Kidnapped By Robert Louis Stevenson

Narratives about captivity have often intrigued readers in Western culture. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s stories helped pave the way for stereotypes within both European and white culture; teaching Europeans to see Native Americans as cruel and allowing whites to see the evil in the American slave market. In both “A Narrative of the Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano share their individual stories of being kidnapped and enslaved. Though the two narrators share similarities in their personal accounts of being held captive, either individual’s reaction sheds light on the true purpose of both Rowlandson and Equiano’s writing.

George Alsop’s memoir of his service as an indentured servant in the colony of Maryland provides an insightful look into the lives of indentured servants in Maryland during the middle of the 17th Century. Throughout this period of colonial America the British were notorious in their use of propaganda to attract young British men into indentured servitude as the use of slaves was not yet perpetual, and would not be until 1670. Alsop depicts an idealistic view of indenture servitude in Maryland during his own time of service, which may have been the case, however this view can be contested by Nathaniel

Demos' “The Unredeemed Captive” centers upon the English Puritans' pursuit to encourage the assimilation of the Native Americans while also focusing heavily upon the abduction of the Williams' family at Deerfield. These captives were considered to be “unredeemed” until they somehow escaped their imprisonment. While John Williams eventually escaped and would later write “The Redeemed Captive” in 1707, his daughter Eunice Williams joined the Mohawk society. Her assimilation meant that she would always be an unredeemed captive. History is simply a collection of grand stories put together over the years. Demos wrote, “Most of all, I wanted to write a story”(Demos, xi). Throughout his writing, Demos recounts history as a story. By using such a unique method to relay historic information, Demos allows the reader to invest as much interest into it as they would normally invest in a fictional story. With this style, the stories found in historical events come to life.

One implication as a result of the biggest known migration of human beings in history is that there is little documentation of individuals from the African Slave Trade. As such a familiar occurrence in history, there is little to be known about the individual experiences of captives during this horrific time. Randy Sparks, author of The Two Princes of Calabar, ends the silence as he provides the reader with a glimpse into an eighteenth century odyssey, and first hand account to the trading communities along the coast of West Africa. This trade not only transported people, but the exchange of ideas is also present across and around the Atlantic. The novel tells the story of two young men from Nigeria who are from an elite slave trading family. These men were captured by Europeans and sold into slavery until they were ultimately released back to their homeland. The Two Princes of Calabar offers insight into the complexities that existed in the transracial Atlantic world of the eighteenth century through the themes of privilege, gender bias, and the mistreatment of the enslaved.

King Henry IV must also contend with his son, Prince Hal, who’s not the honorable prince he had hoped him to be. He feels it is “an honorable spoil” not to have “a son who is the theme of honor’s tongue,” when he learns of Northumberland’s son Hotspur’s victories, which, should be “a conquest for a prince to boast of” (1.1.74,80, & 76). Pangs of jealousy strike Henry’s heart caused by the differences between his son and Northumberland’s. So much so, he wishes “it could be proved that” someone, or something, “had exchanged in cradle clothes, their sons at birth” (1.1.85-87).

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is a personal story that highlights the injustice of slavery. This book was based on the author’s

In these two tales of brutal bondage, Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the modern reader can decipher two vastly different experiences from circumstances that were not altogether that dissimilar. Both narratives tell the story of a slave gaining his or her freedom from cruel masters, yes, but that is where the most prominent similarities end. Not only are they factually different, these stories are entirely distinct in their themes.

When a family member dies, they usually leave behind a will, property, or money to give to a loved one. In joint families, situations like these provoke arguments amongst the family members; all for the greed of wealth. Similarly, in the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson, David has been out finding his place in the world. He returns, as a man, to claim his rightful inheritance from his father’s death. For the greed of wealth, Davis’s uncle gets him kidnapped. On his journey to get back his rights, David meets Alan and they become best friends. David, the archetypal youth, and Alan, the dashing rouge, both exemplify character archetypes through their speech and actions.

In the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography the article Indentured Servitude in the Chesapeake is taken from the court records of Virginia that describe what happened to indentured servants that ran away. This article also suggests historical events of the social order in the seventeenth century.

William Gunnell, Jr. travelled with his parents from their home in Great Britain to Virginia sometime before his tenth birthday in 1715. In Virginia, they became indentured servants for a man named Richard Lee. Following his master’s death, William’s indenture was inherited by Richard’s son. William worked for the Lee family for six years as a clerk, running errands and keeping the books. At the age of sixteen, William’s contract ended, and he became a free man (“Indentured Servants,” n.d., para. 4). This is one of the better examples of indentured servitude in the colonies, since most servants did not live to see the end of their contracts. In the colonies, indentured servitude acted as a kind of contract-based slavery in which free people were turned into property for a term of four to seven years, on average. Their owners paid for their food, clothing, and shelter on arrival in the colonies until the servants had completed their contract, upon which they were paid “freedom dues” which could be anything from tools, land, or even guns (“Indentured Servants,” n.d., para. 1).

Narrator- a person who gives an account or tells the story of events, experiences. In the historical non-fiction Night by Elie Wiesel and Markus Zusak's historical fiction The Book Thief, the narrators offer unique perspectives to readers of World War II and also the Holocaust in Germany. Night's first-person narrator and The Book Thief's third-person narrator both bring out the realities and actualities of World War II by describing the horrors of what they each had to see and go through. The fact that Night is in first person enables the reader to interpret one person's encounters that occurred in real life, while the third person narrative, The Book Thief, lets readers see the thoughts of many characters.

Rowlandson, Mary. “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration.” Baym, Nina. Anthology of American Literature; Beginnings to 1820. 8th. A. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 259-287.Print.

The captivity narrative genre includes writings by or about people captured by an enemy, usually one who is considered by the hostage to be a foreign and uncivilized heathen, and was especially popular in America and England in the seventeenth through late nineteenth centuries. Documents from the time show that between 1675 and 1763, at least 1,641 New Englanders were held in captivity as hostages, though many believe that the numbers are drastically low because of poor record keeping (Vaughan, 53). Regardless of the exact number of hostages, the fact is that thousands of people were profoundly affected by being held captive by the Indians. Some of those people, including Mary Rowlandson,

The life one treasures and takes for granted today can be so easily erased in the blink of an eye and gone tomorrow. Therefore, not only is it important to cherish how one lives for today and now, but it’s also important to how one can overcome the misfortunes and hardships they may suffer; tragedy can make a person or break a person. Mary Rowlandson’s experience during her eleven weeks of captivity as documented in “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is a perfect answer to the above argument. The eleven weeks she experienced as a prisoner of her Indian captors proves to be a pivotal occasion in her life, which changes her feelings, lifestyle, and attitude as well towards her abductors. By the end of her horrifying experience, she rises more profoundly grounded in every way: mentally, physically, and spiritually with a new outlook on life, closer to God, and a newfound opinion of the Indians.

This primary text from Clara Reeve’s “The Old English Baron” exhibits the struggle between Sir Phillip Harclay and Lord Fitz-Owen (The Old English Baron) about allowing Edmund to marry his daughter. Although “The Old English