The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Summary

Mary Rowlandson's narrative tells of the eleven weeks and five days she spent as a captive during King Philip's War, the conflict of 1675-1676 between the New England colonies and an alliance of Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc and other Native peoples led in part by the Wampanoag sachem Metacom, whom the English called King Philip. It opens on 10 February 1675, by the Old Style calendar then used in English New England (20 February 1676 in modern reckoning), when a large war party attacks Lancaster, Massachusetts. Rowlandson's husband, the town's minister, is away in Boston seeking soldiers. After a long defense the garrison house is set on fire; a number of her relatives and neighbors are killed, and she is wounded in the side by the same bullet that wounds her six-year-old daughter Sarah in her arms. She and her children Sarah, Joseph and Mary are taken and separated. Rowlandson arranges the story in twenty removes, the marches from camp to camp. At the Nipmuc town of Wenimesset, Sarah dies of her wound after nine days in her mother's lap. Rowlandson is sold to Quinnapin, a Narragansett sachem, and serves in the household of his wife Weetamoo, the Wampanoag sachem of Pocasset, whom she finds a hard mistress. A warrior returning from the raid on Medfield gives her a Bible taken there, and from that point Scripture becomes her chief comfort: she reads Deuteronomy 28 and despairs, then Deuteronomy 30 and takes hope. The company crosses the Baquaug River ahead of pursuing English troops and moves north to the Connecticut River, where she meets Metacom, who asks her to make a shirt for his son and pays her a shilling, and where she trades her knitting and sewing for food. She describes hunger so sharp that ground nuts, horse liver and bear meat taste sweet, her brief reunions with her son and with other captives, and the endurance and skill of her captors in moving whole communities through wilderness with the English army close behind. In the spring the company returns toward Wachusett, and negotiations begin through Native Christian messengers. John Hoar of Concord brings the ransom of twenty pounds, and she is released at the beginning of May 1676. She closes with reflections on God's providence in the war, the kindnesses of Boston friends, the recovery of her son and daughter, and the lesson that affliction taught her: that the things of this world are vanity and that she must rely wholly on God. The narrative was first published in 1682 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in London, under the title The Sovereignty and Goodness of God; the library text follows the corrected second edition and omits the preface and the sermon by Joseph Rowlandson printed with early editions.

Plot or Argument

• The attack on Lancaster

  The war party burns the town and besieges the Rowlandson garrison house; when the house is fired, the occupants are killed or taken, Mary and Sarah are wounded, and she chooses to go with her captors rather than die.

• First to Third Removes: the death of Sarah and the Bible

  The first nights in the camps, the march to Wenimesset, nine days with her wounded daughter until Sarah dies, and the gift of a Bible taken at Medfield, in which she reads Deuteronomy 28 and 30; Mary and Joseph are held in other households.

• Fourth to Seventh Removes: flight across the Baquaug

  She hears of other captives' fates and travels with the whole company, old and young, across the Baquaug River on rafts while the pursuing English army is halted at the bank; by the third week, she says, foods she once refused taste sweet.

• Eighth to Twelfth Removes: the Connecticut River and Metacom

  At the Connecticut River she meets her son, visits Metacom, sews and knits in exchange for food, and endures Weetamoo's harshness and moments of unexpected kindness.

• Thirteenth to Nineteenth Removes: hunger and hope

  The company winters and turns back south; she suffers extreme hunger, finds comfort in the Psalms and Isaiah, and learns that the council in Boston has sent messengers about her ransom.

• Twentieth Remove: ransom and release

  At Wachusett the sachems debate her price; John Hoar arrives with goods and money, a dance and council take place, and she is set free and returns to Concord and Boston.

• Restoration and closing reflections

  Reunion with her husband, the recovery of Joseph and Mary, the help of friends in Boston, and her reflections on providence, affliction and the vanity of worldly things.

Characters

• Mary Rowlandson, author and narrator

  Minister's wife of Lancaster who reads every turn of her captivity as God's chastening and mercy.

• Joseph Rowlandson, husband

  Minister of Lancaster, away in Boston during the attack, who works for her redemption.

• Sarah Rowlandson, daughter

  Six-year-old wounded in the attack, who dies at Wenimesset.

• Joseph and Mary Rowlandson, son and daughter

  Children held apart from their mother and later ransomed.

• Quinnapin, Narragansett sachem

  Her master after she is sold, a leader in the war.

• Weetamoo, Wampanoag sachem of Pocasset

  Quinnapin's wife and Rowlandson's mistress, a woman of rank whom she finds proud and severe.

• Metacom (King Philip), Wampanoag sachem

  Leader of the war, who speaks courteously to her and pays her for sewing.

• John Hoar, Concord negotiator

  Englishman who brings the ransom to Wachusett and escorts her home.

Lessons

• Reading suffering through Scripture

  Rowlandson interprets nearly every event through a verse of the Bible she was given in captivity. Deuteronomy 28 leads her to despair and Deuteronomy 30 to hope; Psalm 46 tells her to be still. Her narrative shows a Puritan habit of mind that sought God's purpose in every affliction and took Scripture as a daily companion.

