Mary Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

Mary Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God edited by Neal Salisbury is a great primary source into the colonial times. This book is a primary source document written in the 17th century, by a well-respected, Puritan woman named Mary Rowlandson. In her personal story she recounts her three months in captivity during King Phillips War. Mary Rowlandson was the wife of a minister, and the mother of three children who was held in captivity for three months by “savage” Indians. Since her captivation she had to live among these Indians and challenge her skills as a housewife, religious beliefs and pure luck to stay alive. There are many ways that during her three months of living with the Indians challenged some of her predetermined ideas about Indians along with her own judgment of herself as an English Puritan woman. In this book there are many related documents that others wrote to support or contest Rowlandson’s account. The documents supply new information and d...