{"id":3438,"date":"2021-09-05T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T13:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/?page_id=3438"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:23:08","slug":"founding-myths","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/course-syllabus\/founding-myths\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding Myths"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Image Gateway<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_3435\" style=\"width: 950px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3435\" class=\"wp-image-3435 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM-1024x682.png\" alt=\"Pocahontas\" width=\"940\" height=\"626\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM-450x300.png 450w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.28.44-AM.png 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What do you see when you imagine Pocahontas?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For background on the John White watercolor from 1590 (left) or the evolution toward the image of Pocahontas in the popular Disney movie (1995), see the PBS online exhibit:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/pocahontas\/lege-nf.html\">Pocahontas Revealed<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3436\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.31.36-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3436\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.31.36-AM.png\" alt=\"Pocahontas 1616\" width=\"558\" height=\"744\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.31.36-AM.png 758w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2015\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-9.31.36-AM-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 558px) 100vw, 558px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-3436\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Only known image of Pocahontas created from life (1616)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Discussion Questions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>What context about the European imperial rivalries from the 16th and 17th centuries is most helpful for understanding the English approach to American colonization?<\/li>\n<li>How did the Protestant Reformation shape the British experience in North America?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Founding Myth #1:\u00a0 John Smith &amp; Pocahontas<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/02-colliding-cultures\/\">Chapter 2 of the Yawp online textbook<\/a> barely mentions the legendary story of John Smith and Pocahontas:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>John Smith, a yeoman\u2019s son and capable leader, took command of the crippled colony and promised, \u201cHe that will not work shall not eat.\u201d He navigated Native American diplomacy, claiming that he was captured and sentenced to death but Powhatan\u2019s daughter, Pocahontas, intervened to save his life. She would later marry another colonist, John Rolfe, and die in England.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It turns out that there is more to the famous John Smith-Pocahontas rescue \/ love affair at Jamestown than either this aside or American popular culture has suggested. \u00a0Many modern-day historians see the 1607 encounter as a complicated struggle between two imperial forces \u2013both the English settlers and the Powhatan Indians. \u00a0There was certainly a complex set of strategic interests at stake for Wahunsenacawh (or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualjamestown.org\/Powhat1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chief Powhatan<\/a> as the traditional literature has named him), demonstrating how he may have been attempting to use the English through the symbolic or ritual diplomacy involving his young daughter. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualjamestown.org\/jsmith.html\">Captain John Smith<\/a>\u00a0probably misunderstood what was essentially a political outreach involving\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualjamestown.org\/Pocahontas.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pocahontas<\/a>, then approximately 12-years-old.\u00a0 How should historians characterize the motivations and legacies of figures such as Smith or other members of the Virginia Company, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualjamestown.org\/jrolfe.html\">John Rolfe<\/a>, the man who introduced tobacco to the colony and actually became Pocahontas\u2019s husband?\u00a0 NOTE: all links in this paragraph go to reference pages at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualjamestown.org\/\">Virtual Jamestown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Founding Myth #2:\u00a0 First Thanksgiving<\/h2>\n<p>The Yawp textbook seems to intentionally avoid highlighting the popular but somewhat misleading story of the first &#8220;Thanksgiving,&#8221; celebrated by Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians (and Squanto, a Patuxet Indian, who lived among the Wampanoags) in the fall of 1621 at Plymouth.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/inthepastlane.com\/of-plague-and-pilgrims-how-a-devastating-epidemic-shaped-the-first-thanksgiving-nov-18-2012\/\">Historian Edward O&#8217;Donnell writes<\/a> about that episode:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was this fear of the Pilgrims, plus additional concerns about the threat posed by the powerful Narragansett Indians to the south, that prompted the Wampanoag leader Massasoit to make peace and establish an alliance with the Pilgrims in the spring of 1621.\u00a0 That spring and summer the Wampanoags taught the Pilgrims what to plant and how to hunt certain wildlife and fish.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why they were invited to the first Thanksgiving in the Fall of 1621. All this ads up to a considerably more complicated version of the first Thanksgiving story than we\u2019re used to. Had there been no Great Epidemic, it seems likely that the Pilgrims, had they survived and managed to have anything to be thankful for, would have celebrated the first Thanksgiving among themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>NOTE:\u00a0 Thanksgiving did not become a formally declared federal holiday until the American Civil War when Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation just one month before delivering his Gettysburg Address.\u00a0 You can read about the backstory behind that moment from <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/2015\/04\/28\/lincolns-proclamation-of-thanksgiving-october-3-1863\/\">this student close reading post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Memory &amp; Meaning<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9ThO76peOw0?si=o9Yx_483O2RjvaYy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>How does this musical clip from the 1995 children\u2019s movie by Disney present a historical interpretation of Native American culture in the aftermath of the Columbian Exchange?<\/p>\n<h2>Handouts<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2021\/09\/Handout-Colliding-Cultures-17th-C.pdf\">Handout &#8211;Colliding Cultures<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image Gateway For background on the John White watercolor from 1590 (left) or the evolution toward the image of Pocahontas in the popular Disney movie (1995), see the PBS online exhibit:\u00a0 Pocahontas Revealed Only known image of Pocahontas created from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/course-syllabus\/founding-myths\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":11,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-3438","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5146,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3438\/revisions\/5146"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}