1837

[Owen, Robert Dale] A Citizen of the West. Pocahontas: A Historical Drama. New York, 1837. Another of the cluster of Ante-bellum plays about Pocahontas (see Barker, Barnes, Custis, and Brougham). Owen, later member of Congress and minister to Italy, was an active social reformer, a collaborator with Fanny Wright (see 1821), who was involved in promoting such radical issues as utopian communities, socialism, the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, free secular education, birth control, changes in the marriage and divorce laws. The dozen or more sources in the notes show that Owen did his homework, but he re-arranges events and invents a few for dramatic rather than historical purposes. The rescue of Smith occurs in Act Two, Pocahontas claiming him as "father," and the tearful climax is Smith leaving for England, severely wounded in a battle to free Pocahontas from her abductors (repaying his debt), and celebrating her approaching marriage with Rolfe. An interesting aspect of Pocahontas's character is her awakening sense of the equality of women: "Nomony! thinkest thou / Woman was made to be the friend of man, / To share man’s confidence – win his respect -- / To be – to be – his EQUAL? That’s the word, / Are not these strange – strange thoughts?" (Perhaps we should remember that the Trail of Tears will occur next year.)
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