The Unredeemed Captive Book Report

It is January of 1704. As John Demos puts it, “A night of winter, a night of want, night of war.” The Iroquoi Indians and French invade an English frontier capturing or killing many of its inhabitants. This is the night that starts the ripple effect that John Demos traces in his book, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. Of the many that were captured by the Kahnawake Indians, Revered John Williams, a minister from Deerfield and his large family were among them. Two children were murdered at the beginning of the invasion and the rest of the family was marched to Canada with the rest of the captives. Eventually, John and four of his children were released but his daughter, Eunice Williams chose to remain imprisoned by

Captivity signified the greatest offense to all that New Englanders worked for, lived by and tried to overcome. And for those who were taken captive, many thought that the sins of their relaxed ways had annoyed God, and captivity was the punishment. But was a captive able to become fully redeemed in the eyes of God? The New Englanders believed a successful return revolved around returning to the ordinary cycles of everyday life, of family, of community and thus, of order. As Demos says about John William and his family’s

He or she will either be valued as a payoff and returned back to their hometown, or assimilated into Native American or French Culture. The New Englanders, like Reverend John Williams, saw captivity as a spiritual journey; a punishment for sins and the destiny assigned them by God. It was their duty to endure, and by doing so they pleased God. Children, on the other hand, were more often left in the care of the Natives. They would be adopted by a tribe family and, after a cleansing ceremony to rid them of European blood; the families would raise the child as if it were their own. This was exactly what happened to Eunice Williams and the impact was great. Even though Demos explains in his novel that the ideas of captivity are vastly different between the social groups of the New Englanders and Native Americans, you are also able to conclude how they were interconnected as well. In 1727, John Williams passes away and after his death, Eunice’s brother Stephen actively worked to keep the family bond alive. He carried on his father’s plight of trying to get his daughter Eunice to return home. Eunice did eventually return home for lengthy visits but would always prefer the Catholic and Native American ways. These visits suggest that the ties between her birth family and her Iroquois family were never completely severed and that her biological family connections