Snyder explores how the region's Native Americans practiced and understood captivity. Through the lens of captivity, she shows a new look at early American history because it touched Europeans, Africans, and Indians both captured and captor alike.

By exploring the long history of captivity among Native people, she gives a new perspective on race, slavery, and freedom. American and Native history cannot be separated because they are intertwined. Snyder says the opposite of slavery was kinship, not freedom. Kinship ties conferred power. Native captivity practices and ideas of race remained fluid long after White ones had hardened. Only with the second seminole war would they start to change.