Tuesday 19 October 2010

Mary Rowlandson's Kidnap

Taken from Google books: Classic American Autobiographies by William L. Andrews
Name: Mary Rowlandson

In 1675 Mary Rowlandson was kidnapped by Native Americans due to their detestation of the white Europeans immigrating to the United States. She was kept hostage throughout the war in Massachusetts, Rhode Island.

“On February 10, 1676, Mary Rowlandson and her children were taken captive by a band of Narragansetts” This, for me, displayed the discontent that was felt by the Indian Native tribes of Rhode Island towards the newcomers. The fact that they took the woman and her children shows the extent of their distress as taking women and children instead of men would have had a greater impact on the rest of the White settlers, thus making more of an impact.

"Mary Rowlandson was born in Somerset, England" - The origin of the first settlers displays England's imperialistic motives during this time, and how they exercised these to the extent of taking over other countries that were already populated.

Furthermore the fact that "A year after her [Mary Rowlandson] husband's death in 1677 Rowlandson married a leader of the Connecticut colony" reveals, to me, the desperation of the prisoner to survive in her new setting (in which she was the minority) so had to marry into the tribe in order to survive, as well as the ruthlessness of the inhabiting Indian tribe.





Source: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5IamUilytiwC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=william+andrews+1676&source=bl&ots=_M8RZMBNtD&sig=HkvuRg59_j_VoUPW-2seymHVd4o&hl=en&ei=Z_G9TKHZI8u74QaJ6tmRAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=william%20andrews%201676&f=false

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