Weaks – Rowlandson Blog

Reading this narrative, The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration
of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682) was very disturbing; for Mary Rowlandson, living it must have been a nightmare. The first thought entering my mind when reading Mary’s trials was that the will to live is not equally distributed among all men. Obviously, even in those times, most would have succumbed and few would have been as strong willed as Mary Rowlandson. In my opinion, she also displayed incredible will power by refusing tobacco during a time of need and great stress. I say this based on claims by users of that drug, that it has a calming effect and I’m sure her “God” would have forgiven her for succumbing to the “bait the devil lays.”

In the eight remove, when King Philip offered her tobacco, she refused. I quote, “Then I went to see King Philip… and [he] asked me whether I would smoke it… but this no way suited me… It seems to be a bait the devil lays to make men lose their precious time. I remember with shame how formerly, when I had taken two or three pipes, I was presently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it is. But I thank God, He has now given me power over it…”

Many might think that passage insignificant, but to me, it further illustrates the internal fortitude of this woman. To some, focusing on a reference to the evils of tobacco in such a heart wrenching narrative would be considered, at best, folly, but let me assure you that is not my intent. I merely point out the reference to illustrate that I was not aware that the evils and additive properties of tobacco were recognized at that time and also to further emphasize Mary’s iron will.  

With that being said, we move on to the primary purpose of this blog and that is Mary’s attitude toward her captors and does Mary Rowlandson see herself as saved? In the prologue, before the First Remove, Mary describes her captives as “a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting, and insulting.” In the next paragraph she refers to them as “ravenous beasts.”  Mary’s negative portrayal of the Indians continues into the First Remove.

  

The First Remove: “Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell. And as miserable was the waste that was there made of horses, cattle, sheep…and fowl (which they had plundered in the town), some roasting…and some boiling to feed our merciless enemies; who were joyful enough, though we were disconsolate… Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy.” Mary refers to the Indians as “black creatures of the night” and their behavior fitting for a place in hell and from Mary’s perspective, that portrayal seems accurate and justified.

Second Remove: She further expresses her feelings about the Indians is the Second Remove when she comments, “Then they set me upon a horse with my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse's back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell over the horse's head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed, and rejoiced to see it.” One is almost compelled to agree with Mary’s opinion of her captives. War is one thing, but to rejoice at the sight of a wounded child being further injured is at best inhumane.

Moving on to the Fifth Remove, “On that very day came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance. If we had been God would have found out a way for the English to have passed this river…’Oh that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries”’ (Psalm 81.13-14). Mary justifies the cowardice of the English as the work of God. At that moment I would have been more upset with the English than the Indians. The English abandon their pursuit knowing there were women and children captives. The English soldiers did not exhibit near the courage of Mary Rowlandson. Again, Mary justifies their lack of courage as the work of God. A question begs, “Is this really how she felt at the moment this was happening?”

Ninth Remove: In the Ninth Remove Mary seems to exhibit a little different view of the Indians and appears to be seeing some of them as individuals; a somewhat different prospective from the First and Second Remove.  Everyone that has analyzed Mary Rowlandson’s narrative has commented on her seemingly preoccupation with food and I’m forced to do the same, however I do so in an attempt illustrate her slightly changing attitude toward a few select Indians. I quote, “But I was fain to go and look after something to satisfy my hunger, and going among the wigwams, I went into one and there found a squaw who showed herself very kind to me, and gave me a piece of bear. . In the morning I went to the same squaw, who had a kettle of ground nuts boiling. I asked her to let me boil my piece of bear in her kettle, which she did, and gave me some ground nuts to eat with it: and I cannot but think how pleasant it was to me.” Again, it appears Mary is softening her views on a few particular Indians, although, in the Tenth Remove Mary appears to be perplexed of her treatment by the Indians. “I went home and found venison roasting that night, but they would not give me one bit of it. Sometimes I met with favor, and sometimes with nothing but frowns” and in the Thirteenth Remove she again refers to them as “barbarous heathens” when she discovers that she had been lied too in respect to her husband. I quote from that passage, “I certainly understood (though I suspected it before) that whatsoever the Indians told me respecting him was vanity and lies. Some of them told me he was dead, and they had killed him; some said he was married again…”

In the Sixteenth Mary writes, “but when they came near, there was a vast difference between the lovely faces of Christians, and foul looks of those heathens, which much damped my spirit again.” Then in the Nineteenth Remove she writes, “the squaw laid a mat under me, and a good rug over me; the first time I had any such kindness showed me.”

Keeping things in perspective, some Indians were kind to Mary, she was not raped, beaten or tortured, but she did have ashes thrown in her eyes by a jealous squaw and for the most part she was denied food through much of her ordeal.

Overall, I would conclude that Mary’s feelings about the Indians, as a collective group, did not change much during her captivity. The consensus opinion of Indians, by Puritans, was unfavorable at best and Mary would not have presented a favorable view of a group of people that committed unspeakable acts of savagery and brutality against her people. To paraphrase words not original to me, to do so would fly in the face of “Puritan Values.”

Mary sustained herself by her faith in God and a Bible that she was given early in her captivity by an Indian. Many times during her ordeal, Mary thanked God for watching over her. In the Third Remove following the death of her child Mary speaks these words, “I must and could lie down by my dead babe, side by side all the night after. I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life.” In that passage, Mary acknowledges being in God’s good graces and thanks him for saving her. Through out her ordeal Mary thanks God for watching over her. In the Eight Remove, she invites her son to read from the Bible, “I asked him whether he would read. He told me he earnestly desired it, I gave him my Bible, and he lighted upon that comfortable Scripture ‘I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord: the Lord hath chastened me sore yet he hath not given me over to death’ (Psalm 118.17-18). ‘Look here, mother,’ says he, ‘did you read this?’ And here I may take occasion to mention one principal ground of my setting forth these lines: even as the psalmist says, to declare the works of the Lord, and His wonderful power in carrying us along, preserving us in the wilderness, while under the enemy's hand, and returning of us in safety again.” Again, Mary is thanking the Lord and making it very clear that she believes she is saved.

Additionally, I was struck by the generosity of fellow Puritans toward the captives, in the form of money being donated for their release and lodging being offered to those in need. I will conclude this rather lengthy blog with a quote from the Twentieth Remove, “The Lord hath been exceeding good to us in our low estate, in that when we had neither house nor home, nor other necessaries, the Lord so moved the hearts of these and those towards us, that we wanted neither food, nor raiment for ourselves or ours: ‘There is a Friend which sticketh closer than a Brother’ (Proverbs 18.24). And how many such friends have we found, and now living amongst? And truly such a friend have we found him to be unto us, in whose house we lived, viz. Mr. James Whitcomb, a friend unto us near hand, and afar off.”

Mary’s narrative of her captivity set the stage, so to speak, for future captivity narratives that were to become part of early American Literature.