Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

The Unredeemed Captive

A Family Story from Early America

Author John Demos
Look inside
Paperback
$17.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.18"W x 7.97"H x 0.7"D  
On sale Mar 28, 1995 | 336 Pages | 9780679759614
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize
Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Prize
Finalist for the National Book Award
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

In 1704 a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, abducting an eminent Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams and most of his family would eventually be released, his daughter Eunice stayed with her captors, despite intense negotiations and pleas from her family. She eventually lost her ability to speak English, was converted to Catholicism by French Jesuits, and married a Mohawk at the age of 16, and continued to live in her Indian village until her death.

Demos uses this incident as a window unto the early history of North America, where French, English, and Indians faced one another across a gulf of culture and belief—and sometimes crossed over. The Unredeemed Captive is the story of the contest of cultures in Colonial America, revealing much about the Puritans, the French, and the Native Americans of that time, as it raises compelling issues about race, gender, and identity.

“A masterpiece . . . recovering for us the poignant story of lives and families shattered and then painfully knitted together again in the complex cultural encounters between English, French, and Mohawk peoples in eighteenth-century America. There is nothing quite like it in our literature. It is a stunning achievement that should change forever the way we write and tell stories about the American past.” —William Cronon
John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. His previous books includeThe Unredeemed Captive, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Entertaining Satan, which won the Bancroft Prize. He lives in Tyringham, MA. View titles by John Demos
  • WINNER | 1995
    Francis Parkman Prize
  • FINALIST | 1994
    National Book Awards
  • FINALIST | 1994
    National Book Critics Circle Awards
"Fascinating and alluring in the way the best writing on history can be."--The Observer

"Powerful and useful. . . .Demos has achieved the kind of balancing act that historians constantly strive for but seldom achieve."--New Republic 

"This thought-provoking study explores the multiple communities to which apparently simple people belonged and how their domestic lives were overtaken by political events. Fascinating, lively, and especially timely to an age struggling to understand the implications of its own cross-cultural encounters."--Kirkus

"A masterpiece...recovering for us the poignant story of lives and families shattered and then painfully knitted together again in the complex cultural encounters between English, French, and Mohawk peoples in eighteenth-century America. There is nothing quite like it in our literature. It is a stunning achievement that should change forever the way we write and tell stories about the American past."--William Cronon

About

Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize
Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Prize
Finalist for the National Book Award
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

In 1704 a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, abducting an eminent Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams and most of his family would eventually be released, his daughter Eunice stayed with her captors, despite intense negotiations and pleas from her family. She eventually lost her ability to speak English, was converted to Catholicism by French Jesuits, and married a Mohawk at the age of 16, and continued to live in her Indian village until her death.

Demos uses this incident as a window unto the early history of North America, where French, English, and Indians faced one another across a gulf of culture and belief—and sometimes crossed over. The Unredeemed Captive is the story of the contest of cultures in Colonial America, revealing much about the Puritans, the French, and the Native Americans of that time, as it raises compelling issues about race, gender, and identity.

“A masterpiece . . . recovering for us the poignant story of lives and families shattered and then painfully knitted together again in the complex cultural encounters between English, French, and Mohawk peoples in eighteenth-century America. There is nothing quite like it in our literature. It is a stunning achievement that should change forever the way we write and tell stories about the American past.” —William Cronon

Author

John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. His previous books includeThe Unredeemed Captive, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Entertaining Satan, which won the Bancroft Prize. He lives in Tyringham, MA. View titles by John Demos

Awards

  • WINNER | 1995
    Francis Parkman Prize
  • FINALIST | 1994
    National Book Awards
  • FINALIST | 1994
    National Book Critics Circle Awards

Praise

"Fascinating and alluring in the way the best writing on history can be."--The Observer

"Powerful and useful. . . .Demos has achieved the kind of balancing act that historians constantly strive for but seldom achieve."--New Republic 

"This thought-provoking study explores the multiple communities to which apparently simple people belonged and how their domestic lives were overtaken by political events. Fascinating, lively, and especially timely to an age struggling to understand the implications of its own cross-cultural encounters."--Kirkus

"A masterpiece...recovering for us the poignant story of lives and families shattered and then painfully knitted together again in the complex cultural encounters between English, French, and Mohawk peoples in eighteenth-century America. There is nothing quite like it in our literature. It is a stunning achievement that should change forever the way we write and tell stories about the American past."--William Cronon

Additional formats

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles

General English Language Arts Science Collections Health, Sports, Games, and Crafts Math The Arts High School Middle School Music

Get Inspired! Books for After-School Clubs & Activities

Coordinating after-school clubs and activities in your school community? Explore our collection of books that will help students discover their passion for new (and screen-free!) hobbies. Focusing on topics such as art, board games, crafting, cooking, nature, sports, and more—these books are bound to spark imagination and movement. Browse the middle school and high school

Read more

Get Inspired! Books for After-School Clubs & Activities

General English Language Arts Science Collections Health, Sports, Games, and Crafts Math The Arts High School Middle School Music

Penguin Random House Secondary Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)