Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
From the violent and brutal clash between Indians [1], and British colonists in Massachusetts during King Philip's War (1675-6) grew a new literary genre. After their redemption, some colonists who had been prisoners of the Indians wrote autobiographical accounts of their experiences. These captivity narratives developed a large audience, and interest in the narratives continued into the nineteenth century.[2] After her capture and redemption, Mary Rowlandson published what some historians call "America's first best seller," entitled Narrative Of the Captivity and Restoratio;t of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.[3] Through her use of scripture and portrayal of the relationship between the Indians and Puritan colonists, Rowlandson reinforced the traditional concept of providence preached by the founding Puritans fortv years earlier.
Mary Rowlandson relied on her faith in the providence of God to sustain herself during her period of captivity. Indians ransacked the town of Lancaster in February of 1675. Rowlandson, the wife of a minister, was one of twenty-four townspeople taken captive.[4] Separated from her husband and all but one of her children, during her captivity she depended upon a Bible obtained from an Indian's plunder for spiritual survival.[5] Her eventual redemption and reunification with her surviving children and husband affirmed her faith in the providence of her God.
The founding Puritans based their concept of divine providence on a special covenant with God. John Winthrop, in "A Modell of Christian Charity," expressed the belief that the Puritans were the chosen people of God. In 1630, when Winthrop spoke to Puritaii colonists sailing to the New Worl...
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...ip with his chosen.
Notes
1. I chose the word Indians to write of the Native Americans to be consistant with Mary Rowlandson's choice of words.
2. David Freeman Hawke, The Colonial Experience (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966), 307.
3. John Demos, "War and Captivity," Remarkable Providences, ed. John Demos (Boston: North Eastern UP, 1991), 344.
4. Mary Rowlandson, "Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson: Extracts," Remarkable Providences, 347.
5. Ibid., 347.
6. John Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity," Settlements to Society: 1607-1763, ed. Jack P. Greene. (New York: Norton, 1975), 68.
7. John Cotton, "God's Promise to His Plantations," Settlements to Society, 65-6.
8. Rowlandson, 364.
9. Ibid., 351.
10. Ibid., 346.
11. Ibid., 355.
12. Cotton, 65.
13. Rowlandson, 369-70.
14. Ibid., 371.
Anne Hutchinson was a remarkable colonial woman who first came to Massachusetts in the fall of 1634. She is less remembered for her contributions in the new world as a wife, mother of fourteen, and midwife to many than for her eventual trial and banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I was interested in writing a paper on a colonial woman and chose Anne Hutchinson after a "Google" search turned up a very good review on a recent book about her life. I have been intrigued by the fact that the Puritans came to America to practice their religion freely, yet allowed no freedom to question their doctrine. The book, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans, is an excellent examination of this lack of religious freedom and the life of a woman that intersects it.
In the times of colonies when land was untouched there was a distinct hatred between the native Indians and the new colonists. As one reads the essay: A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, written by Mary Rowlandson in 1682, one will understand this hatred. Although the Indians captured Mary Rowlandson, with the faith of God she was safely returned. The reader learns of her religious messages and how she turns to God for safety and strong will. One sees how her Puritan beliefs are of the strong New England Puritans way of life. The reader also understands through her words how she views the Indians and their way of life.
A Puritan lawyer, John Winthrop, immigrated to New England because his views on religion were different from those in England. Even though Puritans are Protestants, Puritans tried to purify the English Church. In 1630 on board of the Arabella on the Atlantic Ocean on way to Massachusetts, he wrote “A Model of Christian Charity” which gave his views on what a society should be. ‘…the condition of mankind, [that] in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, other mean and in subjection….[Yet] we must knit together in this work as one man.’ (Doc. A). In this he is saying that men may be different but to make a new world work, they must work together. All through his speech he mentions God. For example, he opens his sermon with ‘God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence…’. This shows that in New England, the people were very religious.
Mary Rowlandson was captured from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts by Wampanoag Indians during King Phillip’s War. She was held captive for several months. When she was released she penned her story, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. During much of her story she refers to the Indians as savage beasts and heathens but at times seems admire them and appreciate their treatment of her. Mary Rowlandson has a varying view of her Indian captors because she experienced their culture and realized it was not that different from Puritan culture.
Mary Rowlandson was a pretentious, bold and pious character. Her narrative did not make me feel sorry for her at all, which is strange since she really did go through a lot. During the war, the Narragansett Indians attacked Lancaster Massachusetts, and burned and pillaged the whole village. During the siege Mary and her six year old child were shot, she watched her sister and most of her village either burn or get shot. She was kept as a captive, along with her three children and taken with the Narragansett’s on their long retreat. The exposition of the story is set immediately. The reader is perfectly aware of Missus Rowlandson’s status and religious beliefs. She constantly refers to the Narragansetts in an incredibly condescending way, to the point that you know that she does not even consider them human. She paints them as purely evil pe...
