The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Rowlandson, Mary White

ROWLANDSON, rô'lạnd-sȯn, Mary White, American captive among the Indians. She was carried away by the Indians after an attack on Lancaster, Mass., 10 Feb. 1675, during King Philip's War. For a time she was kept in an Indian village near the site of Petersham, Worcester County, and later was taken by her captors across the Connecticut, and after about three months was ransomed. Her ‘True History’ of her captivity and restoration was printed at Cambridge, Mass., and in London, in 1682. A fifth edition was prepared by Joseph Willard (1828), and is reproduced in ‘Narratives of the Indian Wars’ (New York 1913). The work, though not always clear as to detail, is interesting, and throws a graphic sidelight on Indian existence with its cruelty and squalor.