Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma [Paperback]

I have finally come to the end of this fine book and am delighted to share my views. Unlike the one other reviewer here at Amazon (Mohroy), I found the book to be richly rewarding on every possible level. Camilla Townsend's academic background is well known and she is highly respected in her field. Her ability to write a compelling narative is smartly coupled with a rich list of footnotes, so many of which come from original documents. In some cases highly academic books can be a bother when you are flipping back to the footnotes; not with this book. Each note was worth the attention and always added a deeper dimension. When you consider that Townsend was building a picture of these people that was not always the mainstream her reliance on her reseach more than convinced me of her perspective.

What is the overall impression of the story she paints? I'll tell you, that when I first discovered this story, through the lens of the very emotionally moving movie, "The New World", I had very little knowledge of the real story. In following up on my initial reactions to the movie I endeavored to read what modern historians have to say. I read one book which I can also highly recommend and then I found Townsend. The first was "Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the birth of the American Dream" by Thomas and Dorothy Hoobler, November 2005, published by Wiley. This was a sensational revelation and spurred me on to know more. Townsend has filled in the missing pieces and is essential in my view for anyone who wants to know the story shed of all of it's mythology.

"The New World" is a fine movie and entertainment and I will always treausre it. But, it is about 50% fiction, which is a shame, because Malick had all of this material available just about the time he wrote the script. Oh well. The real people, the real story is so very much more tragic, depressing, sad and dark. The first successful European settlers to the East Coast of the USA signalled the beginning of the destruction of much of Native America. Those that did not die of disease brought by Europeans that they had no immunity to, died as a result of wars with the Europeans. Townsend's insight into this is interesting to consider. The much longer development of farming among Indo/Europeans had better prepared them on a technological level to successfully take America away from Natives. She attributes this line of thought to the book "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It is worth consideration; the Powhatan natives took too long to realize that the founders of Jamestown had outgunned and out-equipped them by many factors. When Uttamatomakkin came back from his trip to London with Pocahontas and he reported that it was hopeless to fight the white man he was scorned and ignored by his fellows. This resistance to reality lasted far too long before they were finally demolished in several devastating wars.

The real Pocahontas? Much younger at her introduction to Smith than all films or other books portray. Probably had not reached puberty yet. She was so young that when in the Jamestown fort would do hand cartwheels revealing her naked torso for all to see. When she had reached puberty that would have stopped completely. Did she have a romantic relationship with Smith? Not a chance, it would seem. Even more, she had already been married off to a native from another village; nothing much is known of his demise and it is assumed that he died after only a few years of marriage. It is also not known if she had born a child by him, though Townsend thinks it less likely. Pocahontas was no fool and knew that she was being used by her father in a delicate series of political chess, some of which were with the English, some with other native communities. She learned rudimentary English and carried herself with the dignity she felt the English were expecting of her; they viewed her as the daughter of a King and she accepted the role as princess. Townend scores an important point by showing us clearly how little we really know of this woman; someone who did not leave a word of her own in any manner. We imply and infer and guess based on so little. She cautions us throughout the book about this tendency.

What of her father, Powhatan? Already experienced with other white men from Europe before John Smith lands, he already knows that they are dangerous but makes one tragic blunder: he underestimates their resolve to make a permanent place in America until it is too late. He sees the colonies start up and then watch as the ill equipped Europeans fall sick and die, time after time. He sees Smith and company as just another botched attempt at racial transplanting and is not too worried. He is wrong and his people eventually pay the price. What could he have done instead? The hot heads among his people urged him to kill all the white people in Smith's group before they turned against them. He refused. From the native perspective it was a mistake. From the European perspective it would only have bought time and would have enraged them more. In due course, white Europeans were going to come and that was that.

John Smith is both given his proper respectful acknowledgment and is also taken to task as a teller of tall tales. Smith embelleshed for his English audience and without a live Pocahontas to ask whether this or that fact was true, Smith got away with the story he painted. Were the main facts of his being saved by a nubile Pocahontas beliveable? Probably not, given the place of young girls in the presence of adults in her society. It is not impossible but much more improbable than Smith tells us.

This is a book that strips away layer after layer of myth, poor or incomplete research and hasty or prejudiced conclusions. Her work is constantly referred back to urtext sources and where she does not know something she says so right up front. If the real story of Pocahontas is so much fuller, complicated and sadder, it is a story that is entirely integral at the dawn of white society in America. It is also integral to the beginning of the end of native people across the same landscape. A tremendous scholarly achievement, not to be missed.

I have read many books about Pocahontas over the years ranging from horrible to excellent. This one ranks very highly with me as I found it to be not only an easy read, but an interesting one as well. The book was very well researched and gives some interesting insights into who the real Pocahontas may have been. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this, to me, incredible woman from the past.

I must add that while I do not agree with everything the author wrote I still found it to be a very good book. Basically, I am someone who enjoys reading a wide variety of books on a subject, in this case Pocahontas, and making up my own mind based on everything I have read. I take certain things with a grain of salt and fully agree with others and this book is no exception to that. But, that is not a bad thing in my mind because especially when it comes to Pocahontas most of her life is completely open to interpretation since so little is really known about her and her life.

If you are interested in Pocahontas and her story at all get this book.

This reads like a dissertation: lots of facts. If that is the type of book that you like to read -- not watered down with contrived dialog -- you'll love it.

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