A Narrative of Captivity - Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen (1738-1789) was a farmer, businessman, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, politician, and American Revolutionary War hero. After he and his "Green Mountain Boys" made their celebrated capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the British, Allen led an attack on Montreal. But at the Battle of Longue-Pointe, his forces were scattered and he and thirty of his men were captured. He spent nearly three years languishing in British prison ships, under execrable conditions, before he was released in May of 1778.

Allen's Narrative of Captivity (1807) recounts these events, providing both a personal testament to the power of endurance and a crucial primary source on the realities of the early war. What particularly distinguished his account from earlier "captivity narratives" (such as that of Mary Rowlandson) was its focus on politics and patriotism, rather than on religious faith and perseverance. It became a bestseller, helping to galvanize the American spirit against British cruelty, and promoting the cause of his fellow Revolutionaries.

A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity:

• Google books
• Gutenberg
• Librivox ~3h5m

Extracts:

• "Among the episodes of the Revolutionary War, none is stranger than that of Ethan Allen in England; the event and the man being equally uncommon." (Israel Potter, 22)
• "Aye, stare, stare! Though but last night dragged out of a ship's hold, like a smutty tierce; and this morning out of your littered barracks here, like a murderer; for all that, you may well stare at Ethan Ticonderoga Allen, the unconquered soldier - (Ha! three-times-three for glorious old Vermont, and my Green-Mountain boys! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!) I am he, I say..." (Israel Potter, 21)
• "You object to my way of taking things, do ye? I fear I shall never please ye. You objected to the way, too, in which I took Ticonderoga, and the way in which I meant to take Montreal. Selah!" (Israel Potter, 21)
• "... it is he—Ethan Allen, the soldier; now, since ladies' eyes visit him, made trebly a captive." (Israel Potter, 21)
• "Brave soldier and stout thinker both; / In this regard, and in degree, / An Ethan Allen, by my troth, / Or Herbert lord of Cherbury, / Dusked over. 'Tis an iron glove, / An armed man in a Druid grove." (Clarel, 4.18)

This meetup is part of the series In the Belly of the Whale.