Pocahontas Weds John Rolfe in Virginia
By 1614, the Jamestown colony in Virginia had endured years of conflict with the Powhatan Confederacy, including the First Anglo-Powhatan War, while struggling to establish stable agriculture and trade. On April 5, 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in a Christian ceremony at Jamestown. The union followed her baptism and education among the English and came after her earlier capture and time in the colony. It helped broker a period of peace between the settlers and the Powhatan people, enabling expanded tobacco cultivation. Rolfe's successful experiments with sweet tobacco strains soon made the crop Virginia's economic mainstay.