This line of John Smiths is portrayed accurately within the movie. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) In Pocahontas, the main reason that Ratcliffe makes the journey over is because he has heard of Spanish gold being found within the New World. There is even a song dedicated to his desired wealth and want to find gold in the movie. When John Smith tells Pocahontas about the search for gold, she initially thinks he is talking about corn. When he shows her a coin made out of it, she tells him there is nothing similar in the area. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") She equated corn with precious metals and that accurately portrays how Native Americans viewed crops and traded goods. Anything could be valuable to them if it had a valuable use. Food was one of those things and the actual John Smith Points this out with this sentence. While he may not view food as a source of wealth, he certainly implies that the Native Americans did. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

This line in A True Relation and Occurences proves that trade did occur and was vital for the initial survival of the colony, especially in the fall/winter of 1607/1608. The colonists would have all most likely died without the little bits of food and surplus they gave over. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) The movie alludes to this, but only after all issues were solved. For example, John Smith gets shot by Governor Ratcliffe while trying to protect Powhattan. This happened right after he was saved from execution by Pocahontas and they decide to pursue peace. Only then did the Powhatan peoples and Pocahontas give supplies for Johns journey back home. Another thing that this movie alludes to, which isn't true, is that it makes it seems like the entire colony packs up and goes back home, when in reality they stayed and became a flourishing society, even though it took a couple decades. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")

The movie fails to acknowledge that there were multiple men in charge of the settlement within the early years of Jamestown's founding. In the movie, the only leader of the settlement was Governor Ratcliffe. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") While Ratcliffe was a real person, he wasn't governor or president of the settlement until a while after landfall. The movie depicts him as being assigned leadership from the get-go, even as they were boarding the ship back in England. In reality, Ratcliffe wasn't given leadership until Newport went back to England, Gosnold died, and Wingfield was deposed due to his handling of the colony. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

Both this source and the Disney movie do a good job at portraying the set up of Native American villages along the east coast. What Disney's Pocahontas lacks in truth, they made up for in the effort that they put into how Native Americans cultures were depicted. They showed a fairly accurate native village with the correct types of housing. They also showed relatively accurate clothing, at least what an animation could allow. They depicted cultural dances and what is done in preparing for war. They also correctly depict the medicinal healer as a well respected elder in the community. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") John Smith also seems to record the villages and cultural ways of life he is observing. Most likely out of fascination and with little understanding of what these cultural ways mean, but they are interspersed throughout the passage. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

In John Smiths A True Relations and Occurences, he states that while he was captured and passed through village after village, a chief, Anchanachuck, recounted how he had seen people similar to Smith in the way they look and dress. It makes sense, especially with former failed colonies such as Roanoke and with the Spanish trying to make a claim in this part of the New World. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) The movie fails to address other nations being in this area. Even though not every tribe or group of Native Americans along that portion of the east coast had seen a European before, rumors probably spread throughout villages of a different people coming on native land. There is no mention or acknowledgement of the Spanish or other colonial explorers such as the French. They make it seem like John Smith and his men are the first Europeans to arrive in this new land, when in reality, the Spanish and French had been in North America for decades at this point. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")

In John Smiths account of his life in Jamestown, he starts talking about how relations with certain Native Americans start to deteriorate. As I learned in class, this was true and relations between the two groups were often rocky. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) Where the movie deviates, is that rocky relations started immediately and didn't really resolve until Pocahontas saved John Smith and then John Smith saved her father. The movie also seemingly takes places over the course of days or a few weeks, when these relations teetered for years in real life. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")

The biggest deviation the movie takes from this account, or from history itself, is the age of Pocahontas. In an earlier paragraph, she is described as being ten years old. This is far different from how she is depicted in the movie, where she is being depicted at around 19. There was no romance between the two historical figures as they hardly knew each other, and were fairly far apart in age. In this version of John Smiths time in Virginia, he only mentions Pocahontas once. Not only that, but there is no mention of her saving him from being clubbed in the head by her father. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) From learning about John Smith in various history classes, I know that his story about being saved by Pocahontas is largely untrue and was a story he came up with after the fact. In this volume of events, there is also no mention or instance where he is captured and threatened to be killed which is not the case for the movie. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")

Most of the second half of John Smith account talks about trade relations and exploratory missions between various indigenous tribes in the area. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) Because of this, there wasn't too much to compare to the movie. For one, the movie is short and I can understand why a lot of the mundane time that is spent setting up a colony wasn't included. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") The movie also deviates so far from this, and other scholarly sources, that there isn't much to compare. Overall, this source is heavily biased with a fair bit of exaggeration, that modern day historians know not to be true. At the same time, half of what John Smith talks about is a gateway into what life was like in the early days of Jamestown. It talks about disease, conditions of the settlement, various indigenous tribes (which the rest of the world knew relatively little about), the land and new sources of food which was an important source at the time it was published. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) While Disney's Pocahontas isn't that close to this primary source, nor is it to other sources detailing this part of history, it does a good job in respecting Native American culture. There weren't a lot of films depicting Native Americans in a positive or appropriate light before this movie was made. While there is still shockingly low number of films that tell Native American stories, Pocahontas I think was a small catalyst for future indigenous movies due to its commercial success.

