Chapters 4 through 6 Summary and Analysis

In chapter four, Rachel Parker Plummer's written words indicated that she wasn't afraid to write about her captivity because she knew she would be dead before they were published, and she was correct. The author noted that Rachel wrote about her own horrors at the hands of the Indians but said little about what happened to Cynthia Ann. In truth, Cynthia was probably adopted into the tribe and treated as a member of a family. One reason for this was that the Indians had low birth rates. Another was that captives were often ransomed back to the whites. Rachel wrote that her son was literally torn from her arms once the Indians realized that he was no longer nursing and she never saw him again. Cynthia Ann and her brother were taken into a "middle band" of Comanches while...