Forbidden Love Chapter 1

Samantha Fellin

February 1st 2012

The first chapter of Gary Nash’s book, “Forbidden Love” was giving real life stories about racial dominance and racial acceptance. His first story was one that almost everyone is vaguely familiar with; the story of Pocahontas, John Smith, and John Rolfe. In this short story, he describes how the Indians were seen as savages by the settlers that came to the new world, how their races conflicted, and how the notion of a superior race began. In another part of the chapter he talks about an American by the name of Sam Houston. This young man’s story was all about how he had lived among two very different races and submerged himself in both cultures; the Cherokees and white people. And the final part of the chapter, Nash defines the question “What is race?”. The story relays more feelings and political standpoints, unlike the popular children’s movie, Pocahontas. The concept of racial superiority and dominance comes into play because the white settlers believed that because they had more advanced “technology” and ways of living than that of the Indians, that they were in fact the superior beings. This is directly related to Langston Hughes’s explicit idea of racial dominance and racial acceptance in his short story “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”. John Rolfe had the somewhat of a similar mind set to that of Langston Hughes, because they both believe that each race had its own unique superior qualities. John Rolfe had hoped to unite the two cultures by marrying the young Indian princess, Pocahontas. Yet, the whole marriage itself is a contradiction because it was considered a “political marriage”. How can it be considered a “political” marriage, if the Indians are indeed savages, they have no morals, souls, or intelligence to arrange a government? John Rolfe saw no difference in skin color or race, all he saw was a woman that he loved, which governed their marriage. John Rolfe’s goal was to unite the two...