Few episodes illuminate the entanglement of Christian conversion, imperial competition, and national mythmaking as sharply as the story commonly told about Pocahontas. Read against charters, company directives, and colonial correspondence, this narrative reveals how evangelization, resource extraction, and propaganda worked together to legitimize English expansion in North America.

The Virginia Company, chartered by James I in 1606, framed colonization as a sacred enterprise. The First Charter of Virginia made explicit the religious and civilizational agenda that would accompany trade and settlement:

“We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government: DO, by these our Letters Patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended Desires; The First Charter of Virginia; April 10, 1606”

Modern cinematic portrayals often shift emphasis away from this missionary ambition. Terrence Malick’s The New World (2005) foregrounds trade and intercultural encounter, while Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) does the opposite—making colonial contempt unmissable through the song “Savages (Part 1)”:
“What can you expect
From filthy little heathens?
Their whole disgusting race is like a curse
Their skin’s a hellish red
They’re only good when dead

Inspired by this post on Varnam.