WOMEN'S INDIAN CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES

The narrative of capture by Native Americans is an archtype of American literature. Most such narratives were fact- based, but the stories themselves were often transformed into spiritual autobiographies, spellbinding adventure stories, sentimental tales, or anti-Indian propaganda. The ten narratives here span two hundred years (1682-1892), and depict the experiences of women such as Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dunstan, Sarah Wakefield, and Mary Jemison.