Everything you need to understand or teach
Mary Rowlandson.
Products may contain comprehensive summaries, analysis, notes, articles, essays,
lesson plans and more. See below for details on what is included.
Rowlandson, Mary
(b. ca. 1637; d. 1710 or 1711) Author of a captivity narrative, the first book in English published by a woman in North America.
Mary White Rowlandson was born in England and moved ...
Read more
Rowlandson, Mary White
1635 (or 1637)
Somersetshire, England
1711?
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Writer of a famous captivity narrative
Portrait: Mary White Rowlandson. Reproduced by permission of The...
Read more
Excerpt from the Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration by Mary Rowlandson
Excerpt from The Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration
of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
Reprinted in Eyewitness to America
...
Read more
Mary White Rowlandson holds a secure if modest place in Colonial American literary history as the author of the first and deservedly best-known New England Indian captivity narrative and, except for s...
Read more
At sunrise on 10 February 1676, a little more than a year after the confederated colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Plymouth, and Connecticut declared war against the Algonquian tribes allied un...
Read more
In the following essay, Slotkin and Folsom examine Rowlandson's work as both a captivity narrative and part of Puritan mythology and culture.
“On the tenth of February 1675, came the Ind...
Read more
In following essay, Arnold discusses how Rowlandson lacks understanding of the culture of her Algonquian captors and what her work reveals about their society, especially its humor.
Laughter has the r...
Read more
In the following essay, Henwood explores how Rowlandson uses the Psalms in her text and the importance of them in Puritan religion.
[God] gave [David] the “shield of his salvation,” and ...
Read more
In the following essay, Boswell focuses on how Rowlandson defined herself by her sex and how her Narrative shows special concern for mothers and children.
With troubled heart and trembling hand I writ...
Read more
In the essay that follows, Neuwirth looks at Rowlandson's work in terms of gender politics, arguing that the text features multiple narrators who favor a Puritan male ideology and its construct...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Faery examines how Rowlandson's text was used in the formation of an American national character and identity founded on white male supremacy.
Reading Rowlandson
So mu...
Read more
In the essay that follows, Downing analyzes how Rowlandson uses the Bible and biblical phrases in her Narrative.
Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity narrative is saturated with references to the...
Read more
In the following essay, Derounian argues that the narrative duality in Rowlandson's work is the result of a tension between her religion and the psychological trauma she endured during her capt...
Read more
In the essay that follows, Derounian discusses the dissemination and reception of Rowlandson's work from the first printing to the early 1800s, investigating various editions and how they serve...
Read more
In following essay, Davis explores how Rowlandson's acceptance of her role in the Puritan social order affects her point of view in her Narrative and how this acceptance allowed the work to be ...
Read more
In following essay, Toulouse argues that an important function of Rowlandson's Narrative is to ensure the author's reintegration into the society from which she had been abducted, and sh...
Read more
In the essay that follows, Burnham examines the significance of Rowlandson's two narrative voices, the “colloquial” and the “biblical,” arguing that this dialogism a...
Read more
In the following essay, Dietrich argues that by being allowed to write her story, Rowlandson moved beyond the traditional Puritan expectations for women and that the experience changed her into a self...
Read more
In the excerpt that follows, Castiglia argues that Rowlandson's book reveals that her experiences as a captive challenged her Puritan beliefs, changed her identity, and forced her to find the m...
Read more
Mary Rowlandson, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglas wrote narratives of the lives in captivity and oppression. The stories were bestsellers in their times, but why do they continue to appeal to the...
Read more
"A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" is a personal account by Mrs. Mary White Rowlandson herself, which details and describes her survival and hardship during her cap...
Read more