Rachael (Archibald Hanna; William S. Reese Pref & Intro) Plummer

On the morning of May 19, 1836 Comanche Warriors attacked the small outpost of Fort Parker, Texas. They approached the fort under a flag of truce and declared that they were coming in peace and so were able to approach quite closely. They then fell upon the inhabitants and murdered most of the men and carried off many of the women and children, Rachel Plummer and her 18 month old son, James as well as Cynthia Ann Parker and her brother John Parker were among those taken. In all there were 34 show more people at the fort, 18 of them children. The leader James Parker was out at a nearly farm and arrived back to late to help. Rachel Plummer was his daughter while the children were his grandson, his niece and nephew.

Vowing to get them back, James Parker spent much of the next two years travelling around Texas to try and buy his family back. Eventually Rachel was bought back after almost two years of captivity and the boys, James and John were bought at a later date. It look many years before Cynthia was returned and by then she was a grown woman and mother to the famous war chief Quanah Parker.

The first part of the book is by James Parker and details his attempts to find and save his family while the latter part of the book is written by Rachel Plummer as she narrates her experiences as a captive. She was extremely ill-treated and pregnant at the time of her capture, her small baby son was taken from her and killed. She was also separated from the other captives and had no idea what happened to them. Treated much like a slave she rejoiced when she was bought by a group of Mexican traders to be taken back to safety. Unfortunately she suffered so much abuse that she didn’t live long and died about a year after rescue, sadly she died before her son was saved and brought home.

I have read bout Cynthia Ann Parker in the past and know that she was one of the lucky ones in that she was treated well, adopted into a family and grew to love the Comanche way of life. Unfortunately Rachel Plummer’s story is more to the norm when speaking of prisoner treatment. I found this a very interesting and engrossing account of the hazards of living on America’s frontier. show less

Very disappointing. Not very believable. Left me with more questions than answers.