Talk:Passapatanzy, Virginia

Multiple Villages with the Same Name?
Local historical sources indicate that there have been two villages with similar names in roughly the same area: One being the current town in King George, VA, and the other being on Marlborough Point - across Potomac Creek from the modern Passapatanzy. Some sources indicated Pocahontas was a resident of the other (Marlborough Point) village.

Note that the current Passapatanzy is almost 3 miles from the nearest navigable water. The referenced historical marker does little to settle the issue, as it is more than twice as far from either location as the locations are from each other. For what it may be worth, the marker it replaced referenced "near the mouth of [Potomac] creek," which would better fit the Marlborough Point location.


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 * Pocahontas and the Marlborough Point Peninsula
 * "From the water, with homes hidden, the Marlborough Point Peninsula near the old Indian Point area, probably looks much like it did during the time of the Patawomecks. There are two theories about Pocahontas being in this area during 1613.  Some believe that she was living with the Patawomecks and actually married an Indian named Kocoum.  Others believe that her father, Chief Powhatan, requested that she visit her uncle, Chief Japazaws, and was on a trade mission for a short time."
 * https://staffordcountymuseum.com/artifact/marlborough-point-peninsula/
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 * "Anthropologist William Wallace Tooker believed the proper name for the town at was probably Paspatanzie. Paspatanzie breaks down into Pasp-, "a bursting forth or flowing out; " otan, "a town; " zie, which is a diminutive. So according to Tooker, Paspatanzie would be a town at the mouth of a stream, flowing into a larger river. Today, Passapatanzy is the name of an unincorporated town in neighboring King George County. It, too, has a creek flowing into the Potomac.
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 * "The village Smith visited was located at the end of Indian Point Road [on Marlborough Point], and it was the site of Pocahontas’ kidnapping in 1613. As so often happens with coastal settlements, the native village has now almost completely eroded into the river."
 * https://www.librarypoint.org/blogs/post/marlborough-point/
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 * "Stafford played a role in one of the legendary events--Pocahontas' kidnapping by Samuel Argall in 1611, which is believed to have taken place at Indian Point on the Marlborough peninsula."
 * https://fredericksburg.com/localcolumns/pocahontas-legends-revisited/article_abd9ec91-a8f5-58ad-9752-20e401bb7b92.html
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I haven't researched the issue yet in enough detail to have a conclusion on which is accurate, but it may warrant at least explaining alternate beliefs. Also, I'm while I'm seeing sources tying Pocahontas to the Marlborough Point village, I'm not (yet) seeing anything that ties her to the King George village. John2510 (talk) 14:24, 5 June 2021 (UTC)