Early 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.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!