Timothy Shannon's intriguing new book hinges, quite literally, on the question of what is and is not a lie. In the first half of Indian Captive, Indian King, Shannon tells the story of eighteenth-century Scottish traveler Peter Williamson as he himself told it, presenting the various adventures (and misadventures) Williamson described in his published works and then subjecting them to historical scrutiny. (Spoiler: Williamson does not fare well.) The second half of the book presents Williamson as others, including Shannon, saw him, as an ingenious raconteur who turned his misfortunes to his own benefit, adapting his personal narrative and harnessing the expanding opportunities of the eighteenth-century British Empire to secure himself a living and improve his social position.
Peter Williamson began his life with little in the way of prospects. Born to poor parents in the rural countryside near Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1729, he was lured into indentured servitude and shipped to America at the age of thirteen. In the first part of the book, “Hard Fate,” Shannon follows the major episodes of Williamson's early life, including his childhood in Scotland; his “kidnapping” by agents of Aberdeen merchants; his voyage to America, shipwreck, and sale as an indentured servant; his life as a successful farmer on the Pennsylvania frontier; his capture by Indians; his enlistment in the army and time as a prisoner of war; and his ransoming and eventual return to Aberdeen in 1758. The details of each episode are laid out in Williamson's memoir, French and Indian Cruelty, first published in 1757 and reprinted multiple times during Williamson's life and over the next century. Shannon examines these episodes for veracity based on meticulous research in archives in Edinburgh, London (Kew), and Pennsylvania, as well as published sources. But Shannon is not just interested in confirming or debunking Williamson's story. He also wants to mine the story for what it can tell his readers about the larger historical context. As Shannon explains, “even in Williamson's lies, we can glimpse important truths about the everyday lives and experiences of eighteenth-century Britons within their empire” (9). So, as we learn about Williamson, we also learn of many other children exploited by the Aberdeen servant trade, the increasingly limited prospects for indentured servants in the American colonies, the reality and sometimes harsher mythology of Indian captivity, and the impact of eighteenth-century American wars on its nonelite participants.
In part two, “The Interesting Tale,” Shannon follows Williamson as he performs his American adventures for a Scottish audience eager to hear tales from the exotic fringes of the British Empire. Williamson's “restless and entrepreneurial pursuit of celebrity and social respectability” (123) led him to craft a largely imaginary narrative and persona that appealed to fellow Britons’ preconceptions about Native peoples. He dressed as an Indian, recounted his captivity, and described cultural practices of the “savage” Natives. Building on his growing fame, Williamson also published a series of written accounts of his adventures. These public accounts led to his prosecution by the magistrates and merchants of Aberdeen, who fiercely denied his claims that they had connived at selling children into foreign servitude. Much of Shannon's evidence comes from these trials, and he examines them in detail, not only to support (or refute) Williamson's story but also to demonstrate that Williamson used the trials to defend his hard-won status as a respectable businessman. There was enough truth to Williamson's accounts to allow him to collect several hundred pounds in damages from his legal opponents. Having secured this vindication, Williamson settled permanently in Edinburgh and operated a succession of businesses. These included coffeehouses, a printing establishment, and a penny post, all of which allowed “Indian Peter” both to rub shoulders with the polite reading public of Edinburgh and to continue to profit from his performances and published accounts.
As he does in part one, Shannon uses Williamson's ventures to explore some of the larger issues and themes of eighteenth-century Britain, including the development of the public sphere and influence of the Scottish Enlightenment. For instance, in one delightful section, Shannon describes the short-lived Scots Spy, published by Williamson and probably penned by him as well. A Spy article included a description of Williamson that captured both his common origins and his embrace of the Scottish Enlightenment's ethos of moral equality and self-improvement: He was a “blunt plain man, who told his mind in such words as common sense dictated to him” (227). Shannon also demonstrates how Williamson's Indian persona shifted over time, reflecting the evolution of British stereotypes about Native peoples. While the first edition of French and Indian Captivity said Williamson had spent three months in Indian captivity, by 1792 Williamson claimed he had spent forty years as “King of all the Mohawk, Oneidoe, Onondangoe, Cayaga, Seneca, Tuscarora, Natiquoque, Conoy, Tuteloe, Chugnue, Delaware, Unanime, Minisink, Mehicon, Wappinger, and Cherokee Indians” (263). Clearly, by the end of his life, Williamson's persona had devolved into “self-deprecating burlesque” (262), and his audience, well acquainted with the familiar figure, was in on the joke.
Shannon's book is very well written, frequently entertaining, and insightful in its analysis, thereby offering a valuable addition to the recent crop of microhistorical studies that examine the rapidly changing terrain of the expanding empire through the experiences of Eleazar Williams, John Ledyard, John Wompas, and other individuals. Not surprisingly, given the intricacies of Williamson's deception, the book is also occasionally confusing and repetitive, particularly in the second part, when Shannon jumps back and forth between Williamson's published accounts and actual events. A timeline would have helped the reader, particularly in the book's second half, as would a chronological listing of Williamson's known and suspected publications. Overall, however, the book is both a fascinating account of one extraordinary life and an informative examination of the lived experience, beneficial as well as costly, of the eighteenth-century British Empire.
