American History - Captivity Narratives

This article explores the cultural and historical significance of Captivity Narratives by Mary Rowlandson and Mary Jemison in American history. It discusses the conflicts between European settlers and Native Americans and how these narratives provide a dramatic account of these encounters. The article also highlights the importance of these narratives from both British-American and Native-American standpoints.

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American History - Captivity Narratives
Captivity Narratives are narratives by people who are taken a prisoner. Captivity
narratives hold an essential place within American history as it exp0lores the encounters between
European explorers and settlers and Native peoples throughout the Americas. Captivity
Narratives by Mary Rowlandson, who was a Puritan settler in Massachusetts and Mary Jemison,
a fifteen-year-old Irish immigrant hold a cultural and historical significance, both from the
British-American and Native-American standpoint.
The Wampanoag natives take Mary Rowlandson a prisoner during King Philip’s, and her
captivity narrative reveals her time with the natives. As it was not common for women to write
during the seventeenth-century Puritan America, her narrative holds cultural relevance as it
shows what it means to be a woman within the dominant, patriarchal values. Rowlandson’s
organized narrative is made of twenty removes during her 12 weeks of captivity (Rowlandson 2).
It is interesting to note how Rowlandson changes the sue of words when mentioning the Native
Indians and draws a distinct lien with the use of “we” and “they.” However, the distinction gets
blurred over as she looks at herself as part of the Indian community and refers to the English as
“they”. She mentions Indians as “Black creatures” and their dancing to carry “resemblances of
hell” and their singing to be distasteful and demonic (Özen 175). She uses the Bible as an anchor
to remain distinct from the Indians completely and never doubts the Will of God. Her narrative
reflects the uncertainty of life and how there is no guaranteed life. Rowlandson believed in fate
and how humans had no alternative (Özen 173). She lived and behaved like a Native American

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during her captivity. Based on her experiences, she reflects how she found many similarities
between Native Americans and European and with each re-location she moves closer to the
spiritual redemption as asserted by Özen (174). In her narrative, she uses “the wonderful power
of God” several times, and this points out to the strict Puritan belief in God (Özen 175). Puritans
in the American land believed that one could lead to a moral lesson with experience of pain and
suffering. Rowlandson’s captivity narrative deals with the individual struggling against harsh
climate, landscape and the enemies (Özen 177). Her work shows the conflict of being a female
captive subject in American Puritan society and how she celebrates God’s influence.
The definitions of natives are often complicated as they were seen from different
perspectives. British-Americans defined them in diverse forms to explain to the European
audience back home. The natives were considered authentic only as long as they fit within the
preconceived generic constructions by the preconceived generic constructions. Mary Jemison
challenges the British-American assumptions about Native American identity at multiple levels.
Her unconventional background and complex affiliations with numerous cultural categories defy
ethnic markers set by Euro-Americans. From an Irish protestant immigrant family settled on the
Pennsylvania frontier, during the French and Indian war, Jemison was captured as a girl by
Indians and thus lived her life as a Seneca woman (Hilary 63). Jemison encompassed a
multiplicity that was personal, ethnic, and religious, all at once and creates a "mixed" identity to
describe the Native definition of race. She destabilizes traditional and Euro-American
assumptions about racial identity. Jemison as a woman commits herself to her Native tribe, and
her narrative records her certain historical facts and her sufferings. Her submission as a woman
to the "cruelty" of the racial "other"; gender complexes the anxiety of race (Hilary 63). As
Jemison does not return to Anglo-American society, her layered narrative contradicts the rhetoric

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of captivity. Her search for identity is full of contradictions as her conversion narrative
endeavors to create a Native identity as a white woman.
Mary Rowlandson and Mary Jemison’s narration of their captivity hold a cultural and
historical significance regarding both the British-American and Native-American standpoint.
Their narratives not only are a record of historical facts but give a dramatic account of the
conflicts between European settlers and Native Americans, impacting the cultural, political, and
social changes.

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Works Cited
Hilary E. Wyss. “Captivity and Conversion: William Apess, Mary Jemison, and Narratives of
Racial Identity.” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 3/4, 1999, p. 63.
Özen, Özlem “A Critical Linguistic Approach In A Narrative Of The Captivity And Restoration
Of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. (Turkish).” Journal of International Social Research, vol. 11,
no. 58. 2018, pp. 173–178.
Rowlandson, Mary. “The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.”
Narrative of the Captivity & Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Aug. 2017, p. 2.
EBSCOhost, lib-proxy.sunywcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=mth&AN=21212988&site=eds-live. Accessed 6 Oct. 2018