“Curious Pieces of Divine Work” (22)  Hegemonic myth of Puritans (and of us?)  Reenactment of Old Testament stories  Deliverance from Egypt, crossing the water  Theological justification for “promised land”  Indians = Canaanites, “filthy,” “lustful,” “heathen”  Lifestyles not “English” – loud, vocal, impulsive, communal, combative  Some adopted European dress (52) and even religion (“Praying Indians”)  Colony land grants specified no western borders  Puritan migration continues, settlements expand, Indians resist  Some Indians ally with colonists against enemy tribes (21)  Indian attacks on colonists seen as divine punishment  Society growing more prosperous & secular: “declension”

Mary Rowlandson (c )  Captivity narrative (set in 1675; published 1682)  King Philip’s War (1676) – “total war”  Collapse of Puritans’ alliance with Narragansetts and Wampanoags (who had helped exterminate the Pequot in 1637)  Bands of dispossessed natives commit “terrorism” on settlements  Atrocities of colonists add to insult of territorial expansion  Colonists respond with all out “war against terror” (against “evil”?)  David F. Hawke, Everyday Life in Early America (1988)  Biblical references give her experience meaning  Not just random terror, but divine plan to test her, community  Indians win battles because God helps them  Material world “emblem” of spiritual world – preparation for afterlife

“Blood Sister” to the Narragansetts?  Story of her “Americanization” (17)  How is she transformed? How no longer “English”?  What effect does her captivity – especially her publication of a first-person account – have on the Puritan community?  What does it reveal about the actual (not stereotyped or propagandized) relations between Indians and colonists?  What is significance of her being a woman captive, a woman author?

What lies beneath – what is left unsaid...

Alternate Histories  Other possibilities for Indian-colonist coexistence?  California, So. America – Spanish introduce outright slavery, but also convert Indians to Catholicism and settle them in missions (feudal system)  Powhatan’s speech to John Smith – mutual benefit? Equals?  French system – trade, no land grab, even intermarriage  Why don’t the English intermarry?  Rowlandson’s story read as a parable: Pilgrim’s Progress  She isn’t the same afterwards – an “American”? Grew a “new skin”?  OT control of sexuality = religious & national identity  Indians’ depravity an excuse for genocide (compare Hebrews/Canaan)  D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature: Americans must come to terms with its “grinning aboriginal demons” (1923)

A Great Irony of American History  A determined effort by tribal confederation could have driven the colonists back into the sea  Extermination of New England tribes almost total  Virtually invisible for next 300 years  Late 20 th century: revitalized tribes finally striking back  Pequots & Narragansetts operate tribal casinos, pay taxes and make donations to State of Connecticut