"Follow the River"

I read "Follow the River" for my book group this month. I'm going to spoil it so if you hate that, this is your warning.

It's a true story of a woman whose settlement was attacked by the Shawnee tribe. She was taken captive with her 2 sons (ages 2 and 4) and her sister-in-law. She was pregnant at the time. She gave birth to a daughter on the way to the Shawnee village, approximately 500 miles up the Ohio River. The entire trip she makes mental notes on how to return and determines to escape. After reaching the village she manages to escape, leaving her sister-in-law and children. She tells herself she's returning to her husband and will start over, have more children, rebuild, etc. She does make it back to her husband and many years later her sister-in-law and oldest son are found and ransomed. There is no information on the daughter and her youngest son died shortly after she left.

When I started reading this I thought, wow, what determination. She endured unimaginable physical and emotional trauma and not only survived but walked 1000 miles (roundtrip) of uncharted, uninhabited back to her husband. It's an amazing feat and shows tremendous courage and tenacity. Or does it? She abandoned her children and sister-in-law to a group that had, just weeks previously, massacred her mother, neighbors and infant nephew. At that terrible time of trauma her thought was not of how to protect her children and help them survive the ordeal but how to return. She was right, they would not have survived the journey back. In my estimation, that means she should have stayed. I think what she did was cowardly. Instead of protecting her children she wanted her husband and life back. How selfish. I can't imagine as a mother leaving my children to be raised by a group that had shown such barbarism so I could go to my husband. The thought makes me cringe. I don't want to take away from the indomitable spirit that she had, I just would have respected and admired her more if she had used that spirit to protect her children. I'd be interested to know what others think about it.