About the Author

June Namias, associate professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is author of First Generation: In the Words of Twentieth-Century American Immigrants and editor of new editions of James E. Seaver's A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison and Sarah F. Wakefield's Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees.

Reviews

Namias's study is a carefully researched and scholarly account of the captivity experience in early America. Migration brought the European settlers and the Indians together in a variety of cross-cultural encounters. Namias (history, Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage) divides her study into two main parts: the first gives the reader an overview of the captivity experience from the viewpoint of both men and women and also includes a chapter on the sexual relationships between these groups. The second part is specific to the stories of three captives--Jane McCrea, Mary Jemison, and Sarah Wakefield. Namias explores the myths and realities in the relationship between the white settlers and the Native cultures. Her work will have great appeal to scholars and to readers with a keen interest in these aspects of American frontier history.-- Dorothy Lil ly, Grosse Pointe North H.S., Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.