Marry Rowlandsons Essay, Research Paper

Marry Rowlandsons book about being a captor of indiansThis captivity account was enormously popular in England. What reasons can you propose for it’s popularity? What aspects of Rowlandson’s journal would promote stereotyped (and hostile) views toward Native Americans?Mary Rowlandson’s Book, known simply as A Narrative of Her Captivity because of its enormous length, became very popular in England for various reasons. Although I am no expert on the subject, I think I have a fairly good idea of what those reasons are. I’ll explore those ideas in this composition. The people of this time just flat out didn’t like the Native Americans. They had their reasons ranging from having to fight over the land to just looking different, but they didn’t have anything to totally relieve them of the guilt they felt to themselves and God for taking the Indian’s land and not giving them any rights. The settlers and the people back home wanted a reason to kill, maim, and imprison the Indians. They found their reason in believing that the Natives were dangerous barbarians.

Rowlandson states, in the excerpt I have read, that the Indians treated her badly. She says that they allowed her baby to die, and did not offer consolation when it did. She claims that she was very poorly fed, and forced to live in inadequate conditions. These points helped the settlers rest easy and feel OK with everything wrong that they did to the Natives. Rowlandson’s book helped the people find the scapegoat they needed for the ruthless taking of land an resources from the Indians. The people liked to hear that the Indians were bad and that they were good and the book helped to assure that in their minds. There may have been others, however I feel that these elements are the main reasons for the books popularity