Captivity Narrative: Adam

Adam was a young African boy in the home of John Trimble located in Augusta County, Va. In 1764, a white man named Dickson is said to have led a group of Delaware and Wyandott Indians in an attack on the Trimble property and nearby settlements. During the attack, John Trimble was killed and his son, James, James’ half-sister, and Adam were captured. A description of the attack on the Trimble family can be found here. The following is an excerpt from the Annals of Augusta County, Va., from 1726 to 1871, by Joseph Addison Waddell, concerning Adam.

The boy Adam was a native African of recent importation and spoke but little English. Mr. Trimble often heard him, in his old age, relate the incidents of his captivity. During the retreat of the Indians, Adam one day stirred up a “yellow jacket’s nest,” just as the sparsely-clad savages were filing along, and some of them were assailed and stung by the insects. This so pleased the simple-minded boy that he was about to repeat the act, when the Indian boys administered to him a sound beating.