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Mary Rowlandson

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Author

The Resume

    (circa 1637-January 5, 1711)
    Born in Somerset, England, United Kingdom
    Born Mary White
    Moved to Salem, Massachusetts (1639), then to Lancaster on the frontier (1653)
    Married Reverend Joseph Rowlandson (1656)
    Kidnapped, along with three of her children and 21 other people, during an Indian attack at Lancaster (February 10, 1676)
    Met the Wampanoag chief Metacomet, or King Philip, during her captivity
    Ransomed for £20 raised by the women of Boston (May 2, 1676)
    Married Captain Samuel Talcott (August 6, 1679)
    Wrote 'A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson' (1682)
    Died in Wethersfield, Connecticut

Why she might be annoying:

    There is much debate on how much influence Increase Mather had on the editing of her narrative, with some arguing that he wrote its preface.
    Like most Puritans of her time, she viewed her Indian captors as 'uncivilized' and agents of Satan sent to punish the Puritans.
    There were scant mentions of her after she married her second husband.
    Her son Joseph got his brother-in-law drunk and sold him to servitude in Virginia.
    She was sometimes mistakenly credited for creating the captivity narrative when there were already accounts of similar experiences before hers was published.

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her narrative was widely considered to be the first American bestseller and a masterpiece in the genre of captivity narratives.
    Before her abduction, her first daughter died at the age of three.
    Her daughter Sarah died from her wounds while in captivity.
    She and her two surviving children were frequently sold for supplies and given barely enough to eat.
    She survived the entire ordeal without getting raped.
    As her narrative progresses, it showed that she later came to see the Indians as no different from the Puritans, even appreciating some aspects of their culture.
    Her time in captivity showed how her faith in God amidst hardship enabled to survive and have hope of deliverance.

Credit: Big Lenny


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying