21 Months a Captive

Rachel Plummer and the Fort Parker Massacre

By: Rachel Plummer, James W. Parker

Narrated by: Brian V. Hunt, Claire Dayton

Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

On May 19, 1836, Fort Parker in Texas was overwhelmed by a band of Comanche Indians. Some residents were brutally murdered, others taken prisoner.

Among those captured was 11-year-old Cynthia Parker, who would remain with the Comanche for 24 years and give birth to famed Chief Quanah.

Another captive was 17-year-old Rachel Plummer, mother of one, pregnant with her second child. She would soon have her first-born ripped from her arms, never to be seen again, and later watched as her second-born was killed before her eyes.

After 21 months of captivity that destroyed her health, she was purchased and returned to her family. In this extraordinary account, her father tells of that horrible day when the fort was attacked, and his desperate efforts to find and retrieve the captives. Rachel details her terrible enslavement and how she eventually fought back.

Public Domain (P)2017 Big Byte Books

What gems! What a treasure!

Imagine standing in the rolling hills of Texas or a dry rugged Arizona mountaintop or any other wild place in the Americas. It's just you standing alone, the sun going down then softly a voice, the words "This is my story" carried on the breeze...Big Byte Books is that voice. Big Byte has found and faithfully resurrected journals, diaries, letters and old books. These are riveting first hand accounts, of the sea change that came across the Americas with the settling of the country, paired with brilliant narration. Now I say brilliant as narration is keyed to the time and place of the story. These are simple productions told with believable accents (especially the Indian voices) and not polished Hollywood dramatizations (those are nice enough in their place but that's not here). You will be left feeling that you just stayed a spell a cherished great-grandparent and are richer for the time spent.

This did not interest me a great deal

I really wanted to learn more about how the Native American people felt about white settlement. This was not the book to learn about that. It skips over so much. The authors had no real interest in why people and children were kidnapped and kept. This is understandable but I wanted to find out why some were kept and some simply killed. Some were treated well and others tortured.

The first part was just the trials of a man trying to find his relatives, told in a rather dispassionate manner. The second was describing captivity. It was horrific, but again no understanding gained.

There just seemed to be no insight whatsoever. No striving to understand. I suppose it could be of interest to people that want to know about settlers' feelings, but that's about it.

Horrific true account of James Parker's efforts!

The fortitude of James Parker was unfathomable as he was threaten time and again to rescue his daughter from the Indians. Rachel Plummer's account of her captivity was no less heroic!

chilling

Great historical account and real perspective. This story brought me to my knees with with sorrow and lifted me back up again by painting a beautiful picture of human resilience.

Informative read and detailed

The first half of the book is James Parker's story of traveling to find Rachel and the others taken during the Raid on Fort Parker. But the second half is Rachel's account of her time with the Comanche. The first part was read very mundane and it was kind of difficult to get through parts that weren't too drama filled. But Rachel's story was so difficult to listen to because it was so horrible what she endured. Hope this helped.