African American Literature and Its International Influence

Mary RowlandsonAnd

John Marrant

Rowlandson- Close Reading #1

1 The sovereignty and goodness of GOD, together with the faithfulnessof his promises displayed, being a narrative of the captivity andrestoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, commended by her, to all thatdesires to know the Lord's doings to, and dealings with her. Especiallyto her dear children and relations. The second Addition [sic] Correctedand amended. Written by her own hand for her private use, and now madepublic at the earnest desire of some friends, and for the benefit of theafflicted. Deut. 32.39. See now that I, even I am he, and there is nogod with me, I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither isthere any can deliver out of my hand.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #2

2 Indians with great numbers uponLancaster: their first coming was about sunrising; hearing the noiseof some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smokeascending to heaven. There were five persons taken in one house; thefather, and the mother and a sucking child, they knocked on the head;the other two they took and carried away alive. There were two others,who being out of their garrison upon some occasion were set upon;one was knocked on the head, the other escaped; another there was whorunning along was shot and wounded, and fell down; he begged of them hislife, promising them money (as they told me) but they would not hearkento him but knocked him in head, and stripped him naked, and split openhis bowels. Another, seeing many of the Indians about his barn, venturedand went out, but was quickly shot down. There were three othersbelonging to the same garrison who were killed; the Indians getting upupon the roof of the barn, had advantage to shoot down upon them overtheir fortification. Thus these murderous wretches went on, burning, anddestroying before them.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #3But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the town, and travelwith them into the vast and desolate wilderness, I knew not whither.It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, andbitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was withme in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit,that it did not quite fail. One of the Indians carried my poor woundedbabe upon a horse; it went moaning all along, "I shall die, I shalldie." I went on foot after it, with sorrow that cannot be expressed.At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms till mystrength failed, and I fell down with it. Then they set me upon a horsewith my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon thehorse's back, as we were going down a steep hill we both fell overthe horse's head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed, andrejoiced to see it, though I thought we should there have ended ourdays, as overcome with so many difficulties. But the Lord renewed mystrength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of Hispower; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I notexperienced it. with them.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #4

4) On Monday (as I said) they set their wigwams on fire and went away. Itwas a cold morning, and before us there was a great brook with ice onit; some waded through it, up to the knees and higher, but others wenttill they came to a beaver dam, and I amongst them, where through thegood providence of God, I did not wet my foot. I went along that daymourning and lamenting, leaving farther my own country, and travelinginto a vast and howling wilderness, and I understood something of Lot'swife's temptation, when she looked back. We came that day to a greatswamp, by the side of which we took up our lodging that night. When Icame to the brow of the hill, that looked toward the swamp, I thought wehad been come to a great Indian town (though there were none but our owncompany). The Indians were as thick as the trees: it seemed as if therehad been a thousand hatchets going at once. If one looked before onethere was nothing but Indians, and behind one, nothing but Indians, andso on either hand, I myself in the midst, and no Christian soul near me,and yet how hath the Lord preserved me in safety? Oh the experience thatI have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!

Rowlandson- Close Reading #5

5) Before I got to the topof the hill, I thought my heart and legs, and all would have broken,and failed me. What, through faintness and soreness of body, it was a grievous day of travel to me. As we went along, I saw a place where