According to both Winthrop and Rowlandson, if one has true faith in God, he will be able to witness God's mercy in his own life. Winthrop clearly underscores this point in his sermon, where he stresses that the Puritans must uphold their covenant with God in order to have a harmonious and successful colony. If one is faithful and obedient to God, he will be the recipient of God's providence: "Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, [and] will expect a strict pe...
“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson is a short history about her personal experience in captivity among the Wampanoag Indian tribe. On the one hand, Mary Rowlandson endures many hardships and derogatory encounters. However, she manages to show her superior status to everyone around her. She clearly shows how her time spent under captivity frequently correlates with the lessons taught in the Bible. Even though, the colonists possibly murdered their chief, overtook their land, and tried to starve the Native Americans by burning down their corn, which was their main source of food, she displays them as demonizing savages carrying out the devil's plan. There are many struggles shown during the story, both physical and emotional, but her greatest struggle is her ability to prove the satanic nature of the Indians without diminishing her reputation, but, instead, elevating herself into a martyr-like figure. From beginning to end, Mrs. Rowlandson strives to display that she is an immaculate Puritan, that within the Indian tribe and the Puritan community she has superiority, and that the Indians are barbaric creatures possessing satanic dangers.
In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company set sail to the New World in hope of reforming the Church of England. While crossing the Atlantic, John Winthrop, the puritan leader of the great migration, delivered perhaps the most famous sermon aboard the Arbella, entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop’s sermon gave hope to puritan immigrants to reform the Church of England and set an example for future immigrants. The Puritan’s was a goal to get rid of the offensive features that Catholicism left behind when the Protestant Reformation took place. Under Puritanism, there was a constant strain to devote your life to God and your neighbors. Unlike the old England, they wanted to prove that New England was a community of love and individual worship to God. Therefore, they created a covenant with God and would live their lives according to the covenant. Because of the covenant, Puritans tried to abide by God’s law and got rid of anything that opposed their way of life. Between 1630 and the 18th century, the Puritans tried to create a new society in New England by creating a covenant with God and living your life according to God’s rule, but in the end failed to reform the Church of England. By the mid 1630’s, threats to the Puritans such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker were being banned from the Puritan community for their divergent beliefs. 20 years later, another problem arose with the children of church members and if they were to be granted full membership to the church. Because of these children, a Halfway Covenant was developed to make them “halfway” church members. And even more of a threat to the Puritan society was their notion that they were failing God, because of the belief that witches existed in 1692.
Rowlandson, Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.In Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives. Ed. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Both Douglass and Rowlandson express great contempt for the Non Christian that surround them. Rowlandson uses these words to describe the Indians, “Barbarous creatures,” “murderous wretches,” “heathens,” “ravenous beasts,” and even “hell-hounds,” This fear and revulsion she expressed during captivity, the punishments and retributions, darkness and light, good and evil. The usage of scripture throughout the narrative is a source of strength and solace for Rowlandson (Colley).
The narrative that Rowlandson wrote was originally titled “The Sovereignty & Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promise Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson Commended by her to all that Desire to Know the Lord’s Doings to, and Dealings with Her. Especially to her Dear Children and Relations.” In 1682, the title was dropped and republished the narrative under the title “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” which is best known as today. This book is separated into “removes.” The first three “removes” focus on her desperate efforts to care for her dying daughter. The rest of the “removes” focus on the difficulties she faced while being kidnapped and held captive.
As a dedicated Puritan, John Winthrop believed in the necessity of following God’s rules. “God Almighty... ”, Winthrop highly uses the name of God in his “A Model of Christian Charity” from 1630. While preparing to a new life in the newfangled colony, the soon to be the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was determined to build a better life to his supporter based in God’s fundaments of living. Winthrop believe in use the power of God to create a strong and compliant colony. His vision of a unified colony was excessive reinforce in his speeches. A colony where the people work together and help each other, always following the God’s principles.
Within three Puritan works, Rowlandson and Edwards displayed their religious beliefs through their thoughts on God and mankind. One of the many Puritan beliefs was that the bible is the basis of all teaching. Such examples of this are evident in Mary Rowlandson’s work “Captivity”. Even though she was a captive, she still took note of “the wonderful mercy of God” for the simple fact that He “[sent her] a bible” (Rowlandson 67). Feeling lost, the bible brought her back to her faith in a time of need, and enlightened her on the hope that “there was mercy promised again”(67). From then on she looked to the Bible for guidance in times of despair. Throughout her imprisonment, she often pondered about “the wonderful goodness of God” when she felt anguish (66).
All the records about the American captivity indicate and give suggestions about what the captives felt towards the Native Americans. To begin, Mary Rowlandson encounter with the Native Americans was not negative who burned her village and captured the villagers when they attacked her village. She was among those who were caught. Mary being one of them took some of the villagers. Mary often tells mistreatment that her fellow captives were subjected, and some of them killed while being mangled and slain by the natives. She wrote that seeing many Christians lying here and there like a sheep company torn by wolves (Rowlandson 14). She quite often referred to their captors as savage and inhuman, and therefore
Rowlandson, Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.In Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives. Ed. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.