"On the tenth of February 1675, came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster... Their first coming was about sun-rising; hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven... I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive; but when it came to the trial, my mind changed." — Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1682), recalling her capture during King Philip's War
Which historical claim is best supported by Rowlandson's narrative as a piece of evidence?
- A
By 1682, captivity narratives had been suppressed by Crown censors
- B
English colonists generally adopted Algonquian religious practices after sustained contact
- C
Massachusetts Bay outlawed all printed religious literature after 1670
- Dcheck_circle
Late-seventeenth-century New England print culture used personal trauma to reinforce Puritan piety
Explanation
Widely read in New England and London, Rowlandson's account exemplifies how personal narratives served sermonic and didactic ends in print, reinforcing Puritan moral and religious frameworks.