Alan Fitzpatrick

A sort of nonfiction novel describing interactions between natives and whites in 18th century Ohio and adjacent areas. The protagonist is Joshua Fry, first a farmer and later a trader to the tribes of Ohio – Shawnee, Lenape, Wyandot. Fry gets involved in all of the major events on the frontier – Braddock’s Defeat, the Battle of Fort Duquesne, the battle of Bushy Run, the battle of Point Pleasant, and the Coshocton (called Gauchachgunk here) Massacre. Along the way, Fry is educated in show more Native ways – particularly that Natives take women and children captive to replace their losses, and the women and children are happy with their lot and do not want to return to White society. This is done by a series of dialogs with the proverbial wise old Native men and women.
Well, maybe. I grew up in a generation where Native Americans in literature, movies, and television were the bad guys (some exceptions, like Tonto) but the pendulum gradually swung to evil whites and noble savages. Author Alan Fitzpatrick has to do some apologizing – the slow torture of captives is necessary to “wipe the tears from the eyes” of natives who have lost relatives; impaling a woman and her baby on stakes is only done after they are dead and as a warning; and so on. (There plenty of perfidy by whites that doesn’t merit apologies). Worthwhile as an account of the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War from the Native point of view. Illustrations of the protagonists and antagonists; bibliography, and endnotes. A map in the front matter is useful for figuring out what happens where. See Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives for contemporary accounts; for other captivity accounts, not from the Ohio country, see Captivity of the Oatman Girls and My Captivity and For more on the various wars, see Bloody Mohawk, Braddock at the Monongahela, White Devil and Year of the Hangman. show less