Women in the Atlantic Rim Investigation Pocahontas Preparation

Imagine that you are a historian. What clues would you look for to figure out the characteristics of a society? What information would you examine in detail? What individuals would be important to learn about? One way to think about the people you are coming to know as a historian is to create some categories that can organize the data you collect on each person. Are their contributions mostly political, social, cultural, or economic? Are they adding new types of technology, religious ideas, trade methods, political leadership, or art?

The interactions of peoples in the Atlantic rim produced new societies, but how do historians figure out how these new societies were created? One of the clues they use is to examine the stories of individual men and women who played a role in creating the new society. In order to learn about these individuals, historians use both primary and secondary sources.

1. Read the biography of Pocahontas using Student Handout 3.7 and the description of her role in the John Smith excerpt in Student Handout 3.8. Why was Pocahontas important to the English?

2. Look at the images on Student Handouts 3.9 and 3.10. What do you notice about the figures depicted in each image? Who do they represent? By looking at the two images, what can you say about the status of Pocahontas in English and American Indian societies?