Don’t learn your history from Disney. Actually, the movie “Pocahontas” did not invent the legend. The tale of Pocahontas saving John Smith’s life is almost surely a myth. In the famous story, Smith had been captured by her father Powhatan’s tribe and he was to be executed. As his head was about to be clubbed, the young maiden intervened to protect his life and her father relented. This encounter became exaggerated into a romance between the two. Pocahontas was only ten when Smith and the other male settlers arrived in Virginia. He was 27. Although he probably knew her, they had no relationship. Natoaka, as her people called Pocahontas, was the precocious daughter of a chief. She probably had a crush on the dashing Englishman and seemed to have an affinity for the colonists in general. The story of her warning them of an attack by her own people is probably true. In 1609, Smith was forced to return to England due to injuries in a gunpowder accident. When he left the colony, never to return, he did not mention anything about her saving his life until he wrote a letter to Queen Anne in 1616. He expanded the story in his General History of Virginia published in 1624. The story was similar to one he told about his time fighting in Turkey.
Pocahontas did not pine for her “boyfriend” when Smith left, but she was friendly with the English. She was later taken hostage in 1613 and held to keep her father Powhatan peaceful. John Rolfe, a leader in the development of tobacco production, groomed Pocahontas as his bride. He told her Smith was dead. She was taught to read and write and converted to Christianity. She was renamed Rebecca. The marriage occurred in 1614. She was 18 and he was 29. Two years later, the couple visited England. She was the toast of London and even met the Queen. She gave birth to a son named Thomas. Life was good until one John Smith visited her, very much alive. Rebecca was stunned and heart-broken. Not long after that, the Rolfes headed back to Virginia. She died on the voyage due to a fever, or that broken heart. She was 22. Tom, who had remained in England to be raised, came to America later, married, and started a family that linked many prominent families to Pocahontas.
– Ayres 55-58 Bath 2 pp. 455-456
https://historycollection.co/19-american-history-myths-debunked/2/
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