Women Captives and Indian Captivity Narratives

More of This Feature • Part 1: About Captivity Narratives • Part 2: Women's History Perspectives on Captivity Narratives • Part 3: Individual Captivity Narratives • Part 4: Bibliography and Links for More Information

Related Resources • Mary Rowlandson • Mary Jemison • A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison

From Other Guides • Martins Hundred - Powhatan Uprising • Slave Narratives

Elsewhere on the Web • Bibliography on Mary Rowlandson and Captivity Narratives • Early American Captivity Narratives

(continued from Part 2)

Individual Captivity Narratives

These are some women captives -- some are famous (or infamous), some less well-known.

Mary White Rowlandson - she lived about 1637 to 1711, and was a captive in 1675 for almost three months. Hers was the first of the captivity narratives to be published in America, and went through numerous editions.  Her treatment of the Native Americans is often sympathetic.

• Biography and carefully selected links, on this site

Mary Jemison - captured during the French and Indian War and sold to the Seneca, she became a member of the Senecas and was renamed Dehgewanus. In 1823 a writer interviewed her and the next year published a first-person narrative of Mary Jemison's life.

• Biography and carefully selected links, on this site

Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild and Mary Ann Oatman - captured by Yavapai Indians (or, perhaps, Apache) in Arizona in 1851, then sold to Mojave Indians. Mary died in captivity, reportedly of abuse and starvation. Olive was ransomed in 1856. She later lived in California and New York.

• Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild
• Olive Oatman - a genealogical entry and biography (scroll down for biography and sources)
• Book:
  Lorenzo D. Oatman, Oliva A. Oatman, Royal B. Stratton. The Captivity of the Oatman Girls Among the Apache and Mohave Indians. Dover, 1994.

Susannah Johnson

• A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson: Containing an Account of Her Sufferings During Four Years With the Indians and French

Elizabeth Hanson

• An Account of the Captivity of Elizabeth Hanson, Now or Late of Kachecky, in New-England: Who, With Four of Her Children and Servant-maid, Was Taken Captive By the Indians, and Carried Into Canada

Frances and Almira Hall - captives in the Black Hawk War

• As written by William P. Edwards, 1832

Rachel Plummer - captured May 19, 1836 byComanche Indians, she was released in 1838 and died in 1839 after her narrative was published.  Her son, who was a toddler when they were captured, was ransomed i n1842 and raised by her father (his grandfather).

• Narrative of the Capture and Subsequent Sufferings of Mrs. Rachel Plummer

Fanny Wiggins Kelly

• "Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians" 1845 - published 1871
• Another copy

Minnie Buce Carrigan

• "Captured by the Indians - reminiscences of pioneer life in Minnesota" - 1862
• Another copy

Cynthia Ann Parker - abducted in 1836 in Texas by Indians, she was part of the Comanche community for almost 25 years until abducted again -- by Texas Rangers. Her son, Quanah Parker, was the last Comanche chief. She died of starvation, apparently from grief at being separated from the Comanche people which whom she identified.

• Cynthia Ann Parker - from The Handbook of Texas Online
• Books:
  Margaret Schmidt Hacker. Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend. Texas Western, 1990.

Martin's Hundred - the fate of twenty women captured in the Powhatan Uprising of 1622 is not known to history

• Martin's Hundred - Powhatan Uprising of 1622
• Martin's Hundred
• Martin's Hundred Sites

Also:

• Written by Charlotte Alice Baker, 1897: True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada During the Old French and Indian Wars

Text copyright 1999-2006 © Jone Johnson Lewis.