The Indian Captivity Narrative

Enthralling generations of readers, the narrative of capture by Native Americans is arguably the first American literary form dominated by the experiences of women. The ten selections in this anthology span the early history of this country (1682-1892) and range in literary style from fact-based narrations to largely fictional, spellbinding adventure stories. The women are variously victimized, triumphant, or, in the case of Mary Jemison, permantently transculturated. This collection includes well known pieces such as Mary Rowlandson's "A True History" (1682), Cotton Mather's version of Hannah Dunstan's infamous captivity and escape (after scalping her captors!), and the "Panther Captivity", as well as lesser known texts. As Derounian-Stodola demonstrates in the introduction, the stories also raise questions about the motives of their (often male) narrators and promoters, who in many cases embellish melodrama to heighten anti-British and anti-Indian propaganda, shape the tales for ecclesiastical purposes, or romanticize them to exploit the growing popularity of sentimental fiction in order to boost sales. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Rowlandson's famous account of her abduction by the Narragansett Indians in 1676 is accompanied by three other narratives of captivity among the Delawares, the Iroquois, and the Indians of the Allegheny.

"Billy J. Stratton's critical examination of Mary Rowlandson's 1682 publication, The Soveraignty and Goodness of God, reconsiders the role of the captivity narrative in American literary history and national identity. With pivotal new research into Puritan minister Increase Mather's influence on the narrative, Stratton calls for a reconsideration of past scholarly work on the genre"--Provided by publisher.

This edition of A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity rescues from obscurity a crucially important work about the bitterly contested U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Written by Mary Butler Renville, an Anglo woman, with the assistance of her Dakota husband, John Baptiste Renville, A Thrilling Narrative was printed only once as a book in 1863 and has not been republished since. The work details the Renvilles’ experiences as “captives” among their Dakota kin in the Upper Camp and chronicles the story of the Dakota Peace Party. Their sympathetic portrayal of those who opposed the war in 1862 combats the stereotypical view that most Dakotas supported it and illumines the injustice of their exile from Dakota homelands. From the authors’ unique perspective as an interracial couple, they paint a complex picture of race, gender, and class relations on successive midwestern frontiers. As the state of Minnesota commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Dakota War, this narrative provides fresh insights into the most controversial event in the region’s history. This annotated edition includes groundbreaking historical and literary contexts for the text and a first-time collection of extant Dakota correspondence with authorities during the war.

An American literary form that flourished from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, the Indian Captivity narrative has long fascinated readers on both sides of the Atlantic. These narratives - chronicling the unpredictable encounters between Native Americans and newcomers - number in the thousands. They encompass the factual as well as the fictional. And in their often negative portrayals of Native Americans, these narratives have aroused considerable controversy. Presenting a broad survey of these narratives and shedding much-needed light on their place in American culture and letters comes The Indian Captivity Narrative, 1550-1900, written by two scholars eminently well versed in their subject matter. In clear and straightforward writing, Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola and James Arthur Levernier argue that these texts played a vital role in American culture, forming the first truly American literary form and revealing, in their racist subtexts, much about white America's fear of "otherness". With a focus on both the literary and the historical features of the narratives, the authors take a New Historicist approach, extending the accepted chronology to encompass texts written in the 1500s through the 1900s and representing most regions of the continental United States. Here readers will find references to hundreds of primary texts and commentary on texts, as well as expert treatment of such topics as the mythology surrounding the form, the narratives' images of Native Americans and of women, and Mary Rowlandson's well-known 1682 account. A highly accessible work that nevertheless retains its subject's complexity, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 1550-1900 - complementedby nine important illustrations - provides an ideal resource for high school and college students, and for general audiences.

Presents the narratives by women who were captured by Indians--from 17th-century New England to late 19th-century Colorado. In her introduction, the editor defines the genre and presents the rationale for her choices in the book. The next four chapters contain complete narratives (such as M.W. Rowlandson's during King Philip's War) and excerpts from narratives about captivity in many different Indian societies of North America. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Even before the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, the practice of taking captives was widespread among Native Americans. Indians took captives for many reasons: to replace--by adoption--tribal members who had been lost in battle, to use as barter for needed material goods, to use as slaves, or to use for reproductive purposes. From the legendary story of John Smith's captivity in the Virginia Colony to the wildly successful narratives of New England colonists taken captive by local Indians, the genre of the captivity narrative is well known among historians and students of early American literature. Not so for Hispanic America. Fernando Operé redresses this oversight, offering the first comprehensive historical and literary account of Indian captivity in Spanish-controlled territory from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Originally published in Spanish in 2001 as Historias de la frontera: El cautiverio en la América hispánica, this newly translated work reveals key insights into Native American culture in the New World's most remote regions. From the "happy captivity" of the Spanish military captain Francisco Nuñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, who in 1628 spent six congenial months with the Araucanian Indians on the Chilean frontier, to the harrowing nineteenth-century adventures of foreigners taken captive in the Argentine Pampas and Patagonia; from the declaraciones of the many captives rescued in the Rio de la Plata region of Argentina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to the riveting story of Helena Valero, who spent twenty-four years among the Yanomamö in Venezuela during the mid-twentieth century, Operé's vibrant history spans the entire gamut of Spain's far-flung frontiers. Eventually focusing on the role of captivity in Latin American literature, Operé convincingly shows how the captivity genre evolved over time, first to promote territorial expansion and deny intercultural connections during the colonial era, and later to romanticize the frontier in the service of nationalism after independence. This important book is thus multidisciplinary in its concept, providing ethnographic, historical, and literary insights into the lives and customs of Native Americans and their captives in the New World.

Enthralling generations of readers, the narrative of capture by Native Americans is arguably the first American literary form dominated by the experiences of women. The ten selections in this anthology span the early history of this country (1682-1892) and range in literary style from fact-based narrations to largely fictional, spellbinding adventure stories. The women are variously victimized, triumphant, or, in the case of Mary Jemison, permantently transculturated. This collection includes well known pieces such as Mary Rowlandson's "A True History" (1682), Cotton Mather's version of Hannah Dunstan's infamous captivity and escape (after scalping her captors!), and the "Panther Captivity", as well as lesser known texts. As Derounian-Stodola demonstrates in the introduction, the stories also raise questions about the motives of their (often male) narrators and promoters, who in many cases embellish melodrama to heighten anti-British and anti-Indian propaganda, shape the tales for ecclesiastical purposes, or romanticize them to exploit the growing popularity of sentimental fiction in order to boost sales. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.