Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison coped with captivity in their own way. The stories of their captivity revealed the great variety of customs among native American through the greatly different treatment afforded to the three women. Depending on the customs of the tribe that they encountered, or the specific political situation, each of the women was treated differently as either prisoners of war, slaves, or adopted as family members. Natives took captives in order to show their resistance to the settler's occupation of their land, as a custom to increase the members of their tribe, or even for monetary gain.

Mary White Rowlandson, wife of Puritan minister Joseph Rowlandson, was captured by native Americans in February of 1676. During this time, King Philip, the leader of the Wampanoag tribe of southern Massachusetts organized a rebellion against the incursion of white settlers on native land. In total 23 settlers...
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