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Article: Pocahontas
- Article from:
- UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
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Pocahontas
Born: c. 1595
Virginia
Died: 1617
Gravesend, Kent, England
Native American princess
Pocahontas was the daughter of a Native American chief in Virginia at the time when the British came to settle in the area. Her marriage to an English settler brought eight years of peace between the Indians and the British.
The "playful one"
Pocahontas's real name was Matoaka. As a child, she was also called Pocahontas, meaning "playful one," and the name stuck. Her father was Powhatan (c. 1550
–
1618), the chief of a group of tribes that bore his name and spoke the Native American Algonquian language.
In 1607 English colonists founded Jamestown. They had been sent by the Virginia ...