Mary Rowlandson was taken as captive by Native Americans during King Philip's War in 17th century America. Her faith and a Bible given to her by her captors got her through her 11-week captivity, and afterwards she wrote her story in a book titled The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Her book, the first American best seller, sparked a genre of captivity narratives in American literature.
But the dangers of early America were ever-present, and when war broke out between the Native Americans and the English settlers, Mary and her children were captured and taken as prisoner. After her release, Mary wrote a book about her experiences, titled The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Let's look closer at the situation that led to Mary's capture, her
…show more content…
They fenced the land to raise livestock. They saw a distinct difference between community and individual property. At first, the Native Americans believed that it would be fine to share with the English. But when the English took over the land and began to raise livestock, destroying Native American crops and preventing new ones from being planted, the leader of the Wampanoag (known as King Philip to the English) led several American Indian nations to war against the English and some of their allies.
In the midst of the war, the Wampanoag employed a shrewd strategy. They raided settlements and took captives, which they could then trade for money, weapons, or provisions. The town of Lancaster, Massachusetts was on the frontier and very close to Indian land. Mary Rowlandson's husband, Reverend Joseph Rowlandson, traveled with some other men to ask the governor of the colony to send protection to keep the town from being raided by the Wampanoag and their allies.
Life in early America was fraught with peril. Just ask Mary Rowlandson. Born in England, Mary and her parents moved to present-day New England when she was a kid. Her father helped found the town of Lancaster (in what is now Massachusetts) and was one of the wealthiest men in the town. In 1656, a young Mary married Reverend Joseph Rowlandson and settled into married