LITR 4326 Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 1

Michelle Liaw

Fact or Fiction: John Smith a Hero?

The portrayal of John Smith as a romantic hero has been a heavily dominated belief in popular culture, much in part to the iconic Disney movie, Pocahontas. As this Disney movie was a large part of my childhood, it shocked me after reading A General History of Virginia, in which John Smith seemed to be the complete opposite of an archetypal hero. The preconceived image of Smith as a heroic, altruistic buffer between two cultures was shattered when he is instead shown as an egocentric, self-absorbed character. While there are scarce accounts on the first happenings between the settlers and the Indians, and most tales are profusely biased in showing the natives as savage creatures, John Smith’s so-called History of Virginia has become a stage for his own personal history. What can we discern from his pompous account as fact or fiction? The differences between a romanticized account of interactions with Native Americans and Smith’s own flowery depiction caused me to question the reliability of Smith’s personal account in capturing true events.

          After initial research, I stumbled upon various accounts by historians where the general consensus was that little could be trusted on Smith’s accounts, as they are the only accounts available. Alexander Brown, Virginian historian, published The Genesis of the United States, argued that Smith’s vainness is overshadowed by a general public interest during the time of colonial exploration. A lack of information over initial interactions with the natives caused sympathy for Smith’s self-proclaimed heroism. In an interview with Washington University historian David Silverman, he unveils that the significance of the Pocahontas and John Smith myth was that it was told to the American public to feel better about the evils of colonization. Silverman suggests that Smith was actually partaking in a customary adoption ceremony, where Powhatan utilized Smith as a link for trading and in exchange for providing reciprocal hospitality. According to Silverman, the Indians would say that kin wouldn’t need weapons to guard against their own kin. While Powhatan had high expectations for Smith acting as a trade broker, Smith’s ulterior motives of seizing control over the natives were downplayed in his accounts.

          Recent archaeological excavations of Jamestown, as evidenced in the documentary Pocahontas Revealed, state that some accounts of Smith’s history may have been exaggerated. Presence of English copper on the Werowocomoco site shows that Smith may have been meeting with the chief to discuss trade. If physical artifacts suggesting trade bartering were uncovered at the historical site, then why did Smith depict his capture with so much of a “guns-blazing” Hollywood Die-Hard hero account? Furthermore, his one-sided narrative seems to undermine the fact that the settlers owe much of their initial survival to the food donations from the natives. Tree-ring research shows a drought may have halted the Indians from continuing donations, as they couldn’t feed themselves. In light of this archaeological evidence, Smith’s one-sided account begins to juxtapose the preconceived beliefs of Indians as war-hungry savages and the Indians’ good intentions as essential to the colonist’s survival.

          Finally, in a journal article critiquing Smith’s romanticized accounts of the New World, Mythic Anglo-Saxonism in John Smith and Pocahontas by Micheal Modarelli shows that the accumulation of Smith’s work represents a romantic-nation building ideology that fails to exhibit the true capitalistic nature of the Virginia Company. Smith’s detailed accounts, General History, A True Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith, and Proceedings of the English Colony of Virginia considerably alter the accounts of the same story in different editions, causing doubt on what is considered fact or fiction. Considerable doubt must be shed due to the fact that the time period in which Smith’s accounts were published were during a time of corrupt printing practices. Smith’s original manuscripts were knowingly trimmed, chopped, and re-arranged in congruence with the Virginia Company’s desire for public support of their peaceful conquests in the New World. Modarelli argues that political propaganda inserted a strong force in the re-scripting the originality of early American writers. Smith’s portrayal as a romantic hero was perhaps influenced by political manipulation in creating a national chivalric persona.

          Ultimately, my research findings lead me to believe that while some facts of Smith’s history can be verified, the accounts are skewed due to his ornate and self-absorbed depictions. As being on the conquering side of history, Smith’s accounts automatically become the only true account generally accepted into American history. While my research still finds it hard to discern what is fact or fiction in Smith’s voyages, I come to the overall conclusion that his version cannot accurately portray the initial interactions between the colonists and natives in the New World. I was surprised to come across so many journal articles about this topic, and I hope to shift my focus on the relations between Pocahontas and John Smith and the impact of this so-called romantic myth in the next post.

Sources:

Brown, Alexander. “Brief Biographies: Captain John Smith.” The Genesis of the United States. Ed. Alexander Brown. Vol.2. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890. 1006-1010. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. James E. Person, Jr. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale, 1989. Literature Resource Center. Web. 4 Mar. 2016.

Modarelli, Michael. "Mythic Anglo-Saxonism in John Smith and Pocahontas: The Generall Historie and National Narrative." Sydney Studies in English 40 (2014): 76-106. Alfred R. Neumann Library. Web. <http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/SSE/article/view/8321/8456>.

Pocahontas Revealed. Perf. Nova. PBS.org, 2007. Documentary. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/john-smith.html

04.01.07, Posted. "John Smith's Bold Endeavor." PBS. PBS. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.