1635 (or 1637)

Somersetshire, England

1711?

Wethersfield, Connecticut

Writer of a famous captivity narrative

Portrait: Mary White Rowlandson. Reproduced by permission of The Granger Collection Ltd.

" . . . their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along with those (as I may say) ravenous Bears, then that moment to end my dayes."

From The Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.

Mary White Rowlandson, the wife of a Puritan clergyman, lived with her family on the New England frontier during the late seventeenth century. The violent events of King Philip's War (1675–76; see Metacom entry) transformed Rowlandson from a typical Puritan woman to a best-selling author. On a night in February 1676, a Wampanoag raiding party abducted Rowlandson, her three children, and several other colonists. One of her children died in captivity. Three months later Rowlandson and her two surviving children were released...