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Author Jay Atkinson tweeted these pictures from his research trip down the Merrimack River. He spent a long cold night retracing Hannah Duston's escape for his book MASSACRE ON THE MERRIMACK. Hear all about it Monday March 7th at 7 PM
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Another strong review for MASSACRE ON THE MERRIMACK!
Between March 15, 1697, when Hannah Duston was taken captive, and March 30th, when she managed to kill her captors and escape, Hannah and her companions were force marched nearly 80 miles through the snow, from Haverhill MA to Boscawen NH. They were required to carry or drag supplies and other objects thrust upon them by the Abenaki.
Writing in 1869, the historian J. W. Meader called the Merrimack River the “grand trunk road” of the Algonquin tribes, providing access to thousands of square miles through its many tributaries and streams. Certainly, it was a source of fear and anxiety for Hannah Duston and her compatriots: the Indians were native to the rivers and streams, and could paddle upstream faster than the escaping trio could paddle with the current. And the conditions were difficult. This photo was taken during one of two long canoe trips I took with my friend Chris Pierce down the Merrimack, on the exact days Duston was on the river. It was daunting. Photo by Christopher Pierce.
Paddling down the Merrimack River to retrace Hannah Duston’s escape, and camping on one of the tiny islands was no joke. Temperatures dropped to 18 degrees F overnight, though it was late March. And the river itself was intermittently obscured by snow squalls, as my rugby pal Chris Pierce and I navigated the rapids, floating trees, and sheets of ice. Photo by http://www.jacobsphotographic.us/#/stills/recent-work
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Of Hannah Duston’s ordeal, Cotton Mather wrote, “being where she had not her own life secured by any law unto her, she thought she was not forbidden by any law to take away the life of the murderers by whom her child had been butchered.” Mather’s statement, which has ignited debate even to the present day, seems to be a category mistake, at the very least. The women and children who were killed on Sugar Ball Island were likely NOT the “murderers” who had dispatched Hannah’s infant, since there’s no record of women and children being a part of the Abenaki raiding party. Photo by http://www.jacobsphotographic.us/#/stills/recent-work
Author Jay Atkinson retells a little-known episode in the colonial Merrimack Valley, asking whether Hannah Duston should be celebrated for her massacre?
Boston Magazine featured MASSACRE ON THE MERRIMACK, Hannah Duston, and the “gritty side” of the Merrimack Valley in this recent article.
One of the few extant documents created right after Hannah Duston’s revenge was Cotton Mather’s account of Duston’s ordeal, from his book, MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA. Mather conducted a personal interview with Hannah and her husband, Thomas Duston, in April 1697, after she escaped from the Abenaki. It was most likely conducted in the Mather home, in Boston, at least a day’s journey from her village of Haverhill, Mass.
Early in his account, Mather describes Hannah and her neighbor, Mary Neff, 51, being taken captive, along with Hannah’s week old daughter, Martha. Not long after they are forced to leave the Duston’s burning farmhouse, Martha is killed in a particularly gruesome fashion.
Mather writes: “About nineteen or twenty Indians now led these away; with about half a score of other English captives; but ere they had gone many steps, they dash’d out the brains of the infant against a tree; and several other of the captives, as they began to tire in their long journey, were soon sent unto their long home; the salvages (sic) would presently bury their hatchets in their brains, and leave their carcasses on the ground for birds and beasts to feed upon.”
Unfortunately, these events were just the beginning of Duston and Neff’s troubles, which stretched on for a fortnight. Mather’s account, though brief, contains many fascinating details about Duston and Neff’s persistence, faith, and violent response to what they had suffered in Haverhill.
Photo of Hannah Duston island and the Merrimack River by http://www.klementovichphoto.com/
