"Scanlan emphasized that he acquired his version of the Hall sisters' captivity from their daughters and granddaughters." -Americans Recaptured: Progressive Era Memory of Frontier Captivity (2014)
"The story of Rachel and Sylvia Hall became a complex metaphor for all the troubled relationships of gender and race that existed along the frontier." -Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America (2006)
"We did not hesitate to promise a few of my trusty Winnegagoes a reward if they would bring us those ladies...the highest reward that could be offered." -Colonel Gratiot
"It was an extraordinary ordeal for the girls...always kept under surveillance of the four squaws." -Native American Studies (2018)
"They were brought to our encampment, and a messenger sent to the Winnebagoes, as they were friendly on both sides, to come and get them, and carry them to the whites." -Chief Black Hawk

Nineteenth century accounts of those who have escaped captivity from Native American tribes of the frontier Midwest are full of harrowing interest, and one of the most widely publicized account of the 1830s is that of the Hall sisters who lived in frontier Illinois during the Blackhawk War.

Their story begins in 1832, when their settlement's blacksmith named dammed the creek to provide power for his sawmill. Meau-eus, the principal chief of the small Potawatomi village, protested to the blacksmith that the dam prevented fish from reaching the village. The blacksmith ignored the protests and assaulted a Potawatomi male who tried to dismantle the dam.

In retaliation for this insult, a party of about 40 to 80 Potawatomis, with three Saks from Black Hawk's band accompanying them approached the blacksmith's cabin, vaulted the fence and sprinted forward to attack it and the nearby settlement in what would become known as "The Indian Creek Massacre."

Two young women from the settlement, Sylvia Hall (age 19) and Rachel Hall (age 17), were spared by the attackers and taken northwards as captives.

In 1910, noted author Charles Martin Scanlan (1854-1940) published a 65-page book recounting the Hall women's harrowing ordeal under the title "Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of Hall Girls." Scanlan acquired his version of the Hall sisters' captivity from their daughters and granddaughters, as well as from a short published account of the sisters.

The women would endure a harrowing captivity of 11 days primarily in the camp of Chief Black Hawk before eventually being ransomed. Scanlon describes the scene upon the repatriation of the Hall women:

"White Crow, with a showing of much regret, bade good-bye to Sylvia and Rachel Hall. He went over the incidents of their rescue, and, to prove his friendship for the girls, offered to give each of them a Sac squaw as a servant for life. The girls thanked him, but said that they did not want any human being to be taken away from her people as they had been from theirs."

The Indian Creek massacre in which the Hall women were captured would become the most significant publicized incident during the Black Hawk War. The attack would trigger panic in the settler population who abandoned settlements and sought refuge in frontier forts, such as Fort Dearborn in Chicago.