Flight Of The Sparrow: A Novel of Early America

The Flight of the Sparrow takes place during King Philip’s War, a conflict between the Wampanoag sachem, or chief, Metacomet, known as Philip by the colonists, and the English colonists in the New England colonies. The bloody conflict resulted in the death of thousands of English colonists and Indigenous Americans. During the war, Indigenous Americans set fire to and ransacked English colonial towns throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine, and English colonial forces responded in kind. During these raids, both colonists and Indigenous Americans captured their opponents for ransom to raise money for their war effort or to be used for slave labor. Mary Rowlandson, the main protagonist of The Flight of the Sparrow, was one such captive. On February 10, 1676, her hometown of Lancaster, Massachusetts was raided by Indigenous Americans from a number of tribes, and she was held by the Nipmuc people for nearly three months.

The relationships between Indigenous Americans and English colonists during King Philip’s War were complex, as shown in The Flight of the Sparrow. Some Indigenous tribes allied with the English colonists, while others allied with Metacomet and his forces. Further complicating matters, some Indigenous Americans converted to Christianity and became known as the “Praying Indians,” as shown in the text. This group had an uneasy and marginal position in both Indigenous and colonial society. Although they offered to support the English colonists during King Philip’s War, their offer was denied for fear of their trustworthiness; instead, they were confined to certain towns or on Deer Island, a small rocky island in Boston Harbor, leading to starvation and general deprivation. These tensions and shifting alliances are referenced throughout the narrative and are shown most clearly in the figure James Printer (1640-1709), or Wowaus, a Nipmuc who converted to Christianity.