhatan tribe is given over to a description of the rescue by sixteen-year-old Pocahontas.
[Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

Morris, George P. "The Chieftain's Daughter." Poems. New York, 1853. 54-56, 355-56. Illustrations by Weir and Darley. Collected version of poem first published in 1840. A gloss on the poem in the notes is a long description of the rescue from an unidentified Sketches of Virginia. See "The Chieftain's Daughter" entry this year to view image.
[illustrated; poetry; engraving]

Olliffe, Charles. Scènes américaines: dix-huit mois dans le Nouveau Monde. 2 ed. Paris, 1853. 131-33. (Painesville: Lake Erie College Press, 1964. 49-54.) A French traveller: "Tutelary star" Pocahontas, "freeing herself from the clasp of her maids of honor, ran with the speed of lightning to the place of execution and threw herself upon the body of the intended victim." Which leads to comments on physical difference with blacks: "A beautiful Indian woman (and there are many such) gives one a very good idea of what those bewitching sultanas whose charms were kept hidden in the gilded chambers of the Alhambra during the Moorish domination of Andalusia must have been like. As for Pocahontas, [she] offers more than one similarity to Peri Nourmahal, 'the light of the harem' in Lalla-Rookh." The "Negro," on the other hand, has a flattened nose, thick lips, and woolly hair.
[foreign language; slavery]

Ramsey, J. G. M. The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Charleston, 1853. 144, 161. Nancy Ward -- "another Pocahontas," "the Cherokee Pocahontas" -- aiding the Americans against the British during the Revolutionary War. Cf. Haywood 1823.
[Pocahontas-like]

"[Correspondence] The Indians -- Their Treatment and Destiny." [Texas] Nacogdoches Chronicle 22 February 1853: 2. Meditation on the departed glory of the Indians, the way whites treated them, and what could have been under different circumstances. "Search the rolls of ancient and modern time and where will you find so striking an exemplification of noble, disinterested generosity as in the conduct of the beautiful Pocahontas."
[Indian problem; Indian history]

[Pearson, Emily Clemens] Pocahontas. Jamie Parker, the Fugitive, or Scenes in the Old Dominion. Boston, 1853. 80-85, 146-53, 174-79, 239-48. (Pierson? -- see 1851.) Like Hillhouse 1820, "Pocahontas" is the author here, a northerner who travels to her family's Virginia plantation and exposes the evils of slavery both on blacks and whites. Tilton 1994 sees a resonance with Uncle Tom's Cabin and discusses Pearson's use of the Pocahontas name as a hook for her readers.
[novel; slavery ]
[Electronic Version]

1854

A Searcher after Truth. "Pocahontas and Other Indians." The Rappers, or, The Mysteries, Fallacies, and Absurdities of Spirit-rapping, Table-tipping, and Entrancement. New York, 1854. 92-105. The first part of this book on "Modern Spiritualism" describes a series of visits to I guess what we would call seances, at two of which Pocahontas speaks through the medium. Nothing really coherent results. At one, Pocahontas says she loved John Smith and "Pocahontas love you all -- do you much good. . . . You will accomplish what you will. You have a good heart, and God will bless you." And other such gibberish. The second time Pocahontas says "Mortals know little of the beauty of angels. Pocahontas will give you each a flower." This activity cause a "gentleman Medium" to thank her and to speak "as if he was a young Indian who had known her in youth and wandered with her through the woods for flowers. He also again made a few very pretty remarks on the emblematic language of flowers." As the male medium separates the flowers, Pocahontas says, "Thus fall away all earthly pleasures, leaving only hope." The narrator-recorder is not much impressed.

"Another Pocahontas." (Chillicothe, OH) The Daily Scioto Gazette 5 January 1854. The Indian wife of an Indian agent is thanked for her "peerless" work as a "second Pocahontas" when she volunteers to go along on an expedition surveying for the railroad, in case there is trouble with the Indians. "I will go with you," she tells her husband, "I will do what I can to settle difficulties, and when you die, I will."
[Pocahontas-like]

Belcher, Joseph. The Religious Denominations in the United States. Philadelphia, 1854. 437-38. "With the name of [Jamestown minister Alexander] Whitaker is joined the romantic story of the first Indian convert, whom he baptized into the Church of Christ."
[illustrated]

Brownell, Henry Howard. "The Settlement of Virginia." The People’s Book of American History. Volume 2. Hartford, 1854. 49-77.

Crane, A. Judson. Address Delivered at the Annual Commencement of the Mississippi Female College, at Hernando, De Soto County, July 7th, 1854. Memphis, 1854. Pocahontas, ("guided as if by inspiration from on High, rather than by any teachings of moral or social culture, which had blessed and humanized her virgin youth") is the launching pad for this graduation speech at a woman's college. The rescue "fills the mind with solemn wonder at what slight circumstances Providence employs to produce the most stupendous results." "This trite incident . . . has suggested forcibly to my mind some thoughts on the influence of women on civilization." "The best barometric measure of the social condition of any people is the condition of women," and the Indians have faded because "they would not concede to woman her true position."
[gender]

Lord, John. A New History of the United States of America for the Use of Schools. Philadelphia, 1854. 40-43. Sketches events leanly and concludes with the possibility of intermarriage that never materialized: "The two races were to remain for ever distinct, and inveterately hostile."
[school book; U.S. history]

Lossing, Benson John. A Pictorial History of the United States: for Schools and Families. New York, 1854. 47-58. Straightforward account by this prolific writer of history books for the general public (the first of several entries in the archive), though there is an image of Pocahontas.
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Mozier, Joseph. "Pocahontas." c. 1854. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 27.) Say Rasmussen and Tilton: "In a clear attempt to follow the mid-century vogue of such American sculptors as Randolph Rogers and Erastus Dow Palmer to provide Christian America with suitable biblical figures and religious themes, Joseph Mozier carved in marble an image of a young Pocahontas in deliberation" (note the crucifix).
[sculpture]
[View Images: page 27]

Mutzelburg, Adolf. Kapitain Smith, der Adventurer. Historischer Roman. Berlin, 1854.
[foreign language]

Parker, H. F. "John Smith." Morning Stars of the New World. New York, 1854. 249-75. The "sympathies" of the ten-year-old Pocahontas "were awakened; her pulse quickened, and a glow of ardor suffused her face; suspense, fear, pity, were in her attitude. . . . The noble impulse, the daring, the artless tenderness of the young girl, struck the savage assemblage with awe and admiration. . . . They appreciated the bold temper, if not the beautiful spirit, that impelled Pocahontas to the humane deed." Her agitation at the unexpected meeting with Smith in England was perhaps caused by memories of father, companions, and home, "as well as the presence of one loved from childhood." Pocahontas "died among the pale-faces. The broad sunlight of civilization wilted the wild flower that had blossomed in the shade of the Virginian forests."
[illustrated; Smith biography]
[View Images: page 264]

"Pocahontas." [New York] United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce and Trade 1.7 (November 15, 1854): 199. Short sketch of the "youthful savior," "as amiable and intelligent as she was beautiful," several times "deliverer of Smith and his band of famished men." "Pocahontas seems to have been most strongly attached to Captain Smith, but whether it was love or reverence which drew her to him it is impossible to say. From the fact that she was ready so soon to marry another, we are inclined to believe it was the latter."
[illustrated]

Richards, T. Addison. The Romance of American Landscape. New York, 1854. 43-48. Records conversation in which one of the participants wishes that painter John Gadsby Chapman "had taken the more dramatic story of the rescue of Smith -- an event of national interest, upon which turned the destiny of the State; while the baptism [cf. Chapman 1840], however pleasing an incident, might or might not have occurred, and either way with no particular sequence."
[painting]

Simms, William Gilmore. "Pocahontas; A Legend of Virginia." Southward Ho! A Spell of Sunshine. New York, 1854. Chapters 7-8. (New York: AMS, 1970.) A sea journey from New York to Charlestown is the literary pretext for story telling, and Simms's fourth Pocahontas work is prefaced by scorn at the mere compilers of Southern history and the claim (with Prescott as the model) that "art is just as necessary in truth as in fiction." With this license, Simms makes Smith "an object of the love of Pocahontas." By nature Pocahontas has a "Christian heart" and eschews violence, avowing no chief will win her hand with his "bloody spear." So when her father, bent on a just revenge, prepares to kill the momentarily shaken Smith, Pocahontas intervenes, and Powhatan learns pity. Her "idol," then, goes free, but she, now smitten, "dreams not, in that parting hour, / The gyves that from his limbs she tears, / Are light in weight, and frail in power, / To those that round her heart she wore."
[poetry]

Stephens, H. Marion. "Pocahontas." Home Scenes and Home Sounds, or, The World from My Window. Boston, 1854. 115-16. A collection of sketches and poems by Stephens, who is described as an actress-turned-writer. A poem about a woman learning she's been deceived in love, yet dying happily with visions of home: "They had chilled her pulse with a strange wild tale / of the rescued captive's death, / And the flowers of hope, in their gorgeous bloom, / Had withered away to an early tomb, / 'Neath the frost of misfortune's breath. / Alas! O, alas for the trusting heart, / When its fairy dream is o'er; / When it learns that to trust is to be deceived -- / Finds the things most false that it most believed -- / Alas! for it dreams no more!" Dying "like a lilly crushed," angels whispered of "home, sweet home," and she dies happy,
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Sully, Robert Matthew. Letters of Robert Matthew Sully to Lyman C. Draper, April and May 1854. Draper and Wisconsin State Historical Society Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society. Rasmussen and Tilton 1994 say that Sully complained here that "all Indian association was destroyed" in the Turkey Hill portrait (See Rice and Clark 1842), and said, further, that "My effort was to preserve the likeness, contour, feature of the copy (my copy) from the preserved original," yet "change the civilized, or rather fashionable, Princess, to the beautiful forest girl, of more pleasant association -- The Guardian Angel of the Colony!" Yet again, Sully imagined "many wild scenes of romantic adventure" with the "chivalrous" Smith and "the darling Princess" Pocahontas "hand in hand." He regretted Smith's "not marrying that dear Girl!" "Then the romance would have been perfect instead of its lame & impotent conclusion. . . . That she loved him is evident!"
[painting]

Willson, Marcius. History of the United States, from the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time. New York, 1854. 47-56. Same as Willson, History, 1847.
[school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1855

Armstrong, W. C. The Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith The Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith. Hartford, 1855. (Indianapolis, 1859. 74-89, 136-58, 182-95, 212-28. A slave to his sources -- Smith, Stith, Hillard, Belknap, perhaps others. Unremarkable except for ending the Pocahontas story with Hillard's (1834) five-paragraph encomium.
[Smith biography]
[Electronic Version]

