4th meeting: Captivity Narrative of Mary Rowlandson  + Jemison + Mather

assignments; midterm, objectives, Puritan generations

next two weeks: transition from 17c to Enlightenment (periods)

then midterm--long essay developing 1 or more objectives

next week: does anyone want to read some more Jemison for web review?

objectives regarding pressures on Literature from different constituencies

Questions / problems for students, teachers of early American literature (and later)

People studying literature or completing college generally want to join the dominant culture in prestige, security, affluence. Why don't such people want to read the dominant culture? Why does nearly everyone prefer reading texts by marginalized groups? (or else non-historical fantasies about noble white saviors?)

A purpose of public education is to lift people of various cultures into our common culture, but what if nearly everyone responds to and prefers to read minority or multicultural literature and dreads reading about the Pilgrims or the Consitution?

Objectives 2, 3, 5

Puritans as one origin story for USA's dominant culture

dominant culture taught in American Immigrant Literature (also next fall, with American Minority Literature)

dominant culture advantage of single story to trace in a line of time or generations, evolution, change + continuity

dominant culture as operating system, source code for later immigrants--> Bradford

literacy, technology, guns

Todorov 158-60, 252

Francis Bacon wrote in his Instauratio magna (1620) that "printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass . . . have altered the face and state of the world: first, in literary matters; second, in warfare; third, in navigation,"

guns

Smith: paragraph 6, 12, 15-16

color code; gothic

Atlantic review of The Witch

Relations to minority culture

last class: Hispanic / Latino or mestizo culture of Central and South America: Virgin of Guadalupe, Cabeza de Vaca, La Relacion (1542) meeting and fusion of Indian and European identities. (, )

today's class + John Smith: North American dominant culture: races are theoretically distinct (though considerable crossing at margins, e.g. Indian women in white family gene-pools)

Pocahontas & John Smith were not lovers. Pocahontas did convert to Christianity and marry an Englishman (John Rolfe) and had a son, Thomas Rolfe, but especially in the Virginia society that developed

Puritans and American Indians--somewhat separate histories--if anyone adapted multiculturally, it had to be the Indians

Winthrop's sermon doesn't discuss American Indians (his journal as Governor important source of Puritan-Indian relatioons)

Bradford

4.7 vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, where there are only savage and brutish men which range up and down, little otherwise than the wild beasts

9.7 cf. St. Paul at Malta, + savage barbarians

10.2 espied five or six persons with a dog coming towards them, who were savages; but they [the “savages”] fled from them [the English] and ran up into the woods, and the English followed them

10.3 a good quantity of clear ground where the Indians had formerly set corn, and some of their graves.

[The first evidence of the 1612-1617 epidemic of European disease that killed up to 90% of the Massachusett Indians] cf. John Smith, invisible bullets

10.4 found where lately a house had been, . . . found in them divers fair Indian baskets filled with corn

10.7 a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that here they got seed to plant them corn the next year, or else they might have starved

[Instructor’s note: The Pilgrims’ interpretation of the New World of America as a Promised Land overflowing with blessings thanks to their special relation with God is automatically agreeable to the USA’s evangelical dominant culture. However, with no disrespect to the scripture or faith of the Pilgrims, keep in mind how much this interpretation of events blocks reception of the catastrophic story of the Indians as a result of European contact.]

Smith para. 23

11.8 about the sixteenth of March a certain Indian came boldly amongst them, and spoke to them in broken English, which they could well understand, but marveled at it.

11.9 Samoset, Squanto, Massasoit

11.11 He was a native of this place, and scarce any left alive beside himself.

11.12 He was carried away with diverse others by one Hunt, a master of a ship, who thought to sell them for slaves in Spain

12.2 Squanto stood them in great stead, showing them both the manner how to set it, and after how to dress and tend it. Also he told them except they got fish and set with it (in these old grounds) it would come to nothing

12.12 now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).

great store of wild Turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc

[Mourt's] amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation

12.15-16 Christmas Day

28.1 great terror

28.2 the Pequots, especially in the winter before, sought to make peace with the Narragansetts, and used very pernicious arguments to move them thereunto: as that the English were strangers and began to overspread their country, and would deprive them thereof in time, if they were suffered to grow and increase; and if the Narragansetts did assist the English to subdue them [the Pequots], they [the Narragansetts] did but make way for their own overthrow

28.3 But again when they [the Narragansetts] considered, how much wrong they had received from the Pequot, and what an opportunity they now had by the help of the English to right themselves, revenge was so sweet unto them, as it prevailed above all the rest; so as they resolved to join with the English against them, and did.

