Mrs. Rowlandson…

Dear Mrs. Rowlandson,

It has come to my attention that the narrative you have written about your experience being held captive by indigenous peoples— “A Narrative of Captivity” was just recently published and will now be sold at my bookshop. I usually take it upon myself to read every new title that comes in, just so I can get educated on the matter and be better able to help my costumers with their shopping. However, I have to say that while your narrative does encompass your own experience throughly and thoughtfully, it does not and should not define the way these people are perceived. Whilst reading your work I came across many sections in which I was extremely frustrated. Because on one hand you speak as though you are okay with the natives, and as if you accept them for who they are, but then you go off and say how it’s not right what they did to you. And you do have a point, you shouldn’t have been kidnapped, nothing of the sort should have happened to you, and yet it did, and you had the chance to finally understand these people that have always been misinterpreted, mislabeled, and hated and you completely blow it. You had the chance to show the world that there is more to them than meets the eye and you instead decide to go on a tangent about how barbaric they are. Forgive me ma’am but it seems as though you are not the type of Christian who forgives those who wrong them. You instead channel your anger onto innocent people who the only reason they did this to you is because they themselves were threatened by your people. I have much more to say and I would really love to hear your opinion on my argument as I am always willingly to try to understand other people’s opinions. I love forward to your letter.

Sincerely,

William Apess