49 pages • 1 hour read
Amy Belding BrownFlight Of The Sparrow: A Novel of Early America
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 25-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
Mary meets with Increase Mather, who encourages her to write her captivity narrative as a “testament to God’s mercy” (222). Mary is unsure and says she will pray for God’s guidance on the matter.
Later that summer, news arrives that the Indigenous Americans have been beaten, and many are hanged. Joseph forces Mary to attend the hangings. He tells Mary that the Indigenous Americans who repent and ask for amnesty will be given as indentured servants to English families.
One hot summer night, James appears in Mary’s yard.
Chapter 26 Summary
James asks Mary for her help. He wants her to advocate on his behalf so he will not be hanged for helping the Nipmuc against the English. She agrees to do what she can, and James leaves.
A few days later, Mary meets again with Increase Mather. She agrees to write her captivity narrative in exchange for amnesty for James Printer. He accepts the deal.
Chapter 27 Summary
A few days later, Mary meets again with Increase. He tells her that he has secured a deal for James provided he comes with the heads of two Nipmuc as a sign of his loyalty. Daniel Goodkin, Silvanus’s former enslaver, insisted on this condition. Further, Mary must keep their deal a secret and never see James again. She agrees to the terms, even though she is devastated at never seeing James again.
That afternoon, Mary begins to write her narrative. While she works, Marie comes in upset after overhearing women at the market saying cruel things about Mary. A few days later, Joseph asks Mary if the rumor he heard that she had been married to Monoco is true. She denies it.
Chapter 28 Summary
One hot day, Joseph comes home and tells Mary they have been offered an Indigenous American girl as an indentured servant. Mary refuses to have an enslaved girl in their home. Joseph says she is foolish because Mr. Whitcomb, whose house they live in, trades enslaved people. Mary is disgusted.
Later, Mary confronts Joseph about not wanting to touch her. He says that God has directed him to abstain from her. She tells him she wants to have another child.
Chapter 29 Summary
One day in August, Mary is sitting in the meetinghouse with the other women. They report that Weetamoo and Quinnapin have been killed. Mary is distressed at the news and leaves. That night, Mary dreams Weetamoo, Quinnapin, Alawa, and herself are all on a raft and are swept into the river and drown. When she wakes up, Mary realizes this would have been her fate had James not helped arrange her ransom.
Mary hears that the Indigenous Americans granted amnesty are being sent to Barbados to be enslaved or held in an open-air prison in Natick. A few days later, the town crier announces James Printer has come to ask for amnesty. She wants to know where he is.
One day in late September, Mary arrives home to see Joseph reading her manuscript, which she keeps in a locked box under the bed. She is upset, but Joseph talks to her kindly, saying he did not know how much she had suffered during her captivity.
Chapter 30 Summary
In October, Mary tells Joseph to pass a message to Increase Mather that her manuscript is finished. He goes out. When Joseph comes back much later, quite drunk, he tells her that Increase is excited to see the manuscript and that she should meet with him the next day. Then, Joseph drunkenly grabs Mary and pulls her face toward his crotch. Mary is shocked and leaves the room.
The next day, Mary meets again with Increase and gives him her manuscript. He tells her that he “will insert the appropriate Scriptures and make plain how the Lord aided you” (267). He assures her that after it is published, she will no longer be the subject of town gossip.
Later that month, Joseph begins to suffer from a sore on his leg that will not heal. Mary and Joseph go to the Eliot house for treatment. After treating Joseph’s leg, Mr. Eliot invites Mary to go to Natick with him to minister to the Indigenous Americans being held there.
Chapters 25-30 Analysis
In this section of Flight of the Sparrow, Mary continues to struggle with her readjustment to Puritan society, particularly as her Notions and Experiences of Freedom have evolved due to her captivity. This comes to a head when Joseph proposes that they take an enslaved Indigenous girl. Initially, Mary thinks that Joseph is proposing they adopt a girl, and she is delighted. However, he emphasizes that the girl is to be enslaved. Defying the Puritan doctrine of obedience, she strenuously objects. She reminds him that she herself was enslaved. He responds, “I know you have suffered greatly […] But you are not of a race born to slavery, and your feelings are more finely tuned—” (249). She retorts, “[Indigenous Americans] value freedom above all things” (249). This exchange highlights how English colonists thought of enslavement; they believed that some races were born to be enslaved and that such practice was permitted in the Bible. When Mary objects, Joseph accuses her of having been corrupted by her time with the Nipmuc. However, Mary’s abolitionist feelings began prior to her captivity when she took pity on Silvanus and Bess’s situation. At this point in the novel, she has become convinced that “slavery is the vilest of sins” (251). This belief sets her apart from mainstream Puritan society.
In the background of Mary’s readjustment is the ongoing Tensions between Indigenous Americans and English Colonists during King Philip’s War. Mary is shocked to hear the other Puritan women talk callously about Weetamoo’s death; they refer to her as a “slattern,” meaning a sexually promiscuous woman. Mary’s shock is compounded when the women mock Quinnapin’s name and gloat about his capture and execution. Mary’s response to this news is visceral, and she vomits. Later, Mary is upset to hear that many Indigenous Americans have been confined to the town of Natick or sent to be enslaved in Barbados. The English colonists fear further Indigenous uprisings, and so they are attempting to control them. This news leads Mary to have nightmares and further cements her loss of faith. When she attempts to pray, she finds she cannot. Despite news of their defeat, Mary reflects that she would still rather live amongst the Indigenous Americans than in English society because of the freedom she felt there.
The events detailed in the text are historically accurate. Indigenous Americans from New England were enslaved in Barbados until 1676. Meanwhile, the “Praying Indians” were held in Natick until 1681. However, author Mary Belding Brown notes, “Mary’s changed viewpoint as I’ve presented it in the novel is fiction. There’s no evidence that her opinion on Native Americans (or slavery, for that matter) was any different from the majority of other seventeenth-century Puritans” (340).
