Question

Summary of Pocahontas class 8 oxford new pathways book

Answer 1

General Instruction:
1. Read the lesson carefully. Underline the difficult words, find out their meanings from the dictionary and use them in your own sentences.
Introduction
Pocahontas was the favourite daughter of Powhatan, the formidable ruler of the more than 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes in and around the area that the early English settlers would claim as Jamestown, Virginia. Years later—after no one was able to dispute the facts—John Smith wrote about how she, the beautiful daughter of a powerful native leader, rescued him, an English adventurer, from being executed by her father.
This narrative of Pocahontas turning her back on her own people and allying with the English, thereby finding common ground between the two cultures, has endured for centuries.
Pocahontas was captured and held for ransom by the Colonists during hostilities in 1613. During her
captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca.
She married tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at age 17, and she bore their son Thomas
[1]
In 1616, the Rolfes travelled to London where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the "civilized savage" in hopes of stimulating investment in the Jamestown settlement. She became something of a celebrity, was elegantly fêted, and attended a masque at Whitehall Palace. In 1617, the Rolfes set sail for Virginia, but Pocahontas died at Gravesend of unknown causes, aged 20 or 21. She was buried in St George's Church, Gravesend, in England, but her grave's exact location is unknown because the church was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it.[1]
Rolfe in January 1615.
Explanation
Pocahontas was a Native American woman born around 1595. She was the daughter of the
powerful Chief Powhatan, the ruler of the Powhatan tribal nation, which at its strongest included around 30 Algonquian communities located in the Tidewater region of Virginia. She supposedly earned the nickname Pocahontas, which means “playful one,” because of her happy, inquisitive nature.
The first English settlers arrived in Jamestown colony in May 1607. That winter, Pocahontas’ brother kidnapped colonist Captain John Smith and made a spectacle of him in front of several Powhatan tribes before taking him to meet Chief Powhatan.
According to Smith, his head was placed on two stones and a warrior prepared to smash his head and kill him. But before the warrior could strike, Pocahontas rushed to Smith’s side and placed her head on his, preventing the attack. Chief Powhatan then bartered with Smith, referred to him as his son and sent him on his way.

Pocahontas Saves John Smith Again
Pocahontas became known by the colonists as an important Powhatan emissary. She occasionally brought the hungry settlers food and helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners in 1608. But relations between the colonists and the Indians remained strained.
By 1609, drought, starvation and disease had ravaged the colonists and they became increasingly dependent on the Powhatan to survive. Desperate and dying, they threatened to burn Powhatan towns for food, so Chief Powhatan suggested a barter with Captain Smith.
When negotiations collapsed, the chief supposedly planned an ambush and Smith’s execution. But Pocahontas warned Smith of her father’s plans and saved his life again.
Soon after, Smith was injured and returned to England; however, Pocahontas and her father were told he died.
Kidnapped by the English
When more and more white settlers came to Jamestown, Chief Powhatan declared war on the settlers and sent Pocahontas to live with the Potomac tribe, fearing that she might come to harm otherwise. In 1613, she was lured onto the English ship of Captain Samuel Argall and kidnapped during the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
Argall informed Chief Powhatan that he wouldn’t return Pocahontas unless he released English prisoners, returned stolen weapons and sent food to the colonists. Much to Pocahontas’ dismay, her father only sent half the ransom and left her imprisoned. While in captivity, Pocahontas lived in the settlement of Henricus under the care of a minister named Alexander Whitaker where she learned about Christianity, English culture and how to speak English. Pocahontas converted to Christianity, was baptized and given the name “Rebecca.”

Answer 2

Explanation:

pocahontas was the daughter of powhatan ,the powerful chief of the powhanta confederacy. she was the favourite daughter of her father and attracted special notice for her beauty and liveliness . hence she got the name pocahontas which means the 'playfull one'.