Jessica Narlock
Professor Coronado
English 327
March 28, 2016
A
Different Kind of Captive Narrative
From the early days of “discovery” in 1492 to about the
early 1800s, there were a plethora of different accounts from countless sources. These firsthand accounts described everything
from the land, the food, and the people that could be found on this “new land”.
The majority of these narratives come from
colonists and their families, and hardly any are from the natives’ point of
view. The few narratives that are from
the viewpoint of the Native Americans are only created after the colonists
educated them in the ways of their language and their European culture, so it
has become quite difficult to get an accurate and unaltered representation of
what the natives witnessed. A unique
middle ground for both of these narratives is the captive narrative. Here, the one taken captive (in this case,
the colonists) write about their experiences in captivity, and their work
provides a window into the events that took place on a very personal
level. Captive narratives, such as Mary
Rowlandson’s, usually describe the extreme trials they faced in the moments of
fear and despair, and how their captors were usually hardly related to. This is the majority of the captive
narratives that we see being taught regarding the interaction between the
natives and the colonists during this time in history. However, that does not mean that different
narratives of this nature do not exist.
The narrative of Stephen Ruddell provides a unique account of his own
captivity with a Shawnee tribe of Native Americans, during which he regards the
natives as equals, and even family.
Through this narrative, one can gain new insight into the motivations of
the Native Americans during this time, while also taking into account the
impact that narratives like this had and still have on readers.
Stephen Ruddell was born in 1771 on the “Western frontier
where Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky border one another” (americanjourneys.org),
to his settler parents. At the very
young age of nine years old, in June of 1780, his settlement was ambushed by
British soldiers as well as a number of natives. These natives took him and his family as prisoners,
and “Stephen and his brother Abraham were claimed by the Shawnee and made
adopted brothers of Tecumseh ([who lived from] 1768-1813)”
(americanjourneys.org). During his
captivity, he grew up with and became quite close to Tecumseh, and fought with
him in battle against the American forces and white settlers. He was even given a native name, which was “Big
Fish”, and the tribe thought of him as one of their own. Ruddell became a leader of warriors in the
tribe, and even married a Shawnee woman, with which he had two sons. It was only during a “temporary cessation of
hostilities between [the] Indians and whites” (americanjourneys.org) that Ruddell
decided to return to settler life. He achieved
this by traveling to northern Indiana with some of his warriors and handed
himself over to General Anthony Wayne.
Wayne accepted Ruddell, and even went so far as to reunite him with his
father after so many years apart. Once
reunited with his father, he was brought back to Kentucky, where he was
educated and learned the ways of farming.
Ruddell played a major role during the War of 1812 by convincing certain
groups of Shawnees to take up arms with the Americans instead of siding with
the British. Toward the later years of
his life, he was a Baptist minister in a number of places, until he seemed to
settle down for good in Adams County, Illinois.
Tecumseh’s legacy is that of a warrior, a leader, and a “good
man” (Ruddell 133). Not only did he lead
the Shawnee warriors against the settlers, but he also “formed pan-tribal
alliances based on common ownership of Indian lands, multi-tribal treaties with
whites (rather than local ones), and refusal to sell any more land to settlers”
(americanjourneys.org). While he fought
against many American and British soldiers as well as settlers, he practiced a
sort of honor system when he faced an adversary. When he took prisoners, they would not be
tortured or burned, and he never tolerated the killing of women and children
(Ruddell 123). He fought valiantly until
he was killed in battle fighting alongside the British in October of 1813. During his life, he united the native tribes,
taught respect and honor to those around him, and left a lasting impression on
many, including Stephen Ruddell.
While reading the actual narrative, one of the first
major differences between the conventional captive account and Ruddell’s is
that the main focus is on Tecumseh and his actions. Most firsthand accounts of this sort focus on
the author’s own personal feelings and experiences, not the life of another,
especially when that person belongs to the captor tribe. One example of the more common captive
narrative would be Mary Rowlandson’s “Narrative of the Captivity and
Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”.
