Mary Rowlandson

Mary Rowlandson was Born in 1637 in Somerset England and later immigrated to New England, settling in Salem and then Lancaster. In 1656 she married Joseph Rowlandson and took the role of a puritan wife where she tended to her home and raised her children.

On February 10, 1675 ,while her husband was away, a group of Indians attacked and burned Lancaster. Mary watched as the people she knew were brutally attacked and some even killed. Mary describes how people including children were running for their lives and “knocked on the head”. In her narrative she says “ another there was who running along was shot and wounded, and fell down; he begged of them his life, promising them money (as they told me) but they would not hearken to him but knocked him in head, and stripped him naked, and split open his bowel” (Rowlandson 2009, 1). There were twelve killed. Some were shot, stabbed, knocked down with hatchets, and one even chopped into the head with a hatchet and striped. Rowlandson and her three children were taken captive.

Over the next eleven weeks she endorsed some of the worst conditions. She had to adapt to the conditions that the Indians were used to living in. Never had enough food and constantly moved from one camp to the next. Mary describes her time captive in removes (places they stopped).

The first remove she describes as miserable and the dolefulest night that she ever saw. The Indians celebrated all night ,”Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell” (Rowlandson 2009, 4).

The second remove describes how one of the Indians carried her poor wounded babe upon the horse as it went moaning along. She describes how she had to sit in the snow by a little fire and how their wounds and illnesses got worse because of the conditions they were living in.

The third remove they arrive at the Indian town, wenimesset, north of quabaug. About two hours in the night, my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675. It being about six years, and five months old,” (Rowlandson 2009, 6).

Over the next removes they continue to travel to different places. In this time Mary starts to become accepting of the Indians' ways. She is no longer disgusted by their food and is learning how to get along with and survive with the Indians.

Finally in the thirteenth remove Mary’s master says he will sell her to her husband but it wasn’t until the nineteenth remove that they finally wrote the ransom request. Finally in the twentieth remove the native Americans court agreed to release her for twenty pounds. After reuniting, she and her husband traveled to find their kids. They had to pay 7 pounds for their son, four pounds for their nephew, and no charge for their daughter.

Her purpose in writing the text is as a tribute to god and his power and benevolence. She observes her experience in relation to god and being expressed as a trial from god which she endured with faith. God's will is what kept her alive during such a difficult and challenging time and restored her after being held captive. After writing her narrative she became the founder of a significant literary and historical genre, captivity narrative, which was also the first book in English published by women in North America.