Tidewater by Libbie Hawker

Many of us are familiar with the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. Thanks to Disney, we know that she was an Native American princess and he was an English explorer. They met and fell in love in the new world and she saves his life. WRONG!!! While I love Disney, this is the one story I struggle the most with in their retelling. For starters, Pocahontas was about 13, not an adult, when John Smith and his group settled in Jamestown. While by most accounts, she was her father's favorite daughter, she had no influence over him due to her birth order. While she had contact with Smith and the others living in fort, there was no romantic connection between the two. They are most likely friends but nothing more. And finally, Smith was a pillager and at times a murderer.

Now that I got all of that straight, let me talk about this book. Hawker's telling of Pocahontas and John Smith is the truest account I have ever read. While this book is historical fiction, Hawker obviously did her research and dispelled many of the myths surrounding this pair. She lays out the turmoil surrounding not only the Jamestown settlement but the power struggle that was occurring in Powhatan's kingdom as well. You get a better understanding of Pocahontas's position within the tribe and her need to prove herself. You grow up with her and are able to see the shifts in the living situation caused by the Europeans that came to the area. It is also glaringly clear that without the Native Americas, the settlement would have failed. There were points in the story in which I wished that the Native Americans would have allowed it to happen.

What I loved about this book also was you got to see what happened to Pocahontas after her kidnapping. (That's right, she was kidnapped and held against her will by those in the fort.) The author tells of her friendship with John Rolfe who she marries and their trip to England.

This book was extremely well written and the author did her research not only on Pocahontas but on the political climate within the Powhatan Confederation itself. She also shows the hardships of the Jamestown settlement and brings home the truth that without the Native Americans assistance, Jamestown would have been a failure.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like a more accurate account of Pocahontas and John Smith. This book will not disappoint.