Colonial America

ANALYTICAL BOOK REVIEW OF WHITE DEVIL : A TRUE STORY OF WAR , SAVAGERY AND VENGENCE IN COLONIAL AMERICA

As Reviewed by Lissa A . Sierra

The book White Devil : A True Story of War , Savagery , and Vengeance in Colonial America ' is a historical novel about Robert Rogers better known as White Devil and his famous band of Rangers . They marched into French territory to attack for vengeance on the Abenaki Indians for their massacre of settlers at Fort William Henry . Steven Brumwell dramatically shows the stealth involved in reaching the Abenaki at the

St . Francis River Basin , the details of the brutal slaughter , and the retreat to safety . This book offers different perspectives based on narratives from Abenaki and accounts from survivors . Brumwell also relied on more than 250 years of North American , British , and French archived documents to explore the truth behind this controversial episode from America 's aggressive past

The book is more or less a biography of Rogers and his Rangers and studies the many characters and individuals involved in the campaigns leading up to Roger 's climatic raid on the Abenaki community of St Francis in French Canada . Brumwell 's focus on the St . Francis raid provides a compelling narrative thread , and allows for a complete plot that is worthy of any historical novel . White Devil ' opens with the captivity of Susanna Johnson who is taken with her family and others in the community from Fort Number Four in New Hampshire and taken to St Francis . She eventually returns home and her new built connections with the Abenaki provide a satisfying plot . Brumwell uses Susanna 's capture to give the reader a glace at the nature of the Abenaki community at St Francis

After giving some cultural and geographical foundations , Brumwell then turns to the outbreak of war and the growing reputations of Robert Rogers and the Abenaki of St . Francis . Both quickly become feared fighters of wilderness warfare . Rogers provided skills and leadership for British forces sadly lacking in frontier scouts . The story 's pace picks up as Brumwell recounts the early campaigns of the war , especially along the Hudson and Lake Champlain line . One of the points of this section that should be noted is the way in which the activities of the Indians and Rogers Rangers are folded into the operations of the regular European troops . Their skill was not simply in conducting ambushes , or fighting from behind trees , but in their ability to move quickly and quietly through hundreds of miles of wilderness , take prisoners , and gather information about enemy intentions . Theirs was a war for information that was fought with great savagery . It recounts the decision for the St . Francis raid which was for vengeance and the terrifying detains of how it was fought . The battle that was fought killed mostly old men , women , and children in St . Francis . Brumwell then ends the book with a brief chapter outlining the conclusion of the war that included the personal failures and disappointments of Rogers...