In 1676, near the end of King Philip's War, a group of Nipmunk and Narragansett Indians attacked Lancaster, burned the town and captured many of the settlers. Rev. Joseph Rowlandson was on his way to Boston at the time, to raise troops to protect Lancaster. Mary Rowlandson and her three children were among them. Sarah, 6, died in captivity of her wounds.
Rowlandson used her skill in sewing and knitting so she was useful while the Indians moved around in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to elude capture by the colonists. She met with the Wampanoag chief, Metacom, who had been named King Philip by the settlers.
Three months after the capture, Mary Rowlandson was ransomed for £20. She was returned at Princeton, Massachusetts, on May 2, 1676. Her two surviving children were released soon after. Their home had been destroyed in the attack, so the Rowlandson family reunited in Boston.
Joseph Rowlandson was called to a congregation in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1677. In 1678, he preached a sermon about his wife's captivity, "A Sermon of the Possibility of God's Forsaking a People that have been near and dear to him." Three days later, Joseph died suddenly. The sermon was included with early editions of Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative.
Rowlandson married Captain Samuel Talcott in 1679, but no later details of her life are known except some court testimony in 1707, her husband's death in 1691 and her own death in 1710/11.
Her book was written to retell the details of Mary Rowlandson's captivity and rescue in the context of religious faith. The book was originally titled The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises 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.
The English edition (also 1682) was retitled A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, A Minister's Wife in New-England: Wherein is set forth, The Cruel and Inhumane Usage she underwent amongst the Heathens for Eleven Weeks time: And her Deliverance from them. Written by her own Hand, for her Private Use: and now made public at the earnest Desire of some Friends, for the Benefit of the Afflicted. The English title emphasized the capture; the American title emphasized her religious faith.
The book became an immediate best-seller, and went through many editions. It is widely read today as a literary classic, the first of what became a trend of "captivity narratives" where white women, captured by Indians, survived over overwhelming odds. Details (and assumptions and stereotypes) about the life of women among the Puritan settlers and in the Indian community are valuable to historians.
Despite the overall emphasis (and title, in England) stressing "cruel and inhumane usage... amongst the heathens," the book is also notable for conveying an understanding of the captors as individuals who suffered and faced tough decisions – as human beings with some sympathy towards their captives (one gives her a captured Bible, for example). But beyond being a story of human lives, the book is also a Calvinist religious treatise, showing the Indians as instruments of God sent to "be a scourge to the whole Land."
Source: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/indiancaptivitynarratives/a/rowlandson.htm
The book, however, not only became one of the era's best-sellers, going through four editions in one year, but also earned her an important place in the history of American literature. "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson", an account of her captivity among the Narragansett Indians during King Philip's War in 1676, is a frequently-cited example of a captivity narrative, an important American literary genre used by James Fenimore Cooper, Ann Bleecker, John Williams, and James Seaver. Because of Rowlandson's intimate relationship with her Indian captors, her book also is interesting for its treatment of cultural contact. Finally, in its use of autobiography, typology, and in its homage to the Jeremiad, Rowlandson's book helps the reader understand the Puritan mind.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rowlandson
Submitted by Ruth H. Barker
Uploaded by Emily Barker Farrer, 2010