28.5 the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God

start with opening and ask question re fiction, literature

3. Rowlandson writes the first "captivity narrative"—a popular genre in American literature. What are the genre's attractions? How does it resemble what we would now consider popular literature that people might enjoy reading? How does it anticipate fiction or the romance? How do Rowlandson's stylings anticipate "the gothic," especially descriptions of Indians and the wilderness?

excitement, vicarious danger > mimesis

reading 2 trials w/ daughter, meetings with son

5. As a woman writer, how do Rowlandson's concerns and style compare to Anne Bradstreet? What are the opportunities for women's writing in early and later New England?

2.1b we both fell over the horse's head, at which they [the Indians], like inhumane creatures, laughed cf. 13.3

3.2 About two hours in the night, my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675. It being about six years, and five months old. . . . . [after 9 days]

3.2b they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness

3.2c I went to see my daughter Mary, who was at this same Indian town, at a wigwam not very far off, though we had little liberty or opportunity to see one another. She was about ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a Praying Ind[ian] and afterward sold for a gun

3.2e my son came to me, and asked me how I did. I had not seen him before, since the destruction of the town

3.2h wonderful mercy of God to me in those afflictions, in sending me a Bible. One of the Indians that came from Medfield fight, had brought some plunder, came to me, and asked me, if I would have a Bible, he had got one in his basket. I was glad of it, and asked him, whether he thought the Indians would let me read? He answered, yes.

4.2 my poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the forest

[13.3] That night they bade me go out of the wigwam again. My mistress's papoose was sick, and it died that night, and there was one benefit in it—that there was more room. [Compare Rowlandson’s insensitivity to the Indians’ insensitivity to her daughter’s suffering in 2.1b above]

Other passages?

literacy

3.2h wonderful mercy of God to me in those afflictions, in sending me a Bible. One of the Indians that came from Medfield fight, had brought some plunder, came to me, and asked me, if I would have a Bible, he had got one in his basket. I was glad of it, and asked him, whether he thought the Indians would let me read? He answered, yes.

[19.2] My master had three squaws [Indian wives], living sometimes with one, and sometimes with another one, . . . Another was Wattimore [Weetamoo] with whom I had lived and served all this while. A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads.

19.3] Then came Tom and Peter [Praying Indians], with the second letter from the council, about the captives.

19.3d] It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them.

20.2e an Indian called James the Printer*

anthropology / knowledge / pleasure of learning

define anthropology

[8.2b] I boiled my peas and bear together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip [wife], because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife. [Mary may violate a serving protocol, which Quinnapin circumvents to keep peace among the women of his extended household. Compare 14.1]

[14.1] . . . took the blood of the deer, and put it into the paunch, and so boiled it. I could eat nothing of that, though they ate it sweetly. And yet they were so nice in other things, that when I had fetched water, and had put the dish I dipped the water with into the kettle of water which I brought, they would say they would knock me down; for they said, it was a sluttish trick. [As in 8.2b, Rowlandson has violated an Indian protocol or etiquette; her attention to such details provides valuable anthropological information]

19.3e] Before they went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow.

[19.3e-g provide an invaluable record of an Indian war ceremony.]

4. How do Rowlandson's stylings of Indians correspond to our stylings of terrorists?

5.1  chose some of their stoutest men, and sent them back to hold the English army in play whilst the rest escaped. And then, like Jehu [2 Kings 9.24], they marched on furiously, with their old and with their young: some carried their old decrepit mothers, some carried one, and some another. [terrorists / refugees]

5.2a Sabbath meaningless to Indians

19.3a So unstable and like madmen they were. [compare to images of terrorists]  . . .

go to gothic in Rowlandson and Smith, preview Edgar Huntly

3. . . . How do Rowlandson's stylings anticipate "the gothic," especially descriptions of Indians and the wilderness?

[1.1a] This was the dolefulest [most dreadful] night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.

2.1 the vast and desolate wilderness

6.2 vast and howling wilderness; cf. Lot's wife

7.1 The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon

[8.1d] Then my heart began to fail: and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that I wept before them

all this while in a maze

as Psalm 137.1, "By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sate down: yea, we wept when we remembered Zion."

19.3h the Powaw [priest] that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as black as the devil. . . . [<gothic color & moral code]

Smith

15 Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some two hundred more as black as himself,

no sexual abuse: 9.1c, 20.5

9.1c met with all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowledge of, and there being no Christian soul near me; yet not one of them offered the least imaginable miscarriage [misconduct] to me*. [*compare 20.5a below; New England Indians did not customarily abuse female captives sexually.]

20.5a not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity to me, in word or 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

0.1a murderous wretches went on, burning, and destroying

0.2 bullets seemed to fly like hail

0.2a] Now is the dreadful hour come

0.2b bullets rattled against the house, as if one had taken an handful of stones and threw them

0.2c out we must go, the fire increasing

0.2c the bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels [belly] and hand of my dear child [her youngest daughter being carried] in my arms

0.2d] Thus were we butchered by those merciless heathen

0.2e they would kill me: they answered, if I were willing to go along with them, they would not hurt me.