Bartlett, W. H. The History of the United States of North America. Volume 1. New York, 1855-56. 39-44. Rather usual account, with liberal quoting of sources, in this beautifully illustrated volume. Englishman Bartlett, well known for his steel engravings, was considered one of the foremost illustrators of topography of his generation -- best seen in Nathaniel Parker Willis's American Scenery. Noteworthy, perhaps, is the reference to the benefit of intermarriage that never materialized: the "auspicious example" of Pocahontas and Rolfe bore no fruit.
[illustrated; U.S. history]

Bartley, James Avis. "Pocahontas." Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems. Richmond, 1855. 7-15. Pocahontas, Bartley says in his preface, "enchanted" him: "How often the Guardian Angel of the Father of Virginia in surpassing loveliness rose before my imagining eyes! Like the spirit of a dream, she glided through the foliage, verdant and shadowy." In his poem, Pocahontas saves Smith for love ("On Love's swift wings, this Indian virgin flew, / To snatch from hateful death the lovely chief, / Love drew her tears, like showers of pearly dew"), but Smith is interested only in fame ("He whom she loved to all these charms was cold, / Though well he saw her bosom's gentle fire, / Stern is the soul that worships fame or gold"), but she marries Rolfe and, dying in England without mention of Smith, she finds a better home in heaven ("Let not a sound of thoughtlessness molest / The melancholy spot of her eternal rest!"). The patriot Virginian will ever praise and ever mourn Pocahontas.
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Berard, A. B. School History of the United States. Philadelphia, 1855. 77-88. Not that Argall's actions were exemplary, but Berard makes the abduction worse: "Six years had now passed away since the English first came to Jamestown, and the little Indian girl Pocahontas had grown to womanhood. The gentle virtues which had marked her as a child, adorned her character now, and rendered her doubly dear to the heart of her father. But his affection for her was to receive a severe trial at the hands of the treacherous white man. A marauding party from the colony seized Pocahontas, and in the hope of obtaining a large ransom from her father, carried her off to Jamestown."
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]

Bonner, John. A Child’s History of the United States. Volume 1. New York, 1855. 30-40. "Little Pocahontas" -- "a pretty little girl" -- saved Smith; "you see what a child may do." Then "I am sure you will be shocked to hear" how Argall "contrived to seize pretty Pocahontas -- now grown up," and "terrible bloodshed would have followed had it not been for a strange accident." Rolfe is the strange accident. He had a dream he ought to marry Pocahontas, "which I have no doubt was the case, as most lovers have dreams of the same kind." "As soon as she was able to speak a few broken words, she was baptized," married, taken to England, where "the nobles and the great ladies caressed her," and died "far from home."
[juvenile; U.S. history]

Brougham, John. Po-ca-hon-tas: Or, the Gentle Savage. 1855. New York: Samuel French, n.d. (Dramas from the American Theatre, 1762-1909. Ed. Richard Moody. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1966.) (Satiric Comedies. America's Lost Plays: Vol. XXI. Ed. Walter J. Meserve and William Reardon. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1969.) Meserve and Reardon say "Brougham set out to reduce the Pocahontas legend to an absurdity and succeeded admirably." Indeed! This play is a "trip," as the 1960s folk used to say, and as zany as the Marx Brothers, for those whose knowledge or experience with popular culture goes further back. Brougham (famous actor, director, and "showman" of his day) subverts not only history but all prior representation from the very first words of his Dramatis Personae, for Smith is "in love" with Pocahontas ("My love is like a raging hot volcano, / Vesuvius in a fit of indigestion"). In a work filled with word play, puns, contemporary allusions, and general singing and dancing and prancing goofiness, Pocahontas is a ditzy student at the Tuscarora Finishing School, and Powhatan has destined dumb Dutchman Mynheer Rolff, a shoemaker, as her husband. But Smith and Pocahontas have other things in mind, "for changing the current of History / Would certainly be diverting." Powhatan is reluctant to "run counter to Virginia records" and "can't warp the truth," but Smith wins Pocahontas in a card game and promises Rolff that, though "With her, in name alone, I'll be united," future history will see him "righted" -- so there's a happy resolution for all. All is nonsense in this play which makes Pocahontas's choice of a husband a matter of women's rights. Though Pocahontas has often been represented as in love with Smith, this may be the first major representation of Smith in love with her (on this point, see P.S. 1849, the Frank Leslie's piece 1856, and Cooke 1858).
[play]

Brueckner, Henry. "The Marriage of Pocahontas." 1855. Also engraved by John McCrae. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 28.) Rasmussen and Tilton say that this "wedding scene carries no statements about southern pride or government policy toward Indians [like Chapman's 1840 painting of the baptism] . . . . [it] has a more universal appeal and was distributed to audiences in both the North and South, as well as in Europe." For contemporary description and analysis, see the Lossing articles below this year.
[painting; engraving]
[View Images: page 28]

"Celebrated pacing mare Pocahontas, driven by James McMann esq: Peforming her wonderful feat of pacing a mile in the unprecedented time of 2:171/2 in her match with 'Hero' for $2000 mile heats to wagons over the union course, L.I. June 21st 1855." New York: N. Currier, 1855.
[homage; lithograph]
[Electronic Version]

Draper, Lyman Copeland. "The Picture Gallery." Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin 2 (1855-56): 43-47. Contextual comments and material, including letters and statements from Pocahontas descendants, on the Wisconsin Historical Society copy of the Turkey Island portrait of Pocahontas done by Robert Matthew Sully (1850). Says that the Virginia Historical Society, which has the other copy, was the one who pushed for indianizing of the portrait.
[painting]

F. F. "Pocahontas, The Emperor's Daughter." [Boston] Forrester's Boys' and Girls' Magazine, and Fireside Companion (December 1, 1855): 176-78. This sketch begins with "Who has not heard of POCAHONTAS the Indian princess? She was a beautiful maiden, the idol of her father, Powhatan, and the good genius of the early settlers of Virginia."
[illustrated; juvenile]

Gilmer, George Rockingham. Sketches of Some of the First Settlers of Upper Georgia. New York, 1855. Find descendants of Pocahontas by leafing through this book, for instance, pages 60, 63, 144, etc.
[genealogy]

Johnson, Anna C. [pseud. Minnie Myrtle] The Iroquois, or, The Bright Side of Indian Character. New York, 1855. 29, 270. In a book that is a vigorous defense of Native Americans in comparison with whites, we find this in the section on their traits of national character: "By the Governor of Jamestown, a hand was severed from the arm of a peaceful, unoffending Indian, that he might be sent back a terror to his people, and through the magnanimity of a daughter and King of that same people, that Colony was saved from destruction. It was through their love and trust alone that Powhatan and Pocahontas lost their forest dominions." Later Johnson records speeches by educated Indians in which we find one resisting the idea that Indians are doomed by a "superior" race. "Call to mind," he says, Philip, Tecumseh, Osceola, Red Jacket, and "the story surpassing romance of Pocahontas," in whose bosom "burned purely and rationally the flame of love."
[illustrated; Indian problem; Indian history]
[Electronic Version]

Kingsley, Charles. Westward ho! or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon: in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Cambridge, 1855. See Miss Randolph's entry 1857. The reference by Kingsley to Pocahontas Randolph refers to doesn't seem to be here in Westward ho!, so it is as yet undiscovered.
[Electronic Version]

Lossing, Benson J. The Marriage of Pocahontas. New York, 1855. This pamphlet, say Rasmussen and Tilton 1994, was meant to accompany Brueckner's painting (see this year) of the Rolfe-Pocahontas wedding. It even contains a key to the people represented as present. Rolfe "was the personification of manly beauty in form and carriage; she of womanly modesty and lovely simplicity; and as they came and stood before the man of God, history dipped her pen in the indestructible fountain of truth, and recorded a prophecy of mighty empires in the New World."
[illustrated; painting]

Lossing, Benson J. [New York] "The Marriage of Pocahontas." [New York] Home Journal 52.516 (December 29, 1855): 1. See the Lossing pamphlet in the above entry.
[painting]

Lossing, Benson John. Our Countrymen, or, Brief Memoirs of Eminent Americans. New York, 1855. 16-17. An excerpt from Byron describes "the sweet little Indian girl" and one from Simms describes her effect on her father over killing Smith in this encyclopedia-type sketch in which she lies nestled between Canonicus and John Eliot.
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

M. M. "Milly Francis--The Indian Maiden." The Independent ... Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts 7.365 (November 29, 1855): 382. See 1818 and 1843; now the full, full story. Soon after the American soldier was freed, Milly's father was captured and executed without mercy. So much for reciprocation for Milly's Pocahontas-like act. And Milly didn't want to marry the American soldier not only because she did her duty and would have done so for any other, but she did not want to become the wife of a people who had murdered her father in cold blood. "So the mother and daughter turned mournfully away, and sought again the solitude of the wilderness, where their names have gone out in darkness, like so many that should have been preserved in brightness, besides those whose only glory was gained by their destruction, and who have grown rich on the soil watered by their blood."
[Pocahontas-like]

Murray, Henry A. Lands of the Slave and the Free, or, Cuba, the United States, and Canada. Vol. 1. London, 1855. 387-90. (London, 1857. 217-19.) As English traveller Murray visits the Richmond area, he finds "Powhattans Tree," "a spot clothed with the deepest and most romantic interest," and which "no sacrilegious hand has yet dared to apply the axe." "Callous indeed must that man's heart be, who can gaze upon the spot where the noble Pocahontas -- reared among savages, 'mid the solemn grandeur of the forest, and beneath the broad canopy of heaven, with no Gospel light to guide and soften -- received the holy impulses of love and mercy fresh from her Maker's hands; and how gratifying to remember, that she who had thus early imbibed these sacred feelings, became soon after a convert to Christianity."
[Electronic Version]

Review of John Brougham's Po-Ca-Hon-Tas. New York Daily Times 24 December 1855: 2. The reviewer likes the play. It's an "extravaganza," that is, the idea is to take a subject, and burlesque it in a "mock-heroic style, introducing as many local hits as possible, and a variety of songs, choruses, &c., arranged to popular music." Part of the purpose is to parody the Song of Hiawatha and Indian plays in general.The play has "sense and wit, as well as sound and humor."

1856

"A Lesson from a Red Skin." Boston Investigator 2 July 1856.

