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Rachel Parker Plummer (March 22, 1819 – March 19, 1839) was the daughter of James W. Parker and the cousin of Quanah Parker, the last free-roaming chief of the Comanches. An Anglo-Texan woman, she was kidnapped at the age of seventeen, along with her son, James Pratt Plummer, age two, and her cousins, by a Comanche raiding party.

Plummer's 21 months among the Comanche as a prisoner became widely known when she wrote a book about her captivity, Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty One Months' Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Commanchee Indians, which was issued in Houston in 1838. This was the first narrative about a captive of Texas Indians published in the Republic of Texas, and it became an international sensation. After Plummer's death, her father published a revised edition of her book in 1844 as an appendix to his Narrative of the Perilous Adventures, Miraculous Escapes and Sufferings of Rev. James W. Parker.[1] Her book is considered an invaluable look at Comanche culture before environmental destruction, disease, starvation, and war forced them onto reservations.[1][2]

Birth and early years

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Main article: James W. Parker

Rachel Parker was born in 1819 in Crawford County, Illinois1, the second youngest living child of James William Parker (1797–1864) and Martha Duty, and spent most of her youth in Illinois. She had two living siblings, and three siblings who had died at an early age. In 1834, her family and allied families, led by her father James and uncle Silas, moved from Illinois to Texas, along with other sons of Elder John Parker (1758–1836) and Sarah White, as part of the large Parker family.[1]

At age 14, socially considered an adult woman and described by her father in his later book as a "red haired beauty of rare courage and intelligence,"[1] Rachel Parker married Luther M. Plummer. She moved with the Parker family in 1830 to Conway County, Arkansas, which her father used as a staging ground for exploratory trips to Texas.[1] In 1832 her father proposed to Stephen F. Austin that the Parkers be permitted to settle 50 families north of the Little Brazos River, in what was considered part of the Comancheria. One of the 50 families was that of Plummer and her husband. Austin did not reply to this proposal. James Parker was the first of the Parkers to come to Texas, and his persistence led to his being given a league of land north of the site of present Groesbeck on April 1, 1835. Luther Plummer was also awarded a league of land by his father-in-law's persistent entreaties to the Mexican Government.[1]

Establishment in Texas

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Plummer and her husband joined other Parker family members, including her father James, her uncles Silas and Benjamin, and their families, in moving to Texas. Daniel Parker, another uncle of hers, was already in Texas, though not with the other Parkers. The Parker clan led by James, including the Plummer family, moved to their land grant, and built Fort Parker at the headwaters of the Navasota River. It was completed in March 1834, before they had been legally awarded the land on which it was built.[1] Plummer's grandfather, Elder John Parker, then joined them, with his second wife, Sarah Pinson Duty. Fort Parker's 12-foot (4 m) high pointed log walls enclosed 4 acres (16,000 m2). Blockhouses were placed on two corners for lookouts and to make defense of the fort possible. Six cabins were attached to the inside walls. The fort had one large gate facing south, and a small rear gate for easy access to the spring waters.[1]

Though the families in the Parker group were beginning to build cabins outside the Fort, most still slept inside for protection. Elder John Parker had negotiated treaties with local Indian chiefs, and believed they would protect the little colony. Luther Plummer believed his family was safe, but his father-in-law, James Parker, who was aware that the Comanche were not a unified "tribe" as the Europeans understood such, but a group of bands and divisions united by common cultural ties, was less certain.[2] His brother Silas had raised, and become Captain, of a local Ranger company, which James felt could attract the anger of Indians who felt abused by the Rangers.[1]

Fort Parker Massacre

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Main article: Fort Parker massacre

On May 19, 1836, at sunrise, Plummer, three months pregnant with her second child, was in the fort caring for her 2-year-old firstborn son, James Pratt Plummer, the first child born to the family in Texas, while several men, including her husband and father, were working in the fields.[1]

In her memoir, Plummer wrote that "one minute the fields (in front of the fort) were clear, and the next moment, more Indians than I dreamed possible were in front of the fort."[1] As the Parkers debated what to do, one of the Indians approached the fort with a white flag. None of them believed the flag was genuine, but Benjamin Parker believed it gave the family a chance for most of them to escape. With his father's approval, he decided to go out to try to delay the Indians while the family escaped.

