The Captivity Narrative The Captivity Narrative and Mary Rowlandsonand Mary Rowlandson

What Is a Captivity What Is a Captivity Narrative?Narrative?

●American Indian captivity narrativesoStories of men and, particularly, womenoOf European descentoPopular in both America and Europe

●White woman’s captivity by natives a metaphor for New England’s experience in the New WorldoAnxiety of female captivity: that she

may choose to stay, become part of the community

Are Captivity Narratives Are Captivity Narratives Historical? Historical?

●Often based on true events

●Contained fictional elements

●Some entirely fictional ocreated because

the stories were popular

Captivity Narrative’s Captivity Narrative’s PurposePurpose

●Religious expression ●Justification of westward expansion ●Popular symbol of American national

heritage ●Reinforcement of stereotypes

oSpanish: Indians as brutish beastsoFrench: Indians as souls needing

redemptionoEnglish in Virginia: innocent exoticsoPuritans: Satanic threat to religious utopia

ThemesThemes●Fears of cannibalism

●Fears of scalping

●Hunter-predator myth: captive caught between savagery and civilization

●For Puritans: Israel suffering under Babylonian captivity

●Freudian view: captivity becomes adoption (Puritan/Indian friendship development)

PatternPattern●Separation

oattack and capture

●Torment oordeals of physical and

mental suffering

●Transformationo accommodation, adoption

● Return oescape, release,

redemption

The Puritan WorldviewThe Puritan Worldview●Providence: History is ordered according

to God’s plan

●Typology: Biblical events and figures serve as types for historical events and figures

●Doctrine of predestination: The sovereignty and goodness of God

●Election: The covenant of grace

●Uncertain salvation: Looking for signs

The Narrative as MythThe Narrative as Myth●Captivity as exceptional and

exemplaryoA singular experience and testoA moral and religious lesson for readers

●Biblical frame of reference●Captivity as symbolic conversion

oCollapse of boundariesoWandering in the wildernessoTest and conversionoRestoration

Captivity and the RevolutionCaptivity and the Revolution

●Popular beyond Puritan era and region

●Colonies seen as captives of British CrownoKing George = savage

●Americans as chosen people being tested

Captivity Narrative as Captivity Narrative as Critique of EuropeansCritique of Europeans

●Not just English genre

●Captive identifies with captor

●Captivity narrative threatened the collapse of boundaries between ohome and captor culture obetween white and native identity

Readers Love Readers Love

●Details of Indians’ lives

●Gory descriptions

●Descriptions of wilderness

●Threats of sexual violation

●Individual Christian struggles

●Captivity narratives forerunners of dime novels, sensational true crime stories, and reality television

The WildernessThe Wilderness●Does not equal no people●Equals being unsure of one’s place●Typical European response

o Reassert one’s old sense of place • family, social standing, religion, Bible

o Learn the new place • social order, cuisine, language

o Improvise spaces to inhabit

●Unhoused especially receptive to the dangers of the wilderness

King Philip’s War (1675-76)King Philip’s War (1675-76)

●“King Philip” (Metacom) becomes leader of Wampanoags & creates a coalition to resist the English

●In 1675 Philip puts an informer to death; the English retaliate & kill three. War breaks out

●600 English & 3,000 Indians die by war’s end, brought about by widespread starvation among Indians & Philip’s death

King Philip’s War & ReligionKing Philip’s War & Religion

●Puritan interpretation: God’s judgment on New England for its sins

●Jeremiad: sermon that castigated the people for the sins; compared them unfavorably to predecessors

●Mary Rowlandson’s text as Jeremiad

Mary Rowlandson’s Mary Rowlandson’s True HistoryTrue History

●International bestseller.●Most famous example

of the “Indian captivity narrative”

●First and only work by its author

●Retells 11 weeks, 5 days that a minister’s wife spends among the Wampanoag people

Rowlandson as a Captive Rowlandson as a Captive Puritan WomanPuritan Woman

●Rowlandson’s positionoFamily (born in England 1637; arrived in

Salem in 1639; mother active in church)oMarriage and social standing

●Rowlandson copes with captivityoSkills and activitiesoSurvival strategiesoComparison with other captives

Rowlandson’s narrativeRowlandson’s narrative

●Puritan conventions barred women from writing for publication and unauthorized public speaking

●Rowlandson’s motivesoTitle pageoComments in text

Plot of Rowlandson’s Plot of Rowlandson’s NarrativeNarrative

●Lose home●Lose family●Dwell in

Wilderness●Regain family●Regain home

Representative AfflictionRepresentative Affliction

●Rowlandson’s afflictions those of New England’s

●God’s special notice of Rowlandson and his chosen people

●Rowlandson an example for others: how to persevere and remain faithful in a time of great suffering

Unintentional Unintentional Commentary? Commentary?

●Rowlandson describes her adventures using the values, language, and assumptions appropriate to her “place.”

●Despite herself, she shows us the following:oThe Wampanoags remarkably generous,

despite their desperate circumstancesoThe Wampanoags far from immoraloRowlandson successful in creating “space”

for herself (sewing); no passive victimoEnglish bungled in how they’ve handled

the situation

SourcesSources● Burnham, Michelle. Captivity and Sentiment: Cultural Exchange in

American Literature, 1682-1861. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.

● Derounian, Kathryn Zabelle. "The Publication, Promotion, and Distribution of Mary Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative in the Seventeenth Century." Early American Literature 23.3 (1988): 239-61.

● Gookin, Daniel. "An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England." 1677. Archaeologia Americana: Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society Vol. 2 (1836): 423-523.

● Mather, Increase. A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New-England. London: Chiswell, 1676.

● Salisbury, Neal, ed. and intro. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, and Related Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997.

● Slotkin, Richard. Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan UP, 1973.