Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison coped with captivity in their own way. The stories of their captivity revealed the great variety of customs among native American through the greatly different treatment afforded to the three women. Depending on the customs of the tribe that they encountered, or the specific political situation, each of the women was treated differently as either prisoners of war, slaves, or adopted as family members. Natives took captives in order to show their resistance to the settler's occupation of their land, as a custom to increase the members of their tribe, or even for monetary gain.
Mary White Rowlandson, wife of Puritan minister Joseph Rowlandson, was captured by native Americans in February of 1676. During this time, King Philip, the leader of the Wampanoag tribe of southern Massachusetts organized a rebellion against the incursion of white settlers on native land. In total 23 settlers were captured, and 13 people were killed, including Mary's brother-in-law, sister, nieces and nephews. Mary's six-year-old daughter died on the trip, and Mary and her other children were sold as a slaves to different masters. Mary made herself useful by sewing and mending clothes for her captors, and was eventually ransomed in May of 1676 for to English settlers for 20 pounds, and reunited with her husband (Lancaster Online; About.com).
Mary Jemison was the daughter of Thomas and Jane Erwin Jemison, who had moved from Ireland to the American frontier, where they marked out a farm. From their original small start near...
The earth,' they say, 'is a great island floating in a sea, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.' Originally the animals
It is evident that in his case, he tried to improve his condition by looking at his captors as providing him with guidance, and it is in this perception that Equiano's journey becomes meaningful, both literally and symbolically, as he eventually improved his status in life by educating himself after being a free man. Bozeman (2003) considered Equiano's experience as beneficial and resulted to Equiano's changed worldview at how he
but, those same laws were immediately enacted by the Federal government and from that origin, became immediately binding - the Cherokee would be held to be covered by Federal but not state law. Those members of Congress who supported the removal policies became instrumental in the build-up toward the Trail of Tears. American aggressive expansionism was what drove the forced removal from their land. Whites had expanded to the edges
"I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery," wrote Frederick Douglas as he describes the horrors in which he had to work in slavery. "We were worked in all weathers... work, work, work, the longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights too long for him" (Bayliss 57), helping to show what was expected of the slaves. Slaves had to work under horrid conditions as much as possible, and they
American Corrections The statistics about imprisoned Americans in jails of local, state, and federal prisons and juvenile detention centers reveals a growth from 1,319,000 numbers in 2002 to 2,166,260 in 2002. During the year 2003 has seen the fastest rate of growth of imprisonment over the period of recent four years. The rate of growth of prisoners in state prisons is estimated to 1.8% while that in federal prisons is 7.1%
In contrast, the Treaty Between the United States and the Navajo Tribe of Indians contains far more positive language about native peoples. It concedes that 'bad men' amongst whites exist as well as natives: "From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall for ever cease. The government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire
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