Pocahontas: Facial Reconstructions & History Documentary

hey everyone and welcome back to royalty now where we reconstruct famous figures from the past and talk about their history today we are talking about pocahontas a woman whose story has lived in her imagination for centuries but who is the real woman behind the myth and what did she look like i'll talk first about pocahontas's real life and history and then reveal my recreations of her appearance from the virginia company portrait so let's go ahead and get started [Music] the true story of matawaka known more commonly by her nickname pocahontas is one that has been so bogged down by myth throughout the centuries now the traditional narrative we all know goes that john smith an english colonist is captured by the powhatan tribe who plans to execute him but the young pocahontas being the chief's favorite child lays her head down upon john smith's right before he is about to be executed and with this one act creates peace between their peoples or so john smith says it's been passed down as a love story one of binding two cultures and two peoples together the narrative of john smith and pocahontas however untrue is now completely ingrained in our culture so let's begin by separating fact from fiction in her story i'm going to use the name pocahontas throughout the narrative simply because it's the most well-known but she was originally known as matuaka pocahontas is something of a childhood nickname meaning something along the lines of playful one or naughty child pocahontas was the name given to the english settlers based on the cultural fear that if the english knew her true name it meant that they could do her harm she was born around 1596 in what is now the tidewater region of virginia she would have known it as seneca maca her father is the great chief of the powhatan in order to tell her story we first have to learn a little bit about john smith and the colonists that he was there with before the puritan settlement of plymouth there was jamestown virginia one of the earliest english settlements jamestown was initially made up of those explorers mercenaries and traders who sought a new life or adventure in the new world john smith was one of those settlers arrested for mutiny and set for execution on the voyage over he was saved by unsealed orders designating smith as one of the leaders of jamestown initial settlement was incredibly harrowing starvation and disease killed more than half of the settlers within five months resupply from england was fraught with its own dangers and more to the point they were colonizing occupied land one day out of sheer desperation for food smith finds himself in an unexplored area it was here that he was found and captured by a group of native americans who ended up taking him and parading him through several villages as an oddity to make a spectacle of him many had likely never seen a european before smith was then taken before the great chief pocahontas father powhatan according to john smith's own account he was set to be executed and it was not until the chief's dearest daughter laid her head upon his own that his life was spared now this is a very dramatic legend that persists throughout the centuries but the validity of smith's account is called into question for quite a few reasons first smith himself sent a report to england soon after his release as a prisoner in 1608 and he doesn't mention this event which is very odd you'd think a possible execution would be mentioned he even writes two books about virginia and nothing about this encounter is ever mentioned it's also possible that smith perhaps misunderstood maybe a ceremony that was taking place because of cultural and language barriers at this time pocahontas would have been only around 11 or 12 years old and probably wouldn't have been allowed at any ceremony whatever the purpose was additionally john smith didn't even write about the supposed encounter until 1616 fittingly just when pocahontas was on her way to visit england he goes into even more detail finishing the story in 1624 conveniently after the principal actors in the story have passed away i believe that jon may have repurposed some true history over time because pocahontas was at one point integral to keeping him alive after he's released by the powhatan john smith works his way up to become the president of the colony of jamestown a hundred new settlers arrive but out of carelessness the villages at one point accidentally set on fire winter freezes over and food supplies are running low pocahontas is said to have come into their town every four or five days with supplies for the starving colonists undoubtedly saving their lives she would have only been around 12 years old at this point john smith maybe had seen the caring and social nature of pocahontas remembered or thought about this later in life and remembered the day he was taken prisoner we don't know why exactly he decided to spin this tale we do know that whatever happened after the event that john smith describes the tensions between the settlers and powhatan finally eased and pocahontas became crucial to the communication between her tribe and the settlers her role became something like an ambassador she would deliver provisions to the jamestown fort and she would begin to try to learn english her and smith would even have writing lessons where they worked to translate things for each other from english to algonquin smith would eventually leave for england due to a medical emergency after gunpowder exploded while he was in a canoe a young pocahontas was apparently told that he had died and it caused her to stop visiting the settlement after her visit ceased the tenuous peace between the powhatan and the colonists slowly begins to erode by 1613 hostilities have become incredibly high between the two groups and war has broken out jamestown is absolutely ravaged by the brutal winters and starvation and a new governor rules over the settlement one who would be stoking the fires