# Mary Rowlandson

## Biography

Mary White Rowlandson was a colonial American writer, born in England around 1637. Her family immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, eventually settling in the frontier town of Lancaster. In 1656, she married Joseph Rowlandson, a Puritan minister. Her life dramatically shifted in 1676 during King Philip's War when Algonquian tribes attacked Lancaster, capturing her and her three children. She endured eleven weeks and five days of arduous captivity, witnessing the death of her youngest child and experiencing profound hardship. After being ransomed, Rowlandson penned her harrowing experiences in "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson," published in 1682. This work became a significant American bestseller and a foundational text in the captivity narrative genre, providing a unique perspective on early colonial life, Puritan faith, and the complex relationship with Native Americans. She later remarried and died in 1711.

## Books

- [Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson](https://samolit.com/books/95863)