Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America, by Jay Atkinson
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Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America, by Jay Atkinson
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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.
Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America, by Jay Atkinson- Amazon Sales Rank: #332362 in Books
- Brand: Lyons Press
- Published on: 2015
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.35" h x 1.11" w x 6.35" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 309 pages
Review A strong sense of place and vivid narration underscore journalist Atkinson’s tale of war, survival, and murder in colonial Massachusetts. . . .Atkinson’s storytelling skills are superb; he crisply moves from events in Haverhill across the panorama of colonial rivalries in North America to Hannah’s captivity experiences. (Publishers Weekly)A woman's life in dangerous times. In 1697, Hannah Duston, a Haverhill, Massachusetts, wife and mother, was abducted by Abenaki Indians and forcibly marched north toward French-occupied Canada to be ransomed. Her week-old infant was brutally murdered during the march, other captives were beaten to death, and the survivors were starved and abused. Desperate, Duston managed to take revenge, slaying not only her captors, but squaws and children, as well, hacking off scalps for monetary reward. Journalist and fiction writer Atkinson narrates Duston's story in gory detail, aiming to convey 'the moral truth of what happened' and allow readers to judge whether Duston's act of savagery was justified. . . .Drawing on archival documents and contemporary and recent histories, Atkinson has written a compelling narrative. (Kirkus Reviews)"Jay Atkinson is one of my favorite writers, and Massacre on the Merrimack, detailing an important yet little-known episode of captivity and revenge in colonial-era Massachusetts, benefits from his accomplished writing and keen-eyed historical perspective." -- Chuck Hogan, author of The Town“In this superb book, Massacre on the Merrimack, Jay Atkinson tells two stories: First, the dramatic tale of a young woman, Hannah Duston, who is abducted by Abenaki tribesmen and force-marched across a hundred miles of frozen wilderness, before fighting her way free. That alone is a dramatic tale of heroism, savagery, and survival against overwhelming odds. Simultaneously, Atkinson elucidates the bloody fight for the land we now inhabit, once known as the New World, now America. French and English imperialists, Jesuit missionaries, as well as rival Indian tribes—the Mohawk, the Abenaki and the Iroquois among them—were fighting, killing, scalping, and massacring for the right to call "New England" home. This is the rare book that succeeds in telling both as a useful and succinct history, and as an intimately narrated story of a young woman fighting, successfully for her life, and for the lives of her friends and family members. There is a statue of Hannah Duston in Massachusetts, and now there is this wonderful book—a fitting memorial to an extraordinary woman, whose story is finally, and brilliantly, told here.” —Alex Beam, Boston Globe columnist and author of American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church“Massacre on the Merrimack is colonial history told as a thriller. The writer’s research and craftsmanship are stamped throughout the book. It's an engaging story, and you will want to savor every page. It also makes a terrific gift for young students of American history, as it depicts history the way it really happened.” –Lou Ureneck, author of The Great Fire“Jay Atkinson has written a gripping account of the brutal struggles in seventeenth-century New England and Canada among British and French immigrants and various resident Native American tribes. He makes the shifting alliances comprehensible and conveys in vivid prose the desperate motives and aspirations of each