The Assimilation of Captives on the American Frontier in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Résumé du livre

"The experiences of white persons held in captivity by Indians have fascinated readers for almost three centuries. Hundreds of redeemed captives have written or related accounts of their adventures, and many of them acknowledged that they had enjoyed the life style of their captors. Other former captives charged, however, that they had been brutalized by the Indians to the point of preferring death to a life of captivity. Many captives retained almost no recollection of white civilization, having lost the use of their native languages and even forgotten their own names. They had become proficient in the skills required for survival in the wilderness and, except for the color of the their skins, they could scarcely be distinguished from their captors. This study analyzes narratives of captivity in order to identify and evaluate factors which facilitated or retarded assimilation"--Page iv