As the other women and children were leaving, Plummer chose to stay in the fort out of fear that she and her son would not be able to keep up. After Benjamin Parker returned from his first talks with the Indians and warned them that they would likely all die, Plummer wanted to flee, but Silas told her to watch the front gate while he ran for his musket and powder pouch.[1] "They will kill Benjamin," she reported her Uncle Silas saying, "and then me, but I will do for at least one of them, by God." At that moment, she said she heard whooping outside the fort, and then Indians were inside. She then ran, holding her son's hand, while behind her she said she saw Indians stabbing Benjamin with their lances.[1]

Plummer was then seized by mounted warriors who threw her up behind them, and she watched another seize her son. She witnessed her grandfather's torture and murder and her grandmother's rape. Her cousins Cynthia Ann Parker and John Richard Parker as well as her aunt Elizabeth Kellogg were also captured. All five of the men present in the fort that morning were killed.[1] After the war party stopped that night, they performed a ritual scalp dance, whipped their captives, and then stripped Kellogg and Plummer naked and tortured and raped them.[2] Plummer never directly addressed the subject of rape in her book,[3] only commenting that:

To undertake to narrate their barbarous treatment would only add to my present distress, for it is with feelings of the deepest mortification that I think of it, much less to speak or write of it.[1]

Plummer did, however, write candidly about the culture and psyche of the Comanche.[1]

Captivity among the Comanche

[edit]
Main article: Cynthia Ann Parker
Main article: John Richard Parker
Main article: Quanah Parker
Main article: Peta Nocona
Main article: James W. Parker

Plummer's book is considered an invaluable glimpse into the culture and mindset of the Comanche as a people before disease and war forced them onto reservations.[1] She not only recounted her feelings about her captivity, but detailed the life, lifestyle, and as much as she could, the mindset of the Comanche. She detailed the roles men, women, children, and temporary captives, or slaves, played in that society, and why.[1][2] In her account of her life among the Comanche, Rachel wrote that six weeks after giving birth to a healthy son, the warriors decided she was slowed too much by childcare, and threw her son down on the ground. When he stopped moving, they left her to bury him. When she revived him, they returned and tied the infant to a rope, and dragged him through cactuses until the frail, tiny body was literally torn to pieces.[1]

In the meantime, her father, James Parker, was searching frantically for her. Rachel wrote that she had never seen open space the size of the Great Plains, and her travels with the Comanche took her to what her father later thought was Colorado in the northernmost part of the Comancheria. She attended a giant meeting of all divisions and bands of the Comanche, their allies the Kiowa and the Kiowa Apache, while the tribes considered whether to drive the Texans completely from the Comancheria, and conquer Mexico.[2] There were thousands of Indians present, and Plummer wrote she had never seen so many people, nor imagined there to be so many Indians.[1] Her accounts of her travels, and the untamed land she saw, remains one of the best descriptions of the early west in existence.[1]

Ironically, Rachel's lot among the Comanche improved dramatically in the month before her ransom. The women charged with her supervision routinely beat and tormented her.[1] One day, Rachel simply snapped, and began fiercely beating the younger of the two women. She expected to be killed for this, writing "at any second I expected a spear in the back, but instead, the warriors seemed amused, and gathered and watched us fight." Rachel's long captivity might have sapped her physical strength, but it had left her with a surfeit of rage and hate which enabled her to easily defeat the younger woman, and nearly beat her to death. After the fight was over, Rachel was astonished that no one had come to the aid of the young Comanche woman, and she herself finally helped her to the lodge, and dressed her wounds. This did not however assuage the anger of the older woman, who then tried to burn Rachel alive. Rachel ended up fighting her too, burning her and beating her savagely. At that point, the tribal council intervened, and listened to statements from all three women. They then ordered Rachel to repair the lodge, which had been damaged during the second fight, as her settlement of the dispute. Realizing with astonishment she was being treated as an equal and full Comanche, Rachel spoke to the Council and told them she refused the judgment unless the other two women assisted her in the repair, since she had started neither fight and since she was being judged as a Comanche, not as a slave, so should be more fairly treated. The Council agreed, and ordered the three to repair the lodge.[1]

Rachel was stunned that she was treated as an equal by the council, which later she understood had arisen from her demonstration of the one quality which elevated anyone in the eyes of the Comanche - courage.[2] Later, one of the Chiefs of the band she was with told her:

You are brave to fight. Good to fallen enemy. You are directed by the Great Spirit. Indians do not have pity on a fallen enemy. By our law, it is clear. It is contrary to our law to show foul play. She began with you, and you had a right to kill her. Your noble spirit forbade you. When Indians fight, the conqueror gives or takes the life of his or her antagonist, and they seldom spare them.[1]

Plummer found her lot much improved by these encounters, as she was correct that nothing she could have done could have earned her more respect than standing her ground and fighting.[2] She noted in her book "they respected bravery more than anything, I learned. I wish I had known it sooner." She wrote how that affected her quite simply: "After that, I took up for myself, and fared much the better for it."[1]