Arrington, Alfred W. [Charles Summerfield] The Rangers and Regulators of the Tanaha, or, Life among the Lawless. New York, 1856. 19, 44, 48, 51, 88, 90, etc. The hero is William Bolling, "he's of the first family in old Virginny. . . . of the true grit, and no mistake, a great, great granson, or sumthen of the sort, of old Pocahontas." Bolling saves a woman twice from a fate worse than death in the first few pages, "beats the very devil with his pistol," and makes three foes ask for quarter though he uses only his fists and they have pistols. J. Frank Dobie describes the novel simply as an "East Texas bloodletting," and it seems to have some historical acclaim as the first novel to use "y'all."
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

"Bishop Meade's Reflections." The Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review 3 (1856): 521-24, 672-79. Standard rendering prefaced by: "The History of Rolph and Pocahontas is so identified with that of Virginia and the Church of Virginia, that it deserves more than a passing notice. The account usually given of it is too often considered as an interesting and highly exaggerated romance, though founded on the fact of the first marriage of an Englishman with an Indian. From an accurate examination of all the early statements concerning the two persons, and the circumstances of their marriage, we are persuaded that there is as little of romance or exaggeration about it, as can well be."

Carroll, Anna Ella. The Great American Battle, or, The Contest between Christianity and Political Romanism. New York, 1856. 27, 239-40. "There is an eternal hostility between the principles of Washington and the principles of Popery," Carroll says, "between the spirit of Romish priests and prelates, and that of the fathers of our Republic. . . . There were no surpliced traitors, no perfidious prelates in that great Convention which formed the eternal code of our liberties." Rousing American women to fight against Catholicism, she invokes Pocahontas: "Where is the spirit of Pocahontas, who saved Virginia by her heavenly heroism?" And in a lush description of her saving of Smith, we find that "linking her noble race with the children of God, the bosom of this American woman became the first sanctuary of American liberty."
[Electronic Version]

Duffey, John B. [New York] "Life and Adventures of John Smith." Godey's Lady's Book 52 (January-May 1856): 41-47, 149-56, 244-51, 334-40, 438-44. Admits relying chiefly on Smith's own work and even own words. Lots of direct quotes. But references Belknap and especially Hillard too, a writer to whom, he says, he is much indebted. Focus is directly on Smith in Virginia, so there is no reference to Pocahontas's abduction or trip to England.
[Smith biography]

F. "Editorial. Sketches of American History. No. 5. Pocahontas." [Boston] The Youth's Companion 29.46 (March 6, 1856): 184. "Among the Indians there have been found a few, whose noble conduct has made us regard with more charity the savage conduct of those who delighted in blood and carnage." And guess who is one of them, kiddies -- Pocahontas! "One of the noblest examples of our aboriginal tribes." F. makes Pocahontas seventeen for his audience and gives her "a heart of greater benevolence than usually inhabits an Indian breast." "While there is much that we remember in sadness in Indian character, how pleasant to think of Pocahontas."
[juvenile]

Hopkins, Samuel. The Youth of the Old Dominion. Boston, 1856. 77-91, 109-22, 142-57, 199-216, 234-50. Very interesting version. Tipping his hat to a dozen sources, Hopkins admits to admitting "fancy" but disclaims "fiction": "Any one familiar with the annals of youthful Virginia will here recognize . . . a scrupulous regard to historic truth." What this means is that he has stuck to the "facts" but at all key points created dialogue to dramatize the story. And often with a religious tinge. For instance, "the boar out of the woods would have wasted, the wild-beast would have devoured, the vine which [God] was planting. To save it -- for the life of Smith was the life of Virginia -- He interposed an unbaptized infant. By the dumb eloquence of a tearful girl, He brought to nought the counsels of princes. And now the vine filleth the land." The religion, in fact, even comes from "the little ambassadress" herself, who reminds Smith as she is negotiating for the release of prisoners that his God says to "forgive those who do wrong." Surprisingly successful retelling, though inevitably saccharine. "Her name, like a drop of dew, or a perpetual flower, on a hoary ruin, is yet fresh and refreshing on the page of history; and the memory of her unpretending life is like the memory of a heavenly vision."
[Electronic Version]

"The Indian Girl Saving Howard." [New York] United States Magazine of Science, Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, Commerce and Trade 2.9 (February 1856): 279-80. Two episodes of Pocahontas-like activity, little known probably because they involved ordinary men not epic heroes like Smith. The name of one -- Oo-na-le-tah -- should be "ranked with the brightest on history's pages, and associated with Pocahontas and others, whose deeds have proved that the finest feelings of woman's nature are sometimes found among the forest wilds, as well as in the hearts of cities."
[illustrated; Pocahontas-like]

Lossing, Benson J. "The Marriage of Pocahontas." New Hampshire Statesman 5 January 1856. See 1855.

Parker, H. F. "John Smith." Discoverers and Pioneers of America. New York, 1856. 249-74. Same as Parker 1854.

"Pocahontas, Saving the Life of Capt. Smith." [New York] Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper 28 June 1856: 35. Short sketch accompanying an illustration. "The subsequent marriage of the parties, their arrival and courtly reception in England, the boastful assertion of John Randolph and many of the F.F.V.'s of Virginia, that the best blood of Pocahontas flowed in their veins, is as familiar to every child as household words." Yes, marriage of Smith and Pocahontas -- could this be the first representation of that coupling? (On this point, see P.S. 1849, Brougham 1855, and Cooke 1858.) This event "forcibly shows that love overleaps all barriers and levels all distinctions."
[illustrated]

Rich, Elihu. "Pocahontas." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of Biography. American ed. Edited by Francis L. Hawkes. New York, 1856. 718. Very short and standard encyclopedia entry.

"The Indians in American Art." The Crayon 3 (January 1856): 28. The Indian is "fast passing away" and has not "received justice in American art." "Chapman's marriage [sic] of Pocahontas, in the Rotunda at Washington" is "the most ambitious attempt we now remember" to be considered authoritative about Indians by posterity.
[painting]

[Swan, William Draper.] First Lessons in the History of the United States. Boston, 1856. 15-24. The kids are told that Pocahontas "was, indeed, a very interesting woman -- simple, innocent, and beautiful."
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 19]

1857

Allen, William. The American Biographical Dictionary. Boston, 1857. 668-69. The entry notes as its sources Beverley, Keith, Stith.

"Celebration at Jamestown." Richmond Daily Dispatch 11.117 (May 15, 1857). Complete coverage of the 250th anniversary events. At the ruins of the Jamestown church, the reporter remarks that "a further stretch of the fancy might bring to the mind of the observer a vision of Pocahontas, the queenly daughter of a noble king, and of the sturdy Captain John Smith, kneeling at the chancel and pledging their faith to the service of the Most High God."

Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the English Settlement at Jamestown. May 13, 1857. Washington, 1857. 7, 25, 28, 30. (Also printed in the Southern Literary Messenger this year -- see below and see link.) A report on the big doings in this special celebration, part of which took place on the steamboat Powhatan off Jamestown. Scattered references to Pocahontas in a speech ("lovely forest maiden . . . personification of romance"), a James Barron Hope poem ("Her name shall linger, nor with age grow faint; / Its simplest sound -- the image of a saint"), and in several toasts ("The forest Queen of America, who stayed the up-lifted war-club, and saved Smith and his brave companions from savage butchery. Virginia will ever cherish her memory with filial fondness and veneration").
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Eliot, Samuel. Manual Of United States History from 1492 to 1850. Boston, 1857. 112. "There are few passages in human history more indicative of native nobleness in man than those which bring before us the trustful and generous dealings of the red men with the early adventurers to their shores." For instance, against the anger of Powhatan, "there was still the maiden Pocahontas to plead for mercy and for peace." The same can't be said for "the spirit of the English."
[U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

Hill, George Canning. Capt. John Smith: A Biography. New York, 1857. 121-56, 271-86. Hill was a journalist and editor of the Boston Daily Ledger when this book came out. The work is substantial but adds nothing substantially new in either content or style. Though the story itself "is always the same," it "never fails to touch the feelings of the listener profoundly."
[juvenile; Smith biography]

Hope, James Barron. "Poem." Southern Literary Messenger 24.6 (June 1857): 455-62. Known as Virginia's "Poet Laureate," Hope delivered this poem at the 250th anniversary celebration (see entries on the report both above and below), and this is the first of several Hope entries in the archive. In the poem Pocahontas is a "dove of mercy," "the pearl of all her tribe," "the image of a saint," who dies in England, but "her name shall linger, nor with age grow faint."
[poetry]

"Jamestown Celebration of 1857; Including a Prayer, Oration, Poem, and Speech." Southern Literary Messenger 24.6 (June 1857): 434-66. See the entry above for Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the English Settlement at Jamestown. May 13, 1857.
[Electronic Version]

Lossing, Benson J. History of the United States for Families and Libraries. New York, 1857. 61-71. Same as 1854.
[illustrated; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 61, page 66]

Lossing, Benson John. Eminent Americans: Comprising Brief Biographies of Leading Statesmen, Patriots, Orators and Others, Men and Women, Who Have Made American History. New York, 1857. 16-17. Same as Lossing 1855.
[illustrated]
[Electronic Version]

Meade, Bishop. Old Churches, Ministers and Familes of Virginia. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, 1857. 62-88. A usual account.
[illustrated]

Meek, A. B. "To a Fair Virginian." Songs and Poems of the South. 3rd ed. Mobile, 1857. 110-12. Birth-day verses the sub-title says. Does Meek know something nobody else does? "I love thee for thy beauty, thine innocence and truth, / Thy frank, confiding spirit, thy mind so bright in youth. / For though a lonely stranger, from friends and home afar, / Thy smiles have lit my pathway, like the beauty of a star! / Then long as memory liveth, I shall recall with pride, / The fond and joyous moments I've lingered by thy side; / And ever on thy birth-day, my heart and harp would twine / The roses of affection to decorate thy shrine!"
[poetry]

Melville, Herman. The Confidence Man: His Masquerade. New York, 1857. 196-97. (Chapter 25) In the context of a discussion on Indian hating by the CM, this passage contains one of the most telling comments about Pocahontas ever. "Hate Indians? Why should he or anybody else hate Indians? I admire Indians. Indians I have always heard to be one of the finest of the primitive races, possessed of many heroic virtues. Some noble women, too. When I think of Pocahontas, I am ready to love Indians." When I think of Pocahontas, I am ready to love Indians!
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas in London." [Chambersburg, Pa.] German Reformed Messenger 22.22 (January 28, 1857): 3. Reprints a section from Hopkins 1856 in which Smith and Pocahontas talk at Brentford, or, perhaps, is it better to say when Pocahontas chastizes Smith.
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas Saving the Life of Smith." [Boston] Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion 12.1 (January 3, 1857): 8-10, 13. Illustrated by Billings. Short sketch accompanying the "vivid picture" by Billings. "Even in civilized communities he must be a man of heroic mould who dares to plead the cause of an enemy against the united voice of his countrymen. Let us then accord full honor to the gentle Virginian maid, who, at the peril of her life, and in opposition to her father and her whole people, interposed successfully to save the life of a wounded captive of a strange race of men." Wounded? In any event, the concluding line harkens back to Burk: "Had Pocahontas wedded Captain Smith the romance of this historical episode would have been complete."
[illustrated; engraving]
[View Images: page 8, page 9]

