The Captives (film)

Last updated
The Captives
Directed byJude Miller
Written byJude Miller
Produced byJude Miller
StarringElliot Miller
Sarah "Sadie" Jones
CinematographyEric Lilly of Digital Vision Works
Edited byEric Lilly of Digital Vision Works, Judy Miller, John Pabst
Music byJake Krack, Elliot Miller, Andrew Miller, Scott Schmidt, John Sheltmier
Production
company
Jude True Blue Productions
Release date
  • July 31, 2004 (2004-07-31)
Running time
58 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000

The Captives is a 2004 American film starring Elliot Miller, produced and directed by Jude Miller for Jude True Blue Productions. It is based on the true story of Mary Draper Ingles and her struggles during the French-Indian War. The film tells the story of Mary Draper Ingles and others in her settlement being taken captive to the Ohio Country by Shawnee Indian Warriors, and her journey home as she escaped from the tribe. [1]

Contents

Jude Miller became interested with the story of Mary Draper Ingles after the disaster on September 11th, and began writing the screenplay in 2002. She was deeply inspired by the story of Mary Draper Ingles and her bravery and determination through trying times. [1]

Synopsis

The Seven Years’ War, better known as the French and Indian War, was a conflict between the French, British, and Native Americans over land. English land speculators encouraged people to move west and build farms. Mary Draper Ingles’ family was one of many who were recruited to move west of the mountains. As more English settlers moved west towards their lands and hunting grounds; Native American tribes revolted. They invaded English settlements, including that of Mary Draper Ingles.

Plot

The movie begins in the summer of 1755, with a terrible attack on Drapers Meadow by the Shawnee Indian Warriors. Many people were killed in the attack, including Mary Draper Ingles’ mother, and her sister-in-law’s baby whose head was bashed against the side of a house. Mary, her two boys, and her sister-in-law were taken captive by the Shawnee on a long journey west to Ohio Country. Mary tried to remember important landmarks along the way in case they had a chance to escape. She tied knots in her sash each day to keep track of how long they were gone. By the end of the second day of their journey, they reached the point where Indian Creek flows into the New River. The Shawnee had two canoes secreted at the riverbank, which they used to carry captives and stolen food. The Shawnee swam with the horses. That night they camped west of the New River. At this time Will and John, Mary’s husband and brother, were setting out to rescue the captives. Mary was pregnant during the time of the trip so she had to stop and give birth alongside the river. After, they continued their trip over Flat Top Mountain and along Paint Creek.

The next stop they made was at a salt spring at Canal River to make salt. When they reached the Shawnee town which was by the Ohio and Scioto River, the warriors were welcomed home. There was a big celebration that lasted late into the night. The next morning all the captives except Mary were forced to run the gauntlet by the Shawnee. After the gauntlet, things got worse for the captives. Mary’s two boys and her sister in law were taken away. Mary had to give her baby to a caretaker named Sauwaseekau, so that she could work making shirts for the Shawnee. She was an excellent seamstress and was paid well. When Mary asked how much it would cost to get freedom for her children, she was told that she and her children were to become Shawnee.

The Shawnee started sending Mary and an Old Dutch woman out on daily trips to look for berries. Because they were alone, Mary started thinking they could escape. In preparation, they stole a little extra food each day before the trip. Mary left her baby with Sauwaseekau because she knew the baby could not survive the long journey home. Mary and the old Dutch woman set out on the trip, knowing they could not return to the Shawnee or they would be facing death. Mary and the old Dutch woman navigated themselves by the rivers. Neither of them could swim, so they had to go around the rivers making their trip even longer. After a while, hunger took toll on them, and the old Dutch woman tried to eat Mary. Mary escaped from her and found a canoe buried under leaves alongside the river. She used it to cross the river and keep distance between her and the old Dutch woman. They continued on their journey and from time to time saw each other traveling on the other side of the river and encouraged each other to keep going. After 43 days and 800 miles, Mary had arrived home to her husband, brother, and friends.