Of course, seeing her status amongst the Comanche was changed dramatically thanks to this demonstration of her courage, she was now haunted by the thought that her baby might have survived if she had defended herself, and him, more fiercely.[1] What she did not know at this point, was that her captivity was coming to an end. Her father's desperate efforts to find her had finally begun to pay off. He had located Comancheros who were willing to go and trade for her, and his instructions were to ransom her at any cost. The Comanches were camped north of Santa Fe when they were approached by Comancheros who wanted to ransom Rachel in accordance with the instructions of her father.[1] She wrote in her book of the agony of believing that the traders had not offered enough to buy her freedom - and her not knowing that in fact, they were simply trying to get the best bargain, because her father had told them to pay any price, no matter how high, to rescue her.[1] She was sold to them on June 19, 1837. Her rescue had been arranged by Colonel and Mrs. William Donaho, acting for the Parker family, and to whom she was delivered in Santa Fe after a journey of 17 days. Two weeks after her arrival, the Donahos, fearing trouble as the native population of Santa Fe was in virtual rebellion, fled some 800 miles (1,300 km) to Independence, Missouri, with Rachel with them.[1] Three months later, Rachel's brother-in-law, Lorenzo D. Nixon, escorted her back to Texas, since her father was still out in the Comancheria searching for her. She was reunited with her husband on February 19, 1838, nearly two years after the Fort Parker massacre.[1] She was gaunt to the point of near starvation, covered with scars and sores, and in very poor health.[1]

Death

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Plummer became pregnant again almost as soon as she was returned home, and on January 4, 1839, bore a third child, a son, Luther Plummer II. She died in Houston shortly thereafter, on March 19, 1839; the child died two days later. Though medically she was listed as dying from complications after childbirth, James Parker did not believe that, and insisted she died from the mistreatment she suffered at the hands of the Comanche, the murder of one child, and not knowing what happened to her other child.[1] However, the most likely cause of her death is the trek that she, her husband, her father and several others were forced to make during a night of freezing rain. During James Parker's search for her, he made several enemies; in an unexplained incident, he was accused of murdering a woman and her child. The victims' family had located Parker and were about to attack him to avenge their murdered family members, so Parker snuck his family out of the house during the night, sleeping outdoors and staying off roads. Plummer and her son died during that trek.[4] The night before she died, Plummer reportedly told her father "if only I knew what had become of my dear little James Pratt Plummer I could die in peace."[1] At the time of her death, she was 20 years old, and her fire-red hair had turned grey. James Pratt Plummer, Plummer's only living child, was ransomed in late 1842, and in 1843, he was reunited with his grandfather.[1]

James Parker felt that his son-in-law Luther Plummer had neither supported his efforts to reclaim his wife and grandson nor done much to support the family while Parker did so, so much so that he refused to return his son to him. Despite the President of Texas ruling in Luther Plummer's favor, Parker refused to honor the ruling. James Pratt Plummer never saw his father again, growing up and living with his mother's family. Due to his understanding of James Parker's character, Luther Plummer decided not to press the issue.[1]

According to Frank X. Tolbert, Sam Houston believed that James Parker, rather than Luther Plummer, was at fault in their dispute. Houston communicated in a letter to Luther Thomas Martin (L.T.M.) Plummer that "Reverend Parker had quite a bad reputation with most all he ever had business dealings." He did not trust Parker's judgement and could not believe that he would not return James Pratt Plummer to his father.[5]

References

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[edit]

Sources

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  • Bial, Raymond. Lifeways: The Comanche. New York: Benchmark Books, 2000.
  • Fehrenbach, Theodore Reed The Comanches: The Destruction of a People. New York: Knopf, 1974, ISBN 0-394-48856-3. Later (2003) republished under the title The Comanches: The History of a People
  • Foster, Morris. Being Comanche.
  • Frazier, Ian. Great Plains. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1989.
  • Lodge, Sally. Native American People: The Comanche. Vero Beach, Florida 32964: Rourke Publications, Inc., 1992.
  • Lund, Bill. Native Peoples: The Comanche Indians. Mankato, Minnesota: Bridgestone Books, 1997.
  • Mooney, Martin. The Junior Library of American Indians: The Comanche Indians. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1993.
  • Native Americans: Comanche Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine (August 13, 2005).
  • Plummer, Rachel; Parker, James W. The Rachel Plummer Narrative. 1926.
  • Powell, Jo Ella Exley Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family,
  • Cynthia Ann Parker
  • Tolbert, Frank X., "An Informal History of Texas" published, 1961, Harper, New York
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Rachel Plummer

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Rachel Parker Plummer (March 22, 1819 – March 19, 1839) was an early Texas settler and captivity survivor abducted by Comanche Indians during the Fort Parker Massacre on May 19, 1836. The daughter of James W. Parker and wife of Luther Thomas Martin Plummer, she was seventeen years old at the time of her capture, during which she was separated from her two-year-old son James Pratt and subjected to enslavement, physical abuse, and forced marches across the Plains. Held primarily by the Comanches for thirteen months, she gave birth to a second son, Luther, around October 1836, who was killed by her captors at six weeks old; she was ransomed near Santa Fe by Mexican traders on June 19, 1837, but spent additional months under Mexican control before rescue by Colonel and Mrs. William Donaho, leading to her reunion with her husband on February 19, 1838. Her dictated memoir, Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty-One Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Comanche Indians, published in 1838, stands as the earliest Texas Indian captivity narrative and details Comanche customs, daily hardships, and the violence of frontier raids from a firsthand perspective. Plummer died in Houston on March 19, 1839, at age nineteen, two days after the stillbirth of her third child, her health irreparably damaged by the ordeal.

