Nesmith Library

Massacre on the Merrimack, Hannah Duston's captivity and revenge in colonial America, Jay Atkinson

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

index present

non fiction

Massacre on the Merrimack

bibliography

Jay Atkinson

Hannah Duston's captivity and revenge in colonial America

True story of murder, captivity, revenge, and escape, set against the fiery backdrop of the French and Indian war. Examines the period in American history when French Catholicism vied for control of the frontier with English Protestantism, and the bloody deeds of Hannah Duston--who escaped her Native American captors and returned to her settlement of Haverhill, Massachusetts, with a collection of scalps--passed into legendEarly on March 15, 1697, a band of Abenaki warriors in service to the French raided the English frontier village of Haverhill, Massachusetts. Striking swiftly, the Abenaki killed twenty-seven men, women, and children, and took thirteen captives, including thirty-nine-year-old Hannah Duston and her week-old daughter, Martha. A short distance from the village, one of the warriors murdered the squalling infant by dashing her head against a tree. After a forced march of nearly one hundred miles, Duston and two companions were transferred to a smaller band of Abenaki, who camped on a tiny island located at the junction of the Merrimack and Contoocook Rivers, several miles north of present day Concord, New Hampshire. This was the height of King William?s War, both a war of terror and a religious contest, with English Protestantism vying for control of the New World with French Catholicism. After witnessing her infant?s murder, Duston resolved to get even. Two weeks into their captivity, Duston and her companions, a fifty-one-year-old woman and a twelve-year-old boy, moved among the sleeping Abenaki with tomahawks and knives, killing two men, two women, and six children. After returning to the bloody scene alone to scalp their victims, Duston and the others escaped down the Merrimack River in a stolen canoe. They braved treacherous waters and the constant threat of attack and recapture, returning to tell their story and collect a bounty for the scalps. Was Hannah Duston the prototypical feminist avenger, or the harbinger of the Native American genocide? In this meticulously researched and riveting narrative, bestselling author Jay Atkinson sheds new light on the early struggle for North America

The raid -- Dispossessed -- The settlement -- A forced march -- Count Frontenac and the reign of terror -- The tomahawk and the knife -- The fate of other captives -- Escape from Sugar Ball Island -- Samuel Sewall, Cotton Mather, and the General Court of Massachusetts

Hannah Duston's captivity and revenge in colonial America