Times, They are A-Changin'

As we’ve been discussing in class, our recent readings from the post-Revolution years reflect significant changes from the accounts of witchcraft and early infanticide narratives authored in the late 1600s. Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World was seeped in religious terms, and he effectively used this dramatic language to defend the witchcraft trials. Religious themes carry over into Pillars of Salt and the pre-Revolution infanticide narratives, where consistent warnings to the young people reflect the authors’ instructional tone and desire to maintain strict obedience to community rules. The account of Esther Rodgers emphasized her religious conversion over her actual execution; however, even in this 1701 text, the “tragick scene” is introduced in such theatrical terms that the entertainment value of such a text was becoming apparent. We saw this develop in later infanticide narratives, leading up to the account of unfortunate Harriot Wilson in The Victim of Seduction! and the broadside recounting the sensational story of Rachel Wall. The religious language is minimal in this last text in particular, and Rachel’s adventures make for very little moral instruction. Rather, such accounts of naughty women became "textual commodities." So to me, the Panther Narrative almost seems the next logical step, since writing a “fictional epistle” would allow an author to create as sensational a tale as he wished—with the assurance that the post-Revolution public would buy it up. And because the introduction tells us that “captivity narratives were the most enduring popular narrative form in early America,” the author who wrote under the pseudonym "Abraham Panther" probably knew what type of tale would generate the most success.

Clearly, the concerns of the American audience were changing. The Puritan society of Cotton Mather was geographically close-knit, and the witchcraft texts focus on what occurred within the boundaries of that strictly patriarchal community. Even the infanticide narratives focus on local scandals. But after the Revolution, people began to really look outwards, fascinated by the “mysterious West.” So readers were drawn to a text like the Panther narrative because it fed this broader curiosity. I think that with the drop-off of religious language and conversion themes, you also see a shift from an audience concerned solely with religious matters to an audience that also embraced the more secular aspects of American life (for example, class discussion brought up the interest in politics that accompanied the Revolution).

I thought it was interesting how the portrayal of women in print culture evolved. In infanticide narratives, in particular, we see an inherently weak woman who inevitably falls into temptation when she ventures out from under male authority. So the depiction of the “young woman who was discovered in a rocky cave” is surprising. Capable of surviving nine years in the wilderness on food she grew herself, this woman was not reliant on male guidance or authority; in fact, she’s a good example of a woman who took agency in her situation. In disobeying her father’s wishes, she comes across as strong-willed. The introduction to the narrative explains that the language of change used in post-Revolution texts encouraged citizens to challenge authority. This defiance of authority was something that, for women especially, would have been condemned by Mather and the Puritans—if it didn’t invite an accusation of witchcraft (and a subsequent death warrant)! But what is even more impressive is that the Panther portrayal of the young woman invites such sympathy and admiration; it is her domineering, cruel father who is painted in negative terms. I wouldn’t guess that this narrative reflected a dramatic social flip-flop (bearing in mind that its purpose was to entertain and make a profit rather than make a social statement or describe desirable female attributes), but its popularity shows that society was beginning to accept the textual portrayal of a more “liberated” female.