book data
161 ratings,
3.60
average rating, 26 reviews
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published
March 28th 1995
by Vintage
(first published 1994)
details
Paperback, 336 pages
literary awards
isbn
0679759611
(isbn13: 9780679759614)
description
Nominated for the National Book Award, this book is set in colonial Massachusetts where, in 1704, a French and Indian war party descended on the villa…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 271)
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5 stars (38)
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4 stars (52)
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3 stars (47)
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2 stars (16)
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1 star (8)
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avg 3.60
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
those interested in history
You gotta hand it to the author -- he did his research. This book contains information from numerous primary sources, and that is where the strengths of this book lie. The author delves off into trying to fill in the blanks left us by the primary sources, but that's not what he's good at. I found some of his "imaginings" of what happened to be quite different from what I imagined given the evidence he had presented. But overall, it was a fascinating look at life in the late 1600s t...more
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Read in February, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of a New England family who was captured by Native Americans in the Deerfield Raid, which took place approximately in 1704. The daughter, Eunice, never did return to her family, she had multiple opportunities, but she chose to remain with the Native Americans. This book shows the attitudes the colonists had towards the Indians, the Indian captives, Catholics, the French, the Indian captives, etc, that chose to stay, etc.
This book I think ...more
This book I think ...more
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Granted, I didn't read the whole thing...but because I couldn't. I didn't like the author's style of writing at all and had a difficult time following it. In the preface he claimed that he wanted to write a narrative-style history, but to me it ended up being a large, jumbled mass of facts, dates, and personalities with very little baseline narrative. It didn't flow or make sense and was, actually, boring. How do you make an indian captivity narrative boring? Oh well.
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Read in January, 2010
Thought-provoking, informative read for American history buffs, and/or those interested in Native American/Puritan relations in colonial America. Represents several 'sides' of the true story of a young woman taken at the age of 7 by the French/Mohawks during a massacre of a Puritan community in Massachusetts, who later chose to live as an Indian woman rather than return to her Puritan family.
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Read in June, 1996
A history book highly recommended to me by both Ginalie & Bridgett Williams. I didn't find it as engaging as they did. I thought Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was much more creative with limited source material & gave a narrow story more significance. Demos's efforts to make this story stand in for the encounter between two alien cultures largely fell flat for me.
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Read in May, 2004
Phenomenal, heart-breaking story. Book club capped off our experience with this book with a trip to Deerfield (we only live 45 minutes away). Standing in the cemetery, hands clasped in a circle, looking at headstones of victims of the Deerfield massacre was a moving experience indeed.
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Read in November, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Read in February, 2010
How did the early New Englanders get along with the Indians? This book gives an incredible insight into the clash of cultures. Such an interesting tale of what happened when the Puritan, French, and Indian goals came into conflict. And a touching family story.
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Read in June, 2008
This is the tale of Eunice Williams, taken from her home in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the Deerfield Massacre of February 29, 1704. She was eight years old. She died in 1785. She had married a Mohawk man and had by him two children. She lost her use of English, converted to Catholicism, and lived in the Indian fashion until the day of her death.
It is also the tale of the meeting of three cultures: the Catholic French in Canada, the Puritan English in New England, and the Nativ...more
It is also the tale of the meeting of three cultures: the Catholic French in Canada, the Puritan English in New England, and the Nativ...more
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Read in February, 2010
I'm all about history but this book fell waaayyy short for me. Demos gets caught up in himself and sort of rambles at parts. This true story had potential to be something great had Demos taken the novel route; but he didn't. Sorry Demos, better luck next time.
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Read in January, 1998
This is probably my second favorite book of all time. Demos is an excellent historian, and in this book, he turned out narrative prose to rival the best fiction novels. Having at one time been a historian myself, I imagine that this book was a big relief to him as he gave into the temptation that we all have - to imagine what happened to our subjects even when we don't have any records or evidence to support it.
Demos clearly distinguishes between the non-fiction text and the imagined...more
Demos clearly distinguishes between the non-fiction text and the imagined...more
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Aug 23, 2007
Rebecca
added it
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Azi
What I learned: that where I went to college had lots of interesting history. Also about early colonial America, religion in said, Native American politics/culture/migration in said, and the many, many wars fought over local issues or proxy wars for European conflicts.
It's definitely more history than story in the reading, but the narrative thread does lead you along and makes some of the history more relevant. I'm glad I read it because I knew so little about this period.
It's definitely more history than story in the reading, but the narrative thread does lead you along and makes some of the history more relevant. I'm glad I read it because I knew so little about this period.
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Read in June, 2008
The history of culture contact as lived by colonial settlers in the early 18th century held as captives by Indians. This book concerns a captive woman who chose to stay with the Indians instead of returning to her "home". Her family viewed this as a tragedy but the descriptions of matrilineal Indian culture make it clear there were good reasons that she stayed. I don't know much about this period and was fascinated by it.
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Read in January, 1995
Forgot that I'd read this. I don't recall all the details, except for the somewhat amazed sense of how common abductions were in Colonial days, and how powerful environment is, in the sense that after a few years, captives, if taken young enough, became as Indian as their new relatives, and often resisted attempts to redeem them, a theme that recently reappeared in the wonderful "The Tenderness of Wolves."
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I read this for a class and as I recall it is less like a novel and more like a series of historical events documented and explained pertaining to the traumatizing event of an attack from French and Canadian Indians on a Northeastern American village during the 1700s. I liked it in the context of the class. It was interesting.
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the french and Indians raid Deerfield, Mass taking one hundred captives in the dead of winter to be taken back to French Quebec. Most are redeemed for ransoms. a young girl remains and is brought up by the Mohawks and adopted by the tribe where she marries and is cut off from english ways. Very interesting, true story.
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My ancestors, the Nims are mentioned in this book. Abigail was taken captive at age 4 with her mother during the Massacre. While I am very familiar with the history, passed down thru my mother, to see it in print was fascinating.
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Read in November, 2009
Finalist for National Book Award - history of Deerfield "massacre" from perspective of one family who has one daughter who chooses to stay with the indians.
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Aug 13, 2008
Nancy
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French-Indian wars. A Massachusetts woman is kidnapped & taken to Quebec. Although her family tries to redeem her, she stays & marries an Indian.
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Jul 23, 2008
Wisteria
added it
American history,1600-1775-Colonial,Mohawk Indians-captivities,Massachussetts,biography,Eunice Williams,1702-1713-Queen Anne's War,Queen Anne's War
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