By the mid-19th century, Captain John Smith, the early Colonial expolorer and settler, was a well-known figure in American history. The story of how, in 1607, the Powhatan princess Pocahontas saved from execution by her tribe appeared in all the standard American histories. Numerous plays, novels and poems were devoted to the episode. Starting in the 1860s, however, scholars began to question Smith's published accounts of the Pocahontas incident, and a controversy ensued, with Henry Adams becoming Smith's most famous ...
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By the mid-19th century, Captain John Smith, the early Colonial expolorer and settler, was a well-known figure in American history. The story of how, in 1607, the Powhatan princess Pocahontas saved from execution by her tribe appeared in all the standard American histories. Numerous plays, novels and poems were devoted to the episode. Starting in the 1860s, however, scholars began to question Smith's published accounts of the Pocahontas incident, and a controversy ensued, with Henry Adams becoming Smith's most famous detractor. Today many scholars continue to regard Smith as a vainglorious braggart who lied about his rescue. Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? is an analysis of the historiography of this debate. Examining the primary and secondary evidence J.A. Leo Lemay aims to demonstrate that the incident did in fact occur.
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