In her account, Mary references many unfortunate events that happened
while she was in captivity, and also how these events affected her faith. She makes note of how she felt during certain
moments, and how she coped with these feelings.
The only moments that she mentions her captors is to fill the sequence
of events, and to identify some acts and people that stood out to her. In Ruddell’s narrative, he takes a much different
approach by focusing very little on his own feelings and actions, and much more
on Tecumseh because he is impressed and inspired by him. This is most likely because Ruddell was taken
into captivity at such a young age, and was raised with Tecumseh as his
brother.
The narrative is unique in another way as well because
the reader witnesses the son of white settlers and a Native American warrior
fighting side by side and consider each other as the other’s brother. Ruddell recalls a very specific moment when
Tecumseh specifically calls for him, to which he replies, “here I am” (129),
and they take up arms against white settlers that are attacking their
camp. The author does not see a savage
specimen like so many other white settlers of this time, he sees a man and his
brother.
The narrative closes with a moment of summary and
reflection from Ruddell, saying, “in short, I consider [Tecumseh] a very great,
as well as a very good man, who if he had enjoyed the advantages of a liberal
education, would have done honour to any age or any nation” (132). Not only is the author giving Tecumseh great
praise in this remark, but he is also commenting on the impact of education and
its “advantages”. In Andrew Newman’s
article, “Captive on the Literacy Frontier: Mary Rowlandson, James Smith, and
Charles Johnston”, he addresses the importance of literacy, and how these
narratives provide an inside look into the “cultural boundaries” between the
Native Americans and the settlers. As
stated in the article, due to the fact that the settlers were the ones who were
literate in the English language, they could use this to their advantage in
regards to “territorial expansion, generating surveyors’ reports, underwriting
dubious land transfers, and filling out a self-serving ledger of transactions
and conflicts” (Newman 31). The settlers
had the ability to convince the natives into doing something, yet have them
sign a contract that stated something completely different. By doing things this way, they planted the
seeds of mistrust into the natives that would eventually become part of the
reason for their future conflicts.
Literacy had another impact on the narratives of this time
in regards to the perspectives that they portrayed. With the literate population being mostly
white settlers, the only perspectives that were really being represented in
pieces such as this were that of the settlers.
It was not common for Native Americans to be fluent enough in the
English language that they would produce their own narratives, and when they
did, their audience still consisted of mainly white settlers, and so the work
would be difficult to relate to. For
this reason, it is all the more necessary to consider Ruddell’s work when
thinking of captive narratives between Native Americans and settlers. Ruddell offers a firsthand account regarding the
life of an influential native warrior and leader that he is very close to and
knows extremely well.
While
this is considered to be a captive narrative, it does not feel as though it is
one. Regardless of their ethnicity or backgrounds,
Ruddell and Tecumseh were raised as brothers, fought as brothers, and respected
each other as brothers. This type of
firsthand account is rare, especially during a time that was filled with such
prejudice. It is refreshing and
inspiring to read a piece like this, and it is also beneficial for trying to
understand certain conflicts between the natives and the settlers. Stephen Ruddell’s experience offers itself as
a window into the lives of the native tribes during this time of war, and allows
the reader to pause and consider a different perspective from the ones that are
overly abundant during this time. This
piece also considers friendship and brotherhood on an entirely different plane,
and proves that prejudices do not exist in children, and that they can be taught
to respect each other for their actions, instead of their tribe or skin color. This issue is still prevalent today, and this
work can offer readers a prime example of how peace is still possible, no
matter how grim the surrounding situations may be.
Works
Cited
Newman,
Andrew. “Captive on the Literacy Frontier: Mary Rowlandson, James Smith, and
Charles Johnston”. Early American
Literature. 38.1 (2003): 31-59. Print.
Rowlandson,
Mary. “Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”. Early American Writings. Ed. Carla
Mulford. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 307-328. Print.
Ruddell,
Stephen. “Reminiscences of Tecumseh’s Youth”. http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/aj/id/17916
. Wisconsin Historical Society: 2003. 120-133. Web.
http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-155/summary/
. Wisconsin Historical Society: 2016. Web.
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