February 10: A Bad Day for Mary Rowlandson

Just after sunrise on February 10, 1676 the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts was attacked as part of King Philip’s War. (At the time it would have still been considered 1675, since the new year did not begin until March 1) The town’s minister, Joseph Rowlandson, was away in Boston seeking defense aid from the colonial government but his wife, Mary Rowlandson, was still in Lancaster. The attackers set fire to the Rowlandsons’ house, which was fortified and used as a garrison; her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were killed and Mary was shot, wounding both her and the child she was holding. About fifty settlers were killed in the attack and about twenty, including Mary and her three children, were taken captive by the Indians.

Mary’s injured child would die in her arms several days later, but Mary survived and was redeemed after three months of captivity, during which she had traveled some 150 miles and met with King Philip (Metacomet) himself. By the time of her release a kind of mutual respect had developed between Rowlandson and her Indian captors. Six years later, in 1682, she would publish an account of her captivity, entitled The Soveraignty & Goodness of God. Her title gives a sense of the book, which describes her travails in terms of the the Puritan worldview, seeing them as a moral lesson and using the Bible as an interpretive frame. The Rosenbach has a copy of the first English printing of the book, also from 1682, which was retitled “A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson.” You can find the complete text through Project Gutenberg, as well as elsewhere.

Mary White Rowlandson (ca. 1635-1711), A true history of the captivity & restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, a minister’s wife in New England. Printed first at New-England: And re-printed at London, and sold by Joseph Poole, 1682. A 682t
With its hair-raising content and strong religious message, Mary Rowlandson’s book was a best seller and it ran through more than 15 editions by 1800. The Rosenbach also owns a 1773 edition, which features a woodcut on the title page of Mary attempting to defend her house from the attacking Indians.

Mary White Rowlandson, A narrative of the captivity, sufferings, and removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Boston: printed and sold at John Boyle’s printing office, 1773. A 773n

Even more significant than its own success was the way in which Rowlandson’s narrative created the genre of the Indian captivity narratives, which constituted the first uniquely American literary genre. From 1682 through the late nineteenth century, thousands of real-life (or supposedly real-life) captivity narratives would be published, and their themes of capture and wilderness would in turn pave the way for tales of pioneers, cowboys, and Indians. Having spent so much time reading 19th-century dime novels for the Westward Ho show last summer I can certainly attest to the influence of captivity narratives on those books! So the next time you watch a western, think of Mary Rowlandson.