|
Mary Rowlandson, née White, later Mary Talcott (c. 1637January 5, 1711) was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans〔 〕 during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. In 1682, six years after her ordeal, ''The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson'' was published. This text is considered a seminal American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives. It went through four printings in 1682 and garnered readership both in the New England colonies and in England, leading it to be considered by some the first American "bestseller." == Biography == Mary White was born c. 1637 in Somerset, England. The family left England sometime before 1650, settled at Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and moved in 1653 to Lancaster, on the Massachusetts frontier. There, she married Reverend Joseph Rowlandson, the son of Thomas Rowlandson of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1656. Four children were born to the couple between 1658 and 1669, with their first daughter dying young. At sunrise on February 10, 1675,〔Although Rowlandson writes that her captivity began on February 10, 1675, she was following the Julian calendar. As Neal Salisbury points out, the date according to the Georgian calendar this would now be February 1676 (see Old Style and New Style dates). Neal Salisburgy (ed) ''The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed'' (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 63. Rowlandson, Mary. ''Narrative of the captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson''.〕 during King Philip's War, Lancaster came under attack by Narragansett, Wampanoag and Nashaway/Nipmuc Indians. During the attack, which was anticipated by residents including Mary's husband, Joseph, the Native American raiding party killed 13 people, while at least 24 were taken captive, many of them injured. Rowlandson and her three children, Joseph, Mary, and Sarah, were among those taken in the raid. Rowlandson's 6-year-old daughter, Sarah, would eventually succumb from her wounds after a week of captivity. For more than 11 weeks, Rowlandson and her children were forced to accompany the Indians as they travelled through the wilderness to carry out other raids and to elude the English militia.〔Part of the territory is now within Mount Grace State Forest.〕 In Rowlandson's captivity narrative, the severe conditions of her captivity are recounted in visceral detail. On May 2, 1676, Rowlandson was ransomed for £20 raised by the women of Boston in a public subscription, and paid by John Hoar of Concord at Redemption Rock in Princeton, Massachusetts. In 1677, Reverend Rowlandson moved his family to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he was installed as pastor in April of that year. He died in Wethersfield in November 1678. Church officials granted his widow a pension of £30 per year. Mary Rowlandson and her children moved to Boston where she is thought to have written her captivity narrative, although her original manuscript has not survived. It was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1682, and in London the same year. At one time scholars believed that Rowlandson had died before her narrative was published, but she lived for many more years. On August 6, 1679, she had married Captain Samuel Talcott and taken his surname. She eventually died on January 5, 1711, outliving her spouse by more than 18 years.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mary Rowlandson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|