English cattle had been. That was comfort to me, such as it was. Quicklyafter that we came to an English path, which so took with me, that Ithought I could have freely lyen down and died. That day, a little afternoon, we came to Squakeag, where the Indians quickly spread themselvesover the deserted English fields, gleaning what they could find. Somepicked up ears of wheat that were crickled down; some found ears ofIndian corn; some found ground nuts, and others sheaves of wheat thatwere frozen together in the shock, and went to threshing of them out.Myself got two ears of Indian corn, and whilst I did but turn my back,one of them was stolen from me, which much troubled me. There came anIndian to them at that time with a basket of horse liver. I asked him togive me a piece. "What," says he, "can you eat horse liver?" I told him,I would try, if he would give a piece, which he did, and I laid it onthe coals to roast. But before it was half ready they got half of itaway from me, so that I was fain to take the rest and eat it as it was,with the blood about my mouth, and yet a savory bit it was to me:"For to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." A solemn sightmethought it was, to see fields of wheat and Indian corn forsaken andspoiled and the remainders of them to be food for our merciless enemies.That night we had a mess of wheat for our supper.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #66) Now the Indians gather their forces to go against Northampton. Overnight one went about yelling and hooting to give notice of the design.Whereupon they fell to boiling of ground nuts, and parching of corn (asmany as had it) for their provision; and in the morning away they went.During my abode in this place, Philip spake to me to make a shirt forhis boy, which I did, for which he gave me a shilling. I offered themoney to my master, but he bade me keep it; and with it I bought a pieceof horse flesh. Afterwards he asked me to make a cap for his boy, forwhich he invited me to dinner. I went, and he gave me a pancake, aboutas big as two fingers. It was made of parched wheat, beaten, and friedin bear's grease, but I thought I never tasted pleasanter meat in mylife. There was a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her sannup,for which she gave me a piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pairof stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas. I boiled my peasand bear together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but theproud gossip, because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing,except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife. Hearingthat my son was come to this place, I went to see him, and found himlying flat upon the ground. I asked him how he could sleep so? Heanswered me that he was not asleep, but at prayer; and lay so, that theymight not observe what he was doing. I pray God he may remember thesethings now he is returned in safety. At this place (the sun now gettinghigher) what with the beams and heat of the sun, and the smoke of thewigwams, I thought I should have been blind. I could scarce discern onewigwam from another. There was here one Mary Thurston of Medfield, whoseeing how it was with me, lent me a hat to wear; but as soon as I wasgone, the squaw (who owned that Mary Thurston) came running after me,and got it away again. Here was the squaw that gave me one spoonfulof meal. I put it in my pocket to keep it safe. Yet notwithstanding,somebody stole it, but put five Indian corns in the room of it; whichcorns were the greatest provisions I had in my travel for one day.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #77). When the letter was come, the Sagamores met to consult about the captives, and called me to them to inquire how much

my husband would give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court. They bid me speak what I thought he would give. Now knowing that all we had was destroyed by the Indians, I was in a great strait. I thought if I should speak of but a little it would be slighted, and hinder the matter; if ofa great sum, I knew not where it would be procured. Yet at a venture I said "Twenty pounds," yet desired them to take less. But they would not hear of that, but sent that message to Boston, that for twenty pounds I should be redeemed. It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them. There was another Praying Indian, who told me, that he had a brother, that would not eat horse; his conscience was so tender and scrupulous (though as large as hell, for the destruction of poor Christians). Then he said, he read that Scripture to him, "There was a famine in Samaria, and behold they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for four-score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver" (2 Kings 6.25). He expounded this place to his brother, and showed him that it was lawful to eat that in a famine which is not at another time. And now, says he, he will eat horse with any Indian of them all. There was another Praying Indian, who when he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own father into the English hands, thereby to purchase his own life. Another Praying Indian was at Sudbury fight, though, as he deserved, he was afterward hanged for it. There was another Praying Indian, so wicked and cruel, as to wear a string about his neck, strung with Christians' fingers. Another Praying Indian, when they went to Sudbury fight, went with them, and his squaw also with him, with her papoose at her back. Before they went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow. The manner was as followeth: there was one that kneeled upon a deerskin, with the company round him in a ring who kneeled, and striking upon the groundwith their hands, and with sticks, and muttering or humming with their mouths. Besides him who kneeled in the ring, there also stood one with a gun in his hand. Then he on the deerskin made a speech, and all manifested assent to it; and so they did many times together. Then they bade him with the gun go out of the ring, which he did. But when he was out, they called him in again; but he seemed to make a stand; then they called the more earnestly, till he returned again. Then they all sang.

