The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America

Traditional scholarship presents history as a series of facts, while narrative historical non-fiction like The Unredeemed Captive present history as plot-driven story. Aside from its entertainment value, how does narrative non-fiction deepen our understanding of “history,” for scholars and general readers alike? 

The Introduction (“Beginnings”) asks the seemingly simple question: Where does the story of Eunice and the Deerfield massacre begin? Demos then offers up five different origins of the story, all from different eras, involving different people, and across different countries. Why does Demos see it as important to start the book by stating that history is non-linear? 

Eunice, despite being the main character of the story, does not have a “voice” insofar as very few of her direct words (in terms of historical documents) survive. Examine how this might affect the narrative. Unpack the letter on page 231 from Eunice (as translated into English) to Stephen Williams, as the piece of writing that most directly gives a “voice” to Eunice.