At her request

some incidents in her story are more romantic than fiction

lived the greater part of the time with a distinguished family in New York, and has so deported herself as to be highly esteemed by them.

me

All was gone, my husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward), my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

Those seven that were killed at Lancaster the summer before upon a Sabbath day

Capt. Mosely

Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy, Ay, even those that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands

All was gone, my husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward), my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

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

What, will you love English men still?

About a mile we went that night, up upon a hill within sight of the town, where they intended to lodge

Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures, with our bodies wounded and bleeding, and our hearts no less than our bodies

Despite being saved by the very people whose land he set out to invade, his narrative focuses on the savagery of his “melancholy and wretched captivity” (49).

he too painted himself to be an innocent victim.

All that mattered was that a white woman was hurt by a group of non-white people, and that there was seemingly no viable reason for it other than inherent brutality.

It did not matter that her dreadful experience was a result of a last-ditch effort by the Native Americans to cease a genocide caused by people like her. Nor did it matter that her captors did what many U.S. citizens proudly claim they would do should an invasion happen today.

deemed the context of her captivity unimportant

This is not to say that Rowlandson’s depiction of the colonial encounter isn’t valid or worth the empathy it so easily conjures up for readers.

Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson(1682) prescribes an overdose of sorrow, disillusionment and hypocrisy to the unsuspecting reader

Though many times they would eat that, that a hog or a dog would hardly touch; yet by that God strengthened them to be a scourge to His people.

hat I did not see (all the time I was among them) one man, woman, or child, die with hunger.

It was thought, if their corn were cut down, they would starve and die with hunger, and all their corn that could be found, was destroyed

They could go in great numbers over, but the English must stop. God had an over-ruling hand in all those things.

that that river should be impassable to the English

they asked me when I thought the English army would come after them? I told them I could not tell

and in pursuit of the enemy,

I would take leave to mention a few remarkable passages of providence, which I took special notice of in my afflicted time

I told them, they had as good knock me in head as starve me to death.

hen I went home to my mistress’s wigwam; and they told me I disgraced my master with begging

Being very hungry I had quickly eat up mine, but the child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste. Then I may say as Job 6.7, “The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.” Thus the Lord made that pleasant refreshing, which another time would have been an abomination

I went to see how she did, and she was well, considering her captive condition. I would have tarried that night with her, but they that owned her would not suffer it.

I saw an Englishman stripped naked, and lying dead upon the ground,

there were four English children, captives; and one of them my own sister’s

We took up our packs and along we went, but a wearisome day I had of it.

So like were these barbarous creatures to him who was a liar from the beginning.

By which I certainly understood (though I suspected it before) that whatsoever the Indians told me respecting him was vanity and lies. Some of them told me he was dead, and they had killed him; some said he was married again, and that the Governor wished him to marry; and told him he should have his choice, and that all persuaded I was dead.

He being a little cheered with that, I asked him about the welfare of my husband.

They all gathered about the poor man, asking him many questions. I desired also to go and see him; and when I came, he was crying bitterly, supposing they would quickly kill him. Whereupon I asked one of them, whether they intended to kill him; he answered me, they would not.

About this time they came yelping from Hadley, where they had killed three Englishmen, and brought one captive with them, viz. Thomas Read.

But I knew that He laid upon me less than I deserved.

when I was without, and saw nothing but wilderness, and woods, and a company of barbarous heathens, my mind quickly returned to me,

A squaw moved it down again, at which I looked up, and she threw a handful of ashes in mine eyes. I thought I should have been quite blinded, and have never seen more, but lying down, the water run out of my eyes, and carried the dirt with it, that by the morning I recovered my sight again

one asked me to make a shirt for her papoose, for which she gave me a mess of broth, which was thickened with meal made of the bark of a tree, and to make it the better, she had put into it about a handful of peas, and a few roasted ground nuts.

But the Lord upheld my Spirit, under this discouragement; and I considered their horrible addictedness to lying, and that there is not one of them that makes the least conscience of speaking of truth.

He answered me that such a time his master roasted him, and that himself did eat a piece of him, as big as his two fingers, and that he was very good meat.

must go with them five or six miles down the river into a mighty thicket of brush; where we abode almost a fortnight.

a fortnight

I told them the skin was off my back, but I had no other comforting answer from them than this: that it would be no matter if my head were off too.

at last an old Indian bade me to come to him, and his squaw gave me some ground nuts; she gave me also something to lay under my head, and a good fire we had; and through the good providence of God, I had a comfortable lodging that night. In the morning, another Indian bade me come at night, and he would give me six ground nuts, which I did.

