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Powhatan/Wahunsenacaw
Pocahontas’s second husband, John Rolfe, traveled to the New World in 1609, dreaming of making his fortune as a merchant by farming tobacco. After being shipwrecked on Bermuda for several months—during which time Rolfe’s pregnant wife gave birth to a baby girl who died soon after—Rolfe and the other shipwrecked colonists built two new ships and sailed up to Virginia. In Jamestown, Rolfe lived with his wife until her death. Then, while Pocahontas was held captive at the Jamestown outpost Henrico, Rolfe met and fell in love with the young woman. After securing permission from the governor to marry her, and wrestling with his own qualms about taking a “strange” (non-white) wife, Rolfe and Pocahontas were wed. Pocahontas taught John Rolfe methods of farming and harvesting tobacco, and soon Rolfe was a successful merchant. He and Pocahontas were invited to London together, as honored guests of the Virginia Company. The subjects of high society gossip and intrigue at court, Rolfe and Pocahontas represented to Londoners the possibilities of the New World and its bounties. As they prepared to leave England, however, Pocahontas fell gravely ill and died. After burying her, Rolfe left their young son, Thomas, in the care of a prominent vice admiral and returned to Jamestown. Back in the colony, he remarried, continued farming tobacco, and worked to raise his social status among the colonists and his reputation back in London. He died in 1622 and left his lands to Thomas. Townsend renders Rolfe as somewhat self-involved, socially cunning, and astute. She admits that he likely harbored a passionate love for Pocahontas, but complicates that love by suggesting he saw her, like so many others did, as a tool to be used in pursuit of his own dreams.
John Rolfe Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by John Rolfe or refer to John Rolfe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Did [John Rolfe] and his wife look at the promised violence from the Indians’ point of view? Possibly. Did they believe they were fulfilling God’s will? Probably. Did they hope to become great merchant traders? Most certainly.
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Chapter 6
Quotes
[Pocahontas] had been living with the English long enough to have begun to grasp the resources they had at their disposal. If her people were to survive, they needed the English as allies, not as enemies. How did an Algonkian noblewoman build an alliance? In a time-honored custom, she married with the enemy and bore children who owed allegiance to both sides. […] At home she was not truly royal: her mother had been no one important, so […] normally [Pocahontas] would not have been considered eligible for a politically significant match… […] These English people, though, thought she was a princess and were willing to treat her accordingly, thus raising her status in her own people’s eyes as well.
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John Rolfe Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by John Rolfe or refer to John Rolfe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Did [John Rolfe] and his wife look at the promised violence from the Indians’ point of view? Possibly. Did they believe they were fulfilling God’s will? Probably. Did they hope to become great merchant traders? Most certainly.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6
Quotes
[Pocahontas] had been living with the English long enough to have begun to grasp the resources they had at their disposal. If her people were to survive, they needed the English as allies, not as enemies. How did an Algonkian noblewoman build an alliance? In a time-honored custom, she married with the enemy and bore children who owed allegiance to both sides. […] At home she was not truly royal: her mother had been no one important, so […] normally [Pocahontas] would not have been considered eligible for a politically significant match… […] These English people, though, thought she was a princess and were willing to treat her accordingly, thus raising her status in her own people’s eyes as well.
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