[0.3] Oh the doleful sight that now was to behold at this house! "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations

0.3 When we are in prosperity, Oh the little that we think of such dreadful sights

0.3a a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting, and insulting

[0.4] I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along

[1.1a] This was the dolefulest [most dreadful] night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.

1.1b] . . . the waste

1.1c my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

1.1d  There remained nothing to me but one poor wounded babe

[1.1e] Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy,

1.2 mangled in a barbarous manner, by one-eyed John [an Indian leader], and Marlborough's Praying Indians

2.1 the vast and desolate wilderness

2.1b we both fell over the horse's head, at which they [the Indians], like inhumane creatures, laughed cf. 13.3

3.1a Indian town . . . number of pagans

3.2 About two hours in the night, my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675. It being about six years, and five months old. . . . . [after 9 days]

3.2b Quinnapin, who was a Sagamore [chieftain], and married King Philip's wife's sister . . . ).

3.2b they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness

3.2c I went to see my daughter Mary, who was at this same Indian town, at a wigwam not very far off, though we had little liberty or opportunity to see one another. She was about ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a Praying Ind[ian] and afterward sold for a gun

3.2e my son came to me, and asked me how I did. I had not seen him before, since the destruction of the town

3.2g Oh! the outrageous roaring and hooping

Oh, the hideous insulting and triumphing that there was over some Englishmen's scalps

3.2h wonderful mercy of God to me in those afflictions, in sending me a Bible. One of the Indians that came from Medfield fight, had brought some plunder, came to me, and asked me, if I would have a Bible, he had got one in his basket. I was glad of it, and asked him, whether he thought the Indians would let me read? He answered, yes.

4.1 parted from Mary > returned from captivity [not fiction]

4.2 my poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the forest

4.2 I cannot express to man the affliction that lay upon my spirit, but the Lord helped me at that time to express it to Himself. I opened my Bible to read, and the Lord brought that precious Scripture to me

5.1  chose some of their stoutest men, and sent them back to hold the English army in play whilst the rest escaped. And then, like Jehu [2 Kings 9.24], they marched on furiously, with their old and with their young: some carried their old decrepit mothers, some carried one, and some another. [terrorists / refugees]

5.1b knitting work

5.1c did not wet foot [realism x romance]

5.1d boiled old horse's leg

5.2 how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste

5.2a knitting for master's wife

5.2a Sabbath meaningless to Indians

[5.2b]   strange providence of God in preserving the heathen.*

6.1 through the good providence of God, I did not wet my foot.

6.2 vast and howling wilderness; cf. Lot's wife

7.1 The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon

7.1a a place where English cattle had been

7.1b deserted English fields

8.1a my son Joseph unexpectedly came to me

8.1b [scene of reading]

8.1c pagans, they asked one another questions, and laughed, and rejoiced over their gains and victories.

[8.1d] Then my heart began to fail: and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that I wept before them

all this while in a maze

as Psalm 137.1, "By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sate down: yea, we wept when we remembered Zion."

[8.1e] There one of them asked me why I wept. I could hardly tell what to say: Yet I answered, they would kill me. "No," said he, "none will hurt you." Then came one of them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave me half a pint of peas; which was more worth than many bushels at another time.

8.1f King Philip. He bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke

8.2a Philip spake to me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did, for which he gave me a shilling.

a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her sannup [husband], for which she gave me a piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas.

[8.2b] I boiled my peas and bear together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip [wife], because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife. [Mary may violate a serving protocol, which Quinnapin circumvents to keep peace among the women of his extended household. Compare 14.1]

8.2c Son . . . not asleep, but at prayer; and lay so, that they might not observe what he was doing.

[9.1a] I carried the knife in, and my master asked me to give it him, and I was not a little glad that I had anything that they would accept of, and be pleased with.

9.1c met with all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowledge of, and there being no Christian soul near me; yet not one of them offered the least imaginable miscarriage [misconduct] to me*. [*compare 20.5a below; New England Indians did not customarily abuse female captives sexually.]

9.1d met with my master. He showed me the way to my son.

my spirit was ready to sink with the thoughts of my poor children

12.1 asked my master whether he would sell me to my husband. He answered me "Nux," [= yes]

My mistress, before we went, was gone to the burial of a papoose [child], and returning, she found me sitting and reading in my Bible; she snatched it hastily out of my hand, and threw it out of doors.

12.2a my master being gone, who seemed to me the best friend that I had of an Indian,

[12.2c] Then one of the company drew his sword, and told me he would run me through if I did not go presently

at last an old Indian bade me to come to him, and his squaw gave me some ground nuts; she gave me also something to lay under my head, and a good fire we had; and through the good providence of God, I had a comfortable lodging that night. [Rowlandson attributes her comfort to God rather than the old Indian’s hospitality] . . . .

