Description
The Captives of Abb’s Valley: A Legend of Frontier Life, A true account of the 1786 murders and abduction of the survivors of the Moore family of Virginia by Indians. By James Moore Brown (1799 1866), the son of Mary Moore, one of the captives of Abb’s Valley.
The Moore family were early settlers from Ireland who eventually made their home in Virginia. There, the Moore family was brutally attacked by Shawnee Indians who murdered most of the family, taking the survivors prisoner, including Mary Moore, James Moore Brown’s mother. Mary found herself sold into slavery and, after many hardships, was eventually rescued.
This remarkable book, long suppressed because of the politically incorrect facts it contains about early frontier life and the interactions between white settlers and Indians, provides a dramatic insight into the sufferings of the early European pioneers in America.
Indians regularly captured whites for use as slaves—although those were the lucky ones. The less fortunate were tortured and killed, often for sport.
Written with a strong focus on Presbyterianism, the book’s value lies in its dispassionate detailing of everyday life and dangers for families on the frontier.
Clothing, food, livestock, the scarcity of cutlery, the cruelty of the Indians and the treatment of their captives are drawn from the firsthand accounts of people interviewed by the author, a son of one of the captives.
76 pages. Paperback.
