Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
North America, early modern, gender, labor/business
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide an economic interpretation of Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity. Only a handful of scholars have addressed the economic components of her narrative. This paper hopes to provide a more in-depth exploration of that process by arguing that while Rowlandson may have framed her narrative in religious terms, she primarily experienced her captivity as a worker who performed Native and Puritan gender roles. Further, it argues that she became a commodity to be ransomed cross culturally between her Indian captors and Puritan redeemers who both valued her body through an affixed sum to transfer her back across cultures. Finally the paper addresses the ambivalence of Rowlandson's return, as re-commodification by the Puritans led to mixed results.
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Captive Labor, Redeemed Body—The Economies of Mary Rowlandson’s Indian Captivity
The purpose of this paper is to provide an economic interpretation of Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity. Only a handful of scholars have addressed the economic components of her narrative. This paper hopes to provide a more in-depth exploration of that process by arguing that while Rowlandson may have framed her narrative in religious terms, she primarily experienced her captivity as a worker who performed Native and Puritan gender roles. Further, it argues that she became a commodity to be ransomed cross culturally between her Indian captors and Puritan redeemers who both valued her body through an affixed sum to transfer her back across cultures. Finally the paper addresses the ambivalence of Rowlandson's return, as re-commodification by the Puritans led to mixed results.