of conflict between the natives and the english the english already vulnerable and starving are enraged because the powhatan hold english prisoners and stolen weapons so the english hatch a plan they convince a rival tribe to lure pocahontas onto a ship and take her prisoner in return for an alliance against powhatan and they agree the plan is successful and the english hold her for ransom thinking powtan will easily bend to their demands much to pocahontas dismay her father releases the prisoners and sends back some weapons but the english are not happy with the amount they demand more she is not freed pocahontas is held captive at the english settlement of henricus and it's around this time that she meets a priest named alexander whitaker who teaches her about christianity which in turn helps her improve her english now nobody really knows pocahontas's true thoughts about the situation unfortunately we're very much at the mercy of european sources in the story of pocahontas but during this time she becomes baptized and she takes the name rebecca a year after she's been captured the stalemate escalates to a violent confrontation between hundreds of powhatan men and colonists the colonists are able to de-escalate the encounter by allowing powhatan to speak with pocahontas but it doesn't go as her father plans pocahontas is enraged she is deeply hurt that he chose quote swords pieces and axes over her safety she tells her father that she does not want to be rescued in fact she prefers the colonists and she believes that they love her so by the time pocahontas is 17 or 18 she marries a man named john rolfe unlike with smith this story seems to be somewhat more grounded in the truth however we aren't sure of their true feelings for each other there is one letter from john rolfe where he declares his love for her and pocahontas father did agree to their match so maybe it was a love match after all their union created what became known as the pocahontas peace they live on his tobacco farm for two years and their son thomas is born in 1615. by 1616 they are on their way to visit england her presence in england has been seen by historians as an effort to sell the idea of america the preconceived notions about native americans were cruel that they were savage and dangerous but when pocahontas arrived in london with a christian name and speaking english fluently she truly took it by storm she was instantly more understandable more relatable and it showed that the settlers and natives could live in harmony that they were quote civilized the english were so impressed by her that the virginia company even had a portrait commissioned the only contemporary image of her from her lifetime this period in her life has definitely raised questions about her true feelings as i mentioned we have none of her personal thoughts recorded we don't know how she felt about visiting london or being essentially the poster child for the quote civilized savage [Music] after their short visit to london the family did have plans to return soon to pocahontas's home of virginia and in march of 1617 they set sail again [Music] unfortunately this is where the story of pocahontas comes to an end she would become severely ill before the ship even reached the ocean they were forced to turn around and return to shore pocahontas would die in england of an unknown illness possibly smallpox or maybe dysentery and she was only around the age of 21. however brief her life the story of pocahontas is a powerful one it shows how one young woman can be integral to the peace between two nations so let's get into the recreations and talk about what pocahontas really looked like first we're very lucky to have a contemporary image of pocahontas even if it was made through english eyes now engravings like this are not typically the most delicate style of art they can look a little clumsy the style does seem to exaggerate some features and it does tend to make her look older than a 20 year old woman but surprisingly it doesn't appear too stylized in the european fashion besides her outfit it still shows her native american features the depiction is very much in line with how author h.c roundtree describes the powhatan indians she says the powatins like other american indians had sallow white skin darkened by exposure to the sun that turned coppery when painted red they had coarse straight black hair dark brown or black eyes heavy jaws and frequently wide faces due to prominent cheekbones like many native american cultures the powhatan wore clothing adornments and tattoos that were based on age as well as gender it's hard to tell exactly what tattoos pocahontas would have had in her own time so i've used a tattoo pattern for my depiction that was fairly common in women powhatan women wore deerskin dresses or aprons and they were often decorated with shell beads they wore necklaces and other jewelry to suit the occasion and they would wear their hair long and free or maybe in a single long braid so let's go ahead and check out my recreations of pocahontas from her own time as well as a modern day interpretation [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed learning about pocahontas as much as i did please like and subscribe to help us continue to bring history back to life we also have prints and bookmarks of these works available on etsy and the link is in the description below we will see you guys for the next subject [Music] you

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

Views: 1,004,508

Keywords: real face of, what historical figures would look like, true face of, true faces of, real faces of historical figures, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like today, royalty now, roylaty now, pocahontas, what did pocahontas look like, pocahontas real face, pocahontas facts, pocahontas biography, pocahontas and john smith, true story of pocahontas, pocahontas real history, pocahontas and john rolfe

Id: iYpBQDG7_go

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 20 2022