The Literary Ability Difference In A Tale Of Captivity

Spencer Tied For The Night [Source]

(Drawing Used In A War Of 1812 Chronicles Post)

This year's volume is one of the many accounts written by early settlers who were taken and held in captivity by the Indians during the first half of the last century [published in 1917]. Unfortunately, most of these accounts were written by persons of little education and no literary ability and make poor reading. But Mr. Spencer, the author of this volume, be came a Methodist minister and later the editor of a religious weekly, and was thus able to bring a developed ability in writing to the telling of his boyhood experiences. While this narrative has the old-fashioned and rather delightful Sunday-school flavor of his profession and his time, it is told in a straightforward and honest fashion, and conveys to the reader a much truer picture of the habits and character of the Indians of Ohio than many other more imaginative and bloodcurdling tales.