How did Pocahontas and John Rolfe meet?

Pocahontas, the daughter of the paramount Powhatan chief Wahunsenacah, and John Rolfe, an English tobacco planter at Jamestown, met while she was held captive by the English colonists in 1613.

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The circumstances were anything but romantic. Pocahontas was kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall in 1613 and held for ransom at the colony of Henricus, north of Jamestown. She had been visiting friends among the Patawomeck people on the Potomac River when Argall, seeing an opportunity, sought out Iopassus, the chief of the Indian town of Passapatanzy. Iopassus had one of his wives insist that Pocahontas accompany her on a tour of Argall's ship. Once aboard, Pocahontas was detained and the ship departed.

Argall informed Chief Powhatan that he wouldn't return Pocahontas unless he released English prisoners, returned stolen weapons and sent the colonists food. Much to Pocahontas's dismay, her father only sent half the ransom and left her imprisoned.

Where Rolfe entered the picture

While in captivity, Pocahontas lived in the settlement of Henricus under the care of a minister named Alexander Whitaker, where she learned about Christianity, English culture and how to speak English. There she met John Rolfe, a widower who had arrived in Virginia in 1610 and who had introduced tobacco as a cash crop in the colony.

Rolfe fell in love with her and wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Dale justifying his feelings for her. Rolfe was a religious man who agonized for weeks over the proposition of marrying a "strange wife," a non-Christian. After Pocahontas converted to Christianity, Rolfe married her "for the good of the plantation, the honor of our country, for the glory of God, for mine own salvation."

She was baptized and took the English name Rebecca. Powhatan gave his consent to this peace-making marriage and sent Pocahontas's maternal uncle and two of his sons to witness the ceremony held in Jamestown's church on April 5, 1614.

What the marriage meant

The marriage helped bring an end to the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which had been grinding on since 1609. When they wed, Rolfe was approximately 29, and Pocahontas was approximately 18. Their son Thomas, the direct ancestor of Edith Bolling Wilson, was born the following year.

In 1616 the Rolfe family traveled to England with Sir Thomas Dale, who hoped to encourage financial support for the colony. While there, Pocahontas fell ill and died in 1617. She was buried at Gravesend, England, and never returned to Virginia.