Rowlandson- Close Reading #88) Our family being now gathered together (those of us that were living),the South Church in Boston hired an house for us. Then we removed fromMr. Shepard's, those cordial friends, and went to Boston, where wecontinued about three-quarters of a year. Still the Lord went along withus, and provided graciously for us. I thought it somewhat strange to setup house-keeping with bare walls; but as Solomon says, "Money answersall things" and that we had through the benevolence of Christianfriends, some in this town, and some in that, and others; and somefrom England; that in a little time we might look, and see the housefurnished with love. The Lord hath been exceeding good to us in ourlow estate, in that when we had neither house nor home, nor othernecessaries, the Lord so moved the hearts of these and those towards us,that we wanted neither food, nor raiment for ourselves or ours: "Thereis a Friend which sticketh closer than a Brother" (Proverbs 18.24). Andhow many such friends have we found, and now living amongst? And trulysuch a friend have we found him to be unto us, in whose house we lived,viz. Mr. James Whitcomb, a friend unto us near hand, and afar off.

I can remember the time when I used to sleep quietly without workingsin my thoughts, whole nights together, but now it is other ways with me.When all are fast about me, and no eye open, but His who ever waketh, mythoughts are upon things past, upon the awful dispensation of theLord towards us, upon His wonderful power and might, in carrying of usthrough so many difficulties, in returning us in safety, and sufferingnone to hurt us. I remember in the night season, how the other day I wasin the midst of thousands of enemies, and nothing but death before me.It is then hard work to persuade myself, that ever I should be satisfiedwith bread again. But now we are fed with the finest of the wheat, and,as I may say, with honey out of the rock. Instead of the husk, we havethe fatted calf. The thoughts of these things in the particulars ofthem, and of the love and goodness of God towards us, make it trueof me, what David said of himself, "I watered my Couch with my tears"(Psalm 6.6). Oh! the wonderful power of God that mine eyes have seen,affording matter enough for my thoughts to run in, that when others aresleeping mine eyes are weeping.

Spiritual Autobiography

Spiritual autobiography is a genre of non-fiction prose that dominated Protestant writing during the seventeenth century, particularly in England, particularly that of dissenters. The narrative follows the believer from a state of damnation to a state of grace; the most famous example is perhaps John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding (1666). Because so many autobiographies were written, they began to pitfall into a predictable pattern. The "formula" began with a sinful youth, "followed by a gradual awakening of spiritual feelings and a sense of anxiety about the prospects for one's soul. The person would repent, fall again into sin, repent, and sin again; such cycles could last for years. The Bible was often a source of comfort or fear during this time. Finally, the person had a conversion experience, an "epiphany, often of an emotionally shattering character, by which individuals came to realise that they had been singled out by God for salvation. Life was not necessarily easy after this, but it was a good deal less traumatic. These overarching narratives were seen to be not only relevant to human life, but also to human history. Those who practiced this type of spiritual autobiography believed that "history repeats itself not only in man’s outward, group existence, but in the spiritual life of individuals.”

John Marrant:A Brief Biography

A Short History of Marrant

John Marrant- born to free-black parents in the colony of New York on June 15, 1755- traveled remarkably in his early years and received extensive education in schools in New York, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. In late 1769- under the “guidance” of George Whitefield- Marrant experienced his “Christian” rebirth (to which the majority of his narrative is dedicated); and for the next two years zealously proselytized among the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chicksaw tribes. In 1772 he returned to Charleston and began a school of his own (teaching slaves to read), but was driven out (and his pupils whipped [some to death]) not long after the project begun. He returned to proselytizing, but shortly thereafter (in Charleston), Marrant (schooled heavily in music) was impressed on a British ship (whose policy was- paradoxically enough- to manumit slaves who fought for the Crown) for nearly ten years. From 1782-85, he lived in London, and (with significant help from the Countess of Huntington): published his narrative; and was ordained a Calvinist minister in Bath (1785). Although the narrative was an enormous success, Marrant saw little profit. He returned to the Americas, arriving in Birchtown, Nova Scotia in the winter of 1785.

Marrant was well aware he was returning to a colony in crisis. Although by 1783-along with nearly 23,000 British Loyalists- about 1,500 “Black Loyalists” (the Enslaved who won freedom fighting for the Crown) had emigrated to Nova Scotia. By 1784 (when Marrant was composing his narrative), the majority had been driven off their land by ex-British soldiers, scape-goated as the “cheap labor” preventing white economic prosperity in the region. Seeking not only to reinvigorate the Black Calvinist communities, but also to transplant them to the British Colony of Sierra Leone (an idea he first articulated in London as the only means to economic prosperity), Marrant preached over 100 sermons in the period before his death in 1791. “Paradise” or “Zion” for the Black Calvinist lay- in Marrant’s words- “across the sea” in the “ancient Kingdom of Ethiopia,” (in Sierra Leone). Largely due to his efforts, in 1791 the entire population of the Blacks of Birchtown made the exodus to Africa, seeking the “Zion” Marrant had promised.

