The Puritan Captivity Narrative and the Politics of the American Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2732852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Greg Sieminski (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 35 |
| Publication date | 1990-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0678 • E-ISSN: 1080-6490 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2713224 |
| OpenAlex | W2024529430 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 1 |
rative is the enormous popularity of Puritan accounts during the Revolutionary era. Two in particular, by Mary Rowlandson and John Williams, were reprinted at least nine times between 1770 and 1776. Their reappearance is especially noteworthy because they had been reprinted, all told, only three times following their initial publication.1 While these early accounts of captivity among the Indians are compelling -indeed, they were bestsellers when they first appeared2 their renewed popularity in the 1770s would seem to be regressive in light of the genre's evolution away from Puritan conventions. It is widely agreed that the captivity narrative underwent a significant change in the eighteenth century. Authors of the earliest narratives, like Rowlandson and Williams, interpreted their captivity as a form of divine testing in which their rejection of Indian culture was equivalent to resisting a satanic temptation in the wilderness. However, in the hundred years following the publication of the first captivity narrative in 1682, as the genre spread beyond New England and as the claims of Puritanism lost their force, the narratives became increasingly secular and eventually gave expression to a potent cultural myth. Richard Slotkin argues that late eighteenth-century captivities no longer represented God's chastisement and testing of His people to ensure their
Archaeology · Art · Captivity · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law
Capturing the Captivity
Rewriting the Captivity Narrative for Contemporary Children
I Had Left One America and Come Home to Another One”
Rape and the New World Order
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God in 1682
Mary Rowlandson's great declension
White Slaves, African Masters
Subtilized into Savages
Women's Writing in the British Atlantic World
Captivity and Sentiment
Bound for Glory
War Narratives
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,34 |
| Citation span | 1991 - 2011 (21) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |