Today in history...

April 5, 1614

Today, 397 years ago, marks the day that love was the bond between two rival peoples- the Indians that inhabited old world Virginia and the new English settlers. This particular date was when Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, married one of the settlers who arrived there in 1613, John Rolfe.
   Everyone knows the story of John Smith and Pocahontas or at least they think they do. To clarify things, she was actually ten when he met her, and to him, she was a playful child. They were merely friends for all the years they knew each other. But no one talks about John Rolfe and Pocahontas and their love for one another.
  After John Smith left Virginia and Pocahontas was captured and released by the settlers for ransom, she was taken to a little settlement called Henrico where she met John Rolfe. John was a dedicated, hard-working man who started a tobacco plantation which would earn enough money to continue settling of the English colonies. He previously had a wife and daughter whom came along with him, but sadly, they died on the voyage to Virginia, leaving him alone in this new world. Now, John was a devout Christian man who probably never thought he'd marry a pagan inhabitant of all people, but there there was something there that he couldn't help falling in love with. He was indeed infatuated and perplexed by her. In his own words:

  "To whom my hartie and best thoughts are, and inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even awearied to unwinde my selfe thereout..."

The only obstacle in his way of marrying her was her pagan ways. But she wasn't opposed to being converted. In fact, it was during the time she knew John that she began her education with him in the Christian faith. Here is an excerpt from John Rolfe himself in a letter to Sir Thomas Dale conerning her teaching by him:

"Likewise, adding hereunto her great appearance of love to me, her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowledge of God, her capablenesse and willingness to receive her owne incitents stirring me up hereunto."

Her willingness to learn and be taught made him all the more struck with wonder and admiration. Indeed, his dilemma in marrying her was that she was not yet converted and still a pagan. However, he used this opportunity to witness to her and lead her to truth.
    In the Spring she came to Christ and was baptized and renamed Rebecca. Soon following this on April 5, 1614, she and John Rolfe married. The best description of this happy moment in time can be found in Our Country, chronicling American history published in the 1800s.

"Very soon Pocahontas again stood before the chancel of the little chapel, now as a bride. It was a charming day in April, 1613. Her father's consent to her marriage had been easily obtained, and he had sent his brother Opachisco to give away his daughter according to the Christian ritual, for he would not trust himself with the English at Jamestown. Over the "fair, broad windows" hung festoons of evergreens bedecked with wild flowers, with the waxen leaves and scarlet berries of the holly. The communion table was covered with a "fair white linen cloth," and bore bread from the wheat fields around Jamestown, and wine from the luscious grapes from the adjacent woods. All the people at Jamestown were spectators of the nuptials."....."When all things were in readiness, the bride and groom entered the chapel. Pocahontas was dressed in a simple tunic of white muslin from the looms of Dacca. Her arms were bare even to her shoulders; and hanging loosely to her feet was a robe of rich stuff presented to her by Sir Thomas Dale, and fancifully embroidered by herself and her maidens. A gaudy fillet encircled her head, and held the gay plumage of birds and a veil of gauze, while her wrists and ankles were adorned with the simple jewelry of the native workshops. Rolfe was attired in the gay clothing of an English cavalier of that period, and upon his thigh he wore the short sword of a gentleman of distinction in society. He was a noble specimen of manly beauty and dignity in form and carriage, and she of womanly modesty and lovely simplicity. Upon the chancel steps, where no railing interfered, the good Whittaker stood in sacerdotal robes, and, with impressive voice, pronounced the marriage ritual of the Anglican Church, there first planted on the American continent. The governor, sitting on his right on a richly-carved chair of state, with his ever-attendant halberdiers with helmets, at his back, heartily said Amen! at the conclusion of the ceremony."

This marriage brought peace between the Powhatans and Englishmen for the remaining years of Pocahontas' life, where before, wars and hatred had been their relations.
  Rebecca and John had one son whom they named Thomas. The family went to England where Rebecca was presented to the new king, James I. She was exremely well received and favored by
the whole court. She lived a short life, dying at age 22 of illness, but within that short life, she experienced trials, adventure, discovery, and love.