Strategies of (Un)belonging: The Captivities of John Smith, Olaudah Equiano, and John Marrant

Abstract

One of the most exciting areas of Early American scholarship in recent years has been that of narratives that relate an individual’s experience of captivity or enslavement. Often, however, these texts have been interpreted through a Eurocentric lens. Pauline Turner Strong (2002) comments: “the assumptions embedded in conceptualizing indigenous practices such as ‘captivity,’ ‘adoption,’ and ‘slavery’… have led to blind spots, misconceptions, and poorly framed controversies.” She suggests that incorporation and subordination are more satisfactory terms to designate the processes of transformation following “captivity,” which is in turn defined as “the assertion of power over a person or group resulting in dislocation, physical confinement, and social transformation” (p. 339).