Little is known about Tomocomo's life before his visit to London. He appears to have met Captain John Smith during Smith's time in Virginia, since Smith says that in London they "renewed their acquaintance".[2] His wife, Matachanna, was Pocahontas's half-sister.[3]
Tomocomo must have been trusted by Chief Powhatan, as Powhatan requested him to accompany her in order to count the number of people in England. Arriving at Plymouth, Tomocomo picked up a stick on which to mark notches to keep a tally, but soon grew "weary of that task".[4] Powhatan also asked him to discover whether Smith was still alive.[4] This was because they were told he was dead, but Pocahontas had told Smith that "your countrymen lie too much."
Samuel Purchas, a compiler of travel narratives, met Tomocomo at the home of "my good friend Doctor Goldstone, where he was a frequent guest, and where I have both seen him sing and dance his diabolical measures, and heard him discourse of his country and religion." Purchas believed that the Powhatan people were devil-worshippers and tried to persuade Tomocomo to take up Christianity, but Tomocomo said he was too old to learn new ways.[5]
Pocahontas and Tomocomo were never given a formal audience before King James. However, on January 5, 1617 they were brought before the King at the Banqueting House in Whitehall Palace, at a performance of Ben Jonson's masqueThe Vision of Delight. According to Smith, both Pocahontas and Tomocomo did not realize whom they had met until it was explained to them afterward. Tomocomo was disappointed that the King did not offer a present, saying to Smith "You gave Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed as himself, but your King gave me nothing, and I am better than your white dog."[4]
When Tomocomo returned to Virginia with Samuel Argall and Rolfe in March 1617, he reportedly uttered diatribes "against England, English people" and against Thomas Dale, governor of Jamestown. The colonists rebutted his claims in front of the Powhatan leaders, and Tomocomo apparently was disgraced.[6] However, Chief Powhatan died the next year, and his successor, Opechancanough, began planning a massive attack on the settlers. Nothing more is known of Tomocomo's life.
Media
Paul O'Connor voiced him in the Animated Hero Classics 1994 episode Pocahontas. O'Connor also voiced Japazaws who lured the princess with a copper kettle to her abduction by Argall.
In New Line Cinema's 2005 film The New World, Tomocomo is played by Raoul Trujillo. However, in the film's depiction of Pocahontas sailing on her trip to England, she is accompanied by her uncle Opechancanough rather than Tomocomo.
Notes
↑ Dale, Thomas. Letter to Sir Ralph Winwood. 3 June 1616. Repr. in Jamestown Narratives, ed. Edward Wright Haile. Champlain, VA: Roundhouse, 1998. p. 878.
↑ Smith, The General History of Virginia (1624), in Philip Barbour, ed. The Complete Works of Captain John Smith, volume 2. p. 261.
↑ David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown (New York: Vintage, 2003), p. 164.
John Smith was an English soldier, slave, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England, and author. He played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely.
Pocahontas was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of what is today the U.S. state of Virginia.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
Opechancanough was paramount chief of the Powhatan Confederacy in present-day Virginia from 1618 until his death. He had been a leader in the confederacy formed by his older brother Powhatan, from whom he inherited the paramountcy.
Sir Samuel Argall was an English adventurer and naval officer.
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas and her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia.
The New World is a 2005 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, depicting the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement and inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith, Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe, and Englishman John Rolfe. It is the fourth feature film written and directed by Malick.
Powhatan, whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time when English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.
Sir Thomas Dale was an English naval commander who served as deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and again from 1614 to 1616. Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour of his administration in Virginia, which established order and in various ways seems to have benefited the colony, although he was criticised for high-handedness. He is also credited with the establishment of Bermuda Hundred, Bermuda Cittie, and the Cittie of Henricus.
Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. The Powhatan Confederacy, encountered by the colonists of Jamestown and adjacent area of the Virginia Colony beginning in 1607, spoke an Algonquian language. Each tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy was led by its own weroance. Most foreign writers who have come across a weroance only did so on a special occasion. This is the case because a foreigner's presence was special. John Smith noted that there are few differences between weroances and their subjects.
The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English colony of Virginia on 22 March 1622. English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his History of Virginia that warriors of the Powhatan "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us"; they then grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Opechancanough, chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, led a coordinated series of surprise attacks that ended up killing a total of 347 people — a quarter of the population of the Colony of Virginia.
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World is a 1998 American direct-to-video animated musical adventure film and the sequel to the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. While the first film dealt with her meeting with John Smith and the arrival of the British settlers in Jamestown, the sequel focuses on Pocahontas's journey to England with John Rolfe to negotiate for peace between the two nations, although her death is omitted from the film's ending.
The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Colony of Virginia and the Powhatan People of Tsenacommacah in the early 17th century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1632. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.
James Davis was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the expedition of the Virginia Company of Plymouth which established the short-lived Popham Colony, also called "Northern Virginia."
Stafford, also known as Stafford Courthouse, is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Stafford County, Virginia, United States. The population was 5,370 as of the 2020 census. It lies 10 miles (16 km) north of Fredericksburg, approximately 40 miles (64 km) south of Washington, D.C., and about 60 miles (97 km) north of Richmond, the state capital. Marine Corps Base Quantico is located north of the community. Stafford Courthouse is located at the intersections of U.S. Route 1 and Courthouse Road.
Henry Spelman (1595–1623) was an English adventurer, soldier, and author, the son of Erasmus Spelman and nephew to Sir Henry Spelman of Congham (1562–1641). The younger Henry Spelman was born in 1595 and left his home in Norfolk, England at age 14 to sail to Virginia Colony aboard the ship Unity, as a part of the Third Supply to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. He is remembered for being an early interpreter for the people of Jamestown as well as writing the Relation of Virginia, documenting the first permanent English colonial settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, and particularly the lifestyles of the Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy led by Chief Powhatan.
Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown proper, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was the colonial capital of Virginia.
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas is a 1953 American historical western film directed by Lew Landers. The distributor was United Artists. It stars Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance and Alan Hale.
The "Sedgeford Hall Portrait", is an oil on canvas portrait in the American School by an unknown artist circa 1837. It depicts Pe-o-ka, wife of the Seminole chief, Osceola, and their son. It was once mistakenly believed by many to be a portrait painted from life of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe.
A Lovelock was popular amongst European "men of fashion" from the end of the 16th century until well into the 17th century. The lovelock was a long lock of hair, often plaited (braided) and made to rest over the left shoulder to show devotion to a loved one.
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