Bibliography: “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Hapned in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony, Which Is Now Resident in the South Part Thereof, till the Last Returne from Thence. Written by Captaine Smith One of the Said Collony, to a Worshipfull Friend of His in England.,” April 13, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050413081941/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=J1007.xml&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all.

Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas. United States: Buena Vista Pictures.

It is hard to know whether if this portion of John Smiths story is true or not, but if it is, he was treated far better and more cordially than what the movie predicts. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) In the movie, when he is accused of killing Kocoum, the Powhatan peoples capture him and tie him to a pole. There is no evidence that they treated him kindly in the movie, nor is there an outward show of violence either. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") Again, this is most likely due to the fact that it is a children's movie. Based off of what he recounts, he was given lodging and adequate meals, and while not in an ideal situation, was treated far better than most imprisoned people. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

An important thing to note about this primary source, is that a lot of what John Smith has relayed and told about his time in the New World is up for debate. As I learned in class, he was one for dramatics, and often exaggerated stories to up his ego. It is highly unlikely that he was able to fend off up to 200 men with just a pistol. Even though he ended up being captured, he was able to hold them off for an impressive amount of time. This makes using this source as a factual depiction of the early years of Jamestown tricky. There are some portions of this account that seem rather accurate, especially pertaining to how many died in initial settlement and the hardships/lack of food they had to deal with. On the other hand, there are snippets like this that are hard to believe making discerning fact from fiction a lot harder to do. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

With Pocahontas being a Disney movie, there are quite a few things that weren't appropriate to include. This would be one of them. Disney films are meant to be family friendly and are made with children in mind. Showing huge discourse within the colony, sometimes leading to violence and death would not be appropriate to depict. They also show very little in the way of actual violence, and if someone did die, the gore and reality of it is downplayed as much as possible. For example, when John Smith, and Kocoum get shot in the film, there is no blood or evidence of being shot. Kocoum quietly passes and John Smith is injured, but not to the extent a bullet would inflict. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") With that being said, I understand why things like this were not shown. It would not be appropriate for a children's movie, nor for the rhetoric Disney wants to put out. The biggest issue I have with this, is that why did they decide to depict this part in history at all. The deviated so much from what actually happened, to the point which it is barely recognizable besides the names given in the story. There was a Ratcliffe, John Smith, Pocahontas, Kocoum, and Powhatan. Since they changed so much, I feel as if they could have made up fictional names and settings while keeping the principle of the story and it would have been perceived a lot better.

Even though the movie ignores a lot of what is known about the early colonial period and interactions between English settlers and Native Americans, it does provide a fairly common sentiment often shared between members of the two groups. There was a sense of distrust and wariness because these two groups were so new and foreign to each other with vastly different ways of life. There was bound to be hostile feelings and the movie points out those emotions. John Smith calling the Paspahegh a "treacherous Nation" while also pointing out that they were ready to "assault" shows that relations were rocky and those sentiments often varied tribe to tribe depending on the time frame. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

While there is mention of another Native American group on one of the opening scenes of the movie, they are only mentioned that one time. The rest of the movie solely focuses on the Powhatan peoples and the Jamestown colony. In real life, at least in accordance to John Smith, there were various other Native American tribes in the tidewater region of Virginia. These tribes were also a lot closer to Jamestown than the Powhatan. In Pocahontas, they make it seem that the Jamestown settlement and the Native American village are barely a mile apart, when in reality, it took John Smith and Captain Newport days to reach the Powhatan village and chief. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")

One thing A True Relation of Occurences and Accidents in Virginia, 1608 talks about is how, very early on, there were friendly, or at the very least, economic relations between the Native Americans tribes around southeastern Virginia. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) In the 1995 Disney adaptation, there is no semblance that there was any form of trade or barter system. To add to that, there is no mention or showing of native and English interaction besides an initial skirmish and then when John Smith got captured. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas") They had never interacted with each other, which is an interesting deviation of what is known about history and what John Smith is relaying in his published works. These two groups did indeed interact with each other fairly often, and while it was not always positive, especially after the initial settlement period, there was a recounting and evidence of these exchanges happening. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences)

According to "A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as hath Hapned in Virginia Since the First Planting of that Colony, which is now resident in the South part thereof, till the last returne from thence," written by John Smith, he talks about how in April of 1608 he goes on a exploratory journey with Captain Newport to find resources and areas of trade. (Smith, John “A True Relation of Such Occurrences) What's interesting is that during the movie Pocahontas, once John Smith and his men arrive in Jamestown, there is no travelling or exploratory journeys, at least that we can see. They set up their fort and start looking for gold right along the waters edge. (Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995.) Pocahontas" Another interesting thing to note, is that during the movie, there is no mention of a Captain Christopher Newport, even though he is an important person within John Smiths recountal of events and from what I know about history. Its interesting that they omit his character within the Disney adaptation even though there was an actual Governor Ratcliffe and a real John Smith. Another thing of note, is that Pocahontas makes it seem that John Smith's time in Virginia happened over the course of a few weeks and within the year of 1607, when in reality, they don't even run into any member of the Powhattan tribe until 1608 with this journey. ("Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. 1995. Pocahontas")