Story of Captivity in 18th Century Massachusetts

A raid made by Indians on the Puritan settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704 resulted in the deaths of some 50 villagers and the carrying-off of more than 110 men, women, and children on an eight-week forced march to the "popish country" of Catholic Montreal, in midwinter. The most prominent among the captives was the family of the Reverend John Williams, who in his account of his captivity describes being separated during the forced march from his wife and five surviving children, three of whom were ransomed quickly in Montreal; two other children were killed in the initial attack. Within two days, Williams's wife, who was weak and recovering from childbirth, was killed when she fell behind along the trail, but the other children were eith

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erived biblical sanction that informed the British colonial project. Still, it is difficult to credit Demos's implication that the Indians' murder of women and children at Deerfield and on the subsequent march was an instance of moral neutrality, superior Indian virtue, or European misunderstanding of Native American cultural norms when it was the Indians who initiated the massacre and march. Undoubtedly circumstances and priorities differed from massacre to massacre, and doubtless too, individual personalities clashed in a variety of ways that affected captivity dynamics and outcomes. Nevertheless, Mary Rowlandson's description of the people in Lancaster and on the trail to various encampments who were killed by being "knockt on the head" and disemboweled and of the woman and her infant apparently gleefully tortured and killed after repeatedly begging to be released cannot be reconciled with Axtell's assertion that Indians did not violate captive women and selected captives with a view toward acculturation and "adoption" for the purpose of replacing "members of their own families who had died, often from English musketballs or imported diseases." On the other hand, Demos's explanation of the practicality of quickly killing th
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2253
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)