Peace in Providence

Throughout the texts that we have read in class and seeing the different experiences that the authors have each had with the idea of providence, Spofford's experience has some similarities as well as some differences. Being captured in the claws of the Indian Devil will certainly provide a big difference. A big difference would be circumstance, but nonetheless, she eventually believed that it was punishment for sin. This is the same idea that can be found among authors such as Rowlandson, Jacobs and Wheatley. In my opinion, the biggest difference seems to strike at the very beginning when she calls upon her husband instead of God. Wheatley and Rowlandson both include God in their thoughts and emotions rather quickly, while Spofford's first instinct was to call for her husband. The text reads, "She did not think at this instant to call upon God." A common emotion under the "protection of providence" is peace, which is what seemed like Spofford found during a very frightening and terrifying experience. When the Indian Devil first clawed her, she stood bleeding, but when she let out a loud scream it made him stop and listen to the echo. Upon discovering that a noise would make him pause the licking and clawing, the text reads, "For the first time in her life, she shivered in spiritual fear." It was then, I believe, that she thought of God and sang hymns until her voice was gone. In this story, it is apparent that she was stricken with fear and pain before she began singing hymns, where she felt the peace in the providence of God and realized that everything would be okay as long as God receives the glory, regardless of whether or not she survives. The idea of providence is expressed in her finding peace in the hymns she sang, but the overall work compared to the other works we have studied, probably has a "medium" amount of expression of providence, though it increases as the story continues. First, let us look at a general idea of Spofford's experience and view of providence. Upon leaving a sick neighbor, she saw a ghost, but the ghost did not scare her because she is far too strong to be scared so easily. As she continues walking, she suddenly meets the Indian Devil who claws her up and brings her into a tree where she discovers that singing keep shim from harming her. WHen a call upon her husband returned unanswered, she has no idea what to do besides sing to the devil. With the idea that this was punishment for her sin, she suddenly began singing hymns that she had learned in church. The text makes it seem like it was God who gave her a song since she began singing, "Without being aware of it." She sang, "Though slay me, yet I trust in Him." As she sang, memories and images if her first communion ran through her mind and the grasp of the devil was not at the forefront of her thoughts. She felt God near and realized she didn't necessarily need to be in church for that feeling which is why I argue that the peace of providence kept her sane in such a traumatizing situation. "My Beloved is mine, and I am His," she sang. As she sang worship songs, she began to think of the Great Deliverance. She prayed not to necessarily be saved, rather, trusted that God would be victorious through this. She expected, in those moments, to die, but still sang praises to God, even in the grasp of the Indian Devil. When her husband finally found her, she felt joy wash over her, but "snapped back into the arms of earthly hope," where panic overtook again and she felt fear of survival. This is evidence that providence and God's peace where with her when that was her focus as opposed to when her husband came. He hot the devil and they returned home, only to find that all of their belongings and home had been burned, but the last line leads us to believe that a peace lingered with her as she didn't see the burned home and immediately feel distraught, but that, "The world was all before them." Evidence of another text and