Cast

Awards and reviews

The Captives is the Winner of 2005 Gold Davey Award, [2] which honors films made by small production companies. It also received the Award of Excellence in the 2005 Accolade Competition, Award of Excellence for Drama in the 2005 DV Awards, and Winner of 2004 West Virginia Filmmaker’s Film Festival for Best Docudrama. [3]

“The South Charleston Museum is sponsoring a showing of "The Captives", the new Mary Ingles film directed by Spencer filmmaker Jude Miller, at 7 p.m.July 31, 2004 at The LaBelle Theater in downtown South Charleston. In June, the film premiered at the Robey Theater where more than 600 people saw it at two screenings. The film stars Miller's daughter, Screen Actors Guild actress Elliot Lowe Miller, in her first film role. Her performance can be compared to Nicole Kidman in "Cold Mountain". The period costumes, especially for the Shawnee warriors, are as good as anything in Hollywood film. The film was an official 'indie SAG' film which is limited to a budget of $75,000. If you love WV history, see this film." Steve Fesenmaier – Graffiti News[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Boone</span> American pioneer and frontiersman (1734–1820)

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from American Indians, for whom the area was a traditional hunting ground. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittanning (village)</span> Historic Native American village in Pennsylvania

Kittanning was an 18th-century Native American village in the Ohio Country, located on the Allegheny River at present-day Kittanning, Pennsylvania. The village was at the western terminus of the Kittanning Path, an Indian trail that provided a route across the Alleghenies between the Ohio and Susquehanna river basins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornstalk</span> Shawnee leader in the American Revolution

Cornstalk was a Shawnee leader in the Ohio Country in the 1760s and 1770s. His name in the Shawnee language was Hokoleskwa. Little is known about his early life. He may have been born in the Province of Pennsylvania. In 1763, he reportedly led a raid against British American colonists in Pontiac's War. He first appears in historical documents in 1764, when he was one of the hostages surrendered to the British as part of the peace negotiations ending Pontiac's War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Kenton</span> American frontiersman and soldier (1755–1836)

Simon Kenton was an American frontiersman and soldier in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He was a friend of Daniel Boone, Spencer Records, Thomas S. Hinde, Thomas Hinde, and Isaac Shelby. He served the United States in the Revolution, the Northwest Indian War, and the War of 1812.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jemison</span> Scots-Irish American captured and adopted by Seneca natives (1743–1833)

Mary Jemison (Deh-he-wä-nis) was a Scots-Irish colonial frontierswoman in Pennsylvania and New York, who became known as the "White Woman of the Genesee." As a young girl, she was captured and adopted into a Seneca family, assimilating to their culture, marrying two Native American men in succession, and having children with them. In 1824, she published a memoir of her life, a form of captivity narrative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Captivity narrative</span> Genre of accounts by survivors

Captivity narratives are usually stories of people captured by enemies whom they consider uncivilized, or whose beliefs and customs they oppose. The best-known captivity narratives in North America are those concerning Europeans and Americans taken as captives and held by the indigenous peoples of North America. These narratives have had an enduring place in literature, history, ethnography, and the study of Native peoples.

Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. Interstate 64 and West Virginia Route 25 pass by the community, which has grown to intermingle with nearby Dunbar. As of 2018, the community had a population of 1,489, 54% of whom were African American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Draper Ingles</span> Virginia pioneer kidnapped by Native Americans

Mary Draper Ingles, also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken by Shawnee after the Draper's Meadow Massacre during the French and Indian War. They were taken to Lower Shawneetown at the Ohio and Scioto rivers. Ingles escaped with another woman after two and a half months and trekked 500 to 600 miles, crossing numerous rivers, creeks, and the Appalachian Mountains to return home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Shawneetown</span> Historic Native American village on the Ohio River

Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population eventually occupied areas on both sides of the Ohio River, and along both sides of the Scioto River in what is now Scioto County, Ohio. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 28 April 1983. It is near the Bentley site, a Madisonville Horizon settlement inhabited between 1400 CE and 1625 CE. Nearby, to the east, there are also four groups of Hopewell tradition mounds, built between 100 BCE and 500 CE, known as the Portsmouth Earthworks.

