Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier CaptivityIt was on the frontier, where “civilized” men and women confronted the “wilderness,” that Europeans first became Americans—or so authorities from Frederick Jackson Turner to Theodore Roosevelt claimed. But as the frontier disappeared, Americans believed they needed a new mechanism for fixing their collective identity; and they found it, historian Molly K. Varley suggests, in tales of white Americans held captive by Indians. For Americans in the Progressive Era (1890–1916) these stories of Indian captivity seemed to prove that the violence of national expansion had been justified, that citizens’ individual suffering had been heroic, and that settlers’ contact with Indians and wilderness still characterized the nation’s “soul.” Furthermore, in the act of memorializing white Indian captives—through statues, parks, and reissued narratives—small towns found a way of inscribing themselves into the national story. By drawing out the connections between actual captivity, captivity narratives, and the memorializing of white captives, Varley shows how Indian captivity became a means for Progressive Era Americans to look forward by looking back. Local boosters and cultural commentators used Indian captivity to define “Americanism” and to renew those frontier qualities deemed vital to the survival of the nation in the post-frontier world, such as individualism, bravery, ingenuity, enthusiasm, “manliness,” and patriotism. In Varley’s analysis of the Progressive Era mentality, contact between white captives and Indians represented a stage in the evolution of a new American people and affirmed the contemporary notion of America as a melting pot. Revealing how the recitation and interpretation of these captivity narratives changed over time—with shifting emphasis on brutality, gender, and ethnographic and historical accuracy—Americans Recaptured shows that tales of Indian captivity were no more fixed than American identity, but were consistently used to give that identity its own useful, ever-evolving shape. |
Other editions - View all
Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier Captivity Molly K. Varley Limited preview - 2014 |
Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier Captivity Molly Kathleen Varley No preview available - 2014 |
Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier Captivity Molly K. Varley No preview available - 2024 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbie GardnerSharp American history American Scenic ancestors andthe argued ASHPS atthe audiences became boys Buffalo Burning of Royalton BushBrown bythe cabin captivity narratives captivity stories captured celebration character Christian civilization connection created cultural Cynthia Ann Parker dedication Dehgewanus Dehgewanus’s developed didnot Dunklee early twentieth century EuroAmericans European experience Frances Slocum Frederick Jackson Turner frontier gender Genesee River Glen Iris Hendee historian Historic Preservation Society historical Indians Historical Society Ibid immigrants Indian Captivity Narrative Indian Creek Massacre individual inthe Iroquois Jemison statue land landscape Letchworth Park Letchworth State Park lived Maconaquah man’s manhood Manly Mother Mary Jemison masculine Meginness Miami modern moral NewYork ofher Olmstead onthe Parker Phelps pioneers postfrontier Progressive Era Progressive Era Americans protect Race readers Royalton Scenic and Historic Seaver Seneca settlers Shabbona Steele’s thatthe Theodore Roosevelt thestory tothe vanishing white relatives wilderness William Letchworth William Pryor Letchworth withthe woman women Wyoming York