Although Mary Rowlandson, Madam Knight, and Elizabeth Ashbridge were all strong minded women in the 17th and 18th centuries, and their journals are accounted for in Journeys in New Worlds, Early American Women's Narratives, they differ from one another in personality, their religious beliefs, and their journey from where they came to where they finished. Rowlandson's journey took place in the late 1600's while Knight and Ashbridge's journeys took place in the early 18th century. Rowlandson differed the most from the other two because she did not purposely choose to go on her journey. She was captured in an Indian raid in 1676 and was forced to take her journey, which, in time changed her views about herself and the "beasts"� that captured and tormented her and the people around her. She was a very caring woman always worrying about her children and family and was very God ordained.
Site at which Mary Rowlandson was captured by Nati...
English: Illus. from: Mary Rowlandson. A Narrative...
Front Page of Mary Rowlandsons A True History of t...She viewed everything that was happening to her as God's plan for her and she would stick to it as long as it took. Madam Knight chose to make the journey from Boston to New Haven as a business trip to read the will of her deceased brother-in-law. She made this entire trip on her own without a companion by her side. Along the way she picked up different male guides but then would leave them the following day or two. In contrast to Rowlandson and Ashbridge, Madam Knight, whose real name is Sarah Kemble Knight, did not display or write any emphasis on religion. She was a person of the newer world that believed in a religious fervor that placed emphasis on personal rediscovery. Her mission on this trip was to get her job done. Knight was a very confident person in her self and her job and unlike...