In 1844, after Rachel's death, her father published a revised edition of her book as an appendix to his Narrative of the Perilous Adventures, Miraculous Escapes and Sufferings of Rev.
[1] Her book is considered an invaluable look at Comanche culture before environmental destruction, disease, starvation, and war forced them onto reservations.
[1][2] Rachel Plummer was born in 1819 in Crawford County, Illinois1, the second youngest living child of James William Parker (1797–1864) and Martha Duty.
At age 14, considered a grown woman in that era, described by her father in his later book as a "red haired beauty of rare courage and intelligence,"[1] Rachel married Luther M. Plummer, and moved with the Parker family in 1830 to Conway County, Arkansas, which her father used as a staging ground for exploratory trips to Texas.
[1] In 1832 her father proposed to Stephen F. Austin that the Parkers be permitted to settle 50 families north of the Little Brazos River, in what was considered part of the Comancheria.
[1] Though the families in the Parker group were beginning to build cabins outside the Fort, the vast majority still slept inside for protection.
Elder John Parker had negotiated treaties with local Indian chiefs, and believed they would protect the little colony.
After Benjamin Parker returned from his first talks with the Indians and warned them that they would likely all die, Plummer wanted to flee, but Silas told her to watch the front gate while he ran for his musket and powder pouch.
Plummer never directly addressed the subject of rape in her book [3] except to say dryly that anyone who said that a good woman died before being violated had not been forced to run naked tied by a rope to a horse for a day or two in the sun,[2] and further: To undertake to narrate their barbarous treatment would only add to my present distress, for it is with feelings of the deepest mortification that I think of it, much less to speak or write of it.
[1] Plummer's book is considered an invaluable glimpse into the culture and mindset of the Comanche as a people before disease and war forced them onto reservations.
When she revived him, they returned and tied the infant to a rope, and dragged him through cactuses until the frail, tiny body was literally torn to pieces.
Rachel wrote that she had never seen open space the size of the Great Plains, and her travels with the Comanche took her to what her father later thought was Colorado in the northernmost part of the Comancheria.
Rachel's long captivity might have sapped her physical strength, but it had left her with a surfeit of rage and hate which enabled her to easily defeat the younger woman, and nearly beat her to death.
After the fight was over, Rachel was astonished that no one had come to the aid of the young Comanche woman, and she herself finally helped her to the lodge, and dressed her wounds.
[1] Rachel was stunned that she was treated as an equal by the council, which later she understood had arisen from her demonstration of the one quality which elevated anyone in the eyes of the Comanche - courage.
[1]Plummer found her lot much improved by these encounters, as she was correct that nothing she could have done could have earned her more respect than standing her ground and fighting.
"[1] Of course, seeing her status amongst the Comanche was changed dramatically thanks to this demonstration of her courage, she was now haunted by the thought that her baby might have survived if she had defended herself, and him, more fiercely.
The Comanches were camped north of Santa Fe when they were approached by Comancheros who wanted to ransom Rachel in accordance with the instructions of her father.
[1] She wrote in her book of the agony of believing that the traders had not offered enough to buy her freedom - and her not knowing that in fact, they were simply trying to get the best bargain, because her father had told them to pay any price, no matter how high, to rescue her.
Her rescue had been arranged by Colonel and Mrs. William Donaho, acting for the Parker family, and to whom she was delivered in Santa Fe after a journey of 17 days.
Two weeks after her arrival, the Donahos, fearing trouble as the native population of Santa Fe was in virtual rebellion, fled some 800 miles (1,300 km) to Independence, Missouri, with Rachel with them.
[1] Three months later, Rachel's brother-in-law, Lorenzo D. Nixon, escorted her back to Texas, since her father was still out in the Comancheria searching for her.
During James Parker's search for her, he made more than a few enemies: in an unexplained incident, he was accused of murdering a woman and her child.
[1] According to Frank X. Tolbert, Sam Houston believed that James Parker, not Luther Plummer, was the villain in their dispute.