"Pocahontas Warning Captain Smith." [Boston] The Youth's Companion 31.7 (February 12, 1857): 25. An illustration plus descriptive text of Pocahontas's second rescue of Smith, warning him of her father's murder plot after traveling alone in the dark night through the irksome woods. Interestingly, the text balances the motivation of Powhatan and Smith, each fearing the destruction of his people, and the episode ends with "both disappointed." The second of two back-to-back sketches of Pocahontas in this monthly magazine for children.
[illustrated; juvenile]

Randolph, Miss. "Pocahontas, Remonstrance of Miss Randolph, Addressed to the Author of Amyas Leigh." [Boston] Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America 1.9 (September 1857): 270-71. "A descendant of Pocahontas ventures to address" Charles Kingsley, author of Westward Ho! or the voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth (1855), "a remonstrance against the cruel slur" he cast against Pocahontas as "the reputed ancestress of more then one ancient Virginian family," and who "ended her days in wretchedness in some Wapping garrett." The remonstrance is actually a defense of Indian character against "Mr. Kingsley's theory respecting the virtues of the savages." The "divine influence" Pocahontas's auditors responded to "was not strangled at its birth, as it would have been in civilized life, by forms and conventionalities, and fears and calculations"; their virtues are not the imitations and shams that abound in civilized life.

"Reviews and Book Notices." [Boston] The Historical Magazine 1.2 (February 1857): 61-62. Notes that the Second Annual Report and Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, for the Year 1855 contains "an account of a portrait of Pocahontas, copied by [Robert Matthew] Sully, the original of which has now utterly crumbled to pieces." The 1616 original was given to Ryland Randolph by an Englishman, and it passed to Thomas Bolling. Sully made two copies, one for the Virginia Historical Society, one for the Wisconsin.
[painting]

"Scene in the Life of Pocahontas." [Boston] The Youth's Companion 31.5 (January 29, 1857): 17. The first of illustrations and sketches in two successive issues of the magazine. Pocahontas, though a "mere child," was "beautiful in person, even to a European eye; graceful in all her movements; gifted with a ready intelligence and tact, which made her a pleasant companion for the colonists, and enabled her afterwards to mingle in good society in England." She was, however, "badly treated by the whites in return for her strong friendship." To wit: "Captain Smith, whom she loved and saved from death, did not return her love." So far, so good, not so far from usual representations. But then the kids are told "she was not very happy in her married life" and was "carried" to England by Rolfe. Moreover, the scene in the illustration is a complete novelty, purporting to record a peaceful meeting between Powhatan and Smith (Smith waves a tree branch as a sign of peace) before the rescue, in which Pocahontas provides him with "a refreshing draught made by her own hand," from which time she "cherished an unfortunate love for the kind Englishman, never destined to be returned."
[illustrated; juvenile]

Windle, Mary J. "Pocahontas: A Legend of Virginia." Life at the White Sulphur Springs; or, Pictures of a Pleasant Summer. Philadelphia, 1857. 229-75. Smith and Rolfe are the leaders of the English expedition. Pocahontas volunteers to Rolfe to be a hostage so that the English can obtain food, and, "gentle and timid on ordinary occasions" but "intrepid in the cause of humanity," she rescues Smith. But Windle's contributions to widening the range of Pocahontas representation include detailed scenes of Powhatan giving Pocahontas away at her marriage to Rolfe (Smith has little prominence in the story at all), her baptism in England, and her death in Jamestown, before which she enjoins her father to read the Bible with Rolfe. Hand in hand, in fact, Powhatan and Rolfe mourn at her death. And then there is the powerful ending: "It seemd as if a peculiar blessing was attached to [Pocahontas's] love, her voice, her glance, her smile. Wherever they fell, flowers as to the soft rain of spring, were destined to shoot up." And to her influence is to be "attributed, perhaps, the number of Virginians distinguished by the vigor of their judgment, the soundness of their views, the steadiness of their principles, the force of their eloquence, the loftiness of their conceptions, the purity of their lives, the warmth, and truth, and strength of their patriotism; of such were Washington, Randolph, Jefferson, Clay, Marshall, and a host of other immortal names. May these not have been formed, humanly speaking, by the gentle, undying influence of their quiet, retiring, simply educated ancestors, who were the descendants of Pocahontas?"
[short story]
[Electronic Version]

1858

Balmanno, Mrs. [Mary] "Pocahontas." In Mary Cowden Clarke. World-Noted Women; or, Types of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages. New York, 1858. 283-308. Engravings by Charles Staal. Also contains two poems: "Song of Pocahontas" ["Come to the forest, warrior fair"] and "Dirge of Pocahontas" ["The graceful Mondamin lies shatter'd and broken"]. See Staal entry this year to view image. Clarke, daughter of a famous musician -- and who as a child knew Keats, Shelley, the Lambs, Leigh Hunt, and other prominent artists -- is now best remembered for her work on the Shakespeare concordance. This beautifully appointed collection (similar to other works on model women in the archive by Hays, Knapp, Child, Sarah Hale, Frank Goodrich, S. W. Williams, etc.) places Pocahontas in the company of Joan of Arc, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret of Anjou, Cleopatra, and many, many others. In her introduction (4), Clarke mentions that the Pocahontas essay was done by Mrs. Balmanno of New York. "The heart of every woman is a romance," begins Balmanno, "and its master-chord is Love. Of all the passions, it is that which exercises the strongest controul over female character. . . . Its purity and ennobling strength are beautifully exemplified in the history of the Indian Princess Pocahontas, in whose guileless and untutored heart a passion for one of the most chivalrous adventurers of America's early history, has rendered her the heroine of one of the most simple and touching stories of its golden time." "Bred in the seclusion of the forest," Pocahontas "must have turned as naturally to the commanding and chivalrous soldier as the lowly marigold to the sun." Humorous is Balmanno's description of Pocahontas from the van de Passe portrait as "bearing the same resemblance to her former self as does the airy blue-bell when pressed, dried, and pasted down in a lady's album, to its wild sisters, nodding gaily in the sunshine between the fern and fox-glove."
[illustrated; poetry; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Balmanno, Mrs. [Mary] "Dirge of Pocahontas" ["The graceful Mondamin lies shatter'd and broken"]. In Mary Cowden Clarke. World-Noted Women; or, Types of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages. New York, 1858. 305. This short, sad poem closes Balmanno's account of "the lovely and benign Pocahontas," "whose whole life was a pure and refreshing stream of love and goodness," perishing "in the bloom of life": "In the land of the stranger, her grave the sole token, / The Flower of Windagua is withered away."
[poetry; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Balmanno, Mrs. [Mary] "Song of Pocahontas" ["Come to the forest, warrior fair"]. In Mary Cowden Clarke. World-Noted Women; or, Types of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages. New York, 1858. 294-95. Balmanno, in distancing her a bit from the Virginia Maske episode, imagines this as the kind of "simple ditty" that Pocahontas might have sung.
[poetry; gender]
[Electronic Version]

Belater-Adime. "The Indian Princess Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 6.146 (October 16, 1858): 316. Directs Mrs. Rogers below to Gravesend for information.
[Electronic Version]

J. E. C. [John Esten Cooke]. "Wandering on the Banks of the York." Southern Literary Messenger 26.6 (June 1858): 457-65. This series of dream-like sketches is the first of several entries in the archive by Cooke, one of Virginia's most important writers in the second half of the century. And the one on Pocahontas (Matoax here) is a doozy, showing a compelling fantasy image of her. "Behold again the maiden as she lived and loved," conjures Cooke, "semi-nude, but chaste as a statue of modesty, which, clothed in its own purity thinks not of prying eyes -- slight, slender, graceful -- as straight as an arrow -- and in every moment as supple and undulating, as a young willow swaying to and fro in the breezes of spring." In short -- and here's where it really gets good -- she is not "fat"! That is, like some have painted her. And the court picture will not pass muster for fantasy purposes either: "We do not want Mrs. Rolfe of England, we want Pocahontas of Virginia. Let us not have a matron in ruffles, and farthingales, and a hideous masculine hat, about as appropriate on the damsel as a sunbonnet would be on the head of the Medicean Venus. . . . Let us see . . . the warm glowing cheeks of our warm slender little fawn of the forest . . . her figure half-nude, and draped with the plumage of gay colored birds. . . . Such was Pocahontas -- not a heavily formed woman at all: a fairy of the old romances!" And, though this element has not yet really become a substantial part of the Pocahontas lore (see P.S. 1849, Brougham 1855, and the Frank Leslie's piece 1856), "Captain Smith loved her always" -- well, and no wonder. Revealing essay, I think, in regard to the hold a specific "version" of Pocahontas had on the southern imagination.
[painting]
[Electronic Version]

"A Monument at Jamestown to Captain John Smith." Southern Literary Messenger 27.2 (August 1858): 112-15. "Virginia surely owes a column or statue to a man who protected her infancy with such singleness of heart and consummate ability." A real knight errant, the Columbus of Virginia, the model of a true Virginia gentleman, his "magic charm" worked almost instantaneously on Pocahontas.
[Electronic Version]

Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England. Vol. 1. Boston, 1858. 85-97. Perhaps the beginning of the 19th century debunking of Smith as historian. A footnote casts doubt on the veracity of Smith's account of his early life and thus foreshadows the controversy over the Pocahontas episode that Charles Deane and Henry Adams (on Palfrey's influence, see Adams 1861) will soon ignite. "So long a journey within the time specified cannot be called impossible. But it argues marvelous despatch. . . . On the whole, the reader perhaps inclines to the opinion that John Smith was not the sole author of his books, but that they passed, for embellishment, at least, through the hands of some craftsman, who was not perfectly possessed either of Smith's own story, or of the geography or public history to which it related." Other main contestants in the debunking controversy are William Wirt Henry, Edward D. Neill, and Alexander Brown.
[debunking]

"'Pocahontas Stock' -- Value of the Blood in a Court of Law." [San Francisco] Daily Evening Bulletin 10 May 1858: 1. The testimony of a key witness in a murder case was objected to on the grounds that he had negro blood. He testified that his "mother was a full blood Pocahontas Indian" -- what is called "Pocahontas stock" -- and he was deemed competent to testify.
[slavery]

