Introduction Summary and Analysis

In an extended introduction, the editor Wendy Martin places the travel narratives included in the volume into a larger perspective of Colonial America. The first travel narrative to be presented is that of Mary Rowlandson, a woman taken captive by Native Americans for 11 weeks in 1676. Following that is an account by Sarah Kemble Knight, a businesswoman who traveled from Boston to New York City and back in 1704. The third narrative is by William Byrd II and describes the surveying of the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728. The fourth narrative is by Dr. Alexander Hamilton of Maryland, who spent four months on a recreational journey through the Northeast in 1744.

These four narratives provide a wide scope of perspectives. Rowlandson's story is primarily recounted in terms of religious redemption and protection. Knight is a savvy merchant traveling on business. Byrd is...