Pocahontas: Legend vs. Reality

Pocahontas: Legend vs. Reality The stories of Disney’s Pocahontas and the real Pocahontas are not the same. The movie is mainly accurate: It captures the spirit of Pocahontas, her people and the early days of Jamestown. Both Pocahontas and John Smith were young when they met, although in real life, Pocahontas was 11 and John Smith was 28. When John Smith first came to the New World, in the Disney movie he started scouting around right away, and was captured when he ventured out alone at night to meet Pocahontas. In real life, John Smith was arrested and clapped in irons during the voyage, and was not released until a month after landing in Jamestown. After that, he did a lot of exploring, but he met Pocahontas when he was captured on an expedition when he and his Indian guide split off. In real life, John Smith met Pocahontas when she “rescued” him from execution. Powhatan then adopted Smith as his son, “Nantaquoud”. Pocahontas and her new kinsman became good friend. In the Disney movie, John Smith and Pocahontas met in the wilderness and fell in love, kind of like Romeo and Juliet. Instead of marrying her fiancé Kocoum in the movie, Pocahontas decides to run off with John Smith, while in real life, Pocahontas runs off with John Rolfe to America and gets married and has kids. Unfortunately, Pocahontas died from disease in America at the age of 21. Disney did a pretty good job with the story of Pocahontas, making it more of a kid-friendly love story. I enjoyed the movie a lot, and thought it was interesting to learn more about