Taken by the Shawnee
“This is an amazing book, and I couldn’t stop reading it.”
— Joan Silber, PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Secrets of Happiness and Improvement
“Sallie Bingham has imagined her ancestor’s history so graphically, so passionately, that every page of this astounding story electrifies.”
— Joan Frank, author of Juniper Street: a Novel and Late Work
Now Available from Turtle Point Press
In a most unusual portrait of early America, a young mother’s years in captivity with the Shawnee prove to be the best years of her life.
It’s 1779 and a young white woman named Margaret Erskine is venturing west from Virginia, on horseback, with her baby daughter and the rest of her family. She has no experience of Indians, and has absorbed most of the prejudices of her time, but she is open-minded, hardy, and mentally strong, a trait common to most of her female descendants–Sallie Bingham’s ancestors...
This is the seldom told story of the making of this country in the years of the Revolution, what it cost in lives and suffering, and how one woman among many not only survived extreme hardship, but flourished.
“Bingham recounts this fascinating story of capture, survival, progress, healing, and return with lush descriptions and respect for all involved with Margaret’s complicated story. She is a smart and empathetic writer, and has created an awesome account of female survival at a horrific time.”— Booklist
“The novel paints a compelling portrait of womanhood in this era. Crucially, the author depicts the violence of the period as integral to the colonial project, dismissing any propagandistic delusions of one-sided "savagery" and instead depicting each culture without romance or bias.”— Kirkus Reviews
The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke
“Men who inherit great wealth are respected, but women who do the same are ridiculed. In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham rescues Doris Duke from this gendered prison and shows us just how brave, rebellious, and creative this unique woman really was, and how her generosity benefits us to this day.”— Gloria Steinem
“In her fascinating book about tobacco heiress Doris Duke, whose net worth had ballooned to $1.2 billion by her death in 1993, Bingham gets at how inherited wealth liberates women but also burdens them.”— The National Book Review, "5 HOT BOOKS"
“In this illuminating biography, Bingham (The Blue Box) chronicles the life of philanthropist and tobacco heiress Doris Duke (1912–1993)... Bingham is a generous biographer in this exacting, measured work.”— Publishers Weekly
“Bingham adds a trove of new material to the Duke oeuvre, including revealing quotations from letters and details of daily life on Duke’s many estates. ”— The New York Times
Prefer text? Read the transcript.
Sallie Bingham is a writer, teacher, feminist activist, and philanthropist.
Sallie’s first novel was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1961; she has since published six additional novels and the well-known family memoir, Passion and Prejudice (Knopf, 1989). Her latest book, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, is now available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
She is founder of the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which published The American Voice, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University.
Sallie's Latest
The Eye of the Needle
I sometimes think I go to church to hear what I don't want to hear. After all what would be the use of hearing reinforcements of my rock-hard opinions?...
Dear Dr. Spock
We didn’t and we don’t obey our instincts; we’ve been trained to ignore them over the millennium....
A Dangerous Woman
It’s possible that Emma Goldman, the American revolutionary, would never have been able to have her effect on history without the financial and emotional support of another dangerous woman, Aline Barnsdall....
Living in the City of Holy Faith
Often when I'm asked, with less and less surprise, why I moved to Santa Fe in 1991, I repeat the familiar explanations......
Why Are Some Women Conservatives
I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why some women may vote for the felon......
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing is at an end, there will be no more such collections....
The Fight Goes On
I would be most grateful for your responses, both from you who enjoyed Hopscotch during its long history and you who might want to avail yourselves of it in the future....
A New Beginning
There are many benefits to putting land in conservation easements, and it is happening more frequently all over the country....
Taken by the Shawnee
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing is at an end, there will be no more such collections....
À la recherche
I was single and at that time and in that place, single women seemed slightly suspect; when I called the local ballet company to order one ticket, I was told they were only sold in pairs....
Can a Heathen Woman Be a Christian?
Perhaps a healthy dose of heathenism would restore us to the churches (or other forms of organized spirituality) so vital to healthy communities....