Rogers, Mrs. H. S. "The Indian Princess Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 6.144 (October 2, 1858): 267. Asks where Pocahontas is buried.
[Electronic Version]

Spencer, J. A. History of the United States. Vol. 1. New York, 1858. 32-43. Standard account.
[U.S. history]

Staal, Charles. "Pocahontas." World-Noted Women; or, Types of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages. Ed. Mary Cowden Clarke. New York, 1858. 283.
[engraving]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: engraving]

Straubenmüller, Johann. Pocahontas, oder, Die Gründung von Virginien. Poetische Erzählung. Baltimore: W. R. Schmidt, 1858.
[poetry; foreign language]

Thackeray, William Makepeace. ""From Pocahontas." ("Pocahontas" chapter: chapter number varies depending on number of volumes in edition.) The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century. London, 1858-59. The narrator's wife consoles him after the play flops, playing Pocahontas: "Why seek, my love, your wounds to hide? / Or deem your English girl afraid / To emulate the Indian maid?"
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Thackeray, William Makepeace. "Pocahontas." ("Pocahontas" chapter: chapter number varies depending on number of volumes in edition.) The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century. London, 1858-59. (Ballads. London, 1880. 102-4.) (My Country: Poems of History for Young Americans. Ed. Burton Stevenson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932. 18-19.) The ballad used as "ground-bait" for the narrator's play: "Who will shield the captive knight? . . . . Who will shield the fearless heart? . . . . See there springs an Indian maid. . . . 'Loose the chain, unbind the ring! / I am daughter of the king, / And I claim the Indian right!'"
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]

Thackeray, William Makepeace. Chapter: "Pocahontas." (Chapter number varies depending on number of volumes in edition.) The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century. London, 1858-59. Also contains poems "Pocahontas" and "From Pocahontas." The narrator writes a flop of a play (a "tragedy") described thusly: "An Indian king; a loving princess, and her attendant, in love with the British captain's servant; a traitor in the English fort; a brave Indian warrior, himself entertaining an unhappy passion for Pocahontas; a medicine-man and priest of the Indians (very well played by Palmer), capable of every treason, stratagem, and crime, and bent upon the torture and death of the English prisoner; -- these, with the accidents of the wilderness, the war dances and cries (which Gumbo had learned to mimic very accurately from the red people at home), and the arrival of the English fleet, with allusions to the late glorious victories in Canada, and the determination of the Britons ever to rule and conquer in America . . . ."
[illustrated; poetry; novel]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 843]

"The Monuments of Lost Races." The Protestant Episcopal Quarterly Review 4 (October 1858): 451.

1859

"A Noble Virginia Woman." [Boston] The Liberator 11 November 1859: 179. "Let Virginia no more boast of her Pocahontas, or at least let her admit to an equal honor the name of Miss Fluke, who so nobly interposed in behalf of the prisoner Thompson, who was so brutally murdered by the slave holders of Harper's Ferry."
[Pocahontas-like; slavery]

An American Lady. "The Grave of Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 7.163 (Feb 12, 1859): 131. Brief note looking for information about Pocahontas, who threw "herself upon [Smith's] body just as the tomahawk was raised to behead him": "I have learned that she was buried at Gravesend, but can obtain no information respecting the precise spot. Can you inform me?
[Electronic Version]

Brumidi, Constantino. "Captain Smith and Pocahontas." 1859-1888. (Vivien Green Fryd, Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860. Athens: Ohio UP, 2001. 146.) As one source says, "Constantino Brumidi painted scores of frescoes in the United States Capitol. . . . One cannot tour the United States Capitol without being inundated with the work of Brumidi."
[sculpture]
[Electronic Version]
[View Images: page 146]

The Chief's Daughter; or, The Settlers in Virginia. London, 1859. Despite the title and the provocative opening image, Pocahontas does not play much of a role in this anonymous novel, which is rather loosely based on the historical record, and, though Pocahontas is drawn to Smith and does rescue him, there is not even much of a relationship. Chaplain Hunt is pretty much the central character, and he is interested in converting Pocahontas. When she comes to Jamestown willingly as a hostage in peace negotiations, he teaches her, and she returns to her people with the hope that she has "enough of the spirit of Christianity to be a blessing to her people" and to be "ever afterwards . . . on the side of peace." There is no baptism, Rolfe, marriage, England visit -- the story ends with Hunt's death and Smith's return home.
[illustrated; novel]
[View Images: frontispiece]

Cooke, John Esten. Henry St. John, Gentleman, of "Flower of Hundreds" in the County of Prince George, Virginia: A Tale of 1774-’75. New York, 1859. 117-18, 124. Cooke's second Pocahontas entry in the archive. Central character Henry, descendant of Pocahontas, visits Jamestown on a pleasant excursion with loved one Bonnybel: "Few spots on earth possess the interest of Jamestown island. It was here that the New World was born and cradled, in storm and blood." And here lives the memory of Pocahontas, "the impersonation of the highest, truest womanhood, of love, pity, a devotion which counted life as nothing if she might save from death a poor, unknown, disarmed captive! The monumental pride of kings in hard marble or the stubborn bronze will go to decay, lapse back to earth, and they and their actions be forgotten. But the story of Pocahontas shall be known and remembered by a mighty host of unborn millions, who will love and honor her." Bonnybel is pensive: "We lead but poor, cold lives compared with her . . . we are nothing but butterflies. . . . [picking a flower] As this bud to the artificial flower of the dressmaker, so does Pocahontas compare with us."
[novel]
[Electronic Version]

"Editor's Table." Southern Literary Messenger 28.5 (May 1859): 395-96. On a trip of august personages to visit the ruins of Jamestown, a trip that elicits a call to memorialize the spot, the steamer Pocahontas passes, "as if by a happy coincidence to call up the image of the tender Indian maiden amid the scenes of her girlish life."
[Electronic Version]

G. A. C. "Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 7.171 (Apr 9, 1859): 307. Responding to the query from the American Lady above, G.A.C. provides different information: "Her portrait remains" with her "numerous family" in Norfolk, descendant from the marriage of Anne Rolfe and Peter Elwyn.
[painting]
[Electronic Version]

Grattan, Thomas Colley. Civilized America. 2nd ed. Volume 2. London, 1859. 132. Colley served as British consul at Boston for a number of years, and this book has been described as "an important contemporary record combining contempt for U.S. social standards with praise for the country's independence, order, and energy." This section on Indians is pretty nasty. There is no national interest in the Indians, though they "are gradually fading from the earth, dissolving like shadows in a distant obscurity." It is evident "that they are truly an inferior race" and inspire a "sort of compassionate curiosity in the observer, whose only wish is that they may quietly become extinct, and escape the fate of a violent extermination." The discovery of the New World exaggerated everything: "Pocahontas on the one hand, and King Philip on the other, were magnified into miracles of sentiment and courage." But these were imaginary attributes. "A degraded independence, sloth, dirt, and licentiousness form the sum total of their characteristics." "It would, perhaps, have been better for the Indian tribes had the white men made slaves of them." At least there would have been care to encourage propagation.
[Indian problem]
[Electronic Version]

Hay, G. J. "The Grave of Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 7.176 (May 14, 1859): 403. Answers the American Lady above.
[Electronic Version]

J. C. W. "Pocahontas." [Louisville] Christian Observer 38.9 (March 3, 1859): 36. The headnote indicates that the poem will not be "in vain" if it may "awaken genuine sympathy in other hearts in behalf of our red-faced brethren." "And she, of all the wild and free, / Came with a tender grace. / Jesus! to bow the tender knee to thee -- / First Christian of her race: / A noble heart was all her own -- / The god-like and the true! / When 'neath the forest shadows lone / A lovely child she grew."
[poetry; Indian problem]

"Levee, at the Town Hall in Amherst." [Amherst NH] Farmer's Cabinet 16 February 1859: 3. One of the sixteen events on the program to raise money for charity by the Ladies of Amherst is a tableau of Pocahontas and Capt. Smith.

Morgan, Henry. "Broken Hearted." Music Hall Discourses, Miscellaneous Sketches, Ministerial Notes, and Prison Incidents. Boston, 1859. 241. Morgan, sometime itinerant minister but later organizer of the Boston union mission and chaplain of the state senate, tells the sad story of a man saved by an Indian girl, precipitating "years of rapturous delight" living free with her in nature. But a visit home presents the color-barrier problem: "Can he leave that pure, transparent face of love, never veiled from the sun's warm kisses, that has lit up his soul with feelings divine? In heart she is an angel, but in color and name she is an Indian. This must forever bar her from the whites, though the children of Pocahontas be the first of Virginia blood." He doesn't take her with him. However, the "dull, dead drudgery of civilization" is "intolerable," and he returns only to find that his love-sick Indian lover has committed suicide. He then loses touch with reality, wastes away, and dies.
[Pocahontas-like]

Quackenbos, G. P. Illustrated School History of the United States. New York, 1859. 66-76. Lean, factual account by an author of many textbooks -- serviceable but not remarkable.
[illustrated; school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

"Scenes in Washington Territory." [San Francisco] Daily Evening Bulletin 21 October 1859: 3. "The Pocahontases of this territory, by the way, are giving evidence of doing as much in their humble way of populating the Territory, as did the celebrated daughter of the great Powhattan, and there is no reason to doubt that their descendants may become as talented as some of those who, tracing back their pedigree to Indian stock, have become illustrious in the annals of the Old Dominion."

"The Shooting of Thompson." [Jamestown NY] Jamestown Journal 18 November 1859: 1. Elaboration of the Harper's Ferry story in the Liberator on November 11 entitled "A Noble Virginia Woman." The woman -- now called Miss Foulke -- "protected [Thompson's] head with her body, as much in the spirit of heroism as when Pocahontas defended Capt Smith." But they pushed her aside, slung Thompson outside, and shot him.
[Pocahontas-like; slavery]

"The Truth of History." [Columbus] Daily Ohio Statesman 1 May 1859: 2. Corrects another newspaper account that Smith married Pocahontas, and then goes on: "Now we are ready to admit that if Pocahontas had married Capt Smith, it would have been eminently in harmony with the poetical requisitions of the case, and made a proper close to the drama in which her saving his life was a leading incident. It may have been very improper in Pocahontas not to have married him. But the stubborn fact is that she did not marry him, and probably never thought of him for a moment as a lover or a husband."