Early Life and Family Background

Birth and Parentage

Rachel Parker Plummer was born on March 22, 1819, in Clark County, Illinois. She was the daughter of James W. Parker (1797–1864), a Baptist and who later became prominent in Texas frontier history, and Martha "Patsy" Duty (c. 1798–1833), who married James in 1814. The Parkers originated from and stock, with James descending from early American colonists, though specific genealogical details beyond immediate parentage remain sparsely documented in primary records. Rachel was one of at least eleven children in the family, reflecting the large households common among frontier settlers of the era.

Childhood and Upbringing

Rachel Parker was born on March 22, 1819, in Clark County, Illinois, to James W. Parker and Martha "Patsy" Duty Parker. The family resided there for approximately eleven years amid the frontier conditions of the Illinois Territory, where James W. Parker engaged in farming and early settlement activities as part of a pioneering lineage. Rachel's early years were shaped by the demands of rural pioneer existence, including household duties and agricultural support in a region still recovering from territorial transitions and prone to hardships like isolation and limited infrastructure. The Parkers, influenced by Baptist traditions from James's father, Elder John Parker—a Primitive Baptist preacher—emphasized religious observance and community during this period. Around , the family briefly relocated to before preparing for further westward migration, reflecting the restless expansionism common among early American settlers seeking land opportunities. By her early teens, Rachel had experienced the foundational rigors of frontier upbringing, transitioning from Illinois's developing counties to the anticipatory moves that would lead to .

Marriage and Early Family

Rachel Parker married Luther Thomas Martin Plummer on May 28, 1833, in , at the age of 14. The union connected her to the extended Parker family network, as the couple joined her parents in relocating to , later that year, where the family prepared for further migration. The Plummers had one child prior to their move to : a son, James Pratt Plummer, born on January 6, 1835. Family records indicate the young couple contributed to the communal efforts of the Parker clan, with Luther engaging in land-related activities, including receiving a or grant by April 1835 as they transitioned toward settlement in the . This period marked the establishment of their household amid the hardships of frontier preparation, though specific details of daily family life remain sparse in primary accounts. By early 1836, the family had integrated into the Parker group's pioneer endeavors, with and her toddler son residing at the nascent Fort Parker structure upon arrival in . Luther Plummer survived the subsequent raid on May 19, 1836, which separated him from his wife and child, though he remained involved in recovery efforts thereafter.

Settlement in Texas

Migration to Texas

Rachel Parker Plummer, born on March 22, 1819, in Clark County, Illinois, experienced the dislocations of frontier life early, as her family departed after approximately eleven years there, during which disease claimed three of her siblings. The Parkers relocated briefly to , around 1830, using it as a staging ground for exploratory trips into led by her father, James W. Parker, who sought land opportunities under colonization contracts. In winter 1832–1833, the extended family, including Baptist relatives, migrated to , driven by promises of fertile acreage amid growing Anglo-American settlement in the province. On May 28, 1833, Rachel married Luther Thomas Martin Plummer, joining him in the ongoing family exodus. The migration involved a traversing hazardous Indian territories, with the group making temporary encampments along the Angelina, , and Brazos rivers before reaching the Navasota River headwaters by fall 1833 in present-day Limestone County. James W. Parker had proposed organizing up to 50 families for settlement as early as , registering claims in the Tenoxtitlán municipality on January 29, 1834, and the Austin and Williams colony on May 22, 1834, culminating in land grants approved on April 1, 1835. This relocation reflected broader patterns of U.S. families pursuing economic prospects in despite perils from raids and Mexican governance instability, with numbering among roughly 38 kin who staked claims near modern Groesbeck.