The Shawnee Have Their Own Park in Ohio
Margaret, if she were alive, would smile secretly, shielding her pleasure from her censorious Virginia relatives....
Weaving the Threads of Historical Fiction: Ingenuity, Research, Integrity
Margaret could watch, she could listen, and she could learn—and I learned along with her through research, thought, and writing and rewriting her story....
Book Banning Begins at Home
I'm hoping that the individuals who object to my book may in some form or another communicate with me....
Silver Heads
It is with dismay but not surprise that I read a description of the reaction of two “Silver Heads” to Tracy Emin’s panels on the main doors of the National Portrait Gallery in London....
Multispecies Entanglement
I'm witnessing a surge in big, old-fashioned weddings for those who can afford up to half a million dollars to rent tents, clubs, hire staff, and buy the necessary clothes....
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
...Not exactly a wilderness but a great expanse of desert, south of Santa Fe, that goes on for miles and miles to the sprawling town of Alamogordo....
Women
The Eye of the Needle
I sometimes think I go to church to hear what I don't want to hear. After all what would be the use of hearing reinforcements of my rock-hard opinions?...
Dear Dr. Spock
We didn’t and we don’t obey our instincts; we’ve been trained to ignore them over the millennium....
A Dangerous Woman
It’s possible that Emma Goldman, the American revolutionary, would never have been able to have her effect on history without the financial and emotional support of another dangerous woman, Aline Barnsdall....
Can a Heathen Woman Be a Christian?
Perhaps a healthy dose of heathenism would restore us to the churches (or other forms of organized spirituality) so vital to healthy communities....
The Blooming of Women Athletes
I want to congratulate not only Biels and Jackson but the unrecognized women who initiated and supported the programs that allow women athletes to bloom....
The Movement
It is a decade that seems to me to be largely neglected... but it was crucial for me and for many other women and what we achieved does endure although constantly under threat....
To Dream the Impossible Dream
To what degree are we talented women constrained in fulfilling our ambitions by the fear of being labelled insane or cast out?...
The Zombie Law
Michelle Goldberg's column in The New York Times describes the 1935 Federal Comstock Act as a threat that Americans have not taken seriously....
Now It’s Happening!
I have been feeling for years that the big effort we made in the early 1980's to expand the presence of women as playwrights and directors had stalled. ...
Power of Protest
All around me I hear people disparaging the campus protests so brutally put down at a number of "top" universities, disparaged as a meaningless waste of time......
Writing
Why Are Some Women Conservatives
I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why some women may vote for the felon......
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing is at an end, there will be no more such collections....
À la recherche
I was single and at that time and in that place, single women seemed slightly suspect; when I called the local ballet company to order one ticket, I was told they were only sold in pairs....
Can a Heathen Woman Be a Christian?
Perhaps a healthy dose of heathenism would restore us to the churches (or other forms of organized spirituality) so vital to healthy communities....
The Shawnee Have Their Own Park in Ohio
Margaret, if she were alive, would smile secretly, shielding her pleasure from her censorious Virginia relatives....
Some More Questions
There's a magic for me as a somewhat hidden writer (essential for my work) when a book launch brings me into connection with new people....
Three Ideas: A Biography and Two Histories
It will soon be time for me to start another three or four year writing project. I’d love to hear which of these three ideas you find most appealing......
Weaving the Threads of Historical Fiction: Ingenuity, Research, Integrity
Margaret could watch, she could listen, and she could learn—and I learned along with her through research, thought, and writing and rewriting her story....
Book Banning Begins at Home
I'm hoping that the individuals who object to my book may in some form or another communicate with me....
New Mexico
Living in the City of Holy Faith
Often when I'm asked, with less and less surprise, why I moved to Santa Fe in 1991, I repeat the familiar explanations......
A New Beginning
There are many benefits to putting land in conservation easements, and it is happening more frequently all over the country....
How Towns Are Divided
Fear knows nothing about physical distance. It's always fear of the unknown, the unfamiliar....
Labor Day 2024
Screams of "Burn him! Burn him!" Friday night as the puppet went up in flames also burned what little is left of our understanding of the original meaning of Labor Day....
Goat Dressing at the Gay Rodeo
It almost seems, at least here in Santa Fe, that the presence and participation of gay people in public events have been folded into the omnipresent family culture......
The Impossible Dream Renewed
Disappointment and depression are hard to shake; they become a habit, protecting us from hopes that seem doomed....
The Meaning of Work
Recently I toured the Las Trampas Church where the elaborate interior, with altar screen, bultos, and other religious paintings was being skillfully restored by local craftsmen....
Maybe Brett
Blessed as I always am in my work, I've discovered a possible new topic for a biography in the life of the British/American painter, Dorothy Brett....
5’9″ 235 Pounds
Girls need to learn to play rough, a lesson we may be trying to forget today with our return as mothers and grandmothers to a relentless obsession with our female offsprings' looks....
Thank God for the Sixties
When Woodstock happened in 1969, I was deep in my baby-making and raising years with a young son and two more soon to arrive, and if I'd seen this photograph I would have been horrified....
Kentucky
À la recherche
I was single and at that time and in that place, single women seemed slightly suspect; when I called the local ballet company to order one ticket, I was told they were only sold in pairs....
The (Un)Known Project
Recently when I was in Louisville, I walked down to the Ohio River to see In Our Elders' Footprints and On the Banks of Freedom, installations which commemorate the enslaved people of the state....
Slave Breeding in Kentucky
Since coming home from Kentucky last week, I’ve had the privilege of connecting with several academics who have put many hours into researching this controversial and hidden topic. ...
Jacob Street
Jacob Street when I was growing up in the prosperous white suburbs had only one meaning: that was the address of Lizzie Baker's house....
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
As we stumble as individuals and as nations through a time of great uncertainty, some individuals and even some nations also stumble toward various forms of often painful enlightenment....
What Are Your Ideas for Hopscotch?
I've been asked many times the last few months what can be done to support Hopscotch. What are your ideas for how Hopscotch could be used?...
A Brief History of the Kentucky Foundation for Women and Hopscotch House
Having long learned… the effect of art created by women on the lives of other women… I decided to design a foundation that would support women artists in Kentucky working as feminists for social change....
Phillip and Good Friday
Now that I've placed the issues around saving Hopscotch in the hands of my very competent attorneys, for today a few thoughts about Phillip and Good Friday....
Northern Bobwhite Quail
It may seem strange that in the midst of the problems with Hopscotch and the Kentucky Foundation for Women, I'm choosing to write about the Bobwhite Quail. There are two reasons......
My Family
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing is at an end, there will be no more such collections....
The Death of Pip
Pip, my shelter dog pitbull mix, died peacefully on Saturday after nine years of a beautiful life, hiking, enjoying the dog park, going with me on all kinds of adventures....
Jacob Street
Jacob Street when I was growing up in the prosperous white suburbs had only one meaning: that was the address of Lizzie Baker's house....
Three Ideas: A Biography and Two Histories
It will soon be time for me to start another three or four year writing project. I’d love to hear which of these three ideas you find most appealing......
The Happy Family
My generation was known for our disruptions, the massive number of divorces and desertions that the rapid changes of the 1960's and 1970's ushered in… Fortunately, that bitterness seems by now to be at least partly assuaged. ...
The Lost Cause
As I begin reading the collection of nineteenth-century Stiles letters that may provide the core of my next book, I'm brought reluctantly to remember two long ago incidents when loneliness pushed me closer to belief....
Christmas Comes but Once a Year…
I have such blissful memories of the Christmases of my childhood, first and foremost the firm insistence on going to church Christmas morning....
Azim’s Bardo
In the tumble of donated books in the Little Free Library, I saw one with a title that spoke to me: From Murder to Forgiveness: A Father's Journey by Azim Khamisa with Carl Goldman....
Multispecies Entanglement
I'm witnessing a surge in big, old-fashioned weddings for those who can afford up to half a million dollars to rent tents, clubs, hire staff, and buy the necessary clothes....