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Audiobook edition · 2 h 16 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What holds a person together when war takes away the safety of home?
Taken from burning Lancaster, Massachusetts, during King Philip's War, Mary Rowlandson faces hunger, fear and grief as a captive of Native American fighters. For about eleven weeks, she moves from camp to camp through the New England winter and early spring. Her first-person account brings you close to the daily strain of survival, where food, weather and work demand constant attention.
Rowlandson is a Puritan minister's wife, and faith shapes how she tells her story. She reads her ordeal as a lesson from God, drawing on Bible verses to explain events. Yet she also watches the people around her closely. Held by Quinnapin and serving his wife Weetamoo, leader of the Pocasset people, she records work, trade and uneasy human contact.
What you’ll discover
- Survival in close detail Follow the search for food and endurance through cold, fear and deep personal grief.
- Twenty moves through wilderness Each section marks another camp move, giving the journey its restless rhythm.
- Faith under strain Explore how Rowlandson uses scripture to find meaning within an ordeal she cannot control.
- Life inside the camps Notice the work, trade and encounters that complicate her account of captivity.
- A voice of its time Meet a sharp observer whose religious language and harsh views of Native peoples demand careful reading.
Who will love it
Readers who love true survival stories, early American history and firsthand accounts will value this book. It also speaks to anyone drawn to faith tested by loss.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Fire forces a choice to live
- Captivity begins with a mother's grief
- Scripture gives suffering a frame
- Hunger changes what feels acceptable
- Useful skills create room to survive
- Uncertain news keeps hope under strain
- The possibility of freedom brings uncertainty
- Faith and fear shape her witness
- Small things carry the survival story
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Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
by Mary White Rowlandson · 1682
A wounded Puritan mother carries her dying child through the snowy wilderness, and a Bible given to her keeps her going.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if your house burned over your head and the only way out led into a wall of gunfire? On the tenth of February 1675, Mary Rowlandson faces that choice in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 20 min1 h 5 min fast, 1 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 19,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1682by Mary White Rowlandson
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Lancaster burns in a single February morning
On the tenth of February 1675, Lancaster wakes to gunfire and smoke. Mary Rowlandson watches from a fortified house as neighboring homes go up in flames. Her husband, the minister, is away in Boston, so she faces the attack with her children, her sisters and her neighbors.
The attackers fire from the hillside and the barn. After about two hours they set the house alight with flax and hemp. A man runs out and puts the first fire out, but the second one catches. When the family tries to leave, bullets rattle against the house like thrown stones. Her brother-in-law falls dead outside. A bullet passes through her side and wounds the child she carries. Of thirty-seven people in the house, twelve are killed and twenty-four are taken alive.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1682
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 25 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Rowlandson, Mary White. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/narrative-of-the-captivity-and-restoration-of-mrs-mary-rowlandson.
Rowlandson, M. W. (2026). Narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/narrative-of-the-captivity-and-restoration-of-mrs-mary-rowlandson (Original work published 1682)
Rowlandson, Mary White. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/narrative-of-the-captivity-and-restoration-of-mrs-mary-rowlandson.
@book{rowlandson2026narrative,
author = {Rowlandson, Mary White},
title = {Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/narrative-of-the-captivity-and-restoration-of-mrs-mary-rowlandson},
note = {First published 1682}
}
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What is Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative about?
It tells how Rowlandson, a minister's wife, is captured in the attack on Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1675. She spends nearly twelve weeks moving with a Native war party until she is ransomed.
Is the Narrative of the Captivity a true story?
Yes, it is a firsthand account written by Rowlandson herself about events in King Philip's War. It was printed in 1682 and is treated as a primary source on colonial life and the war.
What are the removes in Rowlandson's narrative?
Removes are her word for the moves between camps. She numbers twenty of them. The removes describe stages of travel, recounting hunger, hardship and encounters, often alongside the Bible verses that come to her.
The author
Mary White Rowlandson
1635–1711 · Colonial American captivity memoirist
American woman captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War.
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