As a condition of release, Matoaka, also known as Pocohontas, agreed to marry John Rolfe who developed tobacco growing on a commercial scale using enslaved people brought from Africa. She came to England in 1616.
Powhatan's Mantle, which belonged to Wahunsonacook, Matoaka's father (also known as Chief Powhatan), was brought to London and exhibited in the first public museum, the Tradescant Museum, which was on a site near to the Estrela in South Lambeth Road. This Museum was later moved to Oxford and became the Ashmolean Museum - named after Elias Ashmole, a colleague of the Tradescant family.
We see here the growth of an important Eurocentric principle - the power of 'white' people to collect and control the culture of inferior peoples, presented as a form of education.
People would come and pay to see the exhibits at the Tradescant Museum. The Tradescants were best known as pioneers in botanic importation. They brought plants to England which had been cultivated and developed in other parts of the world. In this sense they were forerunners of Joseph Banks and others who created Kew Gardens as an imperial nursery.
Matoaka, now known as Rebecca Rolfe, died in Gravesend on 21 March 1617. After her death and her fame in London society Captain John Smith found it convenient to invent the yarn that she had rescued him, when her father was about to kill him.
History tells the rest. Wahunsonacook died in 1618, but a myth had been created that Amerindians should not be trusted - that there were 'good Indians' and 'bad Indians'. The people of Smith and Rolfe turned upon the people who had shared their resources with them and had shown them friendship. During Pocahontas' generation, Wahunsonacook's people were decimated and dispersed and their lands were taken over. A clear pattern had been set which would soon spread across the American continent.
Source The Pocahuntas Myth
14 Jan 2005