Establishment of Fort Parker

In the winter of 1832–33, the extended Parker family, including Elder John Parker and his sons James W. Parker and Silas M. Parker, migrated from to , initially settling along various rivers before establishing a permanent site on the Navasota River in the fall of 1833. James W. Parker, a Baptist minister and father of Rachel Plummer, along with his brother Silas M. Parker, founded Fort Parker in the spring of 1835 near the headwaters of the Navasota River in present-day Limestone County, approximately two miles north of Groesbeck. The fort's construction utilized log cabins arranged in a rectangular formation, with their outer walls forming a sturdy enclosure about 12 feet high, perforated by loopholes for rifle fire to enable defense against Native American raids. This design provided a central for the Parker clan and nearby families, reflecting the settlers' need for protection in the exposed amid ongoing threats from and other tribes. In the fall of 1835, Elder John Parker and another son, Benjamin, relocated to join the fort, solidifying the family compound. Rachel Plummer, née Parker, whose father James W. Parker co-founded the site, lived there with her husband, Luther G. Plummer; he had received a 640-acre in Limestone County on April 1, 1835, integrating the young family into the settlement's agrarian and defensive efforts. The fort supported farming on surrounding lands, with the community cultivating crops and livestock while maintaining vigilance, as the isolated position heightened vulnerability despite the fortifications.

The Fort Parker Massacre

Prelude to the Raid

In the weeks following the Texas victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, many able-bodied men from frontier settlements like Fort Parker had left to join the revolutionary forces or pursue other duties, leaving the outpost lightly defended with primarily elderly men, women, and children—approximately 18 to 23 residents in total. The fort, constructed in 1834 as a stockaded enclosure of log cabins near the headwaters of the Navasota River in present-day Limestone County, had been intended for protection against nomadic tribes such as the Comanche, but vigilance had waned amid the chaos of the Texas Revolution. Tensions with Plains Indians were high, as Anglo settlement expansion encroached on tribal hunting grounds, though no specific prior raids on the Parker colony are documented immediately before the event. On the morning of , 1836, a large contingent of warriors—estimated at 100 to 600, primarily young horsemen accompanied by and allies—appeared on the horizon approximately three miles from the fort, advancing in a manner that alarmed Elder John Parker, the settlement's patriarch and a veteran of conflicts. Recognizing the threat, Parker urgently ordered the heavy slab gates secured and the few available men, including his sons and Benjamin, to arm themselves with rifles and take defensive positions atop the stockade walls. Despite these precautions, Benjamin Parker and a small group, including possibly , ventured outside the gates under a flag of truce, mistakenly believing the approaching party to be friendly allied tribes like the or scouts rather than hostile raiders. As Benjamin's party neared the Indians, the warriors divided, encircling and overwhelming them in a sudden that killed Benjamin and at least one other before they could retreat. This breach prevented the fort's gates from being fully closed in time, allowing the raiders to charge forward under covering fire, exploiting the momentary disarray and numerical superiority to overrun the defenses. The element of surprise, combined with the settlers' divided response and depleted manpower, set the stage for the ensuing violence within the compound.

Events of the Massacre

The raiding party, comprising primarily warriors with and Kichai allies and numbering 500 to 700, approached Fort Parker undetected in the early morning hours of May 19, 1836, exploiting the settlement's vulnerabilities: an open gate, incomplete walls, and the absence of most able-bodied men who were scattered in fields or away on errands. The attackers, mounted and armed with bows, lances, and rifles obtained through trade, charged into the compound amid cries of alarm from the roughly 30 to 40 inhabitants, who mounted a disorganized defense with limited firearms and improvised weapons like axes and hoes. The assault unfolded rapidly over approximately 90 minutes, with warriors dismounting to pursue settlers into cabins and yards; five defenders were killed in close-quarters fighting, including elder Silas M. Parker, struck down while attempting to rally resistance, his brother Benjamin K. Parker, scalped and mutilated after falling in the yard, and Samuel M. Frost with his son , both shot and lanced near the gate. One settler was severely wounded, while chaos ensued as women and children screamed and fled; Rachel Plummer, aged 17 and clutching her 14-month-old son James Pratt, dashed toward a wooded area but was overtaken, knocked unconscious by a blow from an Indian's hoe or club, and dragged by her hair back toward the fort amid gunfire and war whoops. As the raid progressed, the attackers looted cabins for provisions, , and tools before regrouping to depart northward with , setting fire to structures and leaving the bodies of the slain pierced with arrows as markers of ; Plummer, regaining consciousness bound and bleeding from wounds, witnessed her uncle Benjamin's corpse desecrated with multiple thrusts and arrows, while her son was wrenched from her arms and mounted on a , crying out as the party withdrew. The survivors, including arriving field workers like James W. Parker, arrived too late to intervene effectively, finding the fort in smoldering disarray and pursuing the raiders unsuccessfully amid the vast terrain.

