Mystical Union & Captive Cannibalism

Terrance Flaherty lycidas2 at earthlink.net
Tue Mar 19 21:46:20 CST 2002


Among the most important factors in the standardization of the motifs of
cannibalism and infanticide within the  Puritan version of the captivity
narrative was the particular relationship of those narratives to the
Puritan world  view. From its beginnings, the Puritan captivity
narrative worked as a myth which, according to Richard Slotkin,
 "reduced the Puritan state of mind . . . along with the events of
colonization and settlement, into archetypal  drama," and which demanded
that the Puritans reject the Indian "cannibal Eucharist." Most scholars
echo Slotkin's assessment of the relation of the "Puritan mind" to
Indian captivity narratives. William S. Simmons, for instance, argues
that the Puritans ultimately saw the world as the scene of a continuing
battle between the forces  of light and darkness, saints and devils, and
that this mental framework provided Puritans with a ready-made  theory
for interpreting cultural differences between themselves and the Native
Americans - that the Indians were
 "cannibals" who "worshipped devils" and who themselves were "bewitched"
or "witches." Moreover, these  beliefs were so pervasive that they
became "matter of fact assumptions in the vocabulary of all the New
English  who wrote about Indian culture."

Robert Berkhofer further argues that the Puritan
clerical and intellectual elite "picked up this method [the captivity
narrative] for impressing the power of the Lord  and the sinfulness of
His people." Moreover, Berkhofer argues that the early New England
captivity narrative's  best-seller status led to the "retention of its
basic premise of the horror Whites suffered under Indian
 'enslavement'" (84-85). Thus the "horrors" of Indian captivity, as
represented in Puritan captivity accounts,  became the standard
"horrors" of subsequent Indian captivity narratives. Puritan clerical
authorities, such as the  Mathers, seized upon the Indian captivity
narrative as an instrument of manipulation; Indian captivity was cast
as  a trial of the spirit. Such narratives were designed to highlight
God's great protecting providence. To help  demonstrate the important
role of the divine, these narratives portrayed the Indians as
incalculably evil, cannibals  and baby killers, creatures so evil that
only by God's help could a Puritan survive captivity in their hands. In 
addition, the sensationalism of such narratives ensured a steady
readership, and the Puritan clerics encouraged  and contributed to their
circulation. As long as the Indians were portrayed as barbarians, the
narratives were a  perfect template for religious instruction according
to Puritan doctrine. 

Not surprisingly, given the Puritan's particular world view, the threat
of cannibalism and the more overt accounts of the murder of children are
picked up by, and amplified in, subsequent Puritan narratives,
maximizing their de-humanizing effect. Cotton Mather, for example, in
Decennium Luctuosum writes that during the march to Indian  villages on
the Kennebec following the so called "Salmon Falls Massacre," a woman
named Mary Plaisted  complained that she could not march quickly because
of the infant she carried in her arms. An obliging brave  dashed out the
child's brains against a tree (an extremely popular way of killing
babies in the narratives), and told  her to "walk faster than she did
before." Mather further relates that this was customary treatment of
infants in  Indian hands. Later in Mather's Decennium Luctuosum, the
cannibalistic Indians are seen working in concert with  the Quakers -
who are after souls. The Indians eat the left-overs: 


 the Quakers have chosen the very same Frontiers and Outskirts, of the
province [as the Indians] for their more Spiritual Assaults; . . . and
have been Labouring [sic] incessantly . . . to Poison the Souls of poor
people, in the  very places, where the Bodies and Estates of the people
have presently after been devoured by the Salvages.


 As the political context shifted, so did the target of the demonization
in the Puritan captivity narratives. In  Reverend John Norton's The
Redeemed Captive, published during the French and Indian War, the French
are  portrayed as cannibals along with the Indians: 

>From Cannibalism and infant killing: a system of "demonizing" motifs in
Indian captivity narratives. Ramsey, Colin

 

Cannibalism and the Colonial World
Edited by Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen

http://uk.cambridge.org/literature/catalogue/052162908X/default.htm



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