Career
Kinnan was taken from her Virginia home in a Shawnee raid on her home near the Tygart Valley River in what is now Randolph County, West Virginia. At the time, Great Lakes-area tribes were frequently raiding settlements on the Ohio River in retaliation for British expeditions in the area. Her book was published a year later.
Kinnan recounted her story to printer Shepard Kollock, who took down the story, "improved" and published lieutenant
Instead of straight historical account, Kinnan"s account focuses on her own interior difficulties and the sentimental impact of her journey, claiming that the reader"s heart will be "melted with sorrow" in response to Kinnan"s story. In doing so, it became the template for later fictional captivity stories that focus on a protagonist"s plight and emotions.