I went to one wigwam, and they told me they had no room. Then I went to another, and they said the same;

Then one of the company drew his sword, and told me he would run me through if I did not go presently. Then was I fain to stoop to this rude fellow, and to go out in the night, I knew not whither.

when we came to lie down they bade me to go out

wigwam

my master

my master being gone, who seemed to me the best friend that I had of an Indian

ith my heart as full as it could hold, and yet so hungry that I could not sit neither

As soon as I had the opportunity, I took my Bible to read, and that quieting Scripture came to my hand, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46.10). Which stilled my spirit for the present.

again in three day

said he would go on, and come to us again in three days

on a sudden my mistress gives out; she would go no further, but turn back again, and said I must go back again with her, and she called her sannup, and would have had him gone back also

sannup

But the thoughts of my going homeward (for so we bent our course) much cheered my spirit, and made my burden seem light, and almost nothing at all.

I complained it was too heavy, whereupon she gave me a slap in the face

gave me my load

mistress

and never let her see it afterward

papoose

“Nux,” which did much rejoice my spirit

Nux

sell me to my husband

sell me for powder:

Hearing that my son was come to this place, I went to see him, and found him lying flat upon the ground. I asked him how he could sleep so? He answered me that he was not asleep, but at prayer;

I offered the money

Yet I answered, they would kill me. “No,” said he, “none will hurt you.” Then came one of them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave me half a pint of peas; which was more worth than many bushels at another time. Then I went to see King Philip. He bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke it (a usual compliment nowadays amongst saints and sinners) but this no way suited me. For though I had formerly used tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a bait the devil lays to make men lose their precious time. I remember with shame how formerly, when I had taken two or three pipes, I was presently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it is. But I thank God, He has now given me power over it; surely there are many who may be better employed than to lie sucking a stinking tobacco-pipe.

Then my heart began to fail: and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that I wept before them. Although I had met with so much affliction, and my heart was many times ready to break, yet could I not shed one tear in their sight;

“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” I asked him whether he would read. He told me he earnestly desired it, I gave him my Bible, and he lighted upon that comfortable Scripture “I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord: the Lord hath chastened me sore yet he hath not given me over to death” (Psalm 118.17-18).

But as my foot was upon the canoe to step in there was a sudden outcry among them, and I must step back, and instead of going over the river, I must go four or five miles up the river farther northward. Some of the Indians ran one way, and some another

On the morrow morning we must go over the river, i.e. Connecticut

wigwams

The first week of my being among them I hardly ate any thing; the second week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste.

In this travel, because of my wound, I was somewhat favored in my load; I carried only my knitting work and two quarts of parched meal. Being very faint I asked my mistress to give me one spoonful of the meal, but she would not give me a taste. They quickly fell to cutting dry trees, to make rafts to carry them over the river: and soon my turn came to go over. By the advantage of some brush which they had laid upon the raft to sit upon, I did not wet my foot (which many of themselves at the other end were mid-leg deep) which cannot but be acknowledged as a favor of God to my weakened body,

hold the English army in play

For they went as if they had gone for their lives

moving at this time was the English army,

By their noise and hooping they signified how many they had destroyed (which was at that time twenty-three).

“Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Heart, wait I say on the Lord.”

my son

She was about ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a Praying Ind. and afterward sold for a gun.

Then they went and showed me where it was, where I saw the ground was newly digged, and there they told me they had buried it.

t being about six years, and five months old. It was n

my child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world

“your master will knock your child in the head,”

travel again

This day there came to me one Robert Pepper (a man belonging to Roxbury) who was taken in Captain Beers’s fight, and had been now a considerable time with the Indians

I then remembered how careless I had been of God’s holy time; how many Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evilly I had walked in God’s sight; which lay so close unto my spirit, that it was easy for me to see how righteous it was with God to cut off the thread of my life and cast me out of His presence forever. Yet the Lord still showed mercy to me, and upheld me; and as He wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other.

except only a little cold water

there being not the least crumb of refreshing that came within either of our mouths from Wednesday night to Saturday night, except only a little cold water.

what with my own wound, and my child’s being so exceeding sick, and in a lamentable condition with her wound.

One of the Indians got up upon a horse, and they set me up behind him, with my poor sick babe in my lap.

way

they

But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it.

Then they set me upon a horse with my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse’s back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell over the horse’s head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed,

but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail

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