The Unredeemed Captive John Demos Summary

By 1649, the Five Nations Iroquois had destroyed the people of Huronia and driven them from their lands. The Five Nations Iroquois attacked and destroyed Huronia because of their desire to acquire fur at an increased rate in exchange for European goods, and the heavy influence of the Dutch. The Iroquois were successful in destroying Huronia due to their advanced weaponry which was supplied by the Dutch, and the French's desire to focus on converting the Hurons instead of aiding them sufficiently. The Five Nations Iroquois attacked the villages of Huronia relentlessly in order to obtain fur, and made the Huron captives carry their own fur back to Iroquoia. The Iroquois also saw destroying Huronia as a very profitable opportunity, as it would bring them in power in exchanging for many European goods.

Eunice Williams is captured by Mohawk Indians when they attack her home in 1704. In the book The Unredeemed Captive by John Demos, we follow her journey from this point throughout the rest of her life. With painstaking research, the story of Eunice’s life in captivity and the struggle of her family to redeem her comes to life. But within this story lies many others, the people of Deerfield, other captives, and the Indians to name a few. Telling these stories gives us insight into the lives and struggles of these people.

In The Unredeemed Captive, John Demos discusses the complexities within the sudden attack on Deerfield in Massachusetts including the experiences amidst of the invasion and captivity of the Williams family. John Williams, also known to be the father of the family, was a prominent and well-connected member of the New England clergy. He was also a Puritan minister who described with detail his overall experience as a captive from both The Mohawk Indian Tribe and The French Canadians, which in turn were considered to be allies. Following John Williams’s captivity, it became a matter of great concern throughout the colony. Soon enough, the Williams family had to experience the feeling of being separated with the realization that it might be the last time they would ever see each other again. Despite the misery, the life of the Williams family was changed forever when Mother

The Unredeemed Captain is the factual telling of the Deerfield Massacre and the ways it effected the Williams family who lost their daughter as a captive to the Bear tribe of the Mohawk Native Americans. The book deeply explores religion and how it relates to the ideas of savagery and family through comparison of experiences in the lives of the Puritans and the lives of the Native American captors.

The Unreedeemed Capitive discloses the story of John Williams and his family becoming captives of the French and Mohawk Indians and after their return from Canada, pursuing to “redeem” Eunice Williams, John William’s daughter, back to a puritan lifestyle. Starting at Deefield, Masschusetts, October 1703, “Reverend Mr” John Williams writes a letter to the governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts Bay of the apprehension of being attacked by the French and the Indians and a request to abate the taxes to help rebuild a fort.(p.11) On February 28, Deerfield was attacked. After the massacre, John Williams, his family and other residents of Deerfield became captives of the French and Indians. They now had to march to Montreal in the snow on a unknown

He discusses one instance where the English joined in an alliance with the Iroquois in order to further an “anti-French sentiment,” which would then aid the English in maintaining control of the land and trade. I do not believe that the advantages that the Iroquois gained from these “cultivated ties,” if any, were clearly presented in the book. Furthermore, not only does it seem like the Indians were not in control of their own destiny and actions at times, but also that they were naive to look positively on the “diplomatic gifts” from the Europeans. For example, in 1673, the Dutch military “gave the Mohawks a diplomatic present” in hopes that the Mohawks would tell the commander of the state “to put a stop to all correspondence with the Jesuit and Frenchmen from Canada” (135). In the midst of the different European nations’ struggles with one another, it is difficult to see where the Iroquois really come into play and make a case for their own identity until the 18th

The main thesis of The Unredeemed Captive by John Demos is that for some Puritan women in Early America, such as Eunice Williams, living in “captivity” among Kahnawake Indians was preferable to living with their family where they were severely limited by their gender. In this book John Demos examines the Indian way of life in comparison to that of the New Englanders. It is a story about the meeting of three cultures: the Catholic French, the Puritan English, and the Native Americans.

As shown in document one, William Smith, a British soldier states, ¨They delivered up their beloved captives with utmost reluctance… they visited them from day to day; and brought them what corn, skins, horses, and other matters they had bestowed on them while in their families...¨ Smith indirectly states that while the Indians were thought to be savages, they too showed compassion and loyalty, which showed the British that the Indians weren't quite as different from them as they

The Unredeemed Captive tells a story of struggles a family went through to stay true to one another. Eunice Williams’ was taken captive and family went through many obstacles to try and get her home. Both Eunice and her family were captured together along with many other town residents in the Deerfield Massacre of 1704. Demos precisely described the Deerfield raid along with the process of traveling to Canada. Throughout the book, Demos also covered some individual captive experiences and events. Demos showed the life of Eunice before her life was changed and how it would be if she was not taken. He stated why the raid was the way it was and showed the success of it.

John Demos in a sense presents themes that are entirely familiar and conventional. The themes of sin, retribution, and repentance are very prevalent in his writing. The loss of piety, the failure of spiritual nerve, the absolute necessity of reform; and the certainty of God's punishment if reform was not achieved appear throughout his book (Demos). (In this instance, Eunice's failure to return to her native land is putting her at risk in the eyes of God). For approximately 60 years John Williams who had been a captive for almost two years, and is one of the main characters of the story writes different letters, sermons, in an effort to reach the captive daughter. According to John Williams, "God

“Several of the [Huron] chiefs had proposed deep and treacherous schemes to surprise the Delaware’s, and, by gaining possession of their camp, to recover their prisoners by the same blow; for all agreed that their honor, their interests, and the peace and happiness of their dead countrymen, imperiously required them speedily to immolate some victims to their revenge” (Cooper 324). The Huron tribes held people as prisoners because they were sad when their people died from the war, which was the French and Indian War.

After the war, the remaining Indians that had survived the battle were used for slavery. Subsequently, during the new time for the Indians to be slaves, there were many disputes while colonists sought to settle in America; many women and children were killed because of it. Margret Ellen Newell states,” For some Indians, servitude lasted only until the age of 24. But others were bound to masters for indefinite periods. Indian slaves and household servants appear on census rolls and court records well into the 18th century.” (Newell 2001, paragraph 14). Many of the other

Throughout the semester we have discussed a few captivity narratives such as: John Smith, Mary Rowlandson, and Cotton Mather. From a personal standpoint, Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative was one of the best selections we have read in class thus far. It is a prominent source of biblical encouragement to those of the Puritan religion and some other religions that put God above all human and nature. Throughout the short story, a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, it describes the eleven weeks, approximately around eighty two days, were Rowlandson was held captive. Rowlandson demonstrates how strong her faith is throughout the entire time she was gone away from her family, losing her daughter Sarah and the problems she and the other captives had to face during that amount of time. She keeps her faith through the Lord and he delivers her prays in the end, because she stayed faithful to him.

Montaigne’s description of natives consuming the defeated is analogous to European culture displacing native culture. Just as the prisoner-of-war sang that part of him is his captor’s ‘own fathers and grandfathers’ that he has previously consumed, the European domination of native culture became another chapter in European history. The flesh the prisoner consumed, however, did not retain its original shape. Instead, it was broken down and absorbed into his being. Similarly, the European subsummation of Native American

It may well be asked why Native Americans, who numbered in the millions in the New World, were not subject to enslavement. The fact is that on occasion they were forced to work on plantations, although this seemed to happen most often after a skirmish or a battle between settlers and Indians (Jordan, 1968). However, there were fundamental reasons why Native Americans were treated differently than Africans.