How Accurate was Buzzfeed? Pocahantas

Eugene Lee Yang via youtube.com | Disney

The Clues

Since this story is based on a historical figure, no context clues were needed.  That said, Disney's Pocahantas takes place in 1607 with the founding of the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia territory.

The Background

Pocahontas was born about 1595 with the name of Matoaka, later known as Amonute, and finally by her Christian name Rebecca Rolfe.  She was born to Wahunsenacawh, known by his title Powhatan, who was the paramount chief of the Tsenacommacah tribal nation.  But unlike Disney's Anglicized portrayal, Pocahontas was one of upwards of thirty children and one of the younger to boot.  The practice at the time was for a paramount chief to take a temporary wife from each tribe that was subject to him.  He would father a child upon her and return her to her village, supporting her (from a distance) until their child was eight or ten years old.  Once the child was about this age he or she would leave to join the household of the paramount chief, thus freeing the mother to remarry.

Powhatan culture depended upon physical labor by both sexes. Pocahontas was by no means exempt from this and would have grown up tending to crops and foraging. The women of the Powhatan tribe are thought to have enjoyed a higher status than their English counterparts; though the work of men and women rarely intersected, leading the English to assume Powhatan women were held as far inferior. Powhatan women were in control of the household food supply and inheritance passed matrilineally.  Women were selective of their husbands and demanded security from them.  If a man was a particularly good provider he would have more than one wife (who were apparently willing to join polygamous households).  Extramarital affairs were also said to be not uncommon for women.

William Strachey, a writer and once Secretary of the Colony of Virginia noted that the child "Pocahontas" was named so by Powhatan for her playful nature.  Strachey roughly translated the name to mean "little wanton."  Titling Pocahontas as a princess is extremely generous, but it is known that she had become her father's favorite child by 1607-1608.

Expansion of the Jamestown settlement into Powhatan territory created tension between the English and the Tsenacommacah.  When Captain Samuel Argall learned Pocahontas was visiting the Patawomeck tribe he persuaded one of their leaders to take her hostage and give her to the English in 1613.  Powhatan was reluctant to pay her ransom, leaving her in English custody until 1614.  Pocahontas is reported to have declined to return to the Powhatan when given the chance in March of 1614 -- but only after scolding her father for having taken so long to pay up.  She remained with the English, marrying the pious tobacco planter, John Rolfe in April 1614.  Pocahontas converted to Christianity, taking the name of Rebecca, the biblical "mother" of two nations.  Her marriage has been attributed to helping end the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

Baptism of Pocahontas, John Gadsby Chapman, 1840.

In Captain John Smith’s 1608 account he was discovered in the woods by Powhatan’s brother and was brought back to camp to partake in a feast.  At this feast historians theorize that Smith participated in an initiation ritual that "executed" him as an Englishman, thus allowing him to be reborn as an ally to the Powhatan.  Smith does not mention meeting Pocahontas until several months later in this narrative.

In anticipation of Pocahontas’s meeting with Queen Anne in 1616, Smith wrote a letter detailing a much more dramatic story which was the basis of the Disney film.  Smith told a similar story in his 1630 True Travels in which he was saved by the intervention of a young Turkish girl when he was captured in Hungary in 1602.  Given this and other evidence it’s likely that the story of his meeting with Pocahontas was changed to give Queen Anne a favorable impression of her -- especially since it was hoped that Pocahontas’ introduction as a “civilized savage” might drum up investment for the Jamestown colony. One should note that Smith had his work cut out for him; William Strachey had already returned to England by 1611 and had published several works criticizing the management of the colony.

Smith Rescued by Pocahontas, Christian Inger, 1870.

The Dress

William Strachey described Pocahontas as going about the fort of Jamestown naked.  Like other prepubescent girls, this would have continued until she turned twelve and was considered to be an adult.  Girls then adopted a leather apron worn “before her belly” in a fashion similar to English artificers.  This apron was often made of buckskin or closely woven "silk grass" and was worn with leggings and moccasins when women foraged or during cooler weather.

