Redemption Rock
Redemption RockCC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Redemption RockCC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Princeton, MA
(42.5065269,-71.8698502)
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Open year-round.
All Destinations Colonial History Extraordinary Rocks Native American History
At the age of 38 or 39, Mary White Rowlandson and her children were taken captive in Lancaster Massachusetts in the midst of a war. Shortly after her capture, Mary was placed in the custody of Weetamoo.
At the age of 40 or 41 or maybe older, Weetamoo was fleeing Narragansett Rhode Island with her husband and child after watching her family and friends burned alive in their homes during the same war.
Mary was a mother and also the wife of a Puritan minister. Weetamoo was a mother and also Sachem of the Pocasset band of the Wampanoag tribe.
Mary’s six year old daugher, Sarah, died nine days after they were captured. Weetamoo’s child died several weeks after she took charge of Mary. We do not know the child’s name, age or gender.
These two women lived together for just under 3 months. Mary’s release was negotiated here at Redemption Rock in 1676 during King Philip’s War.
Mary’s surviving children were released a short time later. She wrote a narrative of her experience which was widely read and later used to evangelize the American Revolution. She died of natural causes at the age of seventy-three.
Weetamoo drowned in the Taunton River three months after Mary’s release, likely fleeing colonial soldiers. Her head was mounted on a pike outside Taunton.
re·deem (rĭ-dēm′) tr.v. :
a. To set free, as from slavery or kidnapping, by providing money or other compensation.
b. To save (a person or soul) from a state of sinfulness and its consequences.
c. To restore the honor, worth, or reputation of
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/redeem