Captivity and Slave Narratives:The Polemics of Expulsion and Inclusion

• Indian Captivity Narratives• Over the past quarter century, critics of both North and Latin American literature have

argued convincingly that “Indian captivity narratives”- in both the United States and Argentina- functioned effectively as means of propaganda for the creation of: the heroic (Romantic) subject/citizen; and (more significantly) the national consensus in favor of westward expansion and destruction of the indigenous population.

• Slave Narratives• On the flip side of the coin (albeit in a strikingly similar vein), contemporary critics of

Black Atlantic literature have argued that “Black slave narratives”- popular (and published) in both North America and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries- played a key role in the formation of: the Afro-American (and Black Atlantic) literary tradition; the dignified archetype of the “New Negro” (educated, cultivated, and worthy of citizenship); and abolitionist sentiments in the northern United States that favored emancipation and the political incorporation of the Enslaved population.

John Marrant’s Most Wonderful Inversion of the Female Captive Motif

John Marrants’ The Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant (1785) is best read neither as “captivity” nor “slave” narrative (as heretofore has been the case or debate), but rather as a work that seeks to graft the goal of incorporation (embodied in the slave narratives’ chief aim to demonstrate the “humanity” of Blacks to Americans) onto the form (or more precisely onto an exploded form) of the Indian “captivity narrative” (removing/satirizing its genocidal logic of expulsion and destruction). ). Marrant’s narrative achieves this objective through inversions/subversions of four motifs central to the Indian “captivity” genre:

Captivity Narrative:Key Metaphors and Themes

1) The use of dawn and twilight connotes divine sanction and/or providence for the Colonial (or nation-building) project.

2) A “wilderness” or “desert” manifests thatis both empty and, paradoxically, populated by the indigenous population.

3) The ability of the female captive (and her rescuers) to safeguard her chastity is also figured as divine providence.

4) The indigenous population is figured as wasteful, as a population not making full use of the land granted them (and who are, thus, undeserving of it).

Literature, Subject-hood, and the Enlightenment

• European philosophers at least since 1600, had wondered aloud as to whether or not the “African species of men,” as they most commonly put it, could ever create a formal literature, could ever master the arts or sciences. If the could, then, as the argument ran, the African variety of humanity and the European variety were fundamentally related. If not, then it seemed clear the African was destined to be a slave.

• Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Preface

“the boundary between the wilderness and the cultivated country…[where] savage despotism exercised its most terrifying empire,”

“I have always preserved Mr. Marrant’s ideas, tho’ I could not his language; no more alterations, however, have been made, than were thought necessary.”

A Far Different Tale

“”accordingly went over the fence, about half a mile from our house, which divided the inhabited and cultivated parts of the country from the wilderness. I continued traveling in the desart all day.”

“After laying there a little, I rose, and looking about, saw at some distance bunches of grass, called deer grass…I bit it off like a horse, and prayed the Lord to bless me, and I though it the best meal I ever had in my life, and I think so still, it was so sweet. I returned God hearty thanks for it….feeling myself very thirsty I prayed the lord to provide me water….[and] I was presently directed to a puddle of water, muddy water, which some wild pigs had just left, so I drank both mud and water mixed together, and being very satisfied I returned the Lord thanks.”

