Mary Jemison was one of the most famous white captives who, after being captured by Indians, chose to stay and live among her captors. In the midst of the Seven Years War(1758), at about age fifteen, Jemison was taken from her western Pennsylvania home by a Shawnee and French raiding party. Her family was killed, but Mary was traded to two Seneca sisters who adopted her to replace a slain brother. She lived to survive two Indian husbands, the births of eight children, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the canal era in upstate New York. In 1833 she died at about age ninety.
Mary Jemison was one of the most famous white captives who, after being captured by Indians, chose to stay and live among her captors. In the midst...
White Captives offers a new perspective of Indian-white coexistence on the American frontier through analysis of historical, anthropological, political, and literary materials.
Namias shows that visual, literary, and historical accounts of the capture of Euro-Americans by Indians are commentaries on the uncertain boundaries of gender, race, and culture during the colonial Indian Wars, the American Revolution, and the Civil War. She compares the experiences and representations of male and female captives over time and on successive frontiers and examines the narratives of...
White Captives offers a new perspective of Indian-white coexistence on the American frontier through analysis of historical, anthropological, poli...
