The New World - Pocahontas

1595–1617

She’s an American legend: the Native American princess who saved an English settler and fell in love. The problem is, the details of the Pocahontas story are sketchy at best. It’s hard to know what exactly happened.

The English were settling Virginia, beginning with the Jamestown colony in 1607. Over the next few years, they had numerous encounters with the native population—some peaceful, some not. Powhatan was chief of the local Algonquin nation. He had a daughter who sometimes went by the name Pocahontas, which may mean “playful little one.”

Captain John Smith ventured into native territory and was captured. He later told of being spared from death by the brave actions of young Pocahontas. While the captain and the chief’s daughter became friends, she was far too young for a romance. (She called Smith “older brother.”) Later she was captured and held by the English as a pawn in their negotiations with tribal leaders. During this time, the local minister taught her English, reading, and Christianity. In 1614, she married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and took the name Rebecca. He later took her to England, where she was introduced to many gawking nobles. As the Rolfes prepared to return to America, she took sick and died. On her deathbed, she reaffirmed her Christian faith.

The conversion of Pocahontas remains a matter of historical debate. Was it authentic? Could a hostage make a free choice to follow Jesus? Wasn’t she really just a victim of a domineering European culture?

Maybe so. We can’t know her heart. Yet we know that Jesus saves people of every culture, so it’s no surprise that a “playful” Algonquin girl might discover fulfillment in the joy of Christ. Jesus does not belong exclusively to Europeans, or to Americans, or to any particular race or sect. He’s the Savior of the world, and he invites us all into a new world where cultural boundaries are broken down in his name.

Take a moment to reflect on your own background. Do you consider yourself a Christian merely because you live in a “Christian” culture or go to a Christian church? Perhaps you were even brought up in a Christian home. But none of those things makes you a follower of Jesus. You need to talk to him directly.

Christ himself has brought peace to us. . . . He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.

Ephesians 2:14