EARLY AMERICAN
CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES
Adapted from Lorrayne Carroll, “Captivity Literature,” Oxford Handbook of
Early American Literature, ed. Kevin J. Hayes (New York: Oxford University Press,
2008), 143-168.
Captivity Narratives
—general issues and concerns




First “new” genre coming out of the American
experience
Present rich details about ravels in exotic or wild
locales and about cross-cultural interactions
between European explorers/settlers and
indigenous people
Variety of forms and modes of dissemination
Variety of purposes: conversion narratives, protoethnography, histories/chronicles, sermons,
travelogues, political propaganda,
personal/psychological narrative
Captivity Narratives
—general issues and concerns



Focus on fear and uncertainty of captive’s position
in hostile environment and among hostile peoples
Dramatic and personal experiences (rather than
more historical/commercial focus of earlier
exploration and promotion narratives)
Multiple meanings:
 Authors’
perspectives
 Relation to church and state (e.g. Puritan New England
narrative of Mary Rowlandson vs. Catholic New France
narrative of Father Isaac Jogues
 Context of publication/dissemination
Captivity Narratives
—general issues and concerns





Important focus: varying perspectives on native
Americans
Tracing changes in Euro-Indian relations
NB: COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS between dominant
discourse (colonial government, imperial
government, church institutions, etc.) and personal
versions and experiences revealed in captivity
accounts
E.g.: gender roles of women inside home culture and
outside that culture (during captivity experience)
Captivity as subversive texts?
Captivity Narratives and Gender Roles: Subverting or
Supporting the Dominant Discourse?
Captivity Narratives and Gender Roles:
Subverting or Supporting the Dominant
Discourse?
Captivity Narratives
—general issues and concerns



Deriving power from image of the suffering captive
“redemption”: both temporal/physical and spiritual
Interpretation of religious dimensions of captivity
were meant to lead readers to spiritual
transformation
Mary Rowlandson


Account published in 1682 (Boston; Cambridge, Mass.,
London)
Full Title: The Sovereignty and Goodness of GOD,
together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed;
being a narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs.
Mary Rowlandson, commended by her, to all that desires
to know the Lord’s doings to, and dealings with her.
Especially to her dear children and relations. … Written
by her own hand for her private use, and now made
public at the earnest desire of some friends, and for the
benefit of the afflicted. Deut. 32.39. See now that I, even
I am he, and there is no god with me; I kill and make
alive, I would and I heal, neither is there any can deliver
out of my hand.
Mary Rowlandson







Wife of Joseph Rowlandson, minister in Lancaster,
Mass.
Mary was taken captive on February 10, 1675/76
by Narragansett and Nipmuc raiding party
Historical Context: King Philip’s War
Six year-old daughter Sarah dies during captivity
Daughter Mary and son Joseph also taken captive
Later meets Metacom (aka “King Philip”)
Is ransomed for 20 pounds
Mary Rowlandson


Her narrative is considered the inaugural text in the Englishlanguage captivity narrative tradition
Establishes many of the conventions of the genre











Description of attack
Death of young child (often “braining” of babies)
Violence of the captors
Removes and travels through wilderness/foreign landscape
Fears of spiritual and cultural conversion/loss of identity
Ethnographic descriptions of captors
Suffering of the captive
Food/hunger
Psychological struggles/developments of the captive
Negotiations and redemption/escape
Tropes of spiritual/personal/national/cultural/racial/gendered
powerlessness and empowerment
Mary Rowlandson

Context of warfare:
 Making
a general anxiety particular and personal
 Narrative: trying to give chaotic and painful
experience meaning
Authenticating devices:
- Increase Mather’s preface
- Joseph Rowlandson’s sermon appended


Initiating the genre’s reliance on psychological
commentary
Outward suffering and inward turmoil
Mary Rowlandson: feminist/gender
studies







Case study for influence of gender, race, class, on subject’s
self-construction
One of the first best-sellers in America by a female author
Mather’s preface: concerned with framing a woman’s
experience within the larger communal, gendered, and
religious scripts; text as exemplar of female behavior and
spiritual conversion
Questions of subversion: critique of home culture and its
gendered scripts?
Sympathy with/for the captors?
“dueling textual voices” (resigned victim vs.
resolute/powerful actor)
Textual dialogues: observation and interpretation
(description/action vs. scriptural passages)