Mary Rowlandson was captured in 1675 by the Wampanoag Indians and held captive for three months. Her husband paid her ransom of 20£. This made me wonder exactly how much she was ransomed for, so that is my question. How much was Rowlandson actually ransomed for? According to http://www.unitconversion.org/currency/british-pounds-to-us-dollars-conversion.html today 20£ would be worth about $31.63 US dollars. Today, however, one US dollar is worth 0.63£. That is not very much considering how much our US dollar has diminished in value over the years. After I found out how much Rowlandson would've been worth today, I began to wonder how much she was really worth in 1675. While I was doing research on that, I realized that there were no US dollars around in 1675. So, I found on http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_value_of_a_1675_British_Penny that a 1675 British Penny would be worth 12-100£ today, and that would equal about $18.98-$158.13. I am not sure exactly what that means about how much she was really ransomed for, but a 1675 British penny would be worth a lot today! So, what I found was Rowlandson's husband paid the equivalent of $31.63 to get his wife back.
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