| Mary (White) Rowlandson | |
|---|---|
Mary Rowlandson from A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Boston: Nathaniel Coverly, 1770 |
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| Born | c. 1637 Somersetshire, England |
| Died | c. 1711 Massachusetts Bay Colony |
| Occupation | American colonist |
| Spouse | Joseph Rowlandson, Captain Samuel Talcott |
| Children | Mary, Joseph, Mary, Sarah |
Mary (White) Rowlandson (c. 1637 – January 1711) was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans[1][2] during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. After her release, she wrote a book about her experience, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, which is considered a seminal American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives.
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Mary White was born c. 1637 in Somersetshire, England, to John and Joan West White of South Petherton as the fifth of eight children. The family left England sometime before 1650, settled at Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and moved in 1653 to Lancaster, on the Massachusetts frontier. There, she married Reverend Joseph Rowlandson, the son of Thomas Rowlandson of Ipswich, Connecticut, in 1656. Four children were born to the couple between 1658 and 1669, with their first daughter dying young.[3]
At sunrise on February 10, 1675,[4] during King Philip's War, Lancaster came under attack by Narragansett, Wampanoag and Nashaway/Nipmuc Indians. Rowlandson and her three children, Joseph, Mary and Sarah, were among the hostages taken. For more than 11 weeks and five days[5], she and her children were forced to accompany the Indians as they fled through the wilderness to elude the colonial militia.[note 1] She later recounted the severe conditions during her captivity for all parties. On May 2, 1675, Rowlandson was ransomed for £20 raised by the women of Boston in a public subscription, and paid by John Hoar of Concord at Redemption Rock in Princeton, Massachusetts.
In 1677, Reverend Rowlandson moved his family to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he was installed as pastor in April of that year. He died in Wethersfield in November 1678. Church officials granted his widow a pension of £30 per year.
Mary Rowlandson and her children moved to Boston where she wrote her captivity narrative. It was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1682, and in London the same year. At one time scholars believed that Rowlandson had died before her narrative was published (Vaughn, 32), but she lived for many more years. On 6 August 1679, she had married Captain Samuel Talcott and taken his surname.[6] She eventually died on 5 January 1711, outliving her spouse by more than 18 years.[6]
After her return, Rowlandson wrote a narrative of her captivity recounting the stages of her odyssey in twenty distinct "Removes" or journeys. During the attack on Lancaster, she witnessed the murder of friends and family, some stripped naked and disemboweled. Upon her capture, she travelled with her youngest child Sarah, suffering starvation and depression en route to an Indian village. Sarah, aged 6 years and 5 months, died shortly after arriving in the village. Mary and her other surviving child were kept separately and sold as property, until she was finally reunited with her husband. During her captivity, Rowlandson sought her guidance from the Bible; the text of her narrative is replete with verses and references describing conditions similar to her own.
Rowlandson's book became one of the era's best-sellers, going through four editions in one year. The tensions between colonists and Native Americans, particularly in the aftermath of King Philip's War, were a source of anxiety in the colonies. While fearing losing connection to their own society, colonists were intensely curious about the experience of one who had been "over the line", as a captive of American Indians, and returned to colonial society. Many literate English people were familiar with the captivity narratives written by British sailors and passengers during the 17th century, who were often taken captive at sea off North Africa and sometimes sold into slavery in the Middle East.[7] The narratives were often expressed as spiritual journeys and redemptions.
Rowlandson's book earned the colonist an important place in the history of American literature. A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a frequently cited example of a captivity narrative. This important American literary genre was drawn from by the later nineteenth-century writers James Fenimore Cooper, Ann Bleecker, John Williams, and James Seaver, in their portrayal of colonial times. Because of Rowlandson's close encounter with her Indian captors, her book is interesting for its treatment of cultural contact. Finally, in its use of autobiography, Biblical typology, and homage to the "Jeremiad", Rowlandson's book helps the reader understand the Puritan mind.