Pocahontas was kidnapped and taken prisoner
The Powhatan people would frequently leave their clothing at home during the summer since it was so hot. While the Native Americans considered this to be natural, the male European immigrants had sexually perverted tendencies and would kidnap women and children to rape them. Although rape was a crime in England, males seldom ever ended themselves in jail for the offense. If a male sexually assaulted a woman, he typically got away with it by alleging that she was lying or that they had sex voluntarily. A woman needed to establish in court that the male had sexually assaulted her. It was impossible to prove without any witnesses in those days since DNA evidence did not yet exist.
Rape, however, was such a grave offense in Powhatan society that it was capital. They always believed what the woman said. They would never lie about anything like that, knowing the guy would die, because their culture values human life so highly. The Powhatans were prepared to fight since so many of their women had been violated by white males from Jamestown. Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas and held her captive to gain some influence. She had recently given birth to a child and was 16 years old at the time. If they even attempted retaliation, they vowed to murder her. The colonists of Jamestown informed Chief Japasaw of their demands. Pocahontas gave her little daughter over to the local ladies, and she was never seen again. She was taken prisoner by the Jamestown soldiers and placed in the jail cell at the bottom of Captain Argall's ship.
Chief Japasaw, her brother-in-law, believed they were just holding her a hostage while the matter was being resolved. He had enough confidence in people to believe that they would never genuinely abduct a young mother with an unweaned newborn. He also didn't want to do something that might end up killing Pocahontas. Therefore, neither her father nor Japasaw sent any troops after them. The soldiers from Jamestown slaughtered Pocahontas' spouse in front of her despite his best efforts to save her.
She was unhappy and stopped eating while she was a prisoner on the boat. The English sought to preserve her life since she was a captive. In the hopes that it might cheer her up enough to eat, they let her sister come and see her. She revealed to her sister that she had been sexually assaulted by several guys, who had also informed her that her father did not adore her and would therefore not intervene to save her. She was reassured by Pocahontas' sister that this was untrue and that they adored and missed her greatly. She was kept in detention while carrying a child for one of her abusers.
