Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American NarrativeFrom the time of its first appearance, the story of Pocahontas has provided the terms of a flexible discourse that has been put to multiple, and at times contradictory, uses. Centering around her legendary rescue of John Smith from the brink of execution and her subsequent marriage to a white Jamestown colonist, the Pocahontas convention became a source of national debate over such broad issues as miscegenation, racial conflict, and colonial expansion. At the same time, Pocahontas became the most frequently and variously portrayed female figure in antebellum literature. Robert S. Tilton draws upon the rich tradition of Pocahontas material to examine why her half-historic, half-legendary narrative so engaged the imaginations of Americans from the earliest days of the colonies through the conclusion of the Civil War. Drawing upon a wide variety of primary materials, Tilton reflects on the ways in which the Pocahontas myth was exploded, exploited, and ultimately made to rationalise dangerous preconceptions about the native American tradition. |
Contents
MISCEGENATION AND THE POCAHONTAS NARRATIVE IN COLONIAL AND FEDERALIST AMERICA | 9 |
THE POCAHONTAS NARRATIVE IN POSTREVOLUTIONARY AMERICA | 34 |
THE POCAHONTAS NARRATIVE IN THE ERA OF THE ROMANTIC INDIAN | 58 |
JOHN GADSBY CHAPMANS BAPTISM OF POCAHONTAS | 93 |
THE FIGURE OF POCAHONTAS IN SECTIONALIST PROPAGANDA | 145 |
POSTSCRIPT | 176 |
NOTES | 187 |
| 227 | |
| 245 | |
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Alexander Whitaker American Anglo-American antebellum apparently argue artists attempt Baptism Baptism of Pocahontas become blood Bolling cahontas Capitol Captain John Smith Captain Smith captive chapter Charles Charles Bird King Chastellux Christian civilized colonists colony Conanchet contemporary Cooper Cousin Franck's Household crucial daughter descendants discussion Doņa Marina early edition England English European father fiction Figure Henry heroine historians History hontas Hope Leslie important Indian princess Indian women Indian-white intermarriage James James Kirke Paulding Jamestown Jefferson John Davis John Gadsby Chapman John Rolfe letter literary marriage marry miscegenation Mound Builder nation nineteenth century novel originally published painting perhaps plantation Pocahon Pocahontas and Rolfe Pocahontas material Pocahontas narrative Pocahontas's popular portrayal portrayed Powhatan Randolph readers Rebecca reprinted Robert Rotunda savage saved settlement slavery slaves Society southern story Thomas Thomas Rolfe tion tribes Turkey Island ultimately University Press Virginia Washington William woman World York young
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