Captives Taken

During the on May 19, 1836, Native American raiders, primarily with some and Kichai participation, abducted five settlers amid the killing of five others and the wounding of one. The captives included Rachel Parker Plummer and her son James Pratt Plummer (born January 6, 1835, approximately 16 months old); (Rachel's nine-year-old cousin); (Cynthia Ann's six-year-old brother and Rachel's cousin); and Elizabeth Kellogg (Rachel's aunt, an adult woman). The raiders quickly divided the captives, assigning Elizabeth Kellogg to the Kichai while the others, including Rachel Plummer and her son, were taken by groups. Rachel was soon separated from James after he was weaned, assigned to different captors, and never saw him again; he perished during captivity. This dispersal complicated rescue efforts and prolonged the captives' exposures to tribal life, with Kellogg ransomed within months, John Parker after about six years, and Rachel after 21 months, while Cynthia Ann remained integrated with the for over two decades.

Captivity Among the Comanche

Initial Capture and Separation

On May 19, 1836, during the , 17-year-old Rachel Plummer was captured by warriors along with her 18-month-old son, James Pratt Plummer, as approximately 200 Indians overran the undefended stockade on the Navasota River in present-day . Attempting to flee the assault with her child in her arms, Plummer was struck on the head with a hoe by a warrior, rendering her unconscious amid the chaos of gunfire, screams, and killings that claimed five settlers, including her uncle Benjamin Parker. Regaining consciousness, Plummer found herself being dragged by her hair across the ground, her son forcibly seized from her grasp by the captors. She briefly glimpsed James Pratt mounted on a with an Indian, the child extending bloodied hands toward her and crying, "Mother, oh, Mother!", but warriors pulled her away, preventing any reunion; this was the last time she saw him, as he was allocated to a separate band. Plummer herself was assigned to a group under a chief she later called "Old Wolf," while other captives—including her aunt Elizabeth Kellogg and cousins Ann and John Parker—were divided among allied raiders, ensuring immediate and permanent familial separations amid the tribe's practice of dispersing prisoners to prevent escape or . Pregnant at the time, Plummer endured the initial march barefoot and bound, stripped of her clothing and subjected to beatings as the party retreated northward.

Daily Hardships and Abuses

During her captivity, Rachel Plummer was compelled to perform exhaustive manual labor from dawn to dusk, including carrying loads of 50 to 100 pounds of on her back, fetching over long distances, cooking over smoky fires that caused burns, gathering wood, and dressing buffalo hides every . Her shoulders and back became perpetually sore from the burdens, and she often worked into the night minding horses, enduring frozen feet during winter encampments with scant clothing or shelter. Plummer faced routine , including frequent beatings with clubs, sticks, and whips for perceived slowness or minor infractions, leaving her flesh bruised, wounded, and bleeding. She described being tied tightly with rawhide thongs that cut into her skin, producing lasting scars, and subjected to burns from hot coals or fire applied as punishment. captors, treating her as chattel, also threatened death if tasks were not completed swiftly, exacerbating her constant fear. Starvation compounded her ordeals, with rations limited to scraps like horse liver, wild berries, or putrid meat, and periods of up to five days without food or adequate water early in captivity. The nomadic lifestyle involved traversing thousands of miles across harsh terrain, such as from the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the Wichita Mountains, rarely lingering in one camp more than three or four days except in severe cold. Emotional torment arose from enforced separation from her infant son James Pratt Plummer after 40 days, during which she heard his cries unanswered, and the killing of her newborn son at six to seven weeks old by captors who deemed him a hindrance to her labor. These conditions left her emaciated and scarred upon ransom.

Loss of Her Son

During the initial phase of her captivity following the on May 19, 1836, Rachel Plummer was separated from her son, James Pratt Plummer, who was approximately 16 months old. captors, upon learning the child had been weaned, removed him from her care and assigned him to a different band, ensuring she never saw him again during her lifetime. Plummer's narrative recounts the traumatic moment: after being struck unconscious during the raid, she awoke to see James mounted on a , crying "Mother," only to be beaten by women to suppress her response; a brief embrace followed before he was wrenched away, eliciting her anguished sobs as the group departed. Unaware of his survival, Plummer mourned James as lost amid her other hardships, including forced labor and abuse, until her death on March 19, 1839. In reality, James Pratt Plummer remained in hands for over six years, enduring separate captivity until his in late 1842 facilitated a in early 1843.

Ransom Negotiations and Release

In June 1837, while the band holding Rachel Plummer was encamped north of , Mexican traders approached the group to negotiate her . These traders, operating in the trade networks that exchanged goods with Plains tribes, successfully purchased Plummer from her captors on June 19, 1837. The specific terms of the transaction, including the amount paid in goods or currency, are not detailed in surviving accounts, though such exchanges typically involved blankets, cloth, knives, and other trade items valued by the . Following her sale, Plummer traveled with the traders southward, enduring further hardships during the journey. Her husband, Plummer, who had conducted searches for her since the 1836 massacre, intercepted the group at Fort Jesup in and escorted her eastward to his parents' home near , . By February 19, 1838, approximately 21 months after her initial capture, Plummer achieved full reunion with her extended family in , marking the end of her captivity. During this interim period, she gave birth to a second son, Luther Jr., in January 1838, evidencing her physical recovery amid ongoing emotional trauma.

