Captivity Narratives

Relevant Authors:

• John Smith

• Mary Rowlandson

• Olaudah Equiano

• Frederick Douglass

• Harriett Jacobs

A Basic Plot for Indian Captivity Narratives:

• Capture
• Torment
• Accommodation
• Release

Mary Rowlandson’s Basic Elements:

• The attack and capture
• Description of the removes
• She wrestles with her faith
• She reflects on God’s role in the events
• The negotiation
• The release and reflections

More Detailed “Ingredients” of Indian Captivity Narratives:

• Taking the heroine into captivity
• Details of the life of the Indians
• Gory descriptions of such acts as scalping, cannibalism, torture, and slaughter of the innocents
• Descriptions of the mysterious wilderness and strange landscapes
• Identification of the heroine’s adventures with those of the individual Christian confronting the world on her way to the celestial city
• The lurking, but rarely fulfilled, threat of sexual violation by depraved pagans
• The constant fear of death
• Escape, or negotiation and release

Functions of Indian Captivity Narratives:

• A principle source of information about Indians for the colonists
• Served as a justification of the Puritan view of Indians
• A religious confessional
• A demonstration of the triumph of the godly over the satanic aborigines and the wilderness
• The recapitulation of the trials of the chosen of Israel and a sign of God’s testing of his elect
• A demonstration of the perseverance of the saints – even when confronted by aboriginal agents of Satan himself
• The early counterpart of the later dime-novel thrillers, through which most Americans came to know the frontier

Indian Captivity Narratives “Inspired” Later Writing:

• 17^th century (and later) adventure thrillers set on the colonial frontier
• Tales of attack, capture, and escape
• Enormously popular
• Told of bravery and guile, of strange places and exotic people
• Showed the triumph of the godly over harsh wilderness and pagan evil
• Set the stage for the American cowboy tales and the pioneer epics
• Anticipated the American Romantic fiction writers – e.g. Cooper and Melville