Abram Trigg was an American politician from Bedford County, Virginia. He fought with the Virginia militia in the Revolutionary War and represented Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1797 until 1809. He was a slaveholder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draper's Meadow massacre</span> Attack by Shawnee warriors on a Virginia pioneer settlement in 1755.

The Draper's Meadow Massacre was an attack in July 1755, when the Draper's Meadow settlement in southwest Virginia, at the site of present-day Blacksburg, was raided by a group of Shawnee warriors, who killed at least four people including an infant, and captured five more. The Indians brought their hostages to Lower Shawneetown, a Shawnee village in Kentucky. One of the captives, Mary Draper Ingles, later escaped and returned home on foot through the wilderness. Although many of the circumstances of the massacre are uncertain, including the date of the attack, the event remains a dramatic story in the history of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingles Ferry</span> United States historic place

Ingles Ferry is the site of a historic ferry crossing on the New River in western Virginia, near the city of Radford in Pulaski County, Virginia, United States. A tavern was opened there in 1772 and the ferry served soldiers and civilians until 1948. A bridge was built at the site in 1842 but was burned during the civil war. The tavern and replicas of the 18th-century home of the Ingles family can be seen nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn's Creek massacre</span> Massacre of Pennsylvania settlers during the French and Indian War

The Penn's Creek massacre was an October 16, 1755 raid by Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans on a settlement along Penn's Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. It was the first of a series of deadly raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native Americans allied with the French in the French and Indian War.

Mary "Polly" Lewis Kinnan was an American woman held captive by Shawnee Native Americans from 1791 to 1794, who published an account of her experience in 1795 in the book A true narrative of the sufferings of Mary Kinnan: who was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Nation of Indians on the thirteenth day of May, 1791, and remained with them till the sixteenth of August, 1794.

Hugh McGary was an Irish-born American military officer and landowner who was the founder of McGary Station in present-day Oregon, Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women of Colonial Virginia</span> Historical group of people

In May 1607, one hundred men and young boys were on an expedition where they arrived in what is now known as Virginia. This group were the first permanent English settlers in America. They named the colony of Jamestown, after the English King James. The site was chosen precisely for its location and beneficial factors. Jamestown was surrounded by water on three sides of the land; this made it easily accessible for ships to come and go. It was far enough inland, making it easier to defend from a possible Spanish attack. At the time, it was said that the men had to be able to create a living before any women could be a part of the colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Vause</span> 18th century fort in Virginia, United States

Fort Vause was built in 1753 in Montgomery County, Virginia, by Ephraim Vause. The historic site is near the town of Shawsville, Virginia. It was attacked by French troops and Native American warriors in 1756, and most of the inhabitants were killed or taken prisoner. The fort was rebuilt in 1757 but abandoned by 1759.

The Sandy Creek Expedition, also known as the Sandy Expedition or the Big Sandy Expedition, was a 1756 campaign by Virginia Regiment soldiers and Cherokee warriors into modern-day West Virginia against the Shawnee, who were raiding the British colony of Virginia's frontier. The campaign set out in mid-February, 1756, and was immediately slowed by harsh weather and inadequate provisions. With morale failing, the expedition was forced to turn back in mid-March without encountering the enemy.

William Ingles, also spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia. He participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions. He was eventually promoted to colonel in the Virginia Regiment. His wife, Mary Draper Ingles, was captured by Shawnee warriors and held captive for months before escaping and walking several hundred miles to her settlement. William's sons, Thomas and George, were also held captive, although William was able to ransom his son Thomas in 1768. William Ingles established Ingles Ferry in southwestern Virginia.

Thomas Ingles was a Virginia pioneer, frontiersman and soldier. He was the son of William Ingles and Mary Draper Ingles. He, his mother and his younger brother were captured by Shawnee Indians and although his mother escaped, Thomas remained with the Shawnee until age 17, when his father paid a ransom and brought him back to Virginia. He later served in the Virginia militia, reaching the rank of colonel by 1780.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Home". Davey Awards.
  3. The Charleston Gazette, Thursday, October 7th,2004