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Native American and settler relations
Native American and settler relations
Native American and settler relations
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Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity
This document is an autobiography written by Mary White Rowlandson about her confinement by the Indians. She is abducted from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts and is taken to what is currently Brooksville, Massachusetts. This capture was during the three year King Philip's War which went from 1675-1678 and was over the course of three months which is the time period the document focuses on. This war was started by the Indians as retaliation for having to live under colonial rule but the Indians lost 35% more of their men than the colonists lost. In the end it just weakened them more.
We learn very early on in the text that Rowlandson is a very religious woman. She refers to heaven in the third line and goes
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on to quote scripture another seven times throughout the course of the document. This religion is tested when the Indians come and raid her town, killing many of her family and wounding her as well as one of her children. She is then separated in addition to being taken captive and forced to walk for a few weeks until she reaches the Indian land. Over this time her wounded daughter gets terribly sick while they are deprived of many of the necessities of survival. Rowlandson turns to God and realizes that her faith must remain steady. While in the tribe she is a slave and finds out her other two children are there but she is forbidden to see one and the other lives 6 miles away. Her youngest daughter cannot survive her wounds and dies shortly after they make it to the Indian tribe. This document shows just how aggressive both the colonists and the Indians could be as they turned against each other.
It also shows us the development in warfare at the time. There were many guns being used and bullets had been created yet hatchets and spears were still used in war. Attacks like this furthered the westerner’s ideas that the Indians were “bloody heathens (page 343)” and “hell-hounds (page 344).” The Indians took 24 people from her colony and killed the other 12, which shows not only did they want to destroy them, they wanted to force them into submission. Whether this was advertent or inadvertent, they were doing the same thing to the colonists that they perceived the colonists had done to them. Yet somehow an aspect emerges that shows that the Indians weren’t all terrible. On page 345-346 she talks about how the Indians allowed her child to ride on the back of a horse due to her injuries and later allowed her to ride too. This small act of kindness is in direct contrast with the hostility of the attack and …show more content…
capture. The march from Lancaster to Brooksville reminds me of the trial of tears the Indians were forced to walk many years later.
The spirits of the westerners were battered and they were given very little to keep themselves alive. Rowlandson refers to the Indian celebration as, “ a lively resemblance of hell(page 345).” She also says that “it seemed a present worse than death(page 345).” This is in reference to living in general. She asserts that the life she is currently living is worse that death itself. Yet she then realizes that she has not honored her God on the Sabbath or appreciated her gifts as she should which then pulls the reader back to the center of her life and the life of many colonists which is God and religion. Even though she has been captured and unfairly treated, she still partially blames herself for not honoring
God. There a few things that a reader must be mindful of while trying to make sense of this passage. The first being that this is written from the point of view of a wounded captive. One needs to be cautious about this because it means there is a possibility that she overexaggerates pain and or the moral of the group as well as how attentive the Indians were to her wounds. We also don’t know what battles or attacks were the pretense of this one so we cannot say it was uncalled for or over the top. These topics can change the reader's opinion of who was in the right and to make that guess one would have to have many more documents to compare to this one. Overall this document helps give insight into an important war as well as show the severity of the quarrel between the settlers and the natives. It also allows us to see that it wasn’t always just the settlers attacking the Indians but instead was a back and forth that resulted in the Indians being severely weakened. Rowlandson was a very religious woman who had a terrible thing happen to her but her insight allows modern day historians to learn more and more about the fight between Indians and Settlers and how America came to be.
The book started out with a bloody massacre at Mary Ingles Virginia settlement in 1755. Mary Ingles was pregnant with her third child and twenty-four years of age when the Shawnee Indians came and kidnapped her, her two sons, her sister-in-law, and her neighbor. The journey to the Shawnee village lasted five weeks in the Virginia wilderness, and once the captives arrived at the village they were divided up amongst the Shawnee Indians, leaving Mary alone with no hope but to go home and make a new family with her husband Will Ingles. While in the village of the Shawnee Mary was able to make friends with an elderly Dutch woman who was a captive too, this elderly woman was to be Mary’s companion through the scary wilderness home. Mary and the old Dutch woman were unable to swim but knew that the Ohio River would lead them back home to freedom so they decided to make an escape from the heathen Indians and return home to civilization, not knowing the hardships that would fall on them at the beginning of winter. To start the journey the women had two blankets, one tomahawk, and the clothes that were on their backs, after a week into the trip th...
