Captive Stories
Cleve, Ryan, Jack, Mitchell
Mary Jemison
In 1758, Mary Jemison was held captive by Indians. She was living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Since she was from Ireland and the Indians where against most of Europe, the Indians raided her family’s house. Mary’s brothers escaped and were free. Mary, her mother, and Mary’s friend were taken to Fort Duquesne. In Fort Duquesne, Mary was adopted by the Senecas, which is an Indian tribe. She never decided to go back to colonial America and had a child within the tribe.
Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson was a British American colonial author who wrote one of the finest firsthand accounts of the 17th-century Indian life and of puritan- Indian conflicts in early New England. She was born in the year 1637 in England. In February of 1675 Mary Rowlandson was taken captive by Indians after brutally raiding their village. She was hiding in her house when it was caught on fire and she was forced out of it and the Indians caught her. Her village was near Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is now around Boston. The journey started their and went all the way to what is now Vermont and New Hampshire. She was taken prisoner with many others for almost a year. She was captive until May of 1676. She was taken captive because Indians were raiding her village and took a lot of their village captive if they weren’t already dead. During the journey they travelled many miles and they were treated terrible. She moved to Lancaster, Mass in 1676 where she wrote these accounts in 1676-1679. When she moved to the new frontier village of Lancaster, Mass and married Rev. Joseph Rowlandson after he died she wrote an account of her captivity for her children and it was published in Boston in 1682. Her account of her captivity ran through more than 30 editions over the years, and selections from it have been included in countless anthologies of American writing. Mary passed away in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1710 January 5.