Mary Rowlandson, née Mary White, ranks as one of the most well-known and important writers of seventeenth-century, colonial American literature.

The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

or

A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

(1682), her autobiographical account of her eleven weeks and five days of captivity among New England Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes, places her among just a handful of New England women writers whose works were published and circulated during that time, and her work helps to initiate and popularize the genre of the captivity narrative and influence the later development of American slave narratives.

Rowlandson was born to John, a farmer, and Joan[e] (née West) White, in Somerset County, England, circa 1637, and she had from six to

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Citation: Oberholtzer-Lee, Heidi. "Mary Rowlandson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 June 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3869, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3869 Mary Rowlandson 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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