Post-Captivity Life and Narrative

Reunion and Recovery

Upon her release from captivity on June 19, 1837, when she was sold to traders north of Santa Fe, Rachel Plummer was transported to Santa Fe by and Mrs. William Donaho after a grueling 17-day journey, arriving in a severely debilitated state. She remained emaciated, scarred from repeated abuses, and in profoundly poor health, reflecting the cumulative toll of 21 months of forced labor, , exposure, and physical trauma. Escorted back to by her brother-in-law Lorenzo D. Nixon several months later, Plummer reunited with her husband, Luther M. Plummer, on February 19, 1838, marking the end of her separation following the . The reunion occurred amid her ongoing frailty, with no documented medical interventions or structured recovery programs available in the context, though she expressed profound relief in her subsequent narrative. In the brief period before her death, Plummer became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, Wilson P. Plummer, on January 4, 1839; the infant died two days later, exacerbating her physical decline. Her health never fully recovered, as evidenced by her death on March 19, 1839, in at age nineteen, likely from complications tied to captivity-induced debilitation and childbirth.

Writing and Publication of Her Account

Following her and return to on February 19, 1838, Rachel Plummer, severely weakened by malnutrition, beatings, and exposure during her 21-month captivity, composed an eyewitness account of her ordeals among the . The narrative detailed the raid on Fort Parker, her separation from family, forced labor, physical abuses, and the presumed death of her son, drawing from direct personal experience rather than secondary reports. Published later that year in as Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty-One Months' Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Commanchee Indians, it represented the first captivity account by a Texas Indian to appear in print within the . The slim volume, printed amid the era's frontier printing constraints, quickly gained attention for its unvarnished depictions of customs, migration patterns, and treatment of captives, influencing public perceptions of Indian threats in . Only a single copy of the 1838 edition is known to survive, now held by Yale University's Beinecke Library, underscoring its rarity. After Plummer's death on March 19, 1839, her uncle James W. Parker, who had led searches for the captives, issued a in 1844 as an appendix to his own Narrative of the Perilous Adventures, Miraculous Escapes and Sufferings of Rev. James W. Parker. This edition incorporated minor updates but retained her core testimony, extending the account's circulation amid ongoing debates over frontier defense.

Content and Insights from the Memoir

In her narrative, Rachel Plummer recounts the immediate aftermath of her capture on May 19, 1836, during the Fort Parker raid, describing how she was stripped, beaten repeatedly with whips and bows, and dragged by her hair across the prairie while carrying her 14-month-old son, James Pratt Plummer. She details five days of forced marches without food, during which Comanche women struck her to silence her cries, and her son was eventually torn from her arms and taken by a separate group, leaving her in despair as she witnessed his distant cries fade. These events set the tone for her account of relentless , including burns from firebrands and near-constant beatings that left her body scarred and weakened. Plummer describes her daily existence as one of grueling labor and deprivation, forced to tan buffalo hides by scraping them with sharp stones until her hands bled, tend horses in freezing conditions without shoes—often on snow-covered mountains—and subsist on meager rations of dried and water, leading to chronic and exposure. She gave birth to a second son, Luther, around October 1836, under primitive conditions, only for the to be murdered by Comanches at six to seven weeks old by having his head dashed against a , an act she attributes to their disdain for male captives who could not immediately contribute labor. Her emotional torment is vividly expressed, as she laments the loss of both children and the erosion of hope, stating that "life had lost all its charms" after these tragedies, underscoring the psychological devastation of separation and . The offers firsthand insights into society, portraying them as a nomadic, horse-dependent warrior culture organized around raiding parties and familial bands, with customs including among chiefs, ritualistic warfare preparations, and a harsh toward captives treated as disposable slaves rather than adoptees. Plummer observes their laws as unwritten and enforced through , with women holding subordinate roles yet participating in the abuse of prisoners, and notes practices like trading captives for goods or , which ultimately led to her by Mexican traders on June 19, 1837, after approximately 13 months—despite the narrative's title claiming 21 months, likely encompassing post-release travels. Her account emphasizes the tribe's cruelty as a survival mechanism in a hostile environment, devoid of sentimentality toward outsiders, providing early ethnographic details that informed settlers' views of Comanche threats without romanticization. These elements, drawn from her direct experiences, highlight causal factors in frontier conflicts, such as the Comanches' economic reliance on plunder, which perpetuated cycles of against encroaching Anglo settlements.

