The many captivities of Esther Wheelwright / Ann M. Little.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An eye-opening biography of a woman whose life intersected with three distinct cultures in eighteenth-century America: colonial New England, French Canadian, and Native American

"Esther Wheelwright's journey--from Puritan girl, to Wabanaki captive, to mother superior of the largest Catholic convent in French Canada--is one of the most fascinating personal stories in the annals of what we call 'colonial history.' Deeply researched, and wonderfully contextualized . . . [this book] opens a wide window on three major cultural venues, whose interplay defined and shaped a whole era."--John Demos, author of The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America

Born and raised in a New England garrison town, Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780) was captured by Wabanaki Indians at age seven. Among them, she became a Catholic and lived like any other young girl in the tribe. At age twelve, she was enrolled at a French-Canadian Ursuline convent, where she would spend the rest of her life, eventually becoming the order's only foreign-born mother superior. Among these three major cultures of colonial North America, Wheelwright's life was exceptional: border-crossing, multilingual, and multicultural. This meticulously researched book discovers her life through the communities of girls and women around her: the free and enslaved women who raised her in Wells, Maine; the Wabanaki women who cared for her, catechized her, and taught her to work as an Indian girl; the French-Canadian and Native girls who were her classmates in the Ursuline school; and the Ursuline nuns who led her to a religious life.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Timeline: Wars of the Northeastern Borderlands, 1636-1783 (p. ix)
• A Note on Spelling and Terminology (p. x)
• Genealogy of the John and Mary Snell Wheelwright Family (p. xii)
• Acknowledgments (p. xiii)
• Map of the travels of Esther Wheelwright (p. xviii)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Esther Wheelwright (p. 17)
• Chapter 2 Mali Among the Wabanaki (p. 47)
• Chapter 3 Esther Anglaise (p. 84)
• Chapter 4 Sister Marie-Joseph de l'Enfant Jésus (p. 116)
• Chapter 5 Mother Esther (p. 167)
• Chapter 6 Esther Superior (p. 198)
• Chapter 7 Esther Zelatrix (p. 228)
• Notes (p. 241)
• Index (p. 283)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In August 1703, seven-year-old Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780) was captured by Wabanaki warriors during their attack on the New England frontier town of Wells. Adopted into a native family, the author became known as Mali and converted to Catholicism. At age 12, she moved to Quebec where she was enrolled in a school for native children. By 17, she had assumed the name of Sister Marie-Joseph de L'Enfant-Jésus and joined the Ursulines of Quebec as a choir nun. Her service to the order culminated with election to the post of Mother Superior. Using fragmentary resources, Little (history, Colorado State Univ.; Abraham in Arms) has produced a fascinating biography of an extraordinary woman. Notably, the author deftly details the lives of women who interacted with Esther, including the Protestant women of her early childhood, indentured servants, slaves, Wabanakis, French aristocrats, and nuns. This monograph also provides valuable insights into how Quebec was transformed after its conquest by British forces during the French and Indian War. VERDICT A must-read for anyone interested in colonial North America. Curious readers should also consider John Demos's The -Unredeemed Captive.-John R. Burch, -Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In this meticulously researched biography, Little (Abraham in Arms), associate professor of history at Colorado State University, traces the life's journey of Esther Wheelwright (1696-1780), a New England-born nun who ended up as the mother superior of a French-Canadian Ursuline convent. Wheelwright was captured by Wabanaki Indians at age seven, spending five years immersed in their culture. Little follows Wheelwright's life among the French-Canadian Ursulines, whose order she joined at age 12 and where she rose to prominence and influence, "the only foreign-born superior in the order's nearly 400-year history." Little thoroughly reconstructs the everyday aspects of the era, addressing food, clothing, education, and religion to demonstrate that the English, Wabanaki, and French shared many similarities despite their differences. The book is as much about Wheelwright's environment and multiple cultures as about the woman herself: a "story of whole communities of women, and how they lived and worked, and suffered and thrived in Early America." It is also "about families that are formed by choice as well as blood," and the things that "bind the generations of North American women, one to another across the centuries and down to the present, and beyond." Though detail-rich and slow going, academically constructed and complicated, Little's work offers deep insight into the era. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.