Mary Rowlandson's Tale

Mary Rowlandson’s account of how she was captured by the Native Americans shows the horrific aspects of living in America during such a tumultuous time. Many of the passages we have read about the New World are of hope, such as Columbus’ depiction of a beautiful and fertile land in America or Cotton Mather’s telling of the lives of William Bradford and John Winthrop, who were considered “American Saints” for the sacrifices they made in the colonies. There have been a few of the works that have been a bit troubling, such as the accounts on the way that the Native Americans were treated, but they were all written by Europeans, save for a few that were written by converted Native Americans. This account, unlike the ones of the Native Americans (whose are no less important than the European settlers) shows the firsthand account of being a victim in the war between the Native Americans and the Europeans.

The horrific events that occur in Mary Rowlandson’s tale show true struggle. She mentions how her husband was taken captive and threatened to be killed, how her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were killed, and how she was taken captive with her small child. They had both been wounded, and the child eventually dies while they are at a Native American Camp. When she goes to try to see her other child at a Native American camp nearby, she is forced away while her child cries. She rarely got to see her son as well. After this whole ordeal, she bought back, but as she said in the beginning, her house has been burned. She talks of seeing the “extreme vanity of the world: One hour I have been in health, and wealthy, wanting nothing. But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction” (Baym 266).

The accounts of the Europeans settlers being victims were probably read more so than the accounts of the attacks on the Native Americans, because of two reasons. First, no civilization really wants to accept the fact that they have done wrong. It is easier to blame someone else than yourself. The Europeans were more likely to focus on the accounts of other Europeans being attacked as justification for fighting the Native Americans instead of realizing that it was the Europeans that provoked the attacks through the harsh treatment of the Native Americans. Second, the tales of the Europeans being victims makes it real and tangible to the readers, because they are people that they can identify with. They can feel the fear of having their home burned and family killed because they could have been settlers just like the people living there. It would have been harder for them to identify with the Native Americans because they were not of that culture and probably viewed them as savages, especially after the accounts of the Native American attacks on people such as Mary Rowlandson.