1860

Campbell, Charles. History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Philadelphia, 1860. 30-84, 112-23. (Spartanburg: The Reprint Company, 1965.) This is not an exact reprinting of Campbell's 1847 work, but I cannot see that the sections on Pocahontas are materially any different, though there is the interesting new claim that "the sculptor's art ought to present a fitting memorial of [Smith] and of Pocahontas, in the metropolis of Virginia."
[Virginia history]
[Electronic Version]

"Dramatic." [New Orleans] Daily Delta 11 April 1860: 1. Brougham's Pocahontas play "went off with eclat last night to a large and brilliant house." But the reviewer was bothered by the "unseemly antics" and vulgarizations of the actress playing Pocahontas: "We can see no necessity for making Pocahontas funny by giving the simple Indian the manners of the nymphs who grace sailors' dancing saloons on Gallitin street."
[play]

"Fine Arts -- The Bashful Girl." New York Herald 20 October 1860: 3. Reports that sculptor David Richards "contemplates, should his patronage justify it, commencing a life size statue of Pocahontas, of whom nothing of the kind deserving the name has yet appeared, whereas no character involves more of the ideality of romance."
[sculpture]

"Guard of the Daughters of Powhatan." 1860. (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 40.) The insignia [Flag] of a militia unit that became a Confederate army unit. Rasmussen and Tilton note that the figure is derived from Thomas Sully, and that "the soldiers who followed this image would be inspired to display the courage that had been exhibited by Pocahontas during a potentially life-threatening crisis."
[artifact]

Howitt, Mary Botham. A Popular History of the United States of America. Volume 1. New York, 1860. 46-63. Strays from the time-honored program by having Smith make hatchets and string beads for Pocahontas before she obeyed "an impulse of mercy" at the execution event and by failing to mention any tension in their re-union in England. Where she did well, though, for "the daughter of the wilderness possessed the mild elements of female loveliness, rendered still more beautiful by the child-like simplicity with which her education in the savannahs of the New World had invested her."
[illustrated; U.S. history]

Lossing, Benson John. The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution. Volume 2. New York, 1860. 239-56. Much of the Pocahontas part of the story is relegated to footnotes, but the text is adorned with quotes from Simms's "Pocahontas; A Legend of Virginia" and contains this description of Pocahontas at the moment of truth: "Her heart beat quick with sympathy the moment she saw the manly form of Smith, and in her young bosom glowed intense desire to save his life."
[illustrated]

Old Dominion Society of the City of New York. First Celebration of the Anniversary of the Settlement at Jamestown, Va., on the 13th of May, 1607. Hon. George W. Summers, Orator. New York, 1860. 15-17. "The colony," says Summers (Virginia congressman and jurist) toward the beginning of his oration on this patriotic occasion, "was only preserved by the patience, courage, and good sense of Smith," who was rescued by Pocahontas, "the young and beautiful daughter of Powhattan," a "gentle maiden" who "seems to have been a guardian angel to the colony." "The story of this Indian princess . . . constitute[s] a romantic episode in the history of Virginia." But Summers wastes no "mawkish sentimentalism" on the Indians as a whole. They are a "barbaric people," subject to God's "great law of periodic succession and subordination," who have fulfilled their purpose as a link from lower forms of life: "nor is there more reason to invoke our sympathy in their fate than with the Hittite and the Amorite, who fell before the conquering march of Joshua."
[Indian problem]

Phillips, Wendell. "On the Puritan Principle." Echoes of Harpers Ferry. Ed. James Redpath. Boston, 1860. 111-12. (New York: Arno, 1969.) This collection of essays (containing Thoreau's famous "Plea") by vigorous abolitionist Redpath marking the rebellious, "traitorous" actions of John Brown, "an heroic old man, who dared to defy the Slave Power in its oldest stronghold," hoped "to fan holy flame" that would burn up "every vestige of the crime of American Slavery." Look how "barbarous" the slave system is, says Phillips -- a southern girl tries to save a northern boy "from the Christian rifles of Virginia," but is torn off, and the boy killed. "That is the Christian Virginia of 1859. In 1608, an Indian girl flung herself before her father's tomahawk on the bosom of an English gentleman, and the Indian refrained from touching the traveller whom his daughter's affection protected. Pocahontas lives today, the ideal beauty of Virginia, and her proudest names strive to trace their lineage to the brave Indian girl. That was Pagan Virginia two centuries and a half ago. What has dragged her down from Pocahontas in 1608 to John Brown in 1859, when humanity is disgraceful and despotism treads it out under its iron heel?"
[slavery]
[Electronic Version]

"Pocahontas Fan." c. 1860. (Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. 167. This fan depicts incidents in Pocahontas's life but not the rescue, the veracity of which was just coming under attack.
[artifact]

"Pocahontas." [Broadside] c. 1860. New York: H. De Marsan. A beautiful rendition of George P. Morris's 1840 "The Chieftain's Daughter."
[poetry]

"Powhatan Brand." New York: Lith. of Sarony, Major & Knapp, 1860. (tobacco package label)
[lithograph; artifact]
[Electronic Version]

Review of Charles Campbell, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Southern Literary Messenger 30.3 (March 1860): 209-20, esp. 210. "Throughout the narrative Pocahontas appears in all her grace and sweetness and purity -- a being so beautiful and so pure, that, if she had appeared in the pages of Herodotus, or even in those of Livy, we might have deemed her the twin sister of Egeria, the counsellor of Numa, or the creation of genius in its finest aspirations. We wish our author had stated that her descendants still survive, and are to be numbered by thousands, and that some of our people, most distinguished for the graces of eloquence, for personal beauty, and for intrinsic moral worth, are proud that her blood courses in their veins."
[Electronic Version]

Robertson, Wyndham. "The Marriage of Pocahontas. Notes of the Date of Pocahontas' Marriage, and Some Other Incidents of Her Life." [Richmond] Virginia Historical Reporter 2.1 (1860): 65-87. See entry below.

Robertson, Wyndham. "The Marriage of Pocahontas." Southern Literary Messenger 31.2 (August 1860): 81-91. Robertson, governor of Virginia and descendant of Pocahontas, is an early major figure in her genealogy research. This, however, is a paper read before the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society in which Robertson, with exhaustive and exhausting detail, fixes the date of Pocahontas's marriage and addresses the statement made by Strachey that Pocahontas was married to Kocoum. Then, however, Robertson asks "leave to insert a few observations on the doubt" about the rescue recently brought forward (Palfrey 1858, Wingfield/Deane 1860). He meets the debunkers with a six-point argument, then, climactically, confronts the question of why Smith didn't disclose the rescue earlier, admittedly "a question easier asked than answered." The answer, though, may be to avoid exactly the kind of suspicion of gaining power through an alliance with Pocahontas that King James was in a snit with Rolfe about.
[debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Robertson, Wyndham. "The Marriage of Pocahontas: Notes of the Date of Pocahontas' Marriage, and Some Other Incidents of Her Life." [Boston] Historical Magazine 4.10 (October 1860): 289-96. Same as entry above.

Stephens, Ann S. Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter. 1860. Ed. Frank P. O'Brien. New York: John Day, 1929. The very first of the famous Beadle "dime novel" series deals with the intermarriage of white and red that is at the core of Pocahontas representations. A story of a "life permeated by heroic self sacrifice and unrequited mother love."
[Pocahontas-like]

The city of Pocahontas, Virginia, founded in the 1860s. See 1882 for link to the famous coal mine.
[homage]
[Electronic Version]

Wingfield, Edward Maria. "A Discourse of Virginia." 1608. Ed. Charles Deane. Archaeologica Americana: Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society 4 (1860): 67-103; esp. ft. nt. 8, 92-95. The door for debunking of Smith as historian is now open. This account by the first president of the Virginia council, here first printed, mentions Smith's captivity and freedom but not the Pocahontas rescue episode -- another piece of evidence for those who question Smith's veracity (see Palfrey 1858, an account Deane was aware of). Deane, a rather prolific editor of early American texts, for instance, determines the rescue an "embellishment" that never happened: "No one can doubt that the earlier narrative [Smith's 1608 True Relation] contains the truer statement" and that the Pocahontas rescue "is one of the few or many embellishments with which Smith, with his strong love of the marvellous, was disposed to garnish the stories of his early adventures." The temptation to bring Pocahontas "on the stage as a heroine in a new character in connection with Smith, always the hero of his chronicles . . . appears to have been too great for him to withstand." "This marvellous story finds no proper place in any other adventure; and the introduction of it into" the Generall Historie "is equivalent to setting aside the whole of the earlier account." "Without designing to impeach the general trustworthiness of Smith's original narrations. . . it must be admitted that the tendency to exaggeration and over-statement in his later publications is evident."
[debunking]

1861

Abbott, Jacob. American History. Volume 3. New York, 1861. 185-217.
[illustrated]

Adams, Henry. Letters to John Gorham Palfrey, 1861-1862. J. C. Levenson, et. al., eds., The Letters of Henry Adams. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1982. 258-59, 279-81, 287. The birth of the most famous Smith debunking. Letters of Oct. 23, 1861, Feb. 12 and March 20, 1862, to Palfrey (see 1858) show Adams trying to pick up on Palfrey's intuition of "historic doubts" about the Pocahontas rescue. Adams is skeptical about a "sentimental attachment" to Smith: "Perhaps it was some wild-Indian semi-lunacy that drove her to it, for I confess I am very skeptical about any pure philanthropy in an Indian child that would drive her through a forest in mid-winter many miles in order to betray her father." "Unless someone else proves luckier than I, we must yield that the chances are in favor of Smith's turning out as powerful a liar as he was seaman. I fully expect that the ghost of John Randolf [Randolph] will haunt you and Mr. Deane [see 1860] and me for this impiety, but it wasn't my fault." "I hardly know whether I ought not to be ashamed of myself for devoting myself to a literary toy like this. . . . perhaps the thing is excusable, especially as it is in some sort a flank, or rather a rear attack, on the Virginia aristocracy. . . . if it weren't for you and Mr. Deane behind me, I hardly think I should dare to attack an article of American religious creed, so vital as this." The ultimate result is Adams' 1867 North American Review article that starts a controversy over the truthfulness of Pocahontas's famous rescue that lasted nearly half a century.
[debunking]

"Benefit of the Soldiers." Macon Daily Telegraph 7 October 1861: 1. Pocahontas rescuing John Smith is one of the tableau vivants in this Confederate Army benefit -- the two parts of the show "to be interspersed with [15 minutes of] laughter"!
[U. S. history; slavery]

The Boys' Book of Indian Battles and Adventures. New York, 1861. 99-102.
[illustrated; juvenile]
[Electronic Version]

Chappel, Alonzo. "Pocahontas Saving the Life of Capt. John Smith." 1861. (J. A. Spencer, History of the United States. New York, 1866.) (William M. S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. 16.)
[engraving]
[View Images: engraving]

Cooke, John Esten. "A Dream of the Cavaliers." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 21 (January 1861): 252-54.
[poetry]

Deane, Charles. Letter to John Gorham Palfrey. Henry Adams and His Friends. Ed. Harold Dean Cater. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1947. 11-12. Palfrey had passed on to Deane Adams' letter of October 23, 1861, and Deane replies here on November 17, 1861. Deane, perceiving that Adams is "not yet possessed of all the facts," corrects him in a few matters and is "very glad" that Adams is interested in the matter.
[debunking.]

