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Introduction
- The University of Akron Press
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1 Introduction ) On a brilliant spring morning in May 1782, nine-year-old Jonathan Alder and his older brother David set out to find a mare that had wandered from their isolated cabin in southwest Virginia and into the rugged mountains and dense forests of the surrounding countryside. Later in the day, the boys found their horse, but as they struggled to lead the reluctant animal home, they were attacked by a party of Indians from Ohio. David was killed and Jonathan taken prisoner. His captors brought Alder back to Ohio, where he was adopted by a Mingo warrior and his Shawnee wife. Here he spent the next thirteen years. During that time, Alder lived fully as an Indian. He learned their language and observed their customs. He hunted, traded, and fought at their side. In 1795, after the death of his adoptive parents, Alder left the Indians and eventually settled in Pleasant Valley, near present-day Plain City in central Ohio. At the urging of an acquaintance, he traveled to Virginia in 1805, where he had the extraordinary good fortune to find his mother and remaining siblings still living in the neighborhood where he had been captured as a youth. After his reunion, he married a woman from Virginia, returned to Pleasant Valley, and became something of a local celebrity as a result of his childhood adventures. In the late 1830s or early 1840s, probably at the insistence of his family and friends, Alder composed his memoirs, in which he recounted his life with the Ohio Indians and his experiences as one of the area’s earliest pioneers. Captivity narratives from the Ohio frontier have excited the imaginations of readers from the colonial era to the present day. The best of these narratives evoke a sense of high adventure and romance 2 Introduction that, to many, define the frontier era. Within their pages, one encounters thrilling tales of border warfare, Indian raids, hairbreadth escapes, and daring rescues. They depict episodes of the most heartwrenching tragedy and abject cruelty as well as those of remarkable courage and endurance. Moreover, they provide what at times is an unparalleled view into the world of the Ohio Country Indian nations . The Alder captivity narrative is particularly important because Alder continued his tale to include his experiences long after he left the Indians. The account chronicles Alder’s life from his captivity in the late eighteenth century to the early 1830s. The narrative, therefore , provides a unique perspective on the Old Northwest, its transformation from wilderness to statehood, and the evolving relationship between Ohio’s Indians and whites from the Revolutionary War era to a time when many of the state’s native peoples had been removed . Alder’s captivity narrative is one of the most extensive personal accounts to survive from Ohio’s frontier and early settlement eras. His reminiscence spans half a century, beginning with his capture in 1782, when Ohio had no permanent European settlement and was still the exclusive domain of the Ohio Indian nations, to 1832, when the state was emerging as an industrial power and canals and the National Road (which passed only a few miles from Alder’s Pleasant Valley home) linked Ohioans and Ohio products to the East and markets throughout the world. Alder’s recollection provides an exceptional look at early Ohio. His portrait of his captors is revealing, complex, and sympathetic. The latter part of his narrative, in which he relates his experiences in Pleasant Valley, is an extraordinarily rich account of the tribulations of pioneer society and the continuing tensions that existed among the region’s early European settlers and between whites and the area’s native residents long after the Indian wars era had ended. Alder was fortunate in that he encountered many of the persons and took part or knew about many of the events that have become touchstones in Ohio’s frontier history. He knew Simon Girty and [18.188.175.182] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 23:24 GMT) Introduction 3 held him in high esteem. Later, he became a close friend of Simon Kenton, and Alder’s extended interview with the famed frontiersman near the end of his narrative constitutes an important addition to the literature dealing with pioneer era Ohio. Alder comments on the burning of Colonel Crawford, on Benjamin Logan’s 1786 raid against the Mad River Indian settlements, and on the death of Chief Leather Lips. He participated in the Battle of Fort Recovery...