  • Why does Rowlandson move from despair to hope as she reads from Deuteronomy 28 to Deuteronomy 30?
  • How does she use the Bible to explain both her sufferings and her deliverance?
  • What does she mean when she calls her Bible her guide by day and her pillow by night?

• Endurance and the small mercies

  Hunger, cold, grief and constant marching fill the removes, yet Rowlandson counts each handful of meal, each kindness, each meeting with her son as a gift. Her closing pages argue that affliction taught her to rely on God and to be quieted under smaller troubles.

  • Which small mercies does Rowlandson record, and why does she take such care to note them?
  • How does hunger change her sense of what tastes good?
  • Can a person truly say, as she does with David, that it was good to be afflicted?

• Seeing the other side of a war

  Rowlandson writes as an English captive in the midst of a war that devastated both peoples. She also records, sometimes against her own expectations, the courtesy of Metacom, the old woman who gave her a mat and a rug, the endurance and skill of her captors, and the losses they mourned. Reading closely shows a war in which both sides suffered and fought for their homes and their way of life.

  • What acts of kindness from her captors does Rowlandson record, and how does she explain them?
  • What does the narrative reveal about the hardships her captors themselves faced during the war?
  • How might Weetamoo or Quinnapin have told the story of these same weeks?

Context

King Philip's War (1675-1676) followed half a century of English settlement in southern New England. The Wampanoag had allied with Plymouth Colony since 1621, but the growth of English towns, sales and seizures of land, and the colonies' claims of legal authority over Native communities had strained relations. In 1675 Plymouth tried and hanged three Wampanoag men for the death of John Sassamon, a Christian Native who had warned the English of war, and fighting began that summer. Metacom and his allies fought to defend their land, sovereignty and way of life; the English saw the war as a defense of their towns and as a divine trial of a covenanted people. Native Christians from the praying towns were caught between both sides; some were interned on Deer Island, while others served the English as scouts and messengers, including those who carried the letters about Rowlandson's ransom. By the war's end in 1676 thousands had died, a large share of New England's towns had been attacked, and the Native nations of the region had lost most of their independence; Metacom was killed in August 1676, Weetamoo drowned that month, Quinnapin was executed at Newport, and many Native captives were sold into slavery overseas.

Composition

Rowlandson wrote the narrative within a few years of her release, by her own account for her private use, and it was published in 1682, the year a preface signed Per Amicam (often attributed to Increase Mather) presented it to the public. The first editions appeared that year at Cambridge, Massachusetts, printed by Samuel Green, under the title The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, and in London as A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Early editions also included her late husband's last sermon. The library text is the corrected second edition, without the preface and the sermon.

Reception

The book was one of the most widely read works of seventeenth-century New England and went through many editions in the eighteenth century, especially during later frontier wars. It is usually counted the first American captivity narrative and the model for a genre that continued through the nineteenth century and shaped fiction such as Cooper's. Historians read it as a primary source on King Philip's War, on Puritan piety and on the life of Native communities in wartime, and scholars have debated how far the providential framing reflects her own voice and how far that of the ministers who sponsored its publication.

Comparisons

• the-last-of-the-mohicans

  Cooper's novel, set in the French and Indian War, draws on the captivity tradition that Rowlandson began: women carried into the forest, forced marches and rescue; Cooper writes romance a century and a half later, Rowlandson a firsthand account.

• grace-abounding

  Bunyan's spiritual autobiography of 1666 shares Rowlandson's Puritan habit of tracing God's hand through particular verses that seize the soul in despair and hope.

• mayflower-compact

  The Plymouth settlers' covenant of 1620 begins the history whose crisis Rowlandson lived through; Plymouth's alliance with the Wampanoag under Massasoit, Metacom's father, broke down in the war of 1675.

• the-scarlet-letter

  Hawthorne's romance of seventeenth-century Boston imagines the Puritan world from the nineteenth century, while Rowlandson speaks from inside it with the same Scripture-saturated conscience.

• the-witch-of-blackbird-pond

  Speare's novel is set in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in the 1680s, the town where Rowlandson lived after her release, and shows the same Puritan households from a young newcomer's eyes.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How Rowlandson organizes her story by removes and what each new march does to her hopes.
• The scene of the Bible from Medfield in the Third Remove and how her reading of Deuteronomy shapes the rest of the book.
• Every act of kindness from her captors, and how she explains it.
• The negotiation, council and dance at Wachusett in the Twentieth Remove.
• The closing reflections and the verses with which she ends.

Key terms and names

Remove

Rowlandson's word for each move of the company from one camp to the next; she numbers twenty.

King Philip's War

The war of 1675-1676 between the New England colonies and an alliance of Native nations, named by the English after Metacom.

Sachem

A leader of a Native community in southern New England; Metacom, Quinnapin and Weetamoo were all sachems.

Garrison house

A fortified house where neighbors gathered for defense; the Rowlandsons' house in Lancaster was one.

Providence

God's governing of all events; Rowlandson reads her capture, her sufferings and her release as providences.

