Overview of John Demos's Unredeemed Captive

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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.
The story began with the change of a small frontier town. “Harvest over. First frost. The valley ablaze with autumn color: reds and yellows at the sides (along the forested ridges of East Mountain and the lower hills to the west), green of the meadows in between” (Demos 11). The French started planning this raid early in 1703 and the town of Deerfield, New England was finally raided on February 29th, 1704 and everything seemed to change. The village, quiet as can be, stood as still while the assaulters finished up their preparation. Most of the town was ransacked, ravaged, and set ablaze. Many houses were attacked, some in specifics. Some residents were slaughtered and scalped, and only the fortunate successfully escaped. For many others, the less fortunate were held imprisoned and taken back to New France in Canada. The motivation for the attack was to capture Deerfield's prominent pastor, John Williams. They believed he would make a good exchange for a French captain named Jean Baptiste Guyon which was a pirate held hostage by the English.
The night of the attack ...

... middle of paper ...

...d be seen as fact or fiction. I didn’t see any weaknesses throughout the book. I thought it was an easy read and enjoyed it.
The unredeemed captive was a very interesting story. John Demos created this story to inform on what happened in the past. I learned the story of the raid on Deerfield in 1704. The importance of not only the dangerous journey these captives endured, but the story for one child, Eunice Williams. She had to give herself along with the other Native Americans captures and to continue life among the wilderness. I watched the relationships among many tribes build and crumble while hearing a story of a family who was ripped apart for many decades. Things happen in life; it’s not about what happens, it’s about how you react to them.

Works Cited

Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.

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