[13.1a] I desired also to go and see him; and when I came, he was crying bitterly, supposing they would quickly kill him. Whereupon I asked one of them, whether they intended to kill him; he answered me, they would not.

13.1b I asked him about the welfare of my husband.

So like were these barbarous creatures to him who was a liar from the beginning. [<Satan] . . .

13.2 I went along with him to his new master who told me he loved him, and he should not want.

[13.3] That night they bade me go out of the wigwam again. My mistress's papoose was sick, and it died that night, and there was one benefit in it—that there was more room. [Compare Rowlandson’s insensitivity to the Indians’ insensitivity to her daughter’s suffering in 2.1b above]

[14.1] . . . took the blood of the deer, and put it into the paunch, and so boiled it. I could eat nothing of that, though they ate it sweetly. And yet they were so nice in other things, that when I had fetched water, and had put the dish I dipped the water with into the kettle of water which I brought, they would say they would knock me down; for they said, it was a sluttish trick. [As in 8.2b, Rowlandson has violated an Indian protocol or etiquette; her attention to such details provides valuable anthropological information]

16.1b an Indian, who informed them that I must go to Wachusett to my master, for there was a letter come from the council to the Sagamores [Indian chieftains], about redeeming [ransoming] the captives

18.1 came to another Indian town, where we stayed all night. In this town there were four English children, captives; and one of them my own sister's.

[18.1a] the child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.

18.1c they told me I disgraced my master with begging

19.1a Philip*, who was in the company, came up and took me by the hand, and said, two weeks more and you shall be mistress [restored to her husband] again. I asked him, if he spake true? He answered, "Yes, and quickly [sooner] you shall come to your master [Quinnapin] again;

19.1b he asked me, when I washed me? I told him not this month. Then he fetched me some water himself, and bid me wash, and gave me the glass [mirror] to see how I looked; and bid his squaw give me something to eat.

[19.2] My master had three squaws [Indian wives], living sometimes with one, and sometimes with another one, . . . Another was Wattimore [Weetamoo] with whom I had lived and served all this while. A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads.

19.2a The squaw laid a mat under me, and a good rug over me; the first time I had any such kindness showed me.

[19.2b] I understood that Weetamoo thought that if she should let me go and serve with the old squaw, she would be in danger to lose not only my service, but the redemption pay also. . . .

19.3] Then came Tom and Peter [Praying Indians], with the second letter from the council, about the captives.

19.3a So unstable and like madmen they were. [compare to images of terrorists]  . . .

[19.3b] When the letter was come, the Sagamores met to consult about the captives, and called me to them to inquire how much my husband would give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court. [Rowlandson imitates Indian manners, but the Indians imitate English manners]

19.3d] It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them.

[19.3e] Before they went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow.

[19.3e-g provide an invaluable record of an Indian war ceremony.]

19.3h the Powaw [priest] that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as black as the devil. . . . [<gothic color & moral code]

20.1 built a great wigwam, big enough to hold an hundred Indians, which they did in preparation to a great day of dancing.

20.2c  they ate very little, they being so busy in dressing themselves, and getting ready for their dance, which was carried on by eight of them, four men and four squaws. My master and mistress being two

20.2e an Indian called James the Printer*

20.2f He was the first Indian I saw drunk all the while that I was amongst them. At last his squaw ran out, and he after her, round the wigwam, with his money jingling at his knees. But she escaped him. But having an old squaw he ran to her

20.4 how the Indians derided the slowness, and dullness of the English army, in its setting out.

I can but admire [marvel] to see the wonderful providence of God in preserving the heathen for further affliction to our poor country.

how to admiration did the Lord preserve them for His holy ends,

They mourned (with their black faces [Indians smeared ash on their faces in mourning]) for their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced in their inhumane, and many times devilish cruelty to the English

 pit, in their own imaginations, as deep as hell for the Christians that summer, yet the Lord hurled themselves into it. [the “pit” of hell later reappears secularized as a gothic set-piece in Edgar Huntly and Poe] .

20.5a not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity to me, in word or 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

20.5b came to Lancaster [hometown], and a solemn sight it was to me. There had I lived many comfortable years amongst my relations and neighbors, and now not one Christian to be seen, nor one house left standing.

20.5d such a lovely sight, so many Christians together, and some of them my neighbors.

if I knew where his wife was? Poor heart! he had helped to bury her, and knew it not. She being shot down by the house was partly burnt,

20.5e we went to Boston that day, where I met with my dear husband, but the thoughts of our dear children, one being dead, and the other we could not tell where, abated our comfort each to other

20.5g That which was dead [her young daughter Sarah] lay heavier upon my spirit, than those which were alive and amongst the heathen

20.5h our son Joseph was come in to Major Waldron's, and another with him, which was my sister's son.