Death and Legacy

Final Months and Passing

Following her release from Comanche captivity on February 19, 1838, Rachel Plummer was in severely compromised physical condition, described as emaciated and scarred from prolonged abuse and malnutrition. Despite this, she reunited with her husband, Luther Plummer, and began documenting her experiences in a personal narrative completed in early 1839, which detailed the hardships endured during her 21 months of enslavement. Plummer's health remained fragile in the ensuing months, compounded by the demands of recovery and family life; she became pregnant soon after her return and gave birth to her third child, a , on January 4, 1839. The infant survived only briefly, dying on March 21, 1839, two days after Plummer's own death in Houston, Texas, on March 19, 1839, at age 19. No contemporaneous records specify the precise cause of her passing, though her weakened state from likely contributed to complications following .

Family Outcomes

Rachel Plummer's reunion with her husband, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer, occurred on February 19, 1838, after her ransom, but their time together was brief. She died on March 19, 1839, at age twenty, likely due to lingering effects of her captivity or complications from pregnancy. During her captivity, Plummer had given birth to a second son, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer Jr., conceived before her capture, but the infant was killed by Comanche captors at approximately six weeks old. No further children are recorded from her marriage after release. Her elder son, James Pratt Plummer, born January 6, 1835, was separated from her early in captivity and remained with the Comanches until ransomed late in 1842. He was reunited with relatives in 1843 but, amid a custody dispute, his maternal grandfather James W. Parker refused to return him to his father, Luther Plummer, leading to James being raised within the Parker family. James Pratt married twice, fathered four children, and died in 1862 at age twenty-seven, ensuring the continuation of the Plummer lineage through his descendants. Luther Thomas Martin Plummer outlived his wife and elder son, dying in 1875 at approximately age sixty-four. Limited records exist on his later life or potential remarriage, though the family rift over James Pratt's upbringing persisted as a point of contention. Overall, the Plummer family's post-captivity trajectory reflected resilience amid profound loss, with James Pratt's progeny representing the primary surviving branch.

Historical Impact and Interpretations

Rachel Plummer's narrative, Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty-One Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Commanchee Indians, published in in 1838, marked the first account of a Texas Indian captivity to appear in print within the . This publication heightened public awareness of raiding tactics and the vulnerabilities of frontier settlements following the on May 19, 1836, contributing to settler demands for stronger defenses and military expeditions against Comanche bands. The memoir's vivid descriptions of captivity hardships, including forced labor, physical abuse, and separation from her infant son, reinforced perceptions of Comanche society as inherently hostile to Anglo captives, influencing early historiography on Indian-white conflicts. Historians interpret Plummer's account as a offering rare ethnographic details on mid-1830s Comanche nomadic life, such as seasonal migrations from the to the , gender-specific labor divisions, and warrior practices including and occasional of enemies. While valued for these insights into pre-reservation culture, scholars note the narrative's limitations due to Plummer's trauma-induced perspective, which emphasizes brutality over potential adaptive elements of , aligning with broader genre conventions that propagandized Indian threats to justify expansionist policies. Later revisions, such as those by her uncle James W. Parker in 1844, amplified its role in family ransom efforts and , sustaining its legacy as a touchstone for understanding the human costs of the Texas-Indian wars. Despite these interpretive caveats, the memoir remains a foundational document for analyzing Anglo- interactions in the , distinct from more assimilation-focused narratives like that of .

References

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  2. https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/1020
  3. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54997194/rachel-plummer
  4. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L8Y1-WNX/rachel-parker-1819-1839
  5. https://www.geni.com/people/Rachel-Parker-Plummer-Comanche-captive/6000000010056085805
  6. https://www.myheritage.com/names/rachael_plummer
  7. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/parker-james-w
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  9. https://www.truewestmagazine.com/article/tragedy-and-triumph/
  10. https://www.forttours.com/pages/parker.asp
  11. https://www.frontiertimesmagazine.com/blog/white-squaw-of-the-comanches-tragic-tale-of-cynthia-ann-parker
  12. https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/122
  13. https://archive.org/download/rachelplummernar00park/rachelplummernar00park.pdf
  14. https://www.yallogy.com/p/texas-tales-the-capture-of-rachel
  15. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/parker-john
  16. https://www.geni.com/people/Clara-Kellogg/6000000010751365244
  17. https://archive.org/details/rachelplummernar00park
  18. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/indian-captives
  19. https://kenstonrarebooks.com/product/the-rachel-plummer-narrative-a-stirring-narrative-of-adventure-hardship-and-privation-in-the-early/
  20. https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/RACHAEL-PLUMMERS-NARRATIVE-Twenty-One-Months-Servitude/31952338190/bd
  21. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Plummer-53
  22. https://ranchingheritage.org/cynthia-ann-parker-true-story/
  23. https://www.geni.com/people/James-Pratt-Plummer-Sr-Comanche-captive/6000000010750494781
  24. https://www.geni.com/people/Luther-Plummer/6000000010750654255
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