Mary Rowlandson’s Survival: An Escape from Captivity
Mary White Rowlandson was born in Somersetshire, England, in 1635, one of nine children born to John and Joan White. As a toddler Rowlandson’s family migrated to America and settled in Massachusetts. In 1653 the family moved to the near by town of Lancaster, Massachusetts. In 1656 Rowlandson married Joseph Rowlandson, a newly ordained Puritan minister and recent graduate of Harvard University. They had four children, one whom died as an infant. Mary Rowlandson lived the life of a typical mother and minister’s wife. They made their home on a hill overlooking Ropers Brook. With the expectation that the Indians may attack Joseph Rowlandson went to Boston to ask for help from the Massachusetts …show more content…
They were held captive by the Native American Wampanoag Indians for approximately eleven weeks, following a brutal attack on their home in Lancaster. Rowlandson writes in her memoir, The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, about her traumatic and extraordinary experience in captivity with the Native Indians. Throughout her narrative she expresses the courage of a captured and victimized woman, the sorrow of a mother who lost her young child, and the grief of an uncertain outcome, only to have survived such disaster by her astonishing trust in God. Throughout her narrative it is evident that she relies heavily on her faith to sustain her and to get her through this horrific ordeal, commenting that it is only because of the strength given to her by God that she can move on. “It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail.” As with many of the Puritan faith she expresses that because she had been an unfaithful follower that this could be God’s punishment to …show more content…
It gave them the idea of being forced into an existence in an alien society without the inability to resist and being forced into submission to their captors. The captives wrote about the yearning for freedom, the unimaginable torment experienced from the Indians, and the struggle between assimilation and maintaining a separate cultural identity. They experienced growth in moral and spiritual strength and then they told about their deliverance with freedom. Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne. “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43707/verses-upon-the-burning-of-our-house-july-10th-1666.
Campbell, Donna M. "Early American Captivity Narratives." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/captive.htm
Rowlandson, Mary. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson. Samuel Phillips, 1720. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/851/851-h/851-h.htm. "Rowlandson, Mary." Colonial America Reference Library, edited by Peggy Saari and Julie L. Carnagie, vol. 5: Primary Sources, UXL, 2000, pp. 231-240. U.S. History in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3425300142/UHIC?u=mlin_w_pioneer&xid=7cd0b396. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.
Mary White Rowlandson was born in Somersetshire, England, in 1635, one of nine children born to John and Joan White. As a toddler Rowlandson’s family migrated to America and settled in Massachusetts. In 1653 the family moved to the near by town of Lancaster, Massachusetts. In 1656 Rowlandson married Joseph Rowlandson, a newly ordained Puritan minister and recent graduate of Harvard University. They had four children, one whom died as an infant. Mary Rowlandson lived the life of a typical mother and minister’s wife. They made their home on a hill overlooking Ropers Brook. With the expectation that the Indians may attack Joseph Rowlandson went to Boston to ask for help from the Massachusetts …show more content…
They were held captive by the Native American Wampanoag Indians for approximately eleven weeks, following a brutal attack on their home in Lancaster. Rowlandson writes in her memoir, The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, about her traumatic and extraordinary experience in captivity with the Native Indians. Throughout her narrative she expresses the courage of a captured and victimized woman, the sorrow of a mother who lost her young child, and the grief of an uncertain outcome, only to have survived such disaster by her astonishing trust in God. Throughout her narrative it is evident that she relies heavily on her faith to sustain her and to get her through this horrific ordeal, commenting that it is only because of the strength given to her by God that she can move on. “It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail.” As with many of the Puritan faith she expresses that because she had been an unfaithful follower that this could be God’s punishment to …show more content…
It gave them the idea of being forced into an existence in an alien society without the inability to resist and being forced into submission to their captors. The captives wrote about the yearning for freedom, the unimaginable torment experienced from the Indians, and the struggle between assimilation and maintaining a separate cultural identity. They experienced growth in moral and spiritual strength and then they told about their deliverance with freedom. Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne. “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43707/verses-upon-the-burning-of-our-house-july-10th-1666.
Campbell, Donna M. "Early American Captivity Narratives." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/captive.htm
Rowlandson, Mary. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson. Samuel Phillips, 1720. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/851/851-h/851-h.htm. "Rowlandson, Mary." Colonial America Reference Library, edited by Peggy Saari and Julie L. Carnagie, vol. 5: Primary Sources, UXL, 2000, pp. 231-240. U.S. History in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3425300142/UHIC?u=mlin_w_pioneer&xid=7cd0b396. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.