Fanny Kelly

2,865 words

Captivity narratives, especially those written by women, were a staple of American literature during the nineteenth century. Stories of white women captured and abused by savage Indians certainly inspired enough fascination and horror in the American public to warrant its own literary genre. And for good reason, considering that there had been thousands of white captives throughout American history up to 1900, and the abuse they in many cases suffered was a fate worse than death.