"In [a captivity narrative] a single individual, usually a woman, stands passively under the strokes of evil, awaiting rescue by the grace of God. The sufferer represents the whole, chastened body of Puritan society; and the temporary bondage of the captive to the Indian is a dual paradigm: of the bondage of the soul to the flesh and the temptations arising from original sin, and of the self-exile of the English Israel from England.”

In the Indian's devilish clutches, the captive had to meet and reject the temptation of Indian marriage and/or the Indian's "cannibal" Eucharist. To partake of the Indian's love or of his equivalent of bread and wine was to debase, to un-English the very soul. The captive's ultimate redemption by the grace of Christ and the efforts of the Puritan magistrates is likened to the regeneration of the soul in conversion.”

“The ordeal is at once full of pain and evil and promising of ultimate salvation. Through the captive's proxy, the promise of a similar salvation could be offered to the faithful among the reading public, while the captive's torments remained to harrow the hearts of those not yet awakened to their fallen nature "

HUMILIATIONS FOLLOWED WITH DELIVERANCES ON THE NARRATIVES OF HANNAH SWARTON AND HANNAH DUSTAN

Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together, with the Faithfulness of his Promises Displayed Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682) (Page images of the 1811 edition at canadiana.org) CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES FROM THE 17 TH CENTURY

John Williams, The Redeemed Captive (1704); (John Demos's contemporary work on the Deerfield captivities, The Unredeemed Captive. ) Cotton Mather, Good Fetch'd Out of Evil (1706): John Williams and another Puritan captive, Mary French Cotton Mather, A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New England (1707), an account of Hannah Bradley, who was captured in 1697 and again in EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

revenge ransom replacement of tribal numbers decimated by war and disease REASONS:

Between 1675 and 1763, approximately 1, 641 New Englanders were taken hostage (Vaughan and Richter, p. 53) STATISTICS

LANCASTER, PA

Religious expression Justification of westward expansion Nineteenth-century: cultural symbol of American national heritage Popular literature Reinforcement of stereotypes a. Spanish: Indians as brutish beasts b. French: Indians as souls needing redemption c. English in Virginia: innocent exotics d. Puritans: Satanic threat to religious utopia RHETORICAL REASONS

a. Spanish: Indians as brutish beasts b. French: Indians as souls needing redemption c. English in Virginia: innocent exotics d. Puritans: Satanic threat to religious utopia REINFORCEMENT OF STEREOTYPES

Fears of cannibalism Fears of scalping Hunter-predator myth: captive as cultural mediator between savagery and civilization Judea capta, for Puritans: Israel suffering under Babylonian captivity. Freudian view: captivity becomes adoption THEMES

a. Myth of Love in the Woods (Pocahontas and John Smith) b. Myth of Good Companions in the Wilderness (Cooper's Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook) c. Myth of White Woman with a Tomahawk (Hannah Dustan; inverts Pocahontas; kills 10 Indians and scalps them when she escapes MYTHS

Abruptly brought from state of protected innocence into confrontation with evil. Forced existence in alien society. Unable to submit or resist. Yearns for freedom, yet fears perils of escape. Struggle between assimilation and maintaining a separate cultural identity. Condition of captive parallels suffering of all lowly and oppressed. Growth in moral and spiritual strength. CONVENTIONS

Deliverance.

Separation: attack and capture Torment, ordeals of physical and mental suffering Transformation (accommodation, adoption) Return (escape, release, or redemption) PATTERN

Born circa in England. With her parents John and Joan White, she sailed for Salem in Joseph Rowlandson became a minister in 1654 and two years later he and Mary were married. They had a child, Mary, who lived for three years; their other children were Joseph, b. 1661; Mary, b. 1665; Sarah, b At the time of their capture, the children were 14, 10, and 6. HISTORY OF MARY ROWLANDSON

In 1675 Joseph Rowlandson. went to Boston to beg for help from the Massachusetts General Assembly, during which period Mary Rowlandson was captured. After her redemption, the couple lived in Boston and then moved 1677 to Wethersfield, Connecticut. Joseph Rowlandson died 24 November 1678 after preaching a powerful fast-day sermon. Mary Rowlandson remarried 6 Aug 1679 to Captain Samuel Talcott. He died in 1691; she lived until Disgrace later came to the family: her son Joseph got his brother-in-law drunk and sold him into servitude in Virginia.

While a prisoner, Mary Rowlandson travelled some 150 miles, from Lancaster to Menamaset then north to Northfield and across the Connecticut River to meet with King Philip/Metacomet himself, sachem of the Wampanoags. Next she traveled up into southwestern New Hampshire, south to Menamaset, and north to Mount Wachusett...."

According to Kathryn Derounian-Stodola, "Introducing her work in all four 1682 editions was an anonymous preface to the reader, signed only 'per Amicum' (By a Friend), but almost certainly written by Increase Mather. In 1681, Mather had proposed to a group of Puritan ministers that they collect stories of 'special providences' concerning New England to be evaluated, sorted, and eventually anthologized. Quite probably Rowlandson's narrative was among the providential accounts he received, but owing to its length, local currency, and intrinsic worth, he may have suggested separate publication and agreed to help.” NARRATIVES AS PROPAGANDA

Europeans had a long tradition of holding prisoners Prisoners-Slaves-North American Coast as well as Apache and Navajo HISTORY OF CAPTIVITY

Pequot War ( )-Indian Slaves were sent to the Caribbean Islands Second Powhatan War ( )-Nansemond Indians were taken captive by Jamestown Colonists Persistent slave trading by South Carolina colonists led to the Tuscarora War

Natives took prisoners as plunder, to be traded later for goods as food, blankets, clothing, or firearms Exchanges were common: King Williams War ( ) Queen Anne’s War ( ) King George’s War ( ) INDIAN CAPTIVITY

Before the Europeans arrived Natives frequently adopted prisoners into their tribes or ritually killed them. Both Europeans and Natives tortured-under certain circumstances-the more bravely the captured behaved- the more respect Iroquois-Women tortured to compensate for lost family Europeans tortured for religious and political reasons-extract information PRISONERS