Captive narratives form an important aspect of the history of colonial American literature as the writers are able to present stories that are rich in the suffering, thrill danger and adventure of relating real life experiences that are associated with Colonial America. The story of Hannah Emerson Duston brings the readers to a world where a woman as abducted from her home and faced the trauma of having to endure time with the Native Americans. Being from Massachusetts, Duston actions are surprising. She kills two women, two men and six children in their sleep so that she could escape from the horror of her abduction. Duston’s strength came from her emotional trauma of having being separated from her seven children and her husband, Thomas.
Duston’s story is complicated because at the time of her capture she had just given birth to a new born baby. The savage attack on Haverill showed the violence that the Native Americans are capable of and the in turn shows the strength of a woman who must escape in order to find her children. Much of the events in the story reflect the common elements of the frontier settlement. The events are important as the readers are able to see the ways in which people are often motivated by the traumatic events that they face in life. Hannah, along with a young boy, escaped by committing similar acts to those that were inflicted on own family.
The story brings a number of moral questions that and responses from the readers as many people were divided in their response to the cruelty of the Native Indians and the justice that was served on the tribe. Ironically, the story of Duston reveals that there is a thin line between the “civilized colonists and the barbaric Indians.” Thoreau is openly sympathetic to the plight of the Native Indians in a way that the older generation would disagree. Based on Thoreau’s presentation, one could easily conclude that the writer has admired the Indians and wished to copy these Native Indians in a number of ways. This can be substantiated by Thoreau’s views of the ways in which these Indians have formed a close bond with nature. As a result, the author presents an ambiguous narrative of the revenge of the settlers to substantiate his admiration of the Indians.
In contrast, to Thoreau’s appreciation and admiration of the Native American Indians, Mary Rowlandson expresses her strong dislike for the group who capture her for eleven weeks. She retells the experience with the “heathens” who had burned her home and taken the lives of her friends and family. Agreeably, the situation is stronger than that of Thoreau who writes his captivity narrative from the perspective of someone else. One can assume that Rowlandson’s personal experience leaves her bitter in many ways. Through her constant negative image of the brutal attack, the reader see that the Indians had surprise the colonists and ravage the community. This experience is undoubtedly hard for Rowlandson to see the good in the Indians. But, Thoreau who can only write from Duston’s version of the events is able to see through the hatred of the Natives and find the good in their actions.
Rowlandson is highly throughout the narrative as her Puritan belief is the source of convictions that God and His saving power are present in her life. But, Rowlandson’s religious beliefs stop at the point where she becomes haughty and implies that the white race is superior to the Native Americans. Rowlandson’s moral and ethical beliefs can be question as she possesses sentiments and actions that are far removed from Christianity even as she reveals the Christian side of her actions. Rowlandson’s thoughts and actions are not surprising as a number of ardent religious people in the modern society have conflicting morals standards and have contradicted their Christian principles in many ways. The slave narratives present the hypocrisy the church in the nineteenth century as many Christians at the time supported the negative treatment of the minority groups even as they preached the religious sermons on loving thy neighbor. In contrast, Robert D. Arner shows the presence of religion in a different way. He goes straight to the issue is central for future writers as he presents Hannah as one of the two poor women (Arner 19) which serves as a foil to the biblical story in Proverbs 12:10 that speaks two women who were now the victims of intense cruelty.
Contemporary writers have used these slave narratives effectively to critique the treatment of the native Indians over time. Rowlandson and Arner have written of these experiences and have shown different viewpoints on the way historians have presented these natives. For the most part, the native Indians are seen in modern films as savages or barbarians who kill people for no apparent reasons. The audience formulates their views based on the negative perception of these film makers and writers who have chosen to present the negative side of this group of people. Thoreau on the other hand, is more objective than Rowlandson in his presentation as he has researched and presented a narrative that shows the cruelty of the Indians and also show that the whites can be as cruel as the Indians.
Thoreau’s views shed new light on the way people see the native Indians and this is important as people will begin to understand the discrimination and hardships of the Indians and justify their actions (Thoreau, 42). Similarly, Mather does not “raise moral objections to the slaughter of sleeping Indians” (Arner 19). Instead, he makes biblical allusions to the moral framework of the narrative so as to help the readers to justify the murders that Hannah commits. Many slave narratives are grounded in the exploitation of the “national destiny of the Puritan people” (Arner19). As such, the readers can accept Hannah’s actions as morally correct and justified. In fact, some readers may want to emulate the role of the survivor because of the explicit details that can be found in the slave narratives of Arner, Thoreau and Rowlandson.
Despite the “violent and brutal clash between Indians and British colonists” (Gleason 1) and the harsh experiences of those who were victims of the Indians, one could easily admire the positive side of the Indians in the same way that Thoreau does. But, through the development of the slave narratives in the nineteenth century and the negative views of slavery, many persons have developed a number of myths of the Indians and their level of cruelty. Conversely, Rowlandson’s presentation is acceptable as she dominates the piece with her Puritan beliefs. But as we have all learned throughout history, Christians can be as cold hearted and as cruel as any other man if place in a difficult situation.
In concluding, slave narratives evoke much empathy in the readers as people often condemn acts of unjust cruelty. For Duston, her actions can be justified as she is a prisoner at the hands of the cruel Indians. The murders that she commits are justified from a moral perspective as she must return to her newborn child and family. Rowlandson, on the other hand, shows no remorse for believing that the Indians are beneath her social class and therefore they are the savages that most writers present. But as with all Christian teachings, one must look beneath the surface of the person and find the good in that person before judging that person. The slave narratives are personal accounts of the horror of the negative experiences in the past and people will often make their assumptions based on the perspectives of the victims.
Works Cited
Arner, Robert D., "The Story Of Hannah Duston: Cotton Mather To Thoreau," American
Transcendental Quarterly, 18 (1973). 19-23,, Web 08 May 2016 <http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/page/11883/>
Gleason, Caroline. The Chosen People of God: Mary Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative , Web 08
May 2016 < http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr4-2.html>
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Duston Family." The American Magazine of Useful and
Entertaining Knowledge. May 1836, pp. 395-97. Web 08 May 2016 <<http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/page/11883/>
Thoreau, D History as Narration, 1842, Journal 1, 1981, p. 361, Web 08 May 2016
<http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=kt796nc8hb&chunk.id=ss1.07&toc.id=ch02&brand=ucpress>
