19388 - Women captives in the American Southwest

Course Overview

A popular literary genre in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, captivity narratives told the stories of women caught up in conflicts between European settlers and American Indians. Often these tales carried strong religious and cultural messages embedded in the thrilling tales of female captives and their daring escapes or rescues. In the American Southwest, trading in captives was common practice and the ordeals of American women taken in warfare influenced American Indian policy. But what of the Native and Hispanic women who were wrenched from their homes and people? Although few accounts of their experiences were recorded, we will examine the lives of Doña Inés, María Rosa Villalpando, and Deluvina Maxwell as well as those of Cynthia Ann Parker, Jane Wilson and Olive Oatman and the complex interactions between the captors, the captives, and their rescuers.