A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson Containing an Account of her Sufferings, During Four Years with the Indians and French

TitleA Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson Containing an Account of her Sufferings, During Four Years with the Indians and French
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication1814
AuthorsJohnson, Susanna
Number of Pages178
PublisherThomas M. Pomroy
CityWindsor, VT
Abstract

This document is an account of the experiences in captivity of Susannah Willard Johnson (1729/30–1810), an Anglo-American woman who was captured with her family during an Abenaki Indian raid in Charlestown, New Hampshire in August 1754, just after the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Johnson and her family were marched for weeks through the wilderness of New England and Quebec before arriving at the Abenaki village in Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec. They were held for ransom until being sold off into slavery to the French. After her release in 1758, Johnson returned to her home in Charlestown. Beginning in 1796, she recorded a full account of her ordeal. The first edition of her narrative was composed by John Curtis Chamberlain (using information from Johnson's oral testimony and notes) and appeared in small circulation later that year; subsequent editions were revised and edited by Johnson and published in 1807, and posthumously in 1814. Her harrowing memoir, although not the first work in the captivity narrative genre, was among the most widely read and studied accounts. It was republished numerous times in following years.

URLhttps://archive.org/details/narrativeofcapti00john
Entry by GWC Assistants / Work by GWC Assistants : 
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181836528

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