VA-V28 Pocahontas

Marker text: POCAHONTAS

Matoaka, nicknamed Pocahontas ("playful one"), the daughter of Powhatan, was born about 1595. At age eleven, she befriended Captain John Smith and later visited the English colonists. In 1613, Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas to use her as a negotiating pawn. According to tradition, she was brought to Henrico Town and care for by the Rev. Alexander Whitaker. She was baptized and renamed Rebecca, and on 5 April 1615 she married John Rolfe. In 1616, Rolfe and their son, Thomas, accompanied her to England, where King James I and Queen Anne received her. Preparing to return home, she died at Gravesend, England, in March 1617.

Department of Historic Resources, 1995.