Translation andThe Trope of the Talking Book

As [Atahualpa] approached near the Spanish quarters the arch fanatic Father Vincente Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other, and began with a long discourse, pretending to explain some of the general doctrines of Christianity . . . ; and that the then Pope, Alexander, by donation, had invested their master as the sole Monarch of all the New World . . . [Atahualpa] observed [in response] that he was Lord of the dominions over which he reigned by hereditary succession; and, said, that he could not conceive how a foreign priest should pretend to dispose of territories which did not belong to him, and that if such a preposterous grant had been made, he, who was the rightful possessor, refused to confirm it; that he had no inclination to renounce the religious institutions established by his ancestors; nor would he forsake the service of the Sun, the immortal divinity whom he and his people revered, in order to worship the God of the Spaniards, who was subject to death; and that with respect to other matters, he had never heard of them before, and did not then understand their meaning. And he desired to know where Valverde had learned things so extraordinary. In this book, replied the fanatic Monk, reaching out his breviary. The Inca opened it eagerly, and turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear: This, says he, is silent; it tells me nothing; and threw it with disdain to the ground. The enraged father of ruffians, turning toward his countrymen, the assassinators, cried out, to arms, Christians, to arms; the word of God is insulted; avenge this profanation of these impious dogs.

The Talking Book: Incorporation and Exclusion

“At this instant the king's eldest daughter came into the chamber, a person about 19 years of age, and stood at my right-hand. I had a Bible in my hand, which she took out of it, and having opened it, she kissed it, and seemed much delighted with it. When she had put it into my hand again, the king asked me what it was? and I told him, the name of my God was recorded there; and, after several questions, he bid me read it, which I did, particularly the 53d chapter of Isaiah, in the most solemn manner I was able; and also the 26 chapter of Matthew's Gospel; and when I pronounced the name of Jesus, the particular effect it had upon me was observed by the king. When I had finished reading, he asked me why I read those names with so much reverence? I told him, because the Being to whom those names belonged made heaven and earth, and I and he; this he denied. I then pointed to the sun, and asked him who made the sun, and moon, and stars, and preserved them in their regular order? He said there was a man in their town that did it. I laboured as much as I could to convince him to the contrary. His daughter took the book out of my hand a second time; she opened it, and kissed it again; her father bid her give it to me, which she did; but said, with much sorrow, the book would not speak to her. The executioner then fell upon his knees, and begged the king to let me go to prayer, which being granted, we all went upon our knees, and now the Lord displayed his glorious power. In the midst of the prayer some of them cried out, particularly the king's daughter, and the man who ordered me to be executed, and several others seemed under deep conviction of sin: This made the king very angry; he called me a witch, and commanded me to be thrust into the prison, and to be executed the next morning. This was enough to make me think, as old Jacob once did, "All these things are against me"; for I was dragged away, and thrust into the dungeon with much indignation; but God, who never forsakes his people, was with me.”

The Wilderness of the Plantation

He told me afterwards that I had spoiled all his Negroes, but could not help acknowledging, that they did their tasks sooner than the others who were not instructed, and thereby had time after their tasks were done, to keep their own fields in better order than the others…He then said I should make them so wise that he could not be able to keep them in subjection. I asked him whether he did not think they were in the way to save their souls whilst they were ignorant of god who made and preserved them. He made no answer to that.

Captivity Narratives Now and Then

Afghanistan Described in Imperial Terms

From A Journal of a Political Mission to Afghanistan, in 1857 by Captain H.W. Bellew:“Within its limits, Afghanistan presents almost every kind of geographical formation, with

a corresponding variation of its climate, which, of necessity, is more or less influenced by the diversity of the other characteristics of the country.”

From An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul (1856) by Hon. Mounstuart Elphinstone:“Animals, vegetables, and minerals exists in variety and abundance throughout Kabul.” From Caravan Journey and Wanderings(1857) by Captain William Jesse:“The environs of Kandahar are exceedingly picturesque. The town may be said to be

buried amongst gardens, orchards, and plantations and beautiful shrubs through which flow streams of the clearest water…fruits and vegetables grow here luxuriantly…the cereal produce is superior quality, especially the wheat: its whiteness and beauty are rare. All the necessities of life are to be found here surprisingly cheap; and with these advantages it has that most valuable one, an agreeable climate.

Invasion and Captivity

• The first image- supplied by the U. S. Defense department- shows camp X-ray by sunset, the U.S. detention center at Guantanomo, Cuba. The second- from CNN- is of course, of Daniel Pearl.Courtesy of the Defense Department

The Map Contained in Captain H.W. Bellew’s Journal (1857)