Mary Rowlandson

1
Mary Rowlandson

• King Philips War 1676-1677
• Representative Affliction
• Representation of Natives
• Captivity Narrative/Stockholm Syndrome
• Psychology of Affliction

2
King Philips War External

• External Cause Restoration of the Monarchy in
  England (1660)
• Reassertion of royal power in the colonies
• Land claim disputes adjudicated by royal
  appointees unfamiliar with situation

3
King Philips War Internal

• Internal Cause colonists less interested in
  religion than previously
• New class of immigrants, the frontier class,
  wanting more land
• Frontier class created more land disputes with
  natives
• Frontier class unwilling to follow the lead of
  Bostons religious and ruling elite

4
King Philips War Religion

• Official interpretation Gods judgment on New
  England for its sins
• Jeremiad sermon that castigated the people for
  the sins compared them unfavorably to
  predecessors
• Mary Rowlandsons text as Jeremiad

5
Significance of War to American History

• Significant dispute over the issue of local
  colonial government.
• Early dispute between common and elite power
• Test of religious elites authority over growing
  colony.
• Test of power of religion to determine experience

6
Representative Affliction

• Rowlandsons afflictions those of New Englands
• God is taking special notice of Rowlandson and
  his chosen people
• Rowlandson an example for others how to
  persevere and remain faithful in a time of great
  suffering

7
Representation of Natives

• Bloodthirsty and inhuman
• Praying Indians converts to Christianity still
  hypocrites
• Indians also capable of kindness and compassion
• Indians unpredictable and unknowable ultimately
  represent the unknowable mind of God

8
Representation of Natives

• Weetamoo the proud squaw, Rowlandsons chief
  antagonist
• Rowlandson wants to imagine herself different
  from Weetamoo, but identifies with her anyway
  (dead children)

9
Captivity Narrative

• White womans captivity to natives a metaphor for
  New Englands experience in the New World
• Anxiety of female captivity that she may choose
  to stay, become part of the community
• Creolization Rowlandson participates in barter
  economy, society of her captors

10
Captivity Narrative as Critique

• Captive identifies with captor
• Rowlandson voices complaint of New England (army
  is ineffectual New England still sinful)
• Captivity narrative threatened the collapse of
  boundaries between home and captor culture,
  between white and native identity

11
Psychology of Affliction

• Rowlandsons suffering ultimately private and
  meaningless
• Sleeplessness a symptom of her ongoing trauma
• Suffering not necessarily tied to religious
  significance
• Psychological trauma a modern rather than
  religious condition

12
American Themes

• White colonist struggling in the wilderness
• Unresolved conflict between indigenous and
  settler communities
• America as City on the Hill shaken to its
  foundations
• Individual vs. community