Ferland, Jean Baptiste Antoine. Cours d’histoire du Canada. Volume 1. Québec, 1861. 75-77.
[foreign language]

Owen, Mrs. Octavius Freire [Emily]. "Pocahontas." The Heroines of Domestic Life. London, 1861. 137-51.

Quackenbos, G. P. "Captain John Smith." Primary History of the United States. New York, 1861. 31-37.
[illustrated; school book]
[View Images: page 33]

Reid, James. "Natoaca [sic], Princess of Virginia." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 12 (November 2, 1861): 348.

Sigourney, Mrs. L. H. "Seceding Virginia." Littell's Living Age (December 21, 1861): 530.
[poetry]

Workard, Job J. Bardwell. "Natoaca [sic], Princess of Virginia." Notes and Queries 2nd series, 12.307 (November 16, 1861): 406.

1862

Bogart, W. S. "Pocahontas: or, The Lady Rebecca." Southern Literary Messenger 34.12 (November & December 1862): 641-47.
[poetry]

Brownell, Henry Howard. North and South America Illustrated: From Its First Discovery to the Present Administration. Volume 2. Hartford, 1862. 51-80.
[illustrated]

Daniel, Louis. La guerre aux États-Unis. Paris, 1862. 92-100.
[foreign language]

F. C. B. "Natoaca" [sic]. Notes and Queries 3rd series, 1.7 (February 15, 1862): 135-36.

Gilmore, James R. [Edmund Kirke] Among the Pines, or, South in Secession-Time. New York, 1862. 123.

Knight, Charles. A History of England. Volume 3. London, 1862. 344-45.

Martin, Joseph. H. Smith and Pocahontas. A Poem. Richmond, 1862.
[poetry]

Morris, George P. "The Chieftain's Daughter." Sanders' High School Reader: Embracing a Comprehensive Course of Instruction in the Principles of Rhetorical Reading: with a Choice Collection of Exercises in Reading, both in Prose and Poetry, for the Use of the Higher Classes in Schools of Every Grade. Ed. Charles W. Sanders. New York, 1862. 407-8.
[poetry; school book]

"Pocahontas and John Smith." New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette 15 October 1862: 4. The writer is grumpy over the the lack of true romance in their story: "one feels very ill natured at Rolfe and company for the cruel deception which [telling Pocahontas Smith was dead], we must believe, was all that kept them asunder, and gave the story of the lovely maiden its almost tragic close."

"Smith's Rescue by Pocahontas." Southern Literary Messenger 34.12 (November & December 1862): 626-31.

"Something about Pocahontas." Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine 16.3 (September 1862): 209-10.

"Then and Now in the Old Dominion." Atlantic Monthly 9.54 (April 1862): 493-502.

"True Founder of Virginia." St. James Magazine 4 (1862): 199-210.

1863

E. G. B. "Ancient Church at Jamestown" and "Pocahontas." Historical, Poetical and Pictorial American Scenes. Ed. John Warner Barber. New Haven, 1863. 10-12, 13.
[poetry]

"Early Annals of the American Church." The Church Review 15.2, 15.4 (1863): 219-34, 585-607.

"Indian Warrior." The Pictorial Primer; Designed for the Use of Schools and Families. Embellished with Fine Engravings. Richmond, 1863. 14.
[illustrated; engraving; school book]
[View Images: page 14]

Willson, Marcius. Primary American History for Primary Schools. New York, 1863. 36-45. Same as Willson, Juvenile, 1847.
[school book; U.S. history]
[Electronic Version]

1864

Carlier, Auguste. Histoire du peuple américain, États-Unis. Volume 1. Paris, 1864. 61-79.
[foreign language]

Hay, G. J. "Grave of Pocahontas." Notes and Queries 3rd series, 5.110 (February 6, 1864): 123. In the Gravesend Parish register: "1616 May 2j Rebecca Wrothe / wyff of Thomas Wroth gent / a Virginia lady borne, here was buried / in ye chauncell."

Lossing, Benson J. A Common-School History of the United States. New York, 1864. 24-31.
[illustrated; school book]
[View Images: page 31]

"The City: Chapter of Horrors." [Columbus] Daily Ohio Statesman 9 July 1864: 3. A negro hackman takes an impoverished widow to "the disreputable house of the notorious 'Pocahontas,'" from which she falls into the clutches of a "hideous and villainous negro named Henry Burns." Burns, "who is as black, hideous and ferocious a monster as could be found in the country," imprisons, tortures, and debauches the woman, subjecting her to an abortion as well. It is "one of the most horrible cases of crime and brutality that has ever transpired in Columbus." The shamed woman reported that "her parents were abolitionists, but would revolt at the idea of amalgamation."
[slavery]

Tracy, Henry R. "The Death Council of the Oneidas. Or, The Second Pocahontas. A true Story of the Early Settlement of New. York." Friends' Intelligencer 21.19 (July 16, 1864): 297-99; 21.20 (July 23, 1864): 317-18.

1865

Goodrich, Samuel G. The American Child's Pictorial History of the United States. Philadelphia, 1865. 50-72.
[illustrated; juvenile]
[View Images: page 68]

Hiller, Rev. O. Prescott. Pocahontas; or the Founding of Virginia. London, 1865.
[poetry]

"Spurious National Bank Currency." Philadelphia Inquirer 19 August 1865: 2. An article about counterfeit money indicates that pictures of Columbus and Pocahontas are on the true five-dollar notes.
[homage]

Stone, William L. Life of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea). Volume 2. Albany, 1865. 60, 444.

Taylor, George Lansing. [G L T.] "Pocahontas and Virginia." Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal 36.46 (November 15, 1865): 1.
[poetry]

"The Spirit of Caste." New Orleans Times 19 July 1865: 4. "A spirit of caste everywhere presents itself . . . . Occasionally claims to social and political pre-eminence are based on mere accidents. . . . In Virginia, 'first families' used to be regarded with excessive favor, albeit some of those first families had a penal taint. Another Virginian taint of caste was drawn from the blood of Pocahontas. But poor Pocahontas is now overthrown. Dinah has taken her place in the social and political pantheon, and Norman blood -- once a passport to all honor -- must now give way to currents of a less ruddy hue."

1866

Adams, Henry. Letter to John Gorham Palfrey. Henry Adams and His Friends. Ed. Harold Dean Cater. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1947. 29-30. Letter of July 5, 1866, in which Adams says he is "waiting in some doubt what to do about that ancient liar Smith" in the matter of the veracity of the Pocahontas story.
[debunking.]

"American Trotting Stud: Ethan Allen, Pocahontas." New York: Currier & Ives, 1866.
[homage; lithograph]
[Electronic Version]

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. 21st ed. Vol. 1. Boston, 1866. 117-58. Cf. Bancroft 1837, 1853, 1876. The description of the rescue is the same here as previously, but, certainly showing knowledge of the debunking controversy, the footnote has changed: "The True Relation, &c., printed in 1608, was published without the knowledge of Smith who was then in Virginia, and was first attributed to Thomas Watson. The rescue of Smith by Pocahontas was told, with authority, in 1617, in Smith's 'Relation to Queen Anne'; Historie 127. It is confirmed in his New England's trials, printed in 1622; and the full narrative is to be found in the Historie, printed in 1624. In 1625, Purchas, who had many manuscripts on Virginia, gives the narrative a place in his Pilgrims, as unquestionably authentic. Compare Deane's note in Wingfield, 81, 32." Bancroft, gamely holding on here to belief in the rescue, capitulates to the debunkers in the 1876 edition.
[U.S. history; debunking]

Burke, John. "Chivalry and Slavery." Chivalry, Slavery, and Young America. New York, 1866. 93-183, esp. 140.
[poetry]

Cooke, John Esten. "Along the James. A Journey into Dreamland." The Galaxy. A Magazine of Entertaining Reading (September 15, 1866): 175-80.

"General Lee Again before the Reconstruction Committee." 21 April 1866: 1. Bitingly witty piece poses a series of questions for Lee. For example, "Do the people of Virginia read the writings of R. W. Emerson? and if so do they understand them?" And "Do the colored race in Virginia generally go in when it rains? and if not why not?" And "Do the colored people in Virginia usually sleep with their heads under the bed clothes? and how far will emancipation modify this habit?" For our our purposes we find, "Do you believe the story of Captain Smith and Pocahontas? or do you think it was made up by Captain Smith after its supposed date?"
[slavery; debunking]

Palfrey, John Gorham. A History of New England, from the Discovery by Europeans to the Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. Volume 1. New York, 1866. 13.

Sigourney, L. H. Letters of Life. New York, 1866. 347-48.

Smith, John. A True Relation of Virginia. 1608. Ed. Charles Deane. Boston: 1866. 24-40, 72-73. See esp. footnote 3, pp. 38-40, for Deane's comments on the discrepancy in Smith's accounts of his captivity: "The most indifferent reader cannot fail to notice the marked discrepancy between Smith's original account" in True Relation and the one in the Generall Historie. "I suppose Smith must be held responsible for all this: for, although he had probably fallen into the hands of Michael Sparks, the publisher, still the work is issued in his own name." "It is safer, I think, to follow the simple original narrative, written on the spot" by this "true knight errant" with no other motives "to embellish it which were subsequently furnished." This note by debunking Deane, who also questioned Smith's veracity in 1860, is an important step in the simmering questioning that Adams will bring to a boil next year.
[debunking]
[Electronic Version]

1867

"A Magnificent New Year's Gift." [Concord] New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette 25 December 1867: 3. "Do a good act." Purchase certificates accompanied by an engraving of "The Marriage of Pocahontas" for the benefit of the Washington Library Company of Philadelphia.
[homage]

Adams, Henry. "Captain John Smith." North American Review 104.214 (January 1867): 1-30. (Revised Chapters of Erie, and Other Essays. Boston, 1871.) (Revised again Historical Essays. New York, 1891.) [See Lemay 1992, 107, for omissions from Adams' original manuscript.] Building on Deane and spurred both by personal ambition to make a name for himself as well as conscious New England brahmin desire to attack the South in this Civil War era, Adams calls into question the Pocahontas rescue episode and through it the veracity of the Generall Historie and Southern history founded on it. Putting sections from the True Relation and the Generall Historie side by side, Adams states that "it is still perfectly clear that the statements of the Generall Historie, if proved to be untrue, are falsehoods of an effrontery seldom equaled in modern times" and accuses Smith of manipulating the history to increase his own reputation. This article touches off a debunking controversy that was especially hot in the late 19th century but still the subject of debate much later (see Lemay 1992) and never has quite disappeared from American consciousness.
[debunking]

Adams, Henry. Letter to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., February 23, 1867. J. C. Levenson, et. al., eds., The Letters of Henry Adams. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1982. 520-21. In a letter of February 23, 1867, Adams relates that his debunking article on Smith-Pocahontas has received a notice in the Pall Mall Gazette. "I shall have made my mark on London as Sam Weller said when Mr. Pickwick threw the inkstand at the wall."
[debunking]

"Authentic Injun History—Pocahontas and Captain John Smith." (Bangor, ME) Bangor Daily Whig & Courier 6 February 1867. Satire -- Seba Smith?

