Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
Using Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, you will need to write an essay of at least 750 words answering ALL of the following questions using specific evidence from the book to support your answers fully.
1) Discuss Pocahontas’ childhood. How did she fit into Powhatan’s larger family structure? How was she perceived by the English as opposed to her own people? How is her personality described?
2) Discuss the first settlers who came to Jamestown. What was their purpose in moving there? What were their first interactions with Powhatan/ the Powhatan Confederacy like? How did the colonists/ Natives make use of each other- what were each group trying to get from the other? Would you characterize their relations as more positive or negative during this early period? Why?
3) Discuss John Smith. Why was he so important to Jamestown? What was his relationship like with Powhatan? What was his relationship with Pocahontas like? Did he and Pocahontas seem to view their relationship in the same way?
4) Discuss the relationship that Pocahontas had with John Rolfe. How does he (Rolfe) describe his feelings for her? Why does the author believe that Pocahontas wanted to be in the marriage even though we do not have her testimony? What motivations does Townsend think Pocahontas might have had when agreeing to marry Rolfe?
5) Why does the author believe that Pocahontas decided to go to London? What was her experience like there? How does she show her own agency while there? Do you think that the trip was what she and the other Natives was expecting of England? What do you think it showed them about the English/ colonists?
6) Discuss the relationship between Opechankeno and the colonists. What drove his anger towards them? How did this drive the decision towards the attack towards the colonists in 1622? Would you agree that this attack was ultimately beneficial towards the colonists? Why or why not?
