The Children's Pocahontas: From Gentle Child of the Wild to All-American Heroine.

This essay examines the evolution of Pocahontas in antebellum juvenile literature from a cameo character in school book histories to a picture book heroine. Essentially, Pocahontas did not step out of the marginal paragraph as Smith's rescuer until she was reconfigured as a committed Christian, loving wife, and mother by historical writers like George Bancroft and artists including John Gadsby Chapman. Once her legitimacy was secure, Pocahontas emerged as a legendary heroine who both embodies and transcends contemporary cultural boundaries defining the morally pure American lady.