Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson Free online reading

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is the harrowing first-person account of one mother's struggle to survive after she and her children are attacked in their home and captured by Native Americans during the winter of 1675. Set against the backdrop of King Philip's War, Mary Rowlandson offers a compelling, detailed, and often gruesome account of the assault upon her Massachusetts village, the habits and customs of the Native Peoples with whom she lived for 11 weeks, her own meeting with King Philip himself, and her eventual redemption and freedom.

First published in 1682, Mary Rowlandson's memoir was read widely in the American colonies and in England. It was reissued four times in its first year of publication and is widely considered to be America's first best seller.