A Narrative of the Captivity | Mary Rowlandson

Plot summary

This is the first American bestseller, with 15 editions before 1800. A first-person account of a minister’s wife from the frontier town of Lancaster, Massachusetts (founded 1653), who was taken prisoner in an Indian raid in February 1676. There were 50 families and 5-6 garrison houses.

There were troubles with the American Indians. When her husband, Pastor Joseph, was away in Boston trying to persuade the MBC to give them more protection from Indian tribes. When the Indians trapped her and thirty-six others in one of the village’s stronghouses, which Indians had set on fire. She was taken by Indians, and walked for nine days until her daughter died. Her faith in God was still strong. Eventually she, her son, and daughter were released, and reunited with their father. She was held for eleven weeks. She was redeemed for 20 pounds on May 2, 1676, at Redemption Rock.

Author and date

• Born 1637/38 in England
• Sailed to Salem, MA, with parents in 1639
• Marries Joseph Rowlandson in 1656
• Children: one child dies at 3; Joseph (b. 1661); Mary (b. 1665); Sarah (b. 1669)
• At time of capture, kids are 14, 10, and 6
• Redeemed in 1676
• After redemption, couple lives in Boston, then moves in 1677 to Weathersfield, CT
• Jospeh dies in 1678
• Mary remarries on 6 August 1679
• Lives until 1710

Historical Background

- Pilgrims start out strong

§ Magnalia Christi Americana recounts many of them

- But their light dims as third generation begins

§ “Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother” (Cotton Mather)

- Ministers like William Bradford begin to see hand of God judging people and nation for their willfulness

- 1646 – plague of caterpillars devastates wheat and barley crop

- By 1670, gov’t of Massachusetts conducts investigation into why God was so afflicting people with sickness, poor crops, and shipping losses

- God’s judgment also moves into area of Indian relations

§ Old Pilgrim relations with Indians sours

§ Christian Indian named John Sassamon is murdered c. Jan. 1675

· Metacomet (“King Philip”), sachem of Wampanoags, as well as medicine men, hates Christians who were taking some of his best warriors

· Before he dies, Sassamon warns settlers of impending Indian attack, but is dismissed

· Three Indians accused and convicted of his murder

· King Philip, irate, goes on warpath

o Iroquois on other side of Hudson

· Settlers, in panic, flee to areas protected by fortified houses

· Militia totally unprepared and settlers live lives of fear

· Ministers like Cotton and Increase Mather call for repentance

· Some towns were faithful

o Concord was spared, said Indians, because its minister, Edward Bulkley, had influence with “Great Spirit”

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