Mary Rowlandson

Illustration by Mary Rowlandson from A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1770 edition)

Mary Rowlandson (born Mary White around 1637 in Somerset , England; died in Wethersfield , Connecticut in 1711 ) was an English settler in New England who was captured by Indians in 1675 and was best known for her experience report published in 1682.

Life

She was born in England, but moved with her Puritan parents to the colony of Massachusetts in New England as a child in order to avoid religious persecution by the Anglican state church. The family settled first in Salem and later in Lancaster , where Mary married Joseph Rowlandson in 1656, who was appointed pastor of the parish four years later. In an Indian attack on Lancaster during the King Philip's War , she and her three children were captured by Narragansett Indians on February 10, 1675 . Her hard captivity lasted until May 2nd, when she was ransomed at Princeton for a £ 20 ransom . The money was donated by several women from the colony capital Boston , among others . The negotiations were conducted by John Hoar, a citizen of the Concord settlement . The place where she was released is now known as Redemption Rock .

One of her children did not survive being held hostage, the other two were temporarily separated from her, but were later released. Her husband died of natural causes in 1678 and a year later she married Samuel Talcott. She died in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1711.

plant

Frontizip of the first edition of A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (London 1682)

In 1682 Rowlandson published an account of her captivity. He appeared in the New England Concord under the pious title The soveraignty and goodness of God, together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed ("The rule and goodness of God and the truthfulness of his promises"), in the same year in London as A true history of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (" The True Story of the Captivity and Liberation of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson ").

The book became one of the first bestsellers in American literature . The American edition saw a second edition that same year and was reprinted many times in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rowlandson's report is the first in a series of such reports on the capture by Indians, which soon became a literary genre of their own as “ captivity narratives ” .

literature

• Mary Rowlandson: The Sovereignty and Goodness of God . Ed. Neal Salisbury. Bedford Books 1997. ISBN 0312111517

Web links

• The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson - etext at Project Gutenberg
• Comprehensive bibliography on Rowlandson and other captivity narratives