A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity

Ethan Allen's "A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity"(1795) is an autobiographical work by the eighteenth-century folk hero, philosopher and patriot. In it, Allen describes his brief military career in the Revolution, his horrific two-year captivity by the British and his final release and journey back to his beloved Vermont. He provides a ground level view of the war, of captivity, of the meaning and purpose of the American Revolution. In the Copley Edition, an introduction and notes are provided that contextualize and inform student reading of the text. The Copley Edition includes a number of "Links" to other works and to ideas that demand more elaboration than a simple footnote might allow. The black-bordered pages are insertions by the editor into the text designed to help the student see the ways in which Allen's text is connected to the world around him.