As stated by Noreen, “some historical accounts attribute the war to Native Americans' growing frustration over White encroachment” (273-4). Particularly, the Whites were grazing their livestock on the Native’s crops and thus tensions rose. Natives also refused to assimilate to the White’s culture and beliefs, in addition to the issues with cultural power. However, Sarah provides a personal interpretation in her text giving attribution for the cause of the war by saying that two Bannocks "got drunk and went and shot two white men. One of the Indians had a sister out digging some roots, and these white men went to the women… and caught this poor girl, and used her shamefully.” She continues saying, “the other women ran away and left this girl to the mercy of those white men, and it was on her account that her brother went and shot them" (p. 139). Thus, she interprets the war to be caused not by cultural issues, but rather on the basis of physical survival, namely showing the stereotype of the drunken Indian, but going further to show the humanity of his reasons for killing: to avenge his family. This instance served in the text as a greater piece and interpretation of the Bannock War and the unrest between the Whites and the Piutes. The event of the war, therefore, was interpreted in Winnemucca’s text as a product
In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives, which causes her attitude towards them to undergo several changes. At first, she is utterly appalled by their lifestyle and actions, but as time passes she grows dependent upon them, and by the end of her captivity, she almost admires their ability to survive the harshest times with a very minimal amount of possessions and resources. Despite her growing awe of the Indian lifestyle, her attitude towards them always maintains a view that they are the “enemy.”
When she is first taken, Rowlandson is very adamant about noticing the difference between civilized Puritan life and the savage Indians. They eat horse and bear meat, things she finds uncivilized. When the Indians give her food, she often has it stolen from her by other Indians. The first week of her captivity she did not eat very much. She wrote that if was “very hard to get down their filthy trash,” (243). She was very ungrateful of the food they gave her, when they did not have to give her any at all. After she had been captive for a while she began to appreciate the food she was given. When she does eat and enjoy the uncivilized food the Indians give her, s...
The ways in which the author could strengthen the book, in my opinion, is instead all the descriptive, to me meaningless points as how they were coloring themselves, the author should have put a little bit more facts in there to make it more documentary. Anyhow, overall the book has strength in letting the reader understand the history from both sides, whites and Indians. Many people have different views on the persecution of Native Americans, some think that it was all Indians’ fault and that they caused their own suffering, which I think is absolutely ridiculous, because they were not the ones who invaded. And Native Americans had every right to stand up for the land that was theirs.
A Declaration in 1622 is a piece of history that will forever be debated. It was written by Edward Waterhouse who was a prominent Virginia official. In a Declaration in 1622, he describes his first-hand accounts of English genocide and the relationship between the Powhatan and settlers. The point of this paper is to claim that Waterhouse’s portrayal is realistic due to his factual perspective of the time period on the contrasting aspects of the Powhatan and settlers. Diving into Edwards historical accounts can show the hardships of the settlers, the varying characteristics of both groups, the importance of tobacco, and the demonization of Native Americans. The characteristics will conclude the factually sound delineation of Edward Waterhouse.
Native American Captivity Narratives are accounts about people of European decent getting captured by their enemy “the savage” (Hawkes, par. 1). According to the “Encyclopedia of The Great Plains” These accounts were widely popular in the 17th century and had an adventurous story-line, resulting from a conflict between Native Americans and Europeans settling in the New World. A clear message through these captivity narratives is that European American culture was superior to Native American culture. In 1682 the first Native American Captivity Narrative was written by Mary Rowlandson titled “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration.” Some years earlier, John Smith related his experience of being captured in his personal account of the settlement of Jamestown. Their contributions ultimately made a great historical impact on Native American Literature. The captivity narratives authored by Mary Rowlandson and John Smith portrayed the Native Americans as devilish creatures that were simply evil, but the stories also reveal that the natives were frightened of white people and at times treated them with benevolence.
...ve Indians. From the copious use of examples in Winthrop's work, and the concise detail in Rowlandson's narrative, one can imbibe such Puritans values as the mercy of God, place in society, and community. Together, these three elements create a foundation for Puritan thought and lifestyle in the New World. Though A Model of Christian Charity is rather prescriptive in its discussion of these values, Rowlandson's captivity narrative can certainly be categorized as descriptive; this pious young woman serves as a living example of Winthrop's "laws," in that she lives the life of a true Puritan. Therefore, both 17th century works are extremely interrelated; in order to create Winthrop's model community, one must have faith and closely follow Puritan ideals, as Rowlandson has effectively done in her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles by John Smith, portrays the enormous troubles the settlers were faced with by the Native Americans. He explains how he was captured by Indians and also saved by a young Native American girl, Pocahontas. He vividly describes the ceremonies and rituals of the Natives performed before his execution. However, the execution never occurred due to the tremendous mercy showed by the king’s daughter who blanketed John Smith’s body her own. Pocahontas went on to persuade the Native Americans to help the settlers by giving them food and other necessities. Despite her efforts to reach peaceful grounds, her people were still bitter and planned an attacks on the colony. Nevertheless, Pocahontas saved them once again by warning the settlers of attacks. Pocahontas went on to marry an Englishman and traveled to England. She resembled the prosperity and good that was to be found in an untamed land.
