Mary Rowlandson's Captivity By Douglas Edward Leach

Over the years there has been numerous tragedies that have affected countless regions in the world. Such as rape kidnaping, murder, types of genocide and a plethora of other unimaginable events. As cynical as it may seems, we do have the grace of knowing all these commotions are happening or have happened. Unfortunately, in the 17th century there was no way of letting another piece of the world know what devastations were taking place. Mary Rowlandson, a puritan woman born in 1637, captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War had very limited methods of communicating. In turn, Mary's Narrative is solely based on memory and recollection; considering Mary wrote her Narrative sum years after it happened. The "When’s" of Mary Rowlandson's Captivity by Douglas Edward Leach tries to pinpoint specific dates and clarify some of the hazy time periods left by Mary Rowlandson in her Narrative. In the Article, it states "Mrs. Rowlandson had no means of keeping a written record of her experiences during her captivity. “On the contrary we must assume that her narrative is based almost entirely on memory". To recap, this is a very strong way to define the "when’s" of the captivity narrative; meaning Mary has physical evidence to help her pinpoint the exact

With all that being said, Mary is held accountable for the dates she has mentioned in her narrative. In the article, Mr. Leach says "We know the exact dates of a number of wartime events which can be correlated with Mary Rowlandson’s experiences.”. In the journal, it's stated that Mary Rowlandson "mentions both the going and the returning of the warriors from that attack". Indulging in the fact that the place they were returning to was forty-five miles away, they were able to rule out some dates mentioned by other