20.5j one came and told him that his daughter was come in at Providence

[20.6a] Thus hath the Lord brought me and mine out of that horrible pit [<here a Christian symbol for a Satanic trap, later a gothic formula; compare “dungeon” at 7.1]

20.7 in a little time we might look, and see the house furnished with love. [<in later women’s romance fiction this plot resolution is known as the reformation of the family circle] . .

20.10 Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it.

chs. 1-3 of Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (1725) 

INTRODUCTION.

[1] The Peace of 1783

3 listening to their parents or visitors, while they related stories of Indian conquests, and murders

7 hospitality, mediation

8 inhabited by a rich and respectable people, principally from New-England, as much distinguished for their spirit of inquisitiveness as for their habits of industry and honesty

10] Forty years had passed since the close of the Revolutionary war, and almost seventy years had seen Mrs. Jemison with the Indians

11 taking a sketch of her narrative as she recited it.

13 from her long residence with the Indians, she has acquired the habit of peeping from under eye-brows as they do with the head inclined downwards.

14] She speaks English plainly and distinctly, with a little of the Irish emphasis

18 Indian fashion, and consisted of a shirt, short gown, petticoat, stockings, moccasins, a blanket and a bonnet.

25] Her habits are those of the Indians—she sleeps on skins without a bedstead, sits upon the floor or on a bench, and holds her victuals on her lap, or in her hands.

1.1 not able to state positively, which of the two countries, Ireland or Scotland, was the land of my parents’ birth

1.7 7-8 years farming in PA

1.14] spring of 1755 . . .  I was out of the house in the beginning of the evening, and saw a sheet widespread approaching towards me, in which I was caught (as I have ever since believed) and deprived of my senses! The family soon found me on the ground, almost lifeless, (as they said,) took me in . . .

[1.15] The appearance of that sheet, I have ever considered as a forerunner of the melancholy catastrophe that so soon afterwards happened to our family . . . .

2.1 I had been at school some, where I learned to read in a book . . . and in the Bible I had read a little. I had also learned the Catechism

2.2 never read a word since I was taken prisoner

2.4 alarmed by the discharge of a number of guns

2.5 rushed into the house, and without the least resistance made prisoners of my mother, Robert, Matthew, Betsey, the woman and her three children, and myself, and then commenced plundering.

2.7 six Indians and four Frenchmen

On our march that day, an Indian went behind us with a whip, with which he frequently lashed the children to make them keep up.

2.8 father, who was so much overcome with his situation

[2.12] Mother, from the time we were taken, had manifested a great degree of fortitude, and encouraged us to support our troubles without complaining; . . . insisted on the necessity of our eating . . . .

2.13 an Indian took off my shoes and stockings and put a pair of moccasins on my feet, which my mother observed; and believing that they would spare my life, even if they should destroy the other captives, addressed me

2.14 What will become of my sweet little Mary? . . . but, if you leave us, remember my child your own name, and the name of your father and mother. Be careful and not forget your English tongue. If you shall have an opportunity to get away from the Indians, don't try to escape;

[2.18] But what could I do? A poor little defenseless girl; without the power or means of escaping; without a home to go to, even if I could be liberated; without a knowledge of the direction or distance to my former place of residence; and without a living friend to whom to fly for protection,

[2.19] My suspicions as to the fate of my parents proved too true; for soon after I left them they were killed and scalped, together with

2.21 took from their baggage a number of scalps

2.22 stretched them to their full extent, they held them to the fire till they were partly dried and then with their knives commenced scraping off the flesh

2.23 they should not have killed the family if the whites had not pursued them.

2.24 the whole neighborhood turned out in pursuit of the enemy, and to deliver us if possible

found my father, his family and companions, stripped and mangled in the most inhuman manner: That from thence the march of the cruel monsters could not be traced in any direction

2.31 Fort Pitt . . . . That fort was then occupied by the French and Indians, and was called Fort Du Quesne

3.2 appearance of two pleasant-looking squaws of the Seneca tribe

3.6 heads, arms, legs, and other fragments of the bodies of some white people who had just been burnt.

3.7] At night we arrived at a small Seneca Indian town . . . that was called by the Indians, in the Seneca language, She-nan-jee*, where the two Squaws to whom I belonged resided

3.8 returned with a suit of Indian clothing, all new, and very clean and nice. . . . threw my rags into the river; then washed me clean and dressed me in the new suit they had just brought, in complete Indian style; and then led me home and seated me in the center of their wigwam.

3.9 all the Squaws in the town came in to see me. I was soon surrounded by them, and they immediately set up a most dismal howling, crying bitterly, and wringing their hands in all the agonies of grief for a deceased relative.

3.11 is spirit has seen our distress, and sent us a helper [Jemison] whom with pleasure we greet. Dickewamis [Seneca name for Jemison] has come: then let us receive her with joy! She is handsome and pleasant! Oh! she is our sister,

3.12 rejoice over me as over a long lost child. I was made welcome amongst them as a sister to the two Squaws before mentioned, and was called Dickewamis; which being interpreted, signifies a pretty girl, a handsome girl, or a pleasant, good thing. That is the name by which I have ever since been called by the Indians.

