[2] Ratcliffe worked with explorer John Smith to remove Edward Wingfield from the presidency because he was hiding food for himself that the colony needed.

[3] During The Starving Time in December 1609 (or early 1610), Ratcliffe and 25 fellow colonists were invited to a gathering with a group of Powhatan Indians.

[2] They had been promised they would receive corn by way of trade, but it was a trap; the Powhatans ambushed and killed them, and Ratcliffe was taken to the village to suffer a particularly gruesome fate.

He was tied to a stake in front of a fire and flayed by women of the tribe with mussel shells, with pieces of his skin tossed into the flames as he watched.

Butt haveinge noe expectacyon of Reliefe to Come in so shorte a Tyme I sentt Capteyne Ratliefe to Powhatan to p[ro]cure victewalls and corne by the way of comerce and trade the w[hi]ch the Subtell owlde foxe att firste made good semblanse of althoughe his intente was otherwayes onely wayteinge a fitteinge tyme for their destruction as after plainely appered.

And after, nott kepeinge a p[ro]per and fitteinge Courte of guarde, butt Suffreinge his men by towe and thre and small numbers in a Company to straggle into the Salvages howses when the slye owlde kinge espyed a fitteinge Tyme Cutt them all of, onely Surprysed Capt[eyn]e Ratliefe alyve who he caused to be bownd unto a tree naked w[i]th a fyer before, and by woemen his fleshe was skraped from his bones w[i]th Mussell shelles and before his face throwne into the fyer.

[5] Ratcliffe is the main antagonist of Disney's Pocahontas (1995), portrayed as a greedy and ruthlessly ambitious man who believes that the Powhatan tribe is very barbaric and has hidden gold near the outskirts of Virginia.