Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier Captivity by Molly K. Varley (review)

A mainstay of American culture, captivity narratives’ tales of abduction, adaptation, acculturation, and (possibly) release persist in their cultural and historical relevance, attending to the anxieties of each historical moment. During the Progressive Era, as Molly Varley argues in Americans Recaptured, harrowing tales of captivity were republished and memorialized in good part because they glorified certain “American” traits and justified a particular set of government policies toward “vanishing” Americans. Americans in the Progressive Era were actively expunging corrupt politicians from office, establishing antitrust laws to abolish monopolies, and ushering in suffrage for women. Captivity narratives’ appeal to Americans at such a moment occupies Varley’s study, which examines not only the creation of parks and historic landmarks dedicated to creating a necessary past for an American future, but also looks at the republications of captivity narratives such as those of Mary Jemison and Martha Bennet Phelps and how these tales shed light on controversies over race, gender, and national identity.

One creative approach to the topic of captivity narratives that Varley undertakes is the study of memorial ceremonies, such as the 1910 ceremony for Mary Jemison (Dehgewanus) at Letchworth State Park. In his remarks at the dedication, historian Hagaman Hall discounts the seventy years Jemison spent among the Seneca and instead maintains her identity as a “white woman.” The statue itself identifies Jemison as “The White Woman of the Genesee” and claims her whiteness despite Jemison’s decision to become Dehgewanus and remain with the Seneca. Another historian, Arthur C. Parker, himself a member of the Seneca tribe, took an entirely different approach to memorializing Dehgewanus, casting her lot as an Iroquois woman as liberating, a model for American gender relations.

Varley acknowledges the contradictory treatments of figures likes Jemison who refused to return to “white” society and remained with their Seneca families. For eugenicists like Madison Grant, Jemison retained her “whiteness” and proved that “white blood” prevailed despite deprivation; for anthropologist Franz Boas, who advocated cultural relativism, Jemison’s assimilation spoke to how comparable the two cultures were, and how intermarriage might help resolve the white-red conflict. Varley steers clear of collapsing the contradictions posed by figures like Jemison; instead, she revels in them as they elucidate larger contrary but nevertheless strongly held beliefs that informed public opinion and national policy.

One shortcoming of an otherwise smart study is Varley’s self-admitted reliance on a choice few captivity narratives and figures; the study’s historical parameters are, of course, key in limiting her study, but readers unfamiliar with the genre might believe there to be just a slim number of such tales.

Notwithstanding, what Varley contributes to the study of captivity narratives is the inclusion of memorials, the particular concerns animating the Progressive Era, and a willingness to embrace the contradictory views of American Indians and their position in the national imaginary.