3.13 the ceremony I at that time passed through, was that of adoption. The two squaws had lost a brother

3.14 a custom of the Indians, when one of their number is slain or taken prisoner in battle, to give to the nearest relative to the dead or absent, a prisoner

3.15 family, and not national, sacrifices amongst the Indians, that has given them an indelible stamp as barbarians

3.16 I was ever considered and treated by them as a real sister, the same as though I had been born of their mother.

3.17 nearly terrified to death at the appearance and actions of the company, expecting every moment to feel their vengeance

3.19 no particular hardships to endure. But still, the recollection of my parents, my brothers and sisters, my home, and my own captivity, destroyed my happiness, and made me constantly solitary, lonesome, and gloomy.

3.20 My sisters would not allow me to speak English in their hearing; but remembering the charge that my dear mother gave

3.21 My sisters were diligent in teaching me their language

3.22 the land produced good corn; the woods furnished a plenty of game, and the waters abounded with fish. . . .

3.24 corn, squashes, and beans

3.26] The white people were surprised to see me . . . . They asked me my name; where and when I was taken—and appeared very much interested on my behalf. They were continuing their inquiries, when my sisters became alarmed, believing that I should be taken from them

3.27 sight of white people who could speak English inspired me with an unspeakable anxiety to go home with them, and share in the blessings of civilization. My sudden departure and escape from them, seemed like a second captivity

3.28 a party of Delaware Indians came up the river, took up their residence, and lived in common with us. They brought five white prisoners

Priscilla Ramsey story

3.29 Sheninjee and I were married according to Indian custom

3.30] Sheninjee was a noble man; large in stature; elegant in his appearance; generous in his conduct; courageous in war; a friend to peace, and a great lover of justice

Yet, Sheninjee was an Indian. The idea of spending my days with him, at first seemed perfectly irreconcilable to my feelings [<attitudes from childhood environment train courtship expectations]: but his good nature, generosity, tenderness, and friendship towards me, soon gained my affection; and, strange as it may seem, I loved him!

3.32 I had a child at the time that the kernels of corn first appeared on the cob

3.33 To commemorate the name of my much lamented father, I called my son Thomas Jemison.

Mather

[1] The New-Englanders are a people of God settled in those, which were once the Devil's territories

the Utmost parts of the Earth for His [Christ’s]  Possession

[3] The Devil thus irritated, immediately tried all sorts of methods to overturn this poor Plantation

never were more Satanical Devices used for the unsettling of any People

4 All those Attempts of Hell

Devil is now making one attempt more

as the People of God have in the other Hemisphere [reference to witch-persecutions in Europe]

his more spiritual ones [spirits less visible

5 A Horrible PLOT against the Country by WITCHCRAFT

pull down all the Churches in the Country

6 Houses of the Good People there are filled with the doleful shrieks of their children and servants, tormented by invisible hands, with tortures altogether preternatural

7 our poor afflicted neighbors, quickly after they become Infected and Infested with these Demons, arrive to a capacity of discerning those which they conceive the shapes of their troublers; and notwithstanding the great and just suspicion that the Demons might impose the shapes of innocent persons in their spectral exhibitions upon the sufferers

more than one twenty have confessed that they have signed unto a book, which the Devil showed them, and engaged in his hellish design of bewitching, and ruining our land

8 We know not, at least I know not, how far the delusions of Satan may be interwoven into some circumstances of the confessions

main strokes wherein those confessions all agree

threatens no less than a sort of dissolution upon the world.

9 the Devil has made a dreadful knot of witches in the country

11 accused by five or six of the bewitched, as the author of their miseries

a head actor at some of their hellish rendezvous’s

12 spectres

At the examination of this G. B. the bewitched people were grievously harassed with preternatural mischiefs, which could not possibly be dissembled

in her agonies, a little black-haired man came to her, saying his name was B. and bidding her set her hand unto a book which he showed unto her; and bragging that he was a conjurer

13 The testimonies of the other sufferers concurred with these

print of the teeth would be seen on the flesh of the complainers, and just such a set of teeth as G. B's would then appear upon them, which could be distinguished from those of some other men’s

One of them falling into a kind of trance afterwards affirmed that G. B. had carried her into a very high mountain where he showed her mighty and glorious kingdoms and said he would give them all to her, if she would write in his Book

14 taken with fits, that made them incapable of saying anything

Chief Judge asked the prisoner who he thought hindered these witnesses from giving their testimonies? and he answered, He supposed it was the Devil. That Honorable person [chief judge] then replied, How comes the Devil so loathe to have any Testimony born against you? [Why is the devil protecting you?] Which cast him into very great confusion.

15 apparitions of ghosts of murdered people

16 apparitions have been seen by others at the very same time that they have shown themselves to the bewitched

17 apparitions of two women, who said that they were G. B's two wives, and that he had been the death of them

he had killed (besides others) Mrs. Lawson and her Daughter Ann

18 his trial, one of the bewitched persons was cast into horror at the ghosts of B's two deceased wives then appearing before him, and crying for vengeance against him

19 testimonies enough of G. B's antipathy [aversion] to prayer and the other ordinances of God, though by his profession singularly obliged thereunto

20 brought poppets* to them, and thorns to stick into those poppets, for the afflicting of other people

21 Lancashire Witches [the Pendle Witches

I don't remember that there was any considerable further evidence, than that of the bewitched, and then that of some that confessed.

22 a very puny man; yet he had often done things beyond the strength of a giant

23 the Black man (as the Witches call the Devil; and they generally say he resembles an Indian)

24 two testimonies that G. B. with only putting the forefinger of his right hand into the muzzle of a heavy gun, a fowling-piece of about six or seven foot barrel, did lift up the gun, and hold it out at arm’s end . . . .

26 make his wives write, sign, seal, and swear a covenant, never to reveal any of his secrets

28 by the assistance of the Black Man, he might put on his Invisibility, and in that Fascinating Mist, gratify his own jealous humor, to hear what they said of him

trick of rendering themselves Invisible, our witches do in their confessions pretend that they sometimes are masters of; and it is the more credible, because there is demonstration that they often render many other things utterly iInvisible.

31 The jury brought him in guilty: But when he came to die, he utterly denied the fact, whereof he had been thus convicted.

32 sensible and evident witchcrafts, and all complained of the prisoner, as the cause of their trouble

37 Joseph Safford, that his wife had conceived an extreme aversion to this Howe, on the reports of her witchcrafts

38 that she would not go to the Church-Meeting, yet she could not refrain going thither also

39 taken in a very strange manner, frantic, raving, raging and crying out, "Goody Howe must come into the Church; she is a precious Saint; and though she be condemned before men, she is justified before God." So she continued for the space of two or three hours; and then fell into a trance.

"I thought Goody Howe had been a Precious Saint of God, but now I see she is a Witch. She has bewitched me, and my child,

40 some of his cattle were bewitched to death, leaping three or four foot high, turning about, squeaking, falling, and dying

41 accidents would befall his cattle, whenever he had any difference with this prisoner.

[43] The things in themselves were trivial; but there being such a course of them, it made them the more to be considered.

again lost great quantities of drink out of their vessels, in such a manner, as they could ascribe to nothing but witchcraft. As also, that Howe giving her some apples, when she had eaten of them she was taken with a very strange kind of a maze [confusion, as in “amazed”],

44 refusing to lend his mare unto the husband of this Howe

And the mare died very suddenly.

45 a daughter destroyed by witchcrafts; which daughter still charged Howe as the cause of her affliction

47 Confessions of several other (penitent) witches, which affirmed this Howe to be one of those, who with them had been baptized by the Devil in the river

he made them there kneel down by the brink of the river and worship him.

Martha Carrier

48 Martha Carrier, or her Shape, that grievously tormented them, by biting, pricking, pinching, and choking

49 upon the binding of Carrier they were eased

50 several of her own children had frankly and fully confessed, not only that they were witches themselves, but that this their mother had made them so.

very credible in what they said

[51] III. Benjamin Abbot gave in his testimony, that last March was a twelve-month, this Carrier was very angry with him, upon laying out [<surveying] some land, near her husband’s

53 strange, extraordinary and unaccountable calamities befell his cattle; their death being such as they could guess at no natural reason for.

56 lost his cattle, by strange deaths, whereof no natural causes could be given.

61 the Devil carried them on a pole to a witch-meeting; but the pole broke, and she hanging about Carrier’s neck, they both fell down, and she then received an hurt by the fall, whereof she was not at this very time recovered.

63 witch-meeting in Salem Village, where they had Bread and Wine administered unto them. [an inversion or parody of Communion]

[65] Memorandum. This Rampant Hag, Martha Carrier, was the person, of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children among the rest, agreed, That the Devil had promised her, she should be Queen of Hell.

Lauren Weatherly

LITR 4231

Spring 2012

Notes on Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials

Opening Question:  Was there any actual magic in Salem? Truthfully, probably not. But, no one knows for sure. Based on the evidence provided by historians, the trials were more about control than anything else. How far people are willing to go to create the “perfect utopia” and purge the world of what they believe (who they believe) to be sin/sinful.

Cotton Mather Background: 1663-1728

Graduated from Harvard College and obtained an honorary doctorate from Univ. of Glasgow

New England Puritan Minister

Writing: Cotton Mather was not known for writing in a neutral, unbiased perspective. Many, if not all, of his writings had bits and pieces of his own personal life in them or were written for personal reasons. He heavily influenced the “spread of the word” of the trials as he believed the “witches” to be a sign of the devil, and therefore be purged from the earth. Mather claims he did not attend the trials in Salem (though his father attended the trial of George Burroughs). Two contemporaries -- Thomas Brattle and Robert Calef-- place him at executions. Mather began to publicize and celebrate the trials well before they were put to an end: "If in the midst of the many Dissatisfaction among us, the publication of these Trials may promote such a pious Thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall Re-joyce that God is Glorified..." - Wonders of the Invisible World. He calls himself a historian not an advocate, but writes in such a way that clearly presumes the guilt of the accused and adding insults e.g. calling Martha Carrier a rampant hag. (ex. The opening lines of Wonders)

Wonders of the Invisible World: (pp5) “credible Christians still alive” is his only basis for the outbreak of “witchcraft” in Salem. Modern day, we would need a lot more to go on than predictions and hearsay to take part in and defend such a mass killing epidemic. Conspiracy Theory. Among the first in the country. Mather takes the “confessions” of the people with no disillusion that they are telling the truth (pp8).

The Three Trials: Similarities among the convicted.

Convicted persons noted for lack of obedience to God (prayer/church).

Violence towards wives (GB).

Feats of strength (GB).

Belief of a person’s character (gossip in the village) before the trials. Unable to look upon someone (EH).

Little to say to accusations/lack of proof of their denying. (Huh? What are you talking about?) These answers were seen as simply lying to the court and that the person was not capable of defending themselves. Therefore, they must be guilty.

Testimony of “murdered ghosts” actually being accounted in the trial. (The testimony was passed along by the “afflicted” of course.)

Goody Howe: was first defended by Ms. Safford, who then changed her mind after presumably being pressured by others that she too must be a witch for she sides with one. Peer pressure?

Calamities afflicting livestock. Cattle showing strange behavior; some dying under odd circumstance. Note: how did they prove this? Hearsay as well? Did someone go around checking cows? Prolly not.

Personal afflictions upon the body: being poisoned, strange legions, bruises even were accounted to be caused by witchcraft. So every bump and scrape was blamed on a witch? Self inflicted? Sudden brush with poison ivy=witchcraft.

All three accused were said to be Kings or Queens of Hell. They were elevated with the devil and no ordinary witch.

Mather even states in the last trial of Carrier that she was accused in “the usual manner of these things.” This is how we convicted the others, let’s stick to this kind of attitude.

Spectral Evidence: Mather's most fatal influence over the trials was in composing the answer to the question of whether or not to allow Spectral evidence, that is, allowing the afflicted girls to claim that some invisible ghost of the defendant was tormenting them, and for this to be considered evidence of witchcraft by the defendant, even if the defendant denied it and professed their own strongly held Christian beliefs. (Remember, this is pre-enlightenment in America. People took things at your word without much evidence.) Mather considered witches "among the poor, and vile, and ragged beggars upon Earth," and Bancroft asserts that Mather considered the people against the witch trials to be witch advocates.

The later rejection of Spectral evidence in the trials of January 1693 resulted in no convictions.

Even after the trials had ended, Mather still defended his beliefs and the trails purposes. (pp 4 “Wonders”)

Salem Witch Trials Background: (read first part of website)

Before the Salem witchcraft persecutions, the supernatural was part of everyday life, for there was a strong belief that Satan was present and active on earth. This concept emerged in Europe around the fifteenth century and spread to Colonial America. Previously, witchcraft had been widely used as peasants heavily relied on particular charms for farming and agriculture. Over time, the idea of white magic transformed into dark magic and became associated with demons and evil spirits. From 1560 to 1670, witchcraft persecutions became common as superstitions became associated with the devil. Cotton Mather tried to prove to humanity that "demons were alive", which played on the fears of individuals who believed that demons were active among them on Earth.

Men and women in Salem believed that all the misfortunes were attributed to the work of the devil; when things like infant death, crop failures or friction among the congregation occurred, the supernatural was blamed.

Discussion Questions: Mather (1663-1728) and the Salem Witch Trials occur in the Puritans' third generation--what has changed for God's chosen people in America? Why do people remember the Salem Witch Trials and nothing else about the Puritans? If we don't believe in witchcraft then or now, what's really going on in this trial?

(revert back to Salem website)

With new generations comes change. The Puritans were definitely an anti-change group of people. The trials were a catalyst in which to restore control to the town. Using young women and influencing them to say what you want them to say, i.e. “You’re a witch!” to those in the town that people viewed as uncouth or not Godly enough, then condemning those people to death to send a message to everyone in the village, “Look what will happen to you if you fall off our bandwagon.” No real evidence or proof of any significance (by today’s terms) was exhibited during the trials at Salem to have been enough to sentence someone to death.