Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE DODGE NARRATIVE, 1780 FACSIMILE REPRINT _Sixty-three copies printed sixty being for sale_ NARRATIVE OF MR. JOHN DODGE DURING HIS CAPTIVITY AT DETROIT REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE FROM THE SECOND EDITION OF 1780 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY CLARENCE MONROE BURTON [Illustration] CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA THE TORCH PRESS NINETEEN HUNDRED NINE THE DODGE NARRATIVE The narrative of John Dodge is one of the records of frontier life during the period of the American Revolution that displays the intense feeling of hatred and unfairness evinced by the British soldiers to the American rebels. It was written and published during the time of the greatest excitement in the West--the scene of the Narrative--and is historically valuable because of being contemporary with the events in question. It was considered of great importance at the time of its first appearance, having been at once reprinted in England[1] and passed through at least three editions in America.[2] In other writings published in England in 1779, appear the first public notice of the cruelties and gross irregularities in the administration of justice in Detroit under the rule of Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, and the presentment of Hamilton by the grand jury of Montreal for murder in the execution of a Frenchman convicted of stealing. From the Narrative were taken the charges made against Hamilton, when he was a prisoner in Williamsburg, in consequence of which he was confined in irons and barely escaped a more serious, and perhaps even a capital punishment.[3] But little at the present time can be ascertained of Dodge. He was born in Connecticut, July 12, 1751, and was the son of John Dodge and his wife, Lydia Rogers.[4] John Dodge, the father, was a Baptist minister by profession and a blacksmith by trade. His son John was one of a numerous family of children. His brother Israel, who was with him in the West, was nine years his junior, having been born September 3, 1760. Before John had reached his nineteenth year he had wandered into the northern part of the Ohio district and had entered into business as a trader in Sandusky. He was familiar with the Indian language used in his neighborhood and frequently acted as interpreter.