In the winter both sexes wore buckskin.  Deer hides were made into long, fringed, decorated mantles and were sometimes beaded or painted.  Powhatan is described by John Smith in A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Happened in Virginia (1608) as having worn raccoon skin.  Feather mantles for the wealthier or high status Powhatan were not uncommon.  

Before they came of age girls wore her heads shaved, save for a long braid in the back.  Women might have worn their hair loose, such as the female chief of the Appamattuck, in a single long braid with bangs in the front, or closely shaven all around the head.  By the end of the 17th century it was noted that both men and women were plucking their body hair.

An individual's status was often indicated by the wearing of multiple necklaces.  Chains of fresh water pearls were favored by both men and women and Powhatan is described as having worn several himself.  Strings of smooth-edged tubular beads called peak were also common, with white beads produced from the inner column of a whelk shell and the more rare purple kind made from a small portion of the quahog clam shell.  Runtees were beads made of pieces of conch shell made into oval, pipe shaped beads, fat round beads, or small coin-shaped pendants that were an inch in diameter.  Larger disk shaped pendants were also made and were engraved with images of faces, the moon, or other figures.  Though the Powhatan were able to work with copper, the more finely worked copper rings, bracelets, bells from the English were highly valuable.  Blue glass beads were also treasured trade items.  Both men and women were known to pierce their ears in two or three places and adorn them with simple earrings made of bone, claw, shell, or copper.

Body painting and tattooing was a common practice and paints were denoted with varying value and specific use.  Matchqueon, an antimony-rich ore, produced a yellowish-silver body paint and was used only on formal occasions.  Black pigment was described as being used in association with mourning, solemnity, dignity, and death. White was worn but the descriptions of its use are exclusively in reference to puberty rituals for boys or when women are described as purposefully imitating men in a dance; it likely symbolized innocence or a void.

Except on special social occasions, women are described as using red paint only and wearing tattoos.  Highly prized face and body paint was made from puccoon (roots that produced a red color).  The more common musquaspenne also produced a red pigment but was used more for painting targets and household goods than for body paint.  It’s important to note that using a semi-permanent henna-like body paint on the shoulders and face was a pastime for both sexes. Deep reds were common as they were mixed with hickory nut oil or bear grease, and was thought to ward off mosquitoes.  Designs were commonly flowers, fruits, snakes, lizards, fish, birds, or other animals and covered the arms, breasts, shoulders, face, and thighs.

So how does Buzzfeed compare?

Buzzfeed presents Pocahontas in a considerably less Anglicized vision.  Her "apron" genuinely looks like it's leather, though it's not fringed or beaded in any clearly discernible way.  She wears multiple necklaces though most of these are wooden or ceramic beads and none of them have runtees.  A few strands of knock off pearls would have gone a long way here; as would any blue glass beaded necklaces or copper jewelry.  Though her ears are pierced (a cheap shot, I know) she's not wearing any earrings.  

I'm not taking off points for the pasties.

Buzzfeed likes to tell us that unmarried women wore their hair in one long braid and shaved their heads after they were wed.  The source that they cite, however, indicates that the style of wearing hair differed everywhere.  Some married women wore them in long braids with bangs, others wore them closely shaven, and some wore them loose.  A child of about thirteen as Pocahontas would have been would just recently stopped shaving her head, leaving her hair short save for a long braid in the back.

The most notable error from Buzzfeed is regarding the body paint.  The resource Buzzfeed cited indicates that abstract patterns were not common designs -- rather birds, fruit and plants, snakes, and other animals were drawn on.  A dark red dye was highly favored by the Powhatan and was the only colored used on a regular basis by women.  Most of the designs used here are abstract and blue.  Their source also states that the arms, breasts, shoulders, face, and thighs were the areas commonly tattooed.  Buzzfeed went all over the place: covering the belly, back, and shins.  It's not impossible; it's just not supported by their own evidence.

Bottom Line:

Buzzfeed did a fairly good job of identifying Powhatan dress.  They got the time and place right and they actually cited a well researched book.  They didn't thoroughly read that book but they cited it.  They got all of the key points right but the specific details wrong.  Overall, they got it about right; better than Disney anyway.