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Virginia planter and colonial official John Rolfe was the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan. He sold Virginia tobacco to England.
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Pocahontas - Mini Biography (2:14)
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Pocahontas - Mini Biography
Pocahontas was a Native American Princess, ambassador, and peacemaker to the first American settlers. She eventually was taken hostage by the British. She married John Rolfe and was renamed Rebecca.
Pocahontas - Proposal Accepted
Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, married English colonist John Rolfe. At the time of their marriage, it was considered outrageously scandalous.
Pocahontas - I Will Call You Father
Pocahontas was suffering from tuberculosis in London when John Smith came to visit her for the last time. She was so moved that Smith had come to visit that she called him father.
Pocahontas - The Lady Rebecca
When Pocahontas arrived in England with her husband and infant son, John Smith called her The Lady Rebecca and arranged for her to visit with Queen Anne.
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Play NowJohn Rolfe. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:33, Jun 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712.
John Rolfe. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712 [Accessed 18 Jun 2013].
"John Rolfe." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 18 2013, 09:33 http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712.
"John Rolfe," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712 [accessed Jun 18, 2013].
"John Rolfe," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712 (accessed Jun 18, 2013).
John Rolfe [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712.
John Rolfe, http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712 (last visited Jun 18, 2013).
John Rolfe. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/john-rolfe-9462712. Accessed Jun 18, 2013.
He stayed in England with Rolfe's brother and didn't return to America until many years later.
Rolfe would never see his son again; he sailed back to Virginia and later remarried Joan Peirce (or Pearce), the daughter of one of the other colonists. In 1621, Rolfe was appointed to Virginia's Council of State, as part of a reorganized colonial government.
With the death of Powhatan in 1618,
the unstable peace between the English and Native Americans dissolved. The Algonquian tribes became increasingly angry over the colonists' insatiable need for land, largely due to their desire to cultivate tobacco. In March 1622, the Algonquians (under Powhatan's successor, Opechankeno) made a major assault on the English colony, killing some 350 to 400 residents, or a full one-quarter of the population.
John Rolfe died that same year, although it is not known whether he was killed in the massacre or died under other circumstances.
Biography courtesy of History.com
© 2013 A+E Networks. All rights reserved.
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