Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith (1806-1893) was born and raised in Maine, and married Seba Smith, a popular humorist and editor of a Portland weekly journal, the Eastern Argus. In addition to raising their six sons and managing a household that included printers and apprentices, Mrs. Smith wrote poems and stories for the Argus. After her husband lost their fortune in the Panic of 1837 she began writing for leading ladies’ journals. The Western Captive first appeared in two “supplements” in the New World in 1842.