Mary French has survived in literary history because her 104-line poem to her sister, upon a captivity among Indians, was printed by Cotton Mather in his volume, Good Fetch’d Out of Evil (Boston, 1706). French had been captured at age sixteen during a 1703 Indian raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts. Forbidden to meet together for worship in their own Puritan faith, the captives were evidently pushed by their captors to accept Catholicism.

There are no Cultural Objects for this author.
Would you like to add a Cultural Object?

There are no pedagogical assignments or approaches for this author.

Captivity Narratives
(http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl310/captivet.html
Valuable notes on 17th, 18th, and 19th Century captitivity narratives.

Desolation of Deerfield, MA
(http://pages.prodigy.net/kathyb/Raid.htm
An etext of an account of the devastation, written by Samuel Partridge.

Tales of Some Captives
(http://haight.virtualave.net/stories/deerfield/deer_two.html)
This site tells the story of Deerfield from a primarly genealogical perspective, but it references Mary French's fatal march to Canada.

The First Hundred Years of Printing in British North America: Printers and Collectors)
(http://www.abaa.org/collectors/bc-first100.html)
This article (by William S. Reese) explains the significance of Mather's prolific sermon publishing; French's work is available now because of his passion.

The Indian Captivity Narratives Page
(http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/captivty.htm)
A bibliography of primary texts (the narratives themselves) and secondary sources about them.