Mary Campbell (colonial settler)

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Mary Campbell (later Mary Campbell Willford) was an American colonial settler who was known for her abduction by Native Americans during the French and Indian War being the first white child to travel to the Western Reserve. Born in 1747 or 1748, Campbell was taken captive by the Lenape tribe at the age of ten in 1758. It is believed that she lived with the Lenape, possibly under the care of their chief Netawatwees, in locations near Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Newcomerstown, eastern Ohio. Campbell's return to her family in Pennsylvania in 1764 was facilitated by British military pressure on the Native Americans. She was among a group of captives released to British forces and transported to Fort Pitt.^[1]

As an emblematic figure, her abduction and release shed light on the complicated dynamics and moral implications surrounding the colonization of Native American territories by white settlers.^[2]