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Terry W. Cooper
HIS 301
Professor Sutto
November 2, 2012
The Bread of Life, Food for the Body and Spirit in Rowlandsons Narrative
In A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Mrs.
Rowlandson tells her story in an active fashion that resembles the narrative about Christs life in
the Gospel of Mark. As in Marks account of Christs life that has Jesus constantly in action, and
frequently using such terms as immediately and straightway followed by Christ going and doing
something, Rowlandsons account of her ordeal has her constantly doing things and going
places. It is short on details about her surroundings most part and long on activity. The
exceptions to this lack of details manifests in two areas. The first being on her inner struggles
with the circumstances in which she finds herself and the second being in her encounters with
food. Both of these help illustrate her motivation for writing this narrative. I believe her reasons
to be twofold. First, as a method of self-reflection; she used this undertaking as a way to make
sense of her experiences for herself and secondly, to be used as witness to others.
Rowlandson was descriptive about her thought process all through the narrative. She
constantly tells of her feelings and thoughts that were going through her mind as she was
subjected to being afraid for her life, the loss of her baby the uncertainty of the status of the rest
of her family and even her own discomforts and pains. I believe this circumspection was as much
for her benefit as the readers. This ordeal was truly transformative for her. It caused her to
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reprioritize her values and be more appreciative of her way of life. Since she was a ministers
wife in a Puritan era and community, the Providence of God was something that she would not
have taken lightly. But after having everything she valued in this world taken away from her the
ideas of the religion she had before took on life. After many weeks in captivity by people that
she still referred to as heathens, rather than having a scathing rebuke of them she said Thus
has the Lord brought me and mine out of that horrible pit, and has set us in the midst of tender-
hearted and compassionate Christians. Tis the desire of my soul that we may walk worthy of the
mercies received, and which we are receiving (Rowlandson 46)
This ordeal gave her a powerful testimony about the Providence of God. After over 11
weeks of captivity, she did survive it with no lasting maladies, mental or physical. She credits all
of this to the Providence of God. She proclaims:
O the wonderful power of God that I have seen, and the experiences that I have
had! I have been in the midst of those roaring Lions and Savage Bears, that
feared neither God nor man, nor the Devil, by night and day, alone and in
company, sleeping all sorts; and yet not one of them ever offered the least abuse
or unchastity to me in word or in action. Though some are ready to say I speak it
for my own credit; but I speak it in the presence of God, and to his Glory. Gods
power is as great now, and as sufficient to save, as when he preserved Daniel in
the Lions Den, or the three Children in the Fiery Furnace. (Rowlandson 43)
Rowlandson not only survived her captivity but it actually was transformative. Rather than
lament the humiliations she had been forced to endure she instead celebrated them when she said
I can say in some measure as David did, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, The Lord
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hath shewed me the vanity of these outward things, that they are the vanity of vanities, and
vexation of spirit (Rowlandson 47). Rather than allowing common problems to burden her,
she could look back at her ordeals and say If trouble from smaller matters begin in me, I have
something at hand to check myself with, and say when I am troubled, it was the other day, that I
had had the world, I would have given it for my Freedom, or so to have been a Servant to a
Christian (Rowlandson 48).
There is one other witness that Rowlandson had. This witness was against the English
settlers. In her Narrative, she speaks of the Providence of God continually. However she not only
uses that phrase to describe herself but in several instances she marvels at the Providence of God
towards her captors. It is in this light that her witness is against the English. At one point in her
wiring she says this in that regard. First she speaks of their ability to forage and find nourishment
where none seemed to be available in this manner:
Their chief and commonest food was Ground-nuts; they eat also Nuts and Acorns
Hartychoaks, Lilly-roots, Ground-beans, and several other weeds and roots that I
know not. They would pick up old bones, and cut them in pieces at the joynts, and
if they were full of worms and magots, they would scald them over the fire to
make the vermin come out; and then boyle them, and drink up the Liquor, and
then beat the great ends of them in a Mortar, and so eat them. They would eat
Horses guts and ears, and all sorts of wild birds which they could catch; also Bear,
Venison, Beavers, Tortois, Frogs Squirrels, Dogs, Skunks, Rattle-snakes; yea, the
very barks of Trees; besides all sorts of creatures and provision which they
plundered from the English (Rowlandson 41-42)
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She then quotes a scripture in Psalms that says if His people, Israel would had walked in His
ways he would have subdued their enemies. Rowlandson then says But now our perverse and
evil carriages in the sight of the Lord have so offended him; that, instead of turning his hand
against them, the Lord feeds and nourishes them, up to be scourge to the whole land
(Rowlandson 42).
Throughout her account of this experience, Rowlandson speaks about how she relied on
scripture to give her the strength to continue. The scripture that she had hidden in her heart was
her daily bread. To be able to constantly have a scripture to apply to a given situation speaks to
frequent consumption of that spiritual bread. There is however also a need for physical
nourishment. Rowlandson speaks to that need in the following passage:
The first week of my being among them I hardly eat anything; the second week I
found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet twas very
hardtop get down their filthy trash; but the third week (though I could think how
formerly my stomachwould turn against this or that, and I could starve and die
before I could eat such things, yet) they were pleasant and savoury to my taste
for which he invited me to Dinner; I went, and he gave me a Pancake about as big
as two fingers; it was made of parched Wheat, beaten and fried in Bears, but I
thought I never tasted pleasanter meat in my life (Rowlandson 22).
This was a true turning point in her captivity. At this point she had reached a position
where her only real desires were for the things that she really needed in order to continue to stay
alive. At this point her main cares were for both spiritual and physical bread. Her hunger had
kept her grounded in this physical world and had allowed her to adapt to her current
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circumstances while the Word of God planted in her heart gave her the spiritual and mental
strength to continue.
Finally, mankind is a social creature. Once Mary had reached this state that some would
call humiliation but she would call humility, she started to grow into her circumstances. Once
again food played a part. When Mary went to meet with King Phillip, she made him a shirt for
his son upon his request. He repaid her for this by giving her a shilling. She used her shilling to
buy a piece of horse flesh. She then made a cap for the boy and Mary says for which he invited
me to Dinner; I went, and he gave me a Pancake about as big as two fingers; it was made of
parched Wheat, beaten and fried in Bears, but I thought I never tasted pleasanter meat in my
life (Rowlandson 22). Another instance of social contact on a more normal level involved a
woman who gave her a piece of bear. When Mary could not manage to find a time to cook it
without her master finding out and possibly taking it from her, she went back to the woman who
gave her the bear and asked if she could use her pot to boil the piece of bear. The woman was
boiling some ground nuts and not only let Mary boil the bear but gave her some ground nuts as
well. Mary said after this but the thoughts that it was Bear made me tremble: but now that was
savoury to me that one would think was enough to turn the stomach of a bruit Creature
(Rowlandson 24).
Through the ordeal of captivity, Mrs. Rowlandson was saved, strengthened and
transformed by physical food and the Daily Bread that fed her spirit. She not only survived her
ordeal but became a powerful witness to the Providence of God. She showed that a personal
relationship with God can allow a person to overcome any obstacle.

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Works Cited
Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson."
Imbarrato, Susan and Deborah Dietrich. Colonial American Travel Narratives. Ed.
Wendy Martin. New Yiork: Penguin Books, 1994. 1-48. Blackboard PDF. Nov 2012.
<https://blackboard.olemiss.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_3_1&ur
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