When Mary Rowlandson awoke on February 10, 1675, the village of Lancaster, Massachusetts, was already on fire. For two hours, Rowlandson's family fought to protect their home from marauding Narragansett Indians. Finally, their little house was set ablaze, and the Rowlandsons fled into the open, wher[...]

This volume collects a wide variety of works from a uniquely American literary tradition, the captivity narrative. Beginning with an excerpt from Hans Staden's The True History of His Captivity, which influenced the American captivity narrative, this volume presents accounts by early settlers held c[...]