The Sovereignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson

Book Review by Anya Barba
As we took a closer look into ethnicity, class and race in my race, ethnicity class, I Figured that the book in my hands was going to discuss these topics. Yet, it guided me through a different path. A path of religious ideals, captivity, and most importantly the relationship we each have with God. Mary Rowlandson expresses the importance of a certain connection with God through the eyes of a devoted puritan. She intensifies the importance and damage that one creates when taken for granted the connection with God, if and only if one manages to have one.
Mary Rowlandson was born in 1637. She lived through one of the most important and bloodiest wars known to the red savage or the Indian and the civilized white male known as the Colonist. The Metacom war which lasted from 1675-1676 brought the most casualties known to man on both sides yet affected the Indians more by terminating almost 40% of their population. Mary Rowlandson played an important role through out the war since she shared her horrific experience of captivity in 1675. Mrs. Rowlandson and her three children were taken into captivity by Nipmuc Indians during the time of war.
Ms. Rowlandson was born Mary White to her parents Joan and John White. The family arrived to the colony of Salem Massachusetts in 1639 with very little to survive. Her mother Joan, a very devoted puritan founded her own her church in Wenham Massachusetts in 1644. While her father John bought and sold more land to expand the families territory. In 1656 Mary White married Joseph Rowlandson, a Harvard graduate who studied the word of God and later became Reverend Rowlandson. Although Joseph was born into a troublesome family his class quickly elevated with the help of Marry. They had three children and were earning a sufficient amount of money, do to Rowlandson’s sermons.
As time progressed and 1675 stepped into the time line, Mary Rowlandson was taken captive with her children. She traveled through devastation, and hardships through the three months of her captivity. Unfortunately, her youngest daughter did not make it through the damage and died during her captivity. Mary was then released and reencountered with her husband and her other two children. She then lost her husband in 1678 when he died of sickness at age 47. Widow Marry then realized that she would not be safe without a mans protection, so nine months later she remarried to a young fellow by the name of Samuel Talcott. Mary was publicly known as Mary Talcott only three times, she was seen as Mary Rowlandson even after her remarriage. Mary Rowlandson lived to be 73 and died in 1711 at piece with herself and God. Mary Rowlandson’s book was not published until six years after her death and was the first to introduce the captive narrative. Rowlandson is not a respected author only because of her captivity, but because she was a female and a devoted puritan.
Mary Rowlandson’s captive narrative is divided into twenty removes which stand for the twenty times that she had to move camp with the Indians because of safety purposes or to attack another town. When Mary Rowlandson was taken captive she was deeply wounded and so was her daughter. That is one of the main reasons her younger daughter did not make it. Mary was shot in the hip and had to travel with an open wound and no medical help. She describes in the first move how difficult it was for her to survive with no food the first couple of days, and when she did receive food it was only a small spoon full of nuts. In the first remove she also describes how difficult it was to sleep at night with snow as a blanket and only a few branches for fire which couldn’t stay lit for warmth.
As Mary continues the removes with the Indians, she describes the cruelty the Indians offered her. The red skins would mention how they killed her older son and ate him for super that evening, or how the daily beating she would receive when she had done nothing wrong. As days went by her hatred toward the Nipmucs grew to great levels and she constantly asked God why? Why would he allow this cruelty towards her when she had done nothing but serve him, and show loyalty to him? Then as time progressed she received what she called a sign from God, one of the Indians gave her a small Bible and Mary began to read it day after day. She began taking Bible scriptures and connecting them to her daily life, and the situations the Indians put her through. The scriptures began convincing her God has put her through this captivity for a reason. To prove to her that he is good God full of justice and sovereignty.
She began to see the true meaning of life and reconnecting herself with God on different levels. Day by day she read God’s word and sowed clothing from the little cloth the Indians gave her, soon Indians traded clothing and food with her and in return they wanted clothing to wear for the winter. As time progressed, so did the war, and finally Mary Rowlandson was released. She was given back to Joseph Rowlandson in 1676 and she began to describe her captivity. She tried saving her son for ransomed and offered the Indians twenty pounds, but they neglected. Although she did manage to save her daughter for seven pounds and eventually managed to have what was left of her family united.
This book also contains related documents, not necessarily with Mary Rowlandson but with the war. There are documents such as written letters from colonist in which explained the lack of help from England and the great loss of colonist which meant the deserting of towns. There were also charts of Indian slaves being sold after the war, the cost, sex, and age of the Indian slaves were written on the chart. Yet the most interesting document of all was The Last Sermon by Joseph Rowlandson, it discusses the sovereignty of God and why he has us travel through difficult paths in order to learn a lesson. Joseph mentions that God only places you in those kinds of situations when you have departed faith from him and no longer worship in positive means. He references scriptures from Moses and sets different examples within the Bible. The purpose of his sermon of course, is using Mary’s captivity as a firm example of God’s work.
This book is a clear example of puritan religion and the path of a woman that even though she believed she was serving God in the correct path, God proved otherwise. Mary Rowlandson’s captivity not only lets us see the religious side of life, but it also opens the historical doors into closer examination of the Metacom War and the tears, sweat, and sorrow that came as a result.