Differences Between John Smith And Powhatan Mantle

Upon the arrival of British settlers in 1607 in what was then referred to as Tsenacomoco, the local political geography, or traditional boundaries that divided the native factions, completely turned on its head. In the half-century that followed, the Colony of Virginia decimated the Powhatan Confederacy, the natives of the land, and oversaw their subjugation. In order to understand the context of the Powhatan demise at the hands of the British, primary texts originating from the period of their first interactions are useful in discovering how these mutually alien cultures related and distinguished themselves from each other. Through the analyzation of John Smith’s Virginia Map (1612) and the Powhatan Mantle created in the same period, important …show more content…
Firstly, in Powhatan’s Mantle the use of animal symbols, namely the white-tailed deer and wolf on either side of the human centerpiece, potentially reveals their motivations behind the creation of the metaphorical map. In many Native American societies, the use of the white-tailed deer survival, while the wolf represents leadership and protection Additionally, the use of white shells, a color associated in Native American cultures with peace , reveals the values that Chief Powhatan wanted to convey to his constituents, represented by each of the circles scattered on the map, a shape that connotes “native polity, a term by which Southeastern Indians referred to a community bound by political, genealogical, and ceremonial ties.” The polysemic symbols that make up the Powhatan Mantle reveals that the natives of the region, especially before the arrival of the colonists, saw themselves as separate in geographical location, but bonded through beliefs. Thus, the idea of political geography in Tsenacomoco, which itself means “densely inhabited place” is entirely different than what colonists thought of their newly claimed …show more content…
Sagacious of the fearful power the Powhatans elicited compared to the current state of Jamestown, Smith communicates through his illustrations on either side of the map that the Powhatans while posing a threat, are also viable trade partners. On the left, Smith’s audience encounters a picture of a highly political Powhatan tribe. Namely, the image of the chieftain sitting above his subjects wantonly elicits fear of a foreign power that colonists can either develop a relationship with or destroy. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the map, is a Susquehannock warrior in full hunting attire. Unabashedly done to convey a noble savage, interpreters of the map see a member of a hunting society that seems much easier to manipulate than the Powhatans. Smith’s selective portrayal of information through adorning iconography reveals that the intentions for his map are to appeal to his audience, the British colony investors, and completely eradicate the traditional notions of the political geography that previously pervaded in the Tsenacomoco