Ana Gonzalez
The sovereignty and goodness of god
To be able to understand what Mary Rowlandson went through, you have to be her. She is a woman who earned respect by her own strength and knowledge.
It all started because of the Metacom’s War back in southeastern New England on 1675-76 which made it official to be the bloodiest and most destructive war in American history. There was those who captured Mary Rowlandson, the Nipmuc, Naragansett, and Wampanoag Indians against the Puritans. It was a war between neighbors and not strangers, but there were slaves among each other which later on the road it did cause problems. The English used Indians as slaves which also converted Indians into Christians and learned how to speak a little English, but still the European belief was that human beings were divided into “civilized” (Puritans) and “savage” (Indians) people.This war killed 5,000 Indians and 2,500 English. (Basically 40 and 5 percent) It was ironic how the Indians first started the war, but did not finish it in good feet.When the Indians started to strike down the Puritans, Mary and her family saw it coming towards them, but did not have time escape. Indians were stabbing, chopping, and shooting apart the English with no mercy. Mary Rowlandson got shot as well as her youngest daughter as they were getting captive. Both Mary and her youngest daughter actually got the chance to be together for a while as in for her other daughter and son, they got taken away to a different section. They both had to sleep on the floor covered with snow and it really did not help them survive because they were already wounded and getting sick made it worse for her daughter “Babe.” Unfortunally, Babe died at the age of six of sickness and not food to eat. Mary was then alone with her and her thoughts so she needed something to help her motivate her to live within the 20 removes by herself. As she was in her third remove with the Indians, she got a bible from one of her “new” friends and started to read it. Every time she would wake up, she would give credit to god for letting her be awake with the miserable treatment she had. The Indians and Mary made a treatment were she would do their clothes and some jewelry and then she will then get food and attention that she needed. Even the food was not the best at all, actually it was the worse, she had to eat to survive. She ate her first piece of raw horse as well as her first piece of bear mixed in with honey and nuts. She felt very disgusted on how the Indians ate and treated each other amongst them. A big reason why the Puritans could not get to her was because they did not have enough soldiers to fight back and they could not cross the river for the reason it was high. As her journey was continuing, she had ask how her son was doing and with an ugly response, one of the Indians yelled that he was crucially murdered and that he even had a piece of his finger. At the second she could not believe that, but later she did which was not the best idea because days after her son secretly went to go visit her safe and alive. After this incident had happen, she knew she could not trust any of them. At the seventh move, she was very weak for the lack of food, but then she started to read scriptures everyday to make her strong and keep going. Surviving this battle by yourself and on top of that, being a woman was not the easiest thing. When they reached to King Philip, he decided to keep her and not sell her to her husband whom she had requested a while ago, making her think she will never be free. After three months had passed, then she was set to be free to her husband realizing how nothing is granted in life. She learned that having everything is not what someone should shoot for. Mary and her husband as well as her oldest daughter lived happily ever after with her sister and her nephew. Not so much time passed before her husband had died of some diseased, so it made Mary Rowlandson get marry twice more so she would not look weak, but in other words strong. Later six years after her death, they published her book becoming one of the most recognize one in history for being one of the first woman to write her story as a captive and publishing it with her true fidelity which was always true to her husband.