Redemption

Ransom from captivity, the word Rowlandson uses for her release, which also carries its Christian meaning.

Wachusett

The mountain region of central Massachusetts where the final negotiations for her ransom took place.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Where was Rowlandson's husband during the attack on Lancaster, and what happened to each of her children?
2. Comprehension How did Rowlandson obtain a Bible, and what did she first read in it?
3. Comprehension Who negotiated her ransom, and what price was agreed?
4. Interpretation Why does Rowlandson record the kindnesses of her captors even when she attributes them to God rather than to them?
5. Interpretation How does Rowlandson's view of food, sleep and comfort change during the removes, and what does she conclude from it?
6. Interpretation What does the narrative show about the war from the side of the Native communities she lived among?
7. Big Question Is it right to read every event of one's life, even great suffering, as part of God's purpose?
8. Big Question How should a reader weigh a firsthand account written by one side of a war?

Faith Connections

• Deuteronomy 30:1-7 (Scripture)

  The promise that God will gather His scattered people if they return to Him is the first passage that gives Rowlandson hope after Deuteronomy 28's curses.

• Psalm 119:71 (Scripture)

  It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Rowlandson takes David's words as the summary of her captivity in the closing reflections.

• Hebrews 12:5-11 (Scripture)

  The Lord chastens those He loves. Rowlandson quotes verse 6 to explain why prosperity once made her fear she had her portion in this life.

• Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy II (Great Conversation)

  Lady Philosophy teaches that Fortune's turns reveal the emptiness of worldly goods. Rowlandson reaches a similar conclusion about the vanity of this world, but grounds it in God's providence rather than in philosophy.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: God governs all events, including war and captivity. Rowlandson was brought into extreme affliction and then delivered by means she could not have arranged. Therefore her captivity displays God's sovereignty and goodness, and the right response is to rely wholly on Him and to be quieted under smaller troubles.

Rhetorical device: typology. Rowlandson repeatedly matches her experience to biblical types, such as Israel scattered and gathered in Deuteronomy 30, Daniel in the lions' den, and David watering his couch with tears in the closing reflections.

Debate: Resolved: that Rowlandson's narrative is more valuable as a record of Puritan faith than as a history of King Philip's War.

Memory Work

I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Rowlandson's title calls her story a display of the sovereignty and goodness of God. Using three removes, explain how she holds those two together when her experience seems to set them against each other.

Comparison with Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Compare how Rowlandson and Bunyan describe the power of particular Bible verses to cast them down and lift them up.

Medical Lens

The narrative records a wound to Rowlandson's side and her daughter Sarah's wound from the same bullet, with no surgeon available; Sarah lingers nine days with nothing but a little cold water before dying, and a fellow English captive, Robert Pepper of Roxbury, tells her he healed his own leg wound with oaken leaves, a remedy she then applies to her side and credits, with God's blessing, for her cure. Hunger runs through the removes in precise detail: ground nuts, parched corn, horse liver, bear meat, and the observation that she could now eat what she once would have refused, together with the scarcity the whole company shared on the march. She notes that she had formerly smoked several pipes in a row and gave up tobacco from the day of her capture, describing it as a bewitching habit. The closing pages describe nights of weeping and sleeplessness after her return while others slept; some modern readers have read these as signs of lasting trauma, but this is an interpretive reading of a text framed throughout as religious testimony, and Rowlandson herself presents her sorrow as part of a providential lesson.

• The attack on Lancaster

  Rowlandson is wounded in the side by a bullet that also wounds the child in her arms.

  WAR Wounds
• The Third Remove

  Nine days caring for her wounded daughter until Sarah dies at Wenimesset, and the remedy of oaken leaves for her own wound, learned from a fellow captive.

  WAR Wounds Death Dying Grief
• The Eighth Remove

  Her visit to Metacom, her refusal of his pipe, and her account of having given up tobacco since her capture.

  Addiction
• The Fifth to Nineteenth Removes

  Extreme hunger, the foods eaten in the camps, and the scarcity the whole company faces on the march.

  Starvation Nutrition
• Closing reflections

  Sleepless nights of weeping after her restoration, which she interprets through Psalm 6.

  Sleep Insomnia Trauma Shell Shock Grief

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Map the twenty removes on an outline of central Massachusetts and the Connecticut River valley, marking Lancaster, Wenimesset, the Baquaug River, the Connecticut River and Wachusett.

• Essay

  Rowlandson cites a verse of Scripture at almost every turn. Choose three removes and explain how the verse she quotes changes the meaning of what has happened.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation at Wachusett between John Hoar and Quinnapin about the ransom, drawing on what the narrative tells of the council and the price.

• Fiction

  Retell one of the removes from the point of view of the old woman who gave Rowlandson a mat and a rug, as a mother whose own people are also at war and on the move.

Further Reading

• The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, Jill Lepore

• King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict, Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias

• Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War, Lisa Brooks

  Draws on Native sources and place-knowledge, with chapters on Weetamoo.

• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan

  A Puritan spiritual autobiography of the same generation.