Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole

Capt. Keith & Family Betrayed & Made Prisoners by the American Indians, October 22, 1808

This print, which depicts an Englishman and his family being attacked by indigenous people on the Ohio River, served as a foldout frontispiece to the fictionalized captivity narrative Struggles of Capt. Thomas Keith in America, including the manner in which he, his wife and child were decoyed by the Indians (London: T. Tegg, 1808). Not listed as subjects of the print, but no less under attack, are two black men. The narrative reveals that, despite his distaste for plantation slavery's violence, the captain owns both men, Cuffey and Jack. The former is killed and, in a romantic twist, the latter eventually escapes and brings about the English family's rescue. Catalog Record

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

William Elmes