"Captain John Smith." Cincinnati Daily Gazette 2 February 1867: 2. Aimed at the debunking work of Charles Deane. "When insatiable criticism invades Virginia history . . . we cannot refrain from a special lament of a progress of intelligence which threatens to leave the world as barren as the progress of Tamerlane." "There was nothing so romantic in all American history as the story of the intervention of this gushing Indian maiden to save a white captive. . . . Who has not the picture indelibly painted on the imagination?" The human heart found a reason for her "heroic devotion" and "endowed her with the personal graces becoming to such a heroic nature." The reality of Indian women was "suspended to make this ideal being." "We need not weep if the whole cargo of the Mayflower Puritans should be cut. . . . But we are unwilling to lose the most romantic episode in American history . . . . If we give up this, what shall be believed?" "There ought to be a supreme infallible council in historical affairs, with power to fix into facts the things that have come to be generally believed and held in reverence, and that have ramified into other considerations. History has acquired a right in the Pocahontas adventure, which two centuries of possession ought to make a quiet title." "We shall cling to the rescue scene . . . which is ineffaceably impressed on every American mind."
[debunking]

"Captain John Smith." Pall Mall Gazette 18 February 1867: 2-3.

Cooke, J. E. "A Dream of the Cavaliers." Holmes’ Southern Fifth Reader for Schools and Families. Ed. George F. Holmes. New York, 1867. 331-40, esp. 333.
[poetry]

Hohenstein, Anton. [Hohenstern?] "The Wedding of Pocahontas." 1867. (Ann Uhry Abrams, The Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999. 173.) (Same as Spohne, 1867?)
[lithograph]
[View Images: page 173]

Howell, John Edward. "Pocahontas." Poems. New York: the author, 1867.
[poetry]

"Lydia Huntley Sigourney." American Quarterly Church Review, and Ecclesiastical Register 18.4 (January 1867): 546-65.

"Notes." The Nation 4 (January 17, 1867): 44-48. The author, spurred by Adams' recent debunking article, summarizes the argument of Deane, finding that "the silence of all these books leads us inevitably to suppose that no one in Virginia then knew of the noble act of Pocahontas. . . . [and] the reasoning of Mr. Deane seems to show conclusively the falsity of the legend."
[debunking]

"Pocahontas and Capt. Smith--A Romance Rudely Dispelled." New York Times 19 January 1867: 4. News story picks up on the Adams debunking this year, noting "The remorselessness with which modern criticism is sweeping away some of the most popular historical traditions." Ends quoting Strachey's description of Pocahontas as a "wanton young girl" as unfamiliar to the public and "not the attitude which has generally been selected by the artists who have employed their genius in illustrating her history and character."
[debunking]

"Pocahontas and Captain John Smith." Arizona Weekly Journal [published as Arizona Miner] [Prescott, Arizona] 15 June 1867: 1.

"Pocahontas." [Prescott] Arizona Weekly Journal [published as Arizona Miner] 23 March 1867: 2. Another response to the Adams debunking, which "undertakes to prove [Smith] to be a sort of Munchausenish adventurer." Like the New York Times, this article also quotes Strachey, finding that his "wanton young girle" description "knocks all the poetry out of the Capt. Smith and Pocahontas romance, but for what we in Arizona know of the Indian maiden as she is, lewd, lousy and lazy, we are disposed to believe it . . . as a truthful, if to many a novel and unpalateable statement. Pocahontas was probably one of Poston's 'dusky maidens,' such as hang about the store at Mojave, La Paz and Arizona City, and earn a livelihood -- well, we won't say how."
[debunking]

"Poetry of Indian Love." Flag of Our Union 22.33 (August 17, 1867): 526.

Powers, Hiram. The Last of the Tribes. 1867. Pocahontas-like sculpture.
[sculpture]

Quincy, Edmund. Life of Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts. Boston, 1867. 459. Edward Randolph as his savage ancestress, Pocahontas.

Spohne, George. [Spohni?] "The Wedding of Pocahontas with John Rolfe." 1867. (Vivien Green Fryd, Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860. Athens: Ohio UP, 2001. 50.) (Same as Hohenstein, 1867? See Hohenstein to view image.)
[lithograph]

"The Story of Pocahontas." The Friend; A Religious and Literary Journal 40.24 (February 9, 1867): 190.

"The Indian War." Cincinnati Daily Gazette 2 May 1867: 1. Decidedly and brutally unromantic description of an Indian camp in Kansas. "There have been poems sung on the heavenly beauties of Pocahontas and Hiawatha, but we have not seen an Indian girl yet that we could compose an ode upon."

"The Legend of Pocahontas." [Galveston] Flake's Bulletin 17 January 1867: 1. Watching Brougham's Pocahontas play and reading Adams' North American Review article leads to a lamentation that soon "we shall have to unlearn all that we learned in youth and begin as the lawyers say de novo." Some such reversals are not unwelcome. "But to shake our faith in the devoted love, and in the romantic attachment of the Indian maiden for the erratic Smith, whose surname was John, is too bad. It fills the poetic mind with sensations far from pleasant, and akin to those we may surmise are experienced by the ardent youth just entering the seventh heaven of requited love, when he suddenly discovers that the lovely idol of his heart dips snuff." But Adams' argument makes a "fair showing" and "considerably shatters our faith in Pocahontas."
[debunking]

"The Miss Bolling." Daily Memphis Avalanche 14 December 1867: 1. "The Miss Bolling, whom General W. H. F. Lee married, is a lineal descendant of Pocahontas, who seems to have been second only to the late Anneke Japs in point of fecundity." That's the entire notice. Must be an in joke.

"Want of Power." [Galveston] Flake's Bulletin 11 August 1867: 4. When the Indians were strong, they were respected. "In fact, John Randolph, of Roanoke, rather gloried in a very problematical descent from the dusky Pocahontas." But now the Indian is "meaner than a negro."

1868

"A certain clerk." [Harrisburg] Weekly Patriot and Union 2 April 1868: 3. A comic anecdote reprinted many times. A certain clerk said, "Pocahontas was a great man. Pocahontas was a noble, kind-hearted and true man." "Hold on," cried his companion, "Pocahontas was a woman." "She was, eh!" said the clerk, "well, that's just my luck; how am I expected to know. I never read the bible."

Anderson, John J. A Grammar School History of the United States. New York, 1868. 18-23.
[school book]

Howitt, Mary Botham. "Pocahontas Interceding for John Smith." Vignettes of American History. London, 1868. 15-21.
[juvenile; illustrated]

Peck, Jesse Truesdell. The History of the Great Republic, Considered from a Christian Stand-point. New York, 1868. 51.

"The Pocahontas Chewing Tobacco." Harris, Beebe & Co. New York: The Hatch Lith. Co., 1868. (tobacco package label)
[lithograph; artifact]
[Electronic Version]

1869

Brock, Sallie A. "The Story of Powhatan." The Southern Amaranth: A Carefully Selected Collection of Poems Growing Out of and in Reference to the Late War. Ed. Miss Sallie A. Brock. New York, 1869. 46-60.
[poetry]

Darling, N. P. "How I Was Scalped." Ballou's Monthly Magazine 30.6 (December 1869): 545-49.
[short story]

Doyle, John Andrew. The American Colonies previous to the Declaration of Independence. London, 1869. 26-27.

Ellet, E. F. The Court Circles of the Republic. Hartford, 1869. 272. Dressing up as Pocahontas and greeting guests in a royal wigwam at a fancy ball.

Howell, John Edward. Pocahontas. New York: the author, 1869.
[poetry]

Lossing, Benson John. "Pocahontas." Lives of Celebrated Americans. Hartford, 1869. 16-17.
[illustrated]

Neill, Edward D. History of the Virginia Company of London. Albany, 1869. 83-105, 211. Another debunking of Smith as historian as we've seen in Palfrey, Deane, Adams. William Wirt Henry calls Neill, founder and first President of Macalester College, "the bitterest assailant": "[Smith's] writings are those of a gascon and beggar. He seemed to be always in the attitude of one craving recognition or remuneration for alleged services, and Fuller's description of his writings and character in the Worthies of England is probably not far from the truth."
[illustrated; debunking]
[Electronic Version]

Peet, Harvey Prindle. History of the United States of America. New York, 1869. 33-34.

Quackenbos, G. P. Elementary History of the United States. New York, 1869. 29-32.
[illustrated; school book]

Review of A Discourse of Virginia by Edward Maria Wingfield and A True Relation of Virginia by Capt. John Smith. Southern Review 6.11 (July 1869): 160-81. The two debunking editions by Charles Deane are attacked here, though not in very specific terms. The story of Pocahontas is made "merely fabulous. . . . Her critics wield their most deadly blades, dipped in poison. . . . she is so changed by omissions and insinuations, that what was once accepted as the rarest and most beautiful specimen of Indian womanhood, an honor to her race and to her sex, becomes a mere myth." Editor Deane's researches have been accomplished with "great cold-heartedness and unfairness," and the Wingfield whom he holds up as an authority for Virginia history over Smith was a "pampered poltroon."
[debunking]

Semallé, René de. Les Indiens des États-Unis. Paris, 1869. 17.
[foreign language]

"True Story of Pocahontas: Romantic Legend of the Virginian Princess—The Illusion Dispelled." [San Francisco] Daily Evening Bulletin 29 December 1869. Stimulated by the debunking work of Edward Neill. "It is the habit of the English people . . . to forget the very names of the races whom, in the course of their destiny as God Almighty's plowshare, they plow up into the soil," but "a sort of legendary halo has, however, preserved