“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson is a short history about her personal experience in captivity among the Wampanoag Indian tribe. On the one hand, Mary Rowlandson endures many hardships and derogatory encounters. However, she manages to show her superior status to everyone around her. She clearly shows how her time spent under captivity frequently correlates with the lessons taught in the Bible. Even though, the colonists possibly murdered their chief, overtook their land, and tried to starve the Native Americans by burning down their corn, which was their main source of food, she displays them as demonizing savages carrying out the devil's plan. There are many struggles shown during the story, both physical and emotional, but her greatest struggle is her ability to prove the satanic nature of the Indians without diminishing her reputation, but, instead, elevating herself into a martyr-like figure. From beginning to end, Mrs. Rowlandson strives to display that she is an immaculate Puritan, that within the Indian tribe and the Puritan community she has superiority, and that the Indians are barbaric creatures possessing satanic dangers.
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a personal account, written by Mary Rowlandson in 1682, of what life in captivity was like. Her narrative of her captivity by Indians became popular in both American and English literature. Mary Rowlandson basically lost everything by an Indian attack on her town Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1675; where she is then held prisoner and spends eleven weeks with the Wampanoag Indians as they travel to safety. What made this piece so popular in both England and America was not only because of the great narrative skill used be Mary Rowlandson, but also the intriguing personality shown by the complicated character who has a struggle in recognizing her identity. The reoccurring idea of food and the word remove, used as metaphors throughout the narrative, could be observed to lead to Mary Rowlandson’s repression of anger, depression, and realization of change throughout her journey and more so at the end of it.
Mary Rowlandson was a pretentious, bold and pious character. Her narrative did not make me feel sorry for her at all, which is strange since she really did go through a lot. During the war, the Narragansett Indians attacked Lancaster Massachusetts, and burned and pillaged the whole village. During the siege Mary and her six year old child were shot, she watched her sister and most of her village either burn or get shot. She was kept as a captive, along with her three children and taken with the Narragansett’s on their long retreat. The exposition of the story is set immediately. The reader is perfectly aware of Missus Rowlandson’s status and religious beliefs. She constantly refers to the Narragansetts in an incredibly condescending way, to the point that you know that she does not even consider them human. She paints them as purely evil pe...
In Frethorne's letter home to his parents, he draws a revealing picture of the deteriorating relations between the English settlers and the Indians that is consistent with the history of Jamestown in the period between the two attacks on the colony by the Powhatan chief Openchancanough. Both attacks were in retaliation for specific incidents of murder and depredation on the part of the English, but were responses, more generally, to English expansion into native lands and the resulting erosion of native life ways. The writer's candor about his own experience is compelling. He used vivid details to describe his discontent, deprivation, and discomfort. The small specifics of daily life (quantities and kinds of food, items of clothing, catalogs of implements) and the data of survival and death (lists of deceased colonists, trade and barter statistics, numerical estimates of enemy Indians and their military strength, itemized accounts of provisions, and rations...
Interestingly although she feared and reviled the Indians she states that not one of them offered the least abuse of unchastity to her. Her captors never sexually molested or violated her. Rowlandson learned to adapt and strove to make it thought her captivity alive. She learned how to gather food for herself. Tolerate the ways of the Indians, and make clothes for the tribe. She even decided to stay with the Indians when given the chance to escape. “Rowlandson refused them choosing to stay put and let God choose when she was fully redeemed and ready to be released”
The captivity narrative is one of the first styles of literature that was ever birthed from the “new world.” This specific style of literature perfectly catered to what kind of information the folks in England were hungry for. It was real life accounts of an individual’s experience in a mysterious land that England wanted to read about. Scholars have debated whether some captivity narratives have been fabricated to adhere to what the public demanded however the majority of the narratives share the same exact traits as one another whether they are deemed trustworthy or not. The accounts of John Smith and Mary Rowlandson differ in degrees of authenticity, but both hold traits that are parallel with one another.