"The story of the search itself as told by Miss Baker's pen is fascinating...those of the captives who were not redeemed, mixing with their captors...lived out their pathetic romantic lives and in those Canadian villages lie buried in nameless graves." -The Buffalo Commercial, May 22, 1897
"Most of the surviving men and women were recovered; but a large proportion of the children remained in Canada...their descendants have been traced by Miss Baker, author of True Stories of New England Captives...some of the most distinguished men and women of Canadian history." - Historic Towns of New England (2019)
"Her studies of this interesting episode in colonial history are curious and valuable." -American Historical Review, 1898
"Deserves credit for original research, a book which no historical student can fail to prize." -Nation
"An interest of romantic fact quite equal to that of the romantic fiction." - The Book Buyer, 1897
"Lighthall the Canadian litterateur praises highly...'True Stories of New England Captives'...by the late Miss C. Alice Baker in 1897...the facts they relate are much more terrible and pathetic...than those of the expulsion of the Acadians." -Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon), May 5, 1927

"Carried captive into Canada, whence they came not back," is an entry in old town records of New England which could hardly fail to provoke the curiosity of Miss C. Alice Baker of Cambridge and Deerfield.

This mysterious entry excited in Baker a spirit of research, and the result was her 1897 book of uncommon interest "True Stories of New England Captives."

Her book tells the stories of thirteen New England captives taken during the 1704 Raid on Deerfield. In this raid French and Native American forces attacked the English frontier settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts, taking 112 settlers captive to Montreal, French Canada.

Baker took upon herself the task of tracing the history of the captives of Indian warfare, especially from Deerfield, after their captivity began. With this purpose she journeyed up and down the St. Lawrence, delving in parish records, asking questions which the curés and villagers have spared no pains to answer. She followed up every conceivable clue, written or spoken, to the mysteries she sought to unravel. Baker made multiple trips to Canada to research in the official records and visited villages and Indian missions.


Baker "found eighteen Deerfield captives and identified many more whose fate had been unknown. She became known as an expert in New England history and was invited to join the New York, Cambridge, and Montreal Historical Societies."

In describing the journey of John Sheldon to Canada to secure the release of the captives, Baker writes:

"We need not go back to King Arthur for exploits of chivalry; our colonial history is full of them. This man, long past the daring impulses of youth; this youth, whose life was all before him; show me two braver knights-errant setting out with loftier purpose on a more perilous pilgrimage.

"Three hundred miles of painful and unaccustomed tramping on snow-shoes in mid-winter, over mountain and morass, through tangled thickets and 'snow-clogged forest,' where with fell purpose the cruel savage lurked ; with gun in hand, and pack on back, now wading knee-deep over some rapid stream, now in the teeth of the fierce north wind, toiling over the slippery surface of the frozen lake, now shuffling tediously along in the sodden ice of some half-thawed river; digging away the drifts at night for his camp; wet, lame, half-famished and chilled to the bone, hardly daring to kindle a fire; a bit of dried meat from his pack for a supper, spruce boughs for his bed; crouching there wrapped in his blanket, his head muffled in the hood of his capote, eye and ear alert, his mittened hand grasping the hilt of the knife at his belt; up at daybreak and on again, through storm and sleet, pelted by pitiless rains, or blinded by whirling snow: what iron will and nerves of steel, sound mind in sound body, to dare and do what this man did."

About the author:

Charlotte Baker (1833 – 1909), was an American historian, journalist, and teacher who because of her original research became known as an expert in New England history and was invited to join the New York, Cambridge, and Montreal Historical Societies.