Calico Captive
First edition
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| Author | Elizabeth George Speare |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's, Historical novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
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Publication date
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January 1957 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 274 pp |
| Followed by | The Witch of Blackbird Pond |
Calico Captive is Elizabeth George Speare's first historical fiction children's novel. It was inspired by the true story of Susanna Willard Johnson (1730–1810) who, along with her family and younger sister, were kidnapped in an Abenakis Indian raid on Charlestown, New Hampshire in August 1754.
The main events in Calico Captive, which occurred on the brink of the French and Indian War, were taken from Johnson's narrative diary A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson, which was first published in 1796. Calico Captive is told through the eyes of Miriam, Johnson's younger sister, and her imagined adventures.
In August 1754 Miriam Willard, along with her older sister Susanna, her sister's husband James Johnson, and their three children; two-year-old Polly, four-year-old Susanna, and six-year-old Sylvanus, are kidnapped from Number Four, a fort in Charlestown. Miriam and her family are forced to march north by their Indian captors, never knowing whether they will be killed or taken into slavery.
Throughout the journey Miriam finds she cannot keep her mind off Phineas Whitney, her sweetheart planning to attend Harvard College. On the way north Susanna gives birth to a girl and names the infant Captive. The rugged trail is made far more difficult for Miriam by the miserable crying of Captive, the damp cold and hunger, and the sight of her exhausted sister. Fortunately, a horse named Scoggins is captured for Susanna so that she does not have to walk and carry the infant. Eventually the group reaches the Indian village where, upon surviving a half-hearted gauntlet while being forced to dance and sing, they are adopted into the tribe.
After many months the Indian tribe’s Sachem decides to sell his English captives to the French in Montréal, Quebec. However, Susanna's master forces her to stay behind and Sylvanus, who has taken a liking to the Indian culture, willingly chooses to go on a hunting trip with the Indians and then stays at a different Indian village. Upon arriving in Montréal Miriam finds to her horror that they are all to be privately purchased off to separate owners and held on ransom. James is thrown in jail for a short time but is finally forced to retrieve money from the English governor to pay for his family’s release. Polly captures the interest of the mayor's wife, who is unable to have a child of her own, while little Susanna is sold to another French household and Miriam meets the prominent Du Quesne family.
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