Setting All the Captives Free: Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in Allegheny Country by Ian K. Steele

Abstract

Scholars have long been interested in the treatment and redemption of colonists taken as captives by Native Americans and integrated into their communities. Yet, the extant literature is disproportionately focused on the New England region. The same attention has not been paid to Allegheny country, where “the rich military history of this contested region has paid scant attention to captives” (4). Ian K. Steele’s Setting All the Captives Free: Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in Allegheny Country corrects this gap by refocusing the study of captivity on Allegheny country and “putting captives at the center of a study of the cultural and military war for Allegheny country” (4).