The Name of War

Early in 1676, Nipmucks attack Lancaster, Massachusetts, killing many but sparing a prominent minister’s wife, Mary Rowlandson, whom they take prisoner. For three months she travels overland with her captors; finally, a ransom is paid and Rowlandson is released. A Christian Indian, James Printer, so-named for his skills with printing presses, helps negotiate her freedom.

Over the next few years, she writes an account of her captivity, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God; James Printer sets the type at the Cambridge Press; the book is released early in 1682. By November, it has gone into a third printing and a London edition. Sovereignty is considered the first American best-seller and most popular Indian captivity story; it becomes foundational to Americans’ sense of themselves.

Rowlandson believes that her captivity is an affliction that tests her spiritual resolve. “Twenty pounds bought her freedom; captivity saved her soul" (128). Writing about her experience also helps “redeem” her from the horrors she has witnessed and the survivor’s guilt she feels.

The Indians need people to replace lost tribe members, and captured children often remain with tribes, become Indianized, and forget how to speak English. Grown-up settlers fear capture, believing it will either contaminate them with Indian ways or make them appear to be weak turncoats. At first, Rowlandson promises to die rather than be captured, but when the time comes and the Nipmucks say to her, “Come go along with us" (128), she walks out with them, ashamed by her cowardice.

Rowlandson misses all things English and never adopts Indian ways. She is not sexually abused—the Algonquians apparently have no interest in such behavior—and repeatedly praises God for His guidance and eventual deliverance. That a woman would publish a report of her captivity might be considered immodest, but Rowlandson’s account is accepted for its firm grounding in her faith and thankfulness to God.

Another captive, Joshua Tift, explains that he is enslaved by the Narragansett and only rescued at the battle of the Great Swamp; others, however, testify that he is a turncoat who fights, musket in hand, with the Indians. Unlike Rowlandson, Tift is expected to show manly resistance against the Indians, but he does not, nor does he suffer the usual Indian torture. A court finds Tift guilty of treason; he is executed by hanging and quartering.

The English suspect that Christian Indians’ true loyalty lies with Philip’s forces. Indeed, the newest, westernmost praying town’s residents quickly return to their original tribes, along with some residents of eastern praying towns. Colonists order the remaining Christian Indians confined to their towns or risk being shot; they also evacuate many Christian Indians to Deer Island in Boston Harbor, where some are sold into slavery.

In August 1675 James Printer and 14 other Natives are taken to Boston to face trial for a murder. Printer is exonerated and returns to his praying town, but in November the town is taken by Nipmucks; they offer Painter a choice between coming with them or awaiting an uncertain fate at the hands of the English. Painter opts to join the Nipmucks.

Another Christian Indian, Captain Tom, joins the enemy, but later, on trial for treason, he insists he was a captive. Several witnesses vouch for him, while others insist they’ve seen him making war on the English. Tom is convicted and hanged.

James Printer sides for a time with Philip’s army; during an amnesty offered in July 1676 he acquits himself by bringing to the English the scalps of two Indians. Printer resumes his position at the Cambridge print shop and lives into the early 1700s. “Printer killed to save his life; Rowlandson wrote to save her soul" (148).