Customer Reviews

Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've recently started reading a lot of history. For the most part, I only read books like this one that are taken from diaries. Just like the review written by "plum nuts", most of what we get is revisionist history. None of what he wrote has to do with real truth. You can't ask Mary Rowlandson, but you don't need to, just read her diary!
I have the original 1930 copy of this edition still being sold.
The book is her exact diary starting from the original bloody attack by the Indians in which most of the people were killed and 24 others were kidnapped and ending when she regained freedom. There are also some notes along the way at the bottom of pages which are there to fill in what her family was doing to regain her freedom, which Mary did not know about.
In the 1930 Preface, it states that this is one of America's most highly treasured books & that in 1930 it had been republished more than any but the most famous books. I know it is one of my most treasured!!! ...

Mary Rowlandson's account stands on its own. In all fairness however, in an enlightened society, any reprints of this pious woman's experience should include a much more complete account of the whole situation. Some facts that should be included in the introduction: 1. It was these same Indians who saved the first pilgrims from starvation and were their friends for many years. They were the Indians we honor at Thanksgiving. 2. Pious and arrogant settlers stole the Indian's land and livelihood, threatening their very survival. 3. Pushed too far, the warriors were striking back in self defense; trying to save their starving families. 3. The British army virtually exterminated the Indians and sold the few survivors, mostly women and children, into slavery in the West Indies. 4. King Phillip was killed; his head put on display in Plymouth for 20 years. Even in 1999, I see no evidence of justice or Christian love in any part of this book. Nor is there evidence that Mary Rowlandson was mistreated by her captors. Why not let history speak for itself lest someone not understand the whole story? Mary Rowlandson found herself clinging to life...just as her captors were clinging to theirs. Who were the savages here?

I read this good book, here in Brazil. This book was writen in the XVII century and is the first American Best-seller, writen by a woman.
Please I didn't read this ediction published by Dodo Press, but an old ediction available online.
The author, Mary White was born in England, but she immigrated with her family to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and grew up there. Mary White married Joseph Rowlandson, a Puritan minister.
She was a deeply religious woman; a true puritan, as you can read in this book. In fact, Mary White writes about God and bible, in almost every page of this short book. Another reviewer told that that Mary White was unfair with the Indians, but she never wrote that her treatment by the Indians, could be better.
The Indians coud not win or even survive, to the war led against them by the whites.
And they know this fact.
The American Indian King Philip or Metacomet was knowed, by the author of this book. In fact, King Philip or Metacomet was the leader of the Indians that captured Mary White. King Philip or Metacomet was murdered by another Indian, in 1676.
Good things in this book:
1- No fiction. All facts are true, even with prejudices, normal when this book was writen.
2- No contaminations with leftists liars borned after this book was writen, such as Jean Jacques Rousseau or Karl Marx. The savages of this book are the real savages, not the hoax of the "good savage" created by Jean Jacques Rousseau.
3- If you want to read the caracter of the persons that started, the strongest military and economic power of all times, this book is a good choice to begin.

type your review in the space below. Come on, read this book and see a bit of amerika's past.

We, Chapman Billies, Inc. published this edition and Trafalgar Square distributed it for us at first. It has never been out of stock. Of course we think it should get 5 stars, otherwise we/I would not have put our money behind it. Mrs. Rowlandson tells of the attack on her village, the wounding of her youngest child, their being kidnapped,forced to go with her captors for several months in a New England winter, and watch her child die before being ransomed. To expect her to be an enlightened 21st century woman as she tells her story is to be, Ugh, un-brave.

Because it is a first hand account-and who better to tell the story than the person who lived through it?
That's why I take offense at the reviewer who said this book is too one-sided. Hello? Would YOU care to live through a New England winter without any modern conveniences? Would YOU like to be taken captive by hostile savages and have your life distrupted and your child die as a result? Perhaps it's not politically correct these days to see indians as savages but excuse me-they raped women and killed children. They burned homes and tortured men. Like it or not that's how many of them were back then. (Notice I didn't say ALL so don't get your dander up.)
This book is a look at a person's life and her perspective on it. How she dealt with a tragedy of unknown modern proportions. How she lived through it and what she learned from it.
Fascinating stuff, in my opinion.

I loved all of this witches acounts of Wheetamoo, greatest sachem ever! but she was sooooooo one sided! I hated how she talked about the Sachem Wheetamoo. I wish that she was more two-sided and it is NOT understandable of her harsh words tword Wheetamoo or any of the FRIENDLY indians The author is a mean witch with a b!