Desmos “The Unredeemed Captive”

Book Examination #1: Desmos’ “The Unredeemed Captive” Allison Brown History of North American Indians Dr. Means 17 September, 2020 In John Desmos’, “The Unredeemed Captive”, the lives of the Williams’, particularly that of Eunice Williams, are examined in-depth in a colonial Northern American sphere and are at the epicenter of action in the text according to Desmos, “The Williams family had ... its own prominent part to1. play” Eunice Williams also referred to as Marguerite Lafitau, A’ongote, and Gannenstenhawi as the protagonist of the text allows readers to develop insight and understanding of the three major players on the Eastern Atlantic in the seventeen-hundreds: the English, Native Americans, and the French in Canada. By allowing the reader to experience each of these vastly different cultures through Eunice’s life, Desmos can reveal what she represented to all parties involved and ultimately how she in the eyes of her English family remains “an unredeemed captive”. To start, Eunice Williams was born and lived the earliest years of her life in the colonial town of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her father, John Williams, was the community’s minister and a staple in the community. With a well-off, prominent, and seemingly complete existence, Eunice in this short period of her life represented what the English would deem as being a part of the civilized world. However, in February 1704, the bubble of the Deerfield community was burst when members of the Abnekakis and Mohawk tribes attacked the village, with the priority of capturing John Williams and English colonists to bring north to Canada for the French to attempt a trade of prisoners. The attack is violent with many deaths and Deerfield is all but burned to the ground. But for the Williams’, the most trying time of the endeavor was still to come. The march to Canada was tough and filled with what Desmos’ deems to be merciful executions from the Native Americans for those who were unlikely to survive the journey or who were deemed unfit to keep up with the group. This included Eunice’s own mother, who would be 2 executed via hatchet by a “... cruel and bloodthirsty savage” as John Williams would describe. Demos notes that the groups with the highest rates of survival would be children (not including infants) and grown men, children due to the Native Americans arguably taking pity on them, by carrying them and providing support. This was the case for Eunice and her brother Stephen. At a later point in the text, Eunice recalls her Native American “master” watching her father John Williams struggle to carry her and continue on his own trek, she recalls how the Native American, strong and fit for the journey, carried her on his back for the duration of the march to Canada. From her perspective, she watched her father struggle to keep up at the back of the group. This relationship with her “master” and the Native Americans would lead Eunice into the next period of her life. 1 Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. Vintage Books, 1995, pg. 224 2 Demos, 1995, pg. 29 1 Like others in the group of captives from Deerfield and other colonial captives at the time, “there 3 was the mater of ‘adoption’ of incorporating captives in particular Indian families” . For Eunice, this, fortunately, was the case. She becomes part of the Kahnawake family at a young age, impacting her character and life. Arguably, being “English” in Deerfield was such a small portion of her life (at a young age) that had no real impact on her personality and morals. Her adopted family has taken a strong 4 interest in her and Desmos writes that “the Mohawks would as soon part with their hearts as my . child” In February of 1707, the first mayor of Albany, Schuyler, in a letter notes Eunice’s feelings, “ … saw [Eunice] in good health wth ye Indian who ownes her, she seems unwilling to reutrne, and the Indian not very willing to part with her …”5. These would be the first of many instances where Eunice voices her opinion to stay with the Kahnawake. To them, Eunice was not English but one of their own. Adopted at such an early age and raised in their ways, it is hard to imagine as a reader that she was more “English” than what the Williams’ and Colonial America viewed as a “savage”. Eunice’s relationship with the 6 Native Americans grew when “the melancholy news” that she had married François-Xavier Arosen, a Mohawk man (acting with her own autonomy). As is clear in the letters of Elisha and John Williams, this marriage was a sign of her captivity with Elisha going as far to write statements including phrases such as, “must still pray in faith for her redemption … the child of so many prayers cannot be lost … 7 there is still a way for her recovery … I can’t write without tears” . Eunice choosing to marry a Mohawk man (and a Catholic!) and choosing to stay with this “savage” population shook Colonial America. Desmos notes that to see a woman of such prestige and grace willingly decide to ‘abandon it all’ is incomprehensible, so, the Williams’, those involved, and at this point, the general public chooses to not accept it and instead construct their own narrative. Eunice’s marriage was “melancholy news” but her religious conversion into Catholicism was just as difficult to bear, if arguably not more so than her choice to live with “savage” populations. As made clear throughout the book, strained relations exist among the French Catholics and English Protestants. This was clear from the start, with the French behind the siege of Deerfield. As years passed, tensions between the two European powers in the Colonies only increased, and at the epicenter of this conflict were the religious differences between the two. Early in her “captivity” Eunice is introduced to Catholicism, with John Williams visiting her, offering what Eunice would later recall as 3 Demos, 1995, pg. 81 4 Demos, 1995, pg. 83 5 Demos, 1995, pg. 85 6 Demos, 1995, pg. 95 7 Demos, 1995, pg. 98-99 2 meaningless and weak prayers for her not to fall victim to the means of the Jesuits and Catholicism around her. Eunice as a Catholic represented how to Colonial America how she supposedly stayed in 8 “darkness and ignorance” . To the Catholics arguably I could see that the Catholic’s may have viewed Eunice’s choice of conversion as a victory over English Protestants and John Williams, turning his own daughter to their religion. The narrative that I alluded to before, of Colonial Americans being unable to comprehend 9 Eunice’s choices of “savagery and popery” or living with indigenous populations/her marriage to Arosen and her choice to follow Catholicism is I believe the culmination of all of Eunice’s experiences and representations at the three different points of her life as an “English” girl, a member of the Kahnawake family and her marriage, and her Catholic identity with the French. Throughout the text it is clear through letters and comments made about Eunice that she was seen as a captive for the entirety of her life, a captive to both the Native Americans and French. After all, viewing her choices to marry and live among those groups was easier for the English to accept as being forced than a willing choice to turn away from the “civilized”. In the second half of the text, Stephen Williams constantly refers to Eunice as “his poor sister”. Her older brother is not ignorant to her choices and autonomy exercised, but still chooses to believe that she is a “captive”. Ultimately, the combination of all of Eunice’s representations leads her to be the “unredeemed captive”. Unlike those who were captured from Deerfield in the early seventeen hundreds who returned home (many, but not all) and back to civilization, Eunice never did. And therefore was unredeemed in the eyes of Colonial America for the duration of her life. To conclude, Desmos’ establishes Eunice’s importance to the three conflicting parties of the text: the English, Native Americans, and French in order to both showcase the tension that was growing in the colonial sphere at the time and what Eunice represented at the different crossroads of her unique and diverse life. When Eunice dies, after living much longer than normal life, Desmos notes that her different representations do indeed converge, “Three different endings, then, representing the three main strands of her long life story. However, in one respect they do converge. Each denies the finality of 10 death, and continues the story toward an endless ‘next world’ future” . With this excerpt I believe that Desmos is drawing a comparison and making a statement although the worlds of the English, Native 8 Demos, 1995, pg. 205 9 Demos, 1995, pg. 201 10 Demos, 1995, pg. 241 3 Americans and French are vastly different; That some ideals may overlap and ultimately that Eunice’s life was not simply a representation of each of the three different societies but more a combination of all three in an ever-changing Colonial World. 4