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Mary Rowlandson Research Paper

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Mary White Rowlandson was a colonial American who was held captive by Algonkian Indians during King Philip's War. She was born in 1637 in Somerset, England. Her parents brought her along with her nine siblings to the colonies when she was young. Her parents were John and Joan White and she married Reverend Joseph Rowlandson in 1656. Their first child, Mary, died after her third birthday and they had three other children named Joseph, Mary, and Sarah. While living in Lancaster, Massachusetts, a large group of Indians attacked, as well as burned the town. Mary and her three children were captured along with twenty one others on February 10, 1676 in the midst of King Philip's war. During this time, her husband was gone to Boston to ask the Massachussetts General Assembly for military protection against the indians. Her daughter Sarah, who was six at the time, was fatally wounded a week later and eventually died. While she was imprisoned, Mary travelled around one hundred and fifty miles. The captives traveled as …show more content…

An Indian gave Mary a stolen Bible which helped comfort her during the tragedy. Three months after her capture, Mary was finally ransomed back to her husband on May 2, 1676 for £20 which is $30.60 in today's US dollars. Her two children were returned to them a few weeks later. When they went back to where they had previously lived, Princeton, Massachusetts, they found that their home had been destroyed, so they relocated to Boston. The Rowlandson's stayed in Boston a year after they returned but then resettled their lives in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1677 after Joseph had accepted a job there. In 1678 Joseph preached a sermon about Mary’s captivity that was called “A Sermon of the Possibility of God's Forsaking a People that have been near and dear to him.” Joseph died unexpectedly three days later on November 24,

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