Pocahontas Unisex Crew Neck T-shirt

Organic cotton unisex t-shirt featuring Pocahontas.

The Powhatan woman that we now know as Pocahontas was actually named Amonute. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, a ruler of several Algonquian-speaking North American tribes, in an area colonised by the English, now known as the state of Virginia. At the age of 15, Pocahontas was lured on to an English ship and taken to Jamestown as a prisoner. She married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and they had a son. Her marriage provided a political bridge between the English and the Powhatan people, but she lost her Powhatan identity when she was baptised and given the Christian name Rebecca. The couple came to England and were introduced to the court of James I with the hope of gaining investors for the Virginia Company – the company responsible for colonising the east coast of North America. The print in the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection c.1596–1617 shows Pocahontas while she was in England, dressed in Western clothes and holding ostrich feathers, a sign of nobility or royalty.

Pocahontas, D28135, published by William Richardson, after Simon de Passe, line engraving, published 10 August 1793 (1616) © National Portrait Gallery, London

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