Mary Rowlandson

Born in England as Mary White in1637, was brought to America by her parents at a young age. They lived in Salem, Massachusetts until 1653 when they moved to new frontier, Lancaster, Massachusetts, where her father became the landowner. Mary’s father was the wealthiest in Lancaster. In 1956, she married Lancaster’s first minister, Reverend Joseph Rowlandson; assigned as Puritan minister in 1660. During King Philip’s War, February 1676, when her husband Joseph was away in Boston, a party of Indian, Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Nashaway/Nipmuc, attacked Lancaster. In the end of the ravage, the Indian’s took 24 Puritans, including Mary Rowlandson and her three children; Joseph, Mary, and Sarah who dies about a week later. In May 1676, Rowlandson was bought back to her husband for 20 pounds and later on, their two surviving children, Joseph and Mary, were returned to them. Her husband, Joseph, dies in November 1678, about the time she wrote about her children’s captivity.
In the article by Michelle Burnham, The Journey Between: Liminality and Dialogism in May White Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative, describes how Rowlandson changed during her captive time and how she saw this happening as God’s punishment. During her captive time, she became more separated from her own culture and becomes more accustomed to the Indian culture. She becomes more accustomed to the Indian food, like the horse liver she would normally not eat, and hade a distinct role in the Indian community. In her later passages, she relates to the Indian as “we”. Although, according to Burnham, when Rowlandson wrote her narrative, her Puritan “worldview” has been restored and the Indian culture passed. During her hardship, her safety was with God. Everything happened because it was God who was punishing the bad Puritans.
Burnham has a point and uses passages from the narrative to back up his points. When the Puritans first settled, the only thing they had comfort was the word of God. Rowlandson “relied on her faith in the providence of God o sustain herself during her period of captivity” (Gleason, The Chosen People). She held onto something that wasn’t unknown to her to give her encouragement. During her first couple “removes” with the Indians, she referred to them as “inhumane creatures” and “merciless enemies”. However, because she echoes to live and follow the Indians, she started to accept them and referred to herself as one of them by using “we”.


Burnham, Michelle. "THE JOURNEY BETWEEN: LIMINALITY AND DIALOGISM IN MARY WHITE ROWLANDSON'S CAPTIVITY NARRATIVE." Early American Literature 28.1 (Mar. 1993): 60.
Gleason, Caroline. The Chosen People of God: Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative, http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr4-2.html Retrieved September 1, 2009.
Rosenmeier, Jesper. Review: Text and Context in Mary Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative, American Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 255-261