First Remove

Edited by Brianna Mackey

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Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures, with our bodies wounded and bleeding, and our hearts no less than our bodies. About a mile we went that night, up upon a hill within sight of the town, where they intended to lodge. There was hard by a vacant house (deserted by the English before, for fear of the Indians). I asked them whether I might not lodge in the house that night, to which they answered, “What, will you love English men still?” This was the dolefulest night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures² in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell. And as miserable was the waste that was there made of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, calves, lambs, roasting pigs, and fowl (which they had plundered in the town), some roasting, some lying and burning, and some boiling to feed our merciless enemies; who were joyful enough, though we were disconsolate. To add to the dolefulness of the former day, and the dismalness of the present night, my thoughts ran upon my losses and sad bereaved condition. All was gone, my husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay³;

and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward), my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too. There remained nothing to me but one poor wounded babe, and it seemed at present worse than death that it was in such a pitiful condition, bespeaking compassion, and I had no refreshing for it, nor suitable things to revive it.⁴ Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy,⁵ Ay, even those that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands.

Those seven that were killed at Lancaster the summer before upon a Sabbath day, and the one that was afterward killed upon a weekday, were slain and mangled in a barbarous manner, by one-eyed John, and Marlborough’s Praying Indians, which Capt. Mosely brought to Boston, as the Indians told me.⁶

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Cited:

Britannica, “Massachusetts Bay Colony: American History.” https://www.britannica.com/place/Massachusetts-Bay-Colony

Mary Rowlandson. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, edited by Neil Salisbury. Bedford/St. Martins, 2018.

Thanks to Project Gutenberg for providing the digitized version of this text free of charge. Without their generosity, this project would not be possible.

Footnotes:

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1. This is a general area for a reference as to where Rowlandson was located at the time of her captivity. ↩

2. Meaning her Indigenous captors. ↩

3. This is in the Eastern part of the colony of Boston, also known as Massachusettes Bay. Please see Map 2 for reference and understanding of the landscape area. ↩

4. Rowlandson was referencing a child when she say’s “it”, which in 17th Century literature was not uncommon. Children were usually referred to in gender-neutral terms, instead of gendered labels of “she/her” and “he/him”. ↩

5. Talking about the Indigenous peoples who profess Christianity, instead of their native religious beliefs. She believed that the ‘Indians’ were not good enough for her God, and feared their conversion. See Remove 19 for a better example of her fear of “Praying Indians”. ↩

6. This is a reference to an the first of five planned attacks. The Lancaster Raid on Lancaster colonists on 7 August, 1675, was led by the Nipmuc sachem Monoco (Rowlandson calls him “one-eyed John”). This attack was an attempt by Captain Samuel Moseley to implicate Christian Indians in Marlborough. ↩