Did it Happen: Pocahontas Saves John Smith

It's a familiar scene, played out in paintings and lithographs and at least one Disney movie.  A English adventurer on the verge of having his brains bashed out by a Native war club, is saved by the timely intervention of a beautiful young woman, who just happens to be the chief's daughter.  But did Pocahontas really save Captain John Smith from near execution?  The historical answers range from maybe, but not the way it's usually depicted, to an outright no. 

First, the heroine of the story.  Pocahontas was not a buxom maiden in 1607, when this incident supposedly happened.  She was an 11-12-year old girl.  At the time, she and Smith hadn't met.  While they could have met at a feast held at her father's longhouse, there was no physical attraction between the 27-year-old soldier of fortune and the young girl.  Soon after this initial meeting, if there was one, Pocahontas began visiting Jamestown, where she played with younger boys near her own age.  She also assisted with bringing the Colonists provisions to help them through their first winter at Jamestown, but Smith did not mention the death scene in his initial account of the feast at Powhatan's longhouse, which he wrote in 1608.  In 1616, however, in anticipation of Pocahontas' visit to England, Smith wrote to Queen Anne, wife of King James. "At the moment of my execution she, hazarding the beating out of her own brains to save me, and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown."  Many early writers have noted the close bond between Powhatan and his daughter.  Smith had been captured and brought to Powhatan as a captive.  Pocahontas may have been curious about the stranger and even begged her father not to have him killed.  But the whole dramatic scene of her throwing herself on top of Smith as a warrior readied to bash out his brains? 

In 1624, Smith published an account of his time in Jamestown, which he called a General History.  Writing about himself in the third person, he related that after he was taken to see Powhatan, some large stones were laid before the chief.  Several warriors grabbed Smith and laid him across the stones, ready to beat out his brains.  At that moment, Pocahontas ran to him, laid herself across him, took his head in her arms and placed her head over his, entreating and demanding that his life be spared.  The funny thing is, in 1992, Smith had written a book about his travels in Turkey, detailing how another beautiful young woman did much the same thing, using her beauty and her favoritism with her father to spare his life.  Could Smith have used the same story again for dramatic effect? Probably.  Was he telling a whopper, which became an American tradition in the centuries following.  Most likely. 

It would not be stretching the imagination to suppose that some of Powhatan's warriors were in favor of killing Smith and even made definite plans that way.  It would not be unlikely that a little girl might have found it in her heart to beg her father not to let them do it.  That could have been accomplished without a grand scene.  It would also be possible that some of the warriors, particularly Opechacanough, her uncle or brother who is said to have welded the club, was upset with her for putting her nose in where it wasn't wanted, or by the fact that Pocahontas' pleas prevailed.  Powhatan, too, may have been reluctant to execute Smith.  Smith sets the scene as an interview or conversation with the chief.  Powhatan was curious about the new arrivals on his doorstep and could have spared Smith's life on his own account, with or without Pocahontas' say-so.  However, Pocahontas, in the coming months, was allowed a great deal of leeway by both her family and the Colonists to go to Jamestown, bring foodstuffs, and play with other youngsters her own age.  Smith did keep an eye out for her in Jamestown, and later in England.  Maybe she did intercede for his life?  Maybe, but not the way it's portrayed in popular legend.