Mary Rowlandson (Essay Date 1682)

SOURCE: Rowlandson, Mary. "Captivity, Sufferings, and Removes (1682)." In Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism, edited by Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew, pp. 21-26. Madison, Wis.: Madison House, 1997.

In the following excerpt from her 1682 book, Rowlandson relates her time spent as a captive of American Indians.

On the 10th of February, 1675, the Indians, in great numbers, came upon Lancaster. Their first coming was about sun-rising; hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven. There were five persons taken in one house, the father, the mother, and a sucking child they knocked on the head; the other two they took and carried away alive.—There were two others, who being out of the garrison upon occasion, were set upon; one was knocked on the head, the other escaped: another...