While it becomes clear Mary Rowlandson’s views of civilization and savagery become more blurred as the book progresses, she easily draws distinctions between the two early in her account of her captivity. In her book White Trash, which examines class in US history, Nancy Isenberg argues early European settlers in British North America thought civilization could only exist when people made proper and complete use of the land. In this light, she states, the word “waste” connoted very negative images of savagery. Throughout the first third of the book, Rowlandson notes the “wasteful” lifestyle of her American Indian captors, which she often uses to describe the savagery of her captors (10).

Her depiction of “Praying Indians” exemplifies her early accounts of the difference between savagery and civilization. Whereas the dress of some American Indians later on in the book causes the lines of savage and civilized to be a blur, her initial comments on “Praying Indians” demonstrates how she believed an American Indian could never truly embrace European notions of civilization. “Praying Indians” was a term applied to American Indians in the 17^th century who embraced Christianity and organized small villages of like-minded American Indians. In this respect, becoming Christian and following the Puritan model of the close village, the “Praying Indians” represented to many settlers the ability to “civilize” the “savage.” However, in the first third of the book, she is very critical of these people and often depicts them as vicious killers who value guns more than life (16, 67). However, as she begins to blur civilization and savagery, she is often still skeptical of the “Praying Indians.” This might stem from her inability to reconcile with a God who would offer salvation to American Indians.