14. Pocahontas Never Saved John Smith’s Life
In John Smith’s account of events, Pocahontas saved his life. According to John Smith, he was captured by a man named Opechancanough. He paraded John Smith to each of the Powhatan villages, and finally ended up at the home of Chief Wahunsenaca. According to his story, they laid his head down on a rock and were getting ready to smash his skull, when little Pocahontas jumped in front of the men. She laid her head down on his as if to say that they couldn’t kill him, unless they killed her, too.
This scene was retold in multiple movies, and some people consider it to be a really lovable part of Pocahontas’ character. However, according to historians who specialize in Native American culture at that time, they have a very hard time believing that Pocahontas would have actually put her life on the line to save a white man. She was a very young girl at the time, and it was so far out of the realm of what was considered to be normal.
A lot of John Smith’s testimonies in his books about exploring the New York were later found to be exaggerations of the truth. For example, he apparently saw mermaids, and he insisted that they were real, but of course, they were just manatees. Historians speculate that he wrote stories that he knew would sell a lot of books.