Edited by Remy Hagedorn
Then came Tom and Peter, with the second letter from the council,1 about the captives. Though they were Indians,2 I got them by the hand, and burst out into tears. My heart was so full that I could not speak to them; but recovering myself, I asked them how my husband did, and all my friends and acquaintance?3 They said, “They are all very well but melancholy.”
They brought me two biscuits, and a pound of tobacco. The tobacco I quickly gave away.4 When it was all gone, one asked me to give him a pipe of tobacco. I told him it was all gone. Then began he to rant and threaten. I told him when my husband came I would give him some. Hang him rogue (says he) I will knock out his brains, if he comes here. And then again, in the same breath they would say that if there should come an hundred without guns, they would do them no hurt. So unstable and like madmen they were. So that fearing the worst, I durst5 not send to my husband, though there were some thoughts of his coming to redeem and fetch me, not knowing what might follow. For there was little more trust to them than to the master they served.
When the letter was come, the Sagamores6 met to consult about the captives, and called me to them to inquire how much my husband would give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court. They bid me speak what I thought he would give. Now knowing that all we had was destroyed by the Indians, I was in a great strait.7 I thought if I should speak of but a little it would be slighted, and hinder the matter; if of a great sum, I knew not where it would be procured. Yet at a venture I said “Twenty pounds,” yet desired them to take less. But they would not hear of that, but sent that message to Boston, that for twenty pounds I should be redeemed.8
“There was a famine in Samaria, and behold they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for four-score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.”
(2 Kings 6.25)
It was a Praying Indian9 that wrote their letter for them. There was another Praying Indian, who told me, that he had a brother, that would not eat horse; his conscience was so tender and scrupulous (though as large as hell, for the destruction of poor Christians).10 Then he said, he read that Scripture11 to him, “There was a famine12 in Samaria,13 and behold they besieged it, until an ass’s head14 was sold for four-score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab15 of dove’s dung16 for five pieces of silver” (2 Kings 6.25).17
He expounded this place to his brother, and showed him that it was lawful to eat that in a famine which is not at another time.18 And now, says he, he will eat horse with any Indian of them all. There was another Praying Indian, who when he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own father into the English hands, thereby to purchase his own life.19
Thank you to Project Gutenberg for providing the digitized version of this text free of charge. Without their generosity, this project would not be possible.
Indigenous people who ran the slave trade of English settlers. ↩
Archaic derogatory term for Indigenous Americans. This outdated term appears frequently throughout the text, and does not represent the same views that are expressed in today’s society. ↩
Please note, many of the words and phrases in this text include spelling and grammatical errors. Dictionaries were scarce and inaccurate during Mary Rowlandson’s lifetime, thus Rowlandson did not have an accurate source to reference. ↩
Tobacco was widely used during the 1600’s, and in many cases was used as a substitute for money. For more information please visit www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/tobacco ↩
Archaic word for “dare” ↩
Chiefs of the Indigenous people. ↩
Trouble. ↩
Slaves were sometimes able to be freed for a specific ransom amount, in Rowlandson’s case it was twenty pounds. ↩
An Indigenous person who has converted to Christianity either by will or force. ↩
Derogatory statement dehumanizing individuals of non-Caucasian decent. ↩
Sacred Christian text presented in the Bible. ↩
Scarcity of food. ↩
Central region of Ancient Israel. ↩
Donkey’s head. ↩
Quarter, as in measurement. ↩
Vegetable chickpea produce. ↩
Passage from the Bible depicting a scene where if times are harsh, and individuals are faced with a scarcity of food, humans will be grateful for what they can acquire and consume, regardless of what it is. For more information on this passage, please visit www.biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/6-25.htm ↩
In times where there was no famine, a donkey’s head would rarely ever be eaten. ↩
Traded his father to his captors in exchange for his own freedom. ↩