With the publication of Mary Rowlandsons narrative of her ordeal while under the captivity of the Natives in 682, captivity narratives became an integral part of American history. Before the end of the seventeenth century, American captivity narratives became recognizable as a distinct literary genre. Captivity narratives such as those by Mary Rowlandson and the reverend John Williams portrayed the white colonists extreme piety and fear of the Native Americans, whom they considered uncivilized enemies. On the contrary, the narratives by Mary Jemison and Eunice Williams, in both instances, they willingly choose to stay with their Native American captors, thereby challenging the superiority of European American culture. Despite there being a numerous amount of white captives who willingly stayed with their Native American captors and refused to be traded off to return to their white community, most of what was accessible to the public during this time were well-rehearsed stories about a joyous homecoming owing to the grace of God or, more tragically, a captives brutal death at the hands of the Indians. The Puritans tended to write narratives that negatively characterized the Indians. Both the women and the very few men that were captured had a puritan background controlling their thoughts on the Natives and influencing the way they portrayed them. The narratives reflected the white captives puritan beliefs. The whites considered this episode of being captured by the natives as a warning from God, and that the more they suffer, the more likely they will be rewarded with heaven. They concluded that God is their only hope for redemption. What is interesting about this genre is that we can trace how the whites chose to portray the Natives. This arouses the doubts of historians and anthropologists on the plausibility of their narratives.
Most of the captivity narratives were considered factual, but close analysis reveals that they are not fully objective. However, it did provide an inside view of the Natives tribe life.
Captivity narrative gives voice to the voiceless, in both events and people it explores. A major outcome of the American captivity narratives is that it gave women a chance to speak and place their voices in American literature. This genre allows women to express themselves, regardless of the time it takes place, or who else was involved in creating the narrative and what the captives intention and purpose of writing the text is. Derounian Stodola claims that the captivity narrative genre is arguably the first American literary form dominated by womens experiences as captives, storytellers, writers, and readers. Captivity narratives put words into the experiences of women which readers could apply into their daily lives, making the texts unique to each and every female reader. Women in captivity narratives were not treated the way a woman should be treated, even the fact that they publish stories of their lives and experience in capture is stepping outside normal womens behavior in the white community. A genre catering to women, captivity texts were often best-sellers, able to connect with readers across the country, particularly female readers. The women in capture often experience a life and culture foreign to their own, an experience filled with cultural changes, divisions, and differences occasioned by the captives that they can share in their narratives. The narratives allow discussion of experiences which have a major factor on the analysis of American culture control, fear, power, discrimination that women cannot always fully share in other mediums. The captivity narratives set a story of transformation in writing, and therefore in history.