Calico Captive Author:Elizabeth Speare Early one morning in the year 1754 the stillness of Charlestown, New Hampshire, was shattered by shrill war ahoops and the terror of an Indian raid. Young Miriam Willard, on a day which had promised new happiness, found herself instead a captive on a forest trail, caught up in the ebb and flow of the French and Indian War. — It was a harrowing ma... more »rch north. Miriam could only force herself to the next stopping place, the next small portion of food, the next icy stream to be crossed. At the end of the trail waited the Indian gauntlet and perhaps a life mof slavery.