Introduction to the Project

Welcome to this online edition of Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narraive: The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed.

All of the entries were created by members of the English 348: Topics in 17th Century Literature Class offered in Fall 2020 at Vancouver Island University. You can find the name of the editor of the section under the title of the section header at the top of each page.

As the instructor of this course, I am extremely proud at what the students have accomplished, but I am by no means surprised at the level of effort and skill they brought to this task.

Each entry will have a somewhat unique editorial voice, but the voice of the narrative is never overwhelmed by the editor’s.

To navigate the page, mouse over the titles in the teal-coloured bar (the menu) above. The Preface to the Reader, by “Per Amicum”, the text of which comes from the Evans Early American Imprint Collection at the University of Michigan, has been divided into three sections. The series of “Removes,” written by Rowlandson herself, have been divided either into individual removes or, where a single remove was too length, divided into sections. All the text from the removes comes originally from Project Gutenberg. One other resource that some editors found useful was a digitized version of the 1682 version of Rowlandson’s text, whose digitization was sponsored by the Boston Public Library.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all these sources for their efforts to digitize rare texts.

It is our hope, as a kind of “learning collective,” that the notes, illustrations, and links that have been placed in the narrative help to provide a context for this important text, some 338 years after its first publication.

Anna Atkinson, Professor of English, Vancouver Island University, 2020.