| Question Home |
Position:Home>History> Did Pocahontas come from a better family than John Rolfe?Question: Did Pocahontas come from a better family than John Rolfe!? Who had the better inlaws in this marriage!? In the 17th century, how were the families of American Indians and English settlers different!? Did they have different values regarding family bonds!? Were there different attitudes regarding raising children and the roles of the husband and wife!?
If you had to choose between being part of a 17 th century native Indian family or a 17 th century English settler family, which would you choose!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: VERY interesting question! Yes, Pocahontas came from a MUCH more prestigious family than John Rolfe! SHE was a PRINCESS! The daughter of a very great chief, not just a minor tribal chief, but the chief of several tribes of coastal Virginia natives!. A powerful confederacy of tribes that they dominated!. also known as Virginia Algonquians!. By conquering or affiliating by agreement with around 30 tribes covering much of eastern Virginia!. He was basically a KING of a NATION!. Have no doubts!.!.!.!.this was an Empire, and Pocahontas was the princess!. Notably the Powhatans (proper), the Arrohatecks, the Appamattucks, the Pamunkeys, the Mattaponis, and the Chiskiacks!. He added the Kecoughtans to his fold by 1598!. Another closely related tribe in the midst of these others, all speaking the same language, was the Chickahominy!. Powhatan was highly intelligent, an excellent ambassador and politician, a great warrior, and a true and just leader of his people!. Conflicts began immediately, shots were fired the instant the colonists arrived (due to a bad experience they had with the Spanish prior to their arrival)!. Within two weeks of the arrival at Jamestown, deaths had occurred!. The settlers had hoped for friendly relations and had planned to trade with the Native Americans for food!. And they had !.!.!.!.!.!.sort of!. The settlers soon proved themselves PESTS to the local natives!. There wasn't a farmers among them!. Surrounded by tons of wildlife and a river that still flows with tons of fish and crab!.!.!.!.they starved to death!. They were completely dependent on the local natives that even had to show them how to plant food and fish!.!.!.!.seriously!. It was sad!. The Powhatan thought that if they DID survive they might prove to be a source of special trade important for his growing empire!. A military AND political advantage for the local natives!. But that kind of thing could only go on for so long before someone stole something, someone got shot at, someone else died, someone ran out of stuff to trade, etc!. Then we have more conflicts!. John Smith left Virginia for England in 1609, never to return!. John Ratcliffe was invited to Orapakes, Powhatan's new capital!. When he sailed up the Pamunkey River to trade there, a fight broke out between the colonists and the Powhatans!. All of the English were killed, including Ratcliffe, who was tortured by the women of the tribe!. During the next year, the tribe attacked and killed many Jamestown residents!. The residents fought back, but only killed twenty!. A brief period of peace only came after John Rolfe cultivated a local type of tobacco and finally made money and married Pocahontas in 1614!. It was the FATHER of the BRIDE that provided the land and brick home they lived in!.!.!.!.!.Powhatan!. However, within a few years both the Chief and Pocahontas were dead from disease!. The Chief died in Virginia, but Pocahontas died in England, having been captured and willingly married to the tobacco planter John Rolfe!. Meanwhile, the English settlers continued to encroach on Powhatan territory!. More fighting, and well, we all know what happened then!. John Rolfe was a nobody!. Rolfe was born in Heacham, Norfolk, England!. Rolfe was one of a number of businessmen who saw the opportunity to undercut Spanish imports by growing tobacco in England's new colony at Jamestown, in Virginia!. Rolfe had somehow obtained seeds to take with him from a special popular strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America, even though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard!. Pocahontas and Rolfe traveled to England in 1616 with their baby son, where the young woman was widely received as visiting royalty!. !.!.!.!.which she really was!. Just as they were preparing to return to Virginia, she became ill and died!. No one is even sure where or how Rolfe died!. Were there different attitudes regarding raising children and the roles of the husband and wife!? The roles of native women and native men were determined by their tribes!. The Algonquin Native and the Muskeegan Natives of the area had very different thoughts on "roles"!. The Algonquins are a patriotical society!.!.!.!.!.from the father!. While the Muskeegans, like the Cherokee are matriodical!.!.!.!.from the mother!. You simply cannot compare all American Natives, they are all very different people, even genetically!. They had differnet ways and different beliefs!. The Cherokees even had two separate Chiefs!.!.!.!.!.!.a Peace Chief and a War Chief!. Different Cheifs for different occassions!. And different groups that focused on different things!.!.!.!.!.warriors!.!.!.!.healers!.!.!.!.farmer!.!.!. artisians!.!.!.etc!. How were the families of American Indians and English settlers different!? Well, the natives didn't travel thousands of miles away from their families for gold and glory!. They were very tight knit!. Did they have different values regarding family bonds!? Parents love thier children and children love their parents!.!.!.!.in any society!. It depends on the TYPES of values!. The value of money!.!.!.!.!.was completly a European concept!. If I were living in the 17th century I would have prefered to have been a clean, healthy, well fed, disease free NATIVE of my mother's tribe, the Eastern Cherokees!.!.!.!.certainly not a dirty, starving, smelling, doesn't know how to take a bath, desease carrying settler!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |