Today in History: Captivity Narratives
Today in History–February 29–the Library of Congress features captivity narratives. On this day in 1704, French soldiers and their Native American allies raided a frontier settlement in Massachusetts, killing many and forcing more to march through heavy snows to Canada (New France). Read more about this incident and other captivity narratives by visiting the Today in History section, then click the links below to access some fascinating primary sources.
Texts
- Captives among the Indians (1915)
- Captivity of the Oatman girls: being an interesting narrative of life among the Apache and Mohave Indians (1875)
- Captured by the Indians: reminiscences of pioneer life in Minnesota (1912)
- The Fort Stanwix captive, or New England volunteer, being the extraordinary life and adventures of Isaac Hubbell among the Indians of Canada and the West (1841)
- The founding of Harman’s Station, with an account of the Indian captivity of Mrs. Jennie Wiley and the exploration and settlement of the Big Sandy Valley in the Virginias and Kentucky (1910)
- Narrative of the adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewitt (1815)
- A narrative of the adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewitt (1820)
- Narrative of the adventures and sufferings [!] of John R. Jewitt (1851)
- Seven and nine years among the Camanches and Apaches (1874)
- Woman on the American frontier.: A valuable and authentic history of the heroism, adventures, privations, captivities, trials, and noble lives and deaths of the “Pioneer mothers of the republic.” (1879)
- Sarah Garcia remembers the Navajo (oral history collected in New Mexico, 1936)
Songs
Images
- The captive white boy, Santiago McKinn in Geronimo’s Camp
- The Indians delivering up the English captives to colonel bouquet
- Indians gambling for the possession of a captive
- Man reasoning with Indians about to burn a bound captive
- White girl found with the Gros Ventre Indians
- Chiricahua captive
- Navajo captive