Rachel Plummer
Rachel Plummer's 18 month ordeal began on May 19, 1836 with the attack and fall of Parker's Fort. Little more than a child herself, she was about 3 months pregnant and afraid she couldn't get away with her 18-month-old son, James Pratt Plummer. Most of the other women and children made their escape to the fields where the men were working.
She stood watching the scene at the heavy gate (their protection that had been carelessly left open) and when her Uncle Benjamin was surrounded, she finally decided to try to make her escape. It was too late.
She was now panicked and as she ran past the corner of the stockade, she saw the Indians driving their lances into her uncle and heard their fearsome yells. There were already Indians ahead of her. One of them picked up a hoe and knocked her to the ground. They wrenched her child from her arms and she fainted. When she regained consciousness, one of her captors was dragging her along by her hair. After several attempts, she was able to get to her feet. Her captors took her back to the gate where her uncle's mutilated body lay. Blood from her scalp wound made by the blow from the hoe ran freely. Rachel looked around for her son; she feared he had been killed. Finally she saw him in the possession of one of the warriors, and heard him calling for her. He was just learning to talk and he could say only mother.
Among the bloody scalps that the Indians brandished, Rachel identified her grandfather's. For all she knew, everyone else, including her husband and father, had been killed. She was alone and terrified and began sobbing. One of the 2 Comanche women with the party beat Rachel with a whip to make her stop. Soon, however, she was joined by her aunt, Elizabeth Kellog, and her young cousins Cynthia Ann and John. This small group of prisoners watched as their captors plundered the fort. The Indians destroyed the bedding and tossed the feathers into the air. They shredded books and smashed the bottles of medicine.
When the Indians tired of the destruction, they bound their captives to horses and rode away. Rachel looked back for the last time at her home. The captives were taken away from everything they knew and everyone they loved, and plunged into an alien and cruel world. The children would be adopted, the women would be slaves.
The journey was arduous. The warriors followed the ancient custom of plains warfare. In order to put distance between themselves and any possible pursuit, they rode hard and fast until around midnight on that first day. The captives, not even tiny James Pratt, were given no food or water for the first day. Indeed, Rachel had no food for the first 5 days and only enough water to keep her alive.
That night all of the captives were tightly bound hand to foot with plaited rawhide thongs and thrown to the ground face down. Rachel's son was thrown close to her. She could hear him cry and call for her, then she heard the blows inflicted on him to silence him. Once her Aunt Elizabeth called to her and she answered. Punishment was swift and severe. The captives were not allowed to speak to each other. All of them, even the toddler, were beaten during the warrior's victory dance. After the dance the children were pushed aside. They watched as Rachel and Elizabeth were subjected to more torture and then raped through the night.
Those 2 women, Rachel Plummer and Elizabeth Kellog were the first known American women to have been taken captive by the Comanche. They were not treated any differently than any other captive women (e.g., the Ute or Pawnee or Mexican women). There is no known case of a white woman captive who was not raped. The abuse and torture convinced captive women not to make any trouble and to do as they were commanded. The Comanche believed the torture and rape of captives was their right. Cooperation was preferable to any punishment that the creative warrior could devise. Women, all women, were chattel to the Comanche.
After 5 hard days of travel, the Indians separated, each captive went with a different group. Elizabeth was taken by the Caddo and Wichitas to the Red River. She was lucky, she was sold to the Delaware for $150 worth of goods and the Delawares then sold her to Sam Houston for the same price. Her ordeal lasted 6 months. Rachel, John, Cynthia Ann and Pratt went to different bands of Comanches.
On that fifth day, the warriors brought Pratt to Rachel. He was only 18 months old and they did not know he had been weaned. She held him to her and for a fleeting moment imagined that things would get better. She was mistaken. As soon as the Indians discovered that Pratt no longer nursed, they tore him from her arms again. Her last site of him was as he was taken away, holding out small, bloody hands to her and calling "Mother." She never saw him again.
Rachel's captors took her across the plains and eventually up into the mountains. There was snow on the ground, and she suffered from the cold. She had no covering for her feet and scant clothing to protect her body. Part of her job was to mind the horses at night. Usually she had to continue dressing the buffalo hides into the night. Rachel was afraid to complain, she was afraid her situation would only get worse.
In October after six months in slavery, Rachel gave birth to her second son. She feared for his life, and using the Comanche language she had learned in her bondage, she begged her mistress to tell her how to save his life. It was in vain. One day when her baby was about 6 weeks old, 6 or 7 Indians approached her as she nursed him. One of them grabbed the infant by the throat while another held her. She watched as he strangled the baby and then when the baby's life seemed finished, he tossed the tiny body into the air and let it fall on the frozen earth. Then they handed the baby back to her.
As she held him, she saw that he still lived. She washed the blood from his face and he began to breath again. When the Indians discovered he was still alive, they wrenched him from her arms and tied a rope around his neck. The tossed him again and again into a mass of prickly pears. One of them mounted his horse and dragged the body around the camp. Then, they tossed what was left of the baby into Rachel's lap. She buried her son.
Some months later, she and her owner's daughter were a short distance from camp. Rachel was ordered to go back to camp and retrieve a digging tool. Rachel decided that she had lived long enough and that she would force her tormentors to kill her. She refused to follow the order. Enraged, the young mistress ran at her. Rachel pushed her down, and a fight ensued. Rachel got hold of a buffalo bone and beat her foe with it. A large group of Indians surrounded the fight, yelling, but no one stopped it or interfered in any way. Finally, her tormentor, cut and bleeding, called out for mercy. Rachel helped her back to camp. The other Indians did not seem concerned for her, and Rachel cleaned her wounds.
Finally a warrior approached her and told her by their law she was clear, Rachel hadn't started the fight. However, the girl's mother was very angry and ordered Rachel to gather up a bundle of kindling. Rachel learned it was to burn her to death. She refused to gather the wood, and refused to be bound. Her mistress began lighting the bundles and throwing them on her. Rachel told her that she would fight if the old woman continued. Another lit bundle was tossed at Rachel, so she pushed the woman into the fire and kept her there until the woman had as many burns as Rachel. The woman grabbed up a club and struck her with it. She took it from her foe and the fight was on. Again, they were surrounded by the camp inhabitants, and again no one interfered. Once more, Rachel persevered and then tended her foe. Her owner was merely amused, so, to her surprise, her life improved somewhat. She still did not understand her captors.
After months of captivity, she was spotted by some visiting Comancheros. They did not bargain for her, but an Anglo woman in an Comanche camp was a little unusual at this time, so they mentioned seeing her upon their return to Santa Fe. The news so disturbed an American trader named William Donoho that he paid the Comancheros to find her and ransom her.
Finally, one night as Rachel did her chores, some Mexican traders (Comancheros) approached, looking for her owner. They asked him if he would sell her, and hope jumped to life in her when he answered yes. She waited and watched as they bartered for her, fear and hope tumbling in her heart. At last her owner accepted an offer and after eighteen months of slavery, she was taken to Santa Fe to Mr. Donahue's home, and freedom. Donoho and his wife then took her to Independence, Missouri where they were met by her brother-in-law, L.D. Nixon. On the evening of February 19, 1838, she reached her father's (James Parker) home in Montgomery county, Texas. Her father was shocked at her appearance. She was covered with scars and very emaciated.
On the American frontier, the position of a returned female captive was always very difficult. They were objects of curiosity and pity, and of scorn. They had been used sexually by what the Anglos considered as less than human creatures. And because they lived, they were often an embarrassment to their families. The shame and humiliation they suffered was worse among the Anglos than when they were with the Comanche. Rachel, weakened and ill from the 18 months of abuse and deprivation, died less than a year after her return.
SOURCED:
T.R. Fehrenbach, Comanches: The Destruction of a People, New York, 1983.
Margaret Schmidt Hacker, Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and Legend, El Paso, 1990.
Rachel Plummer, The Rachel Plummer Narrative, Private Publication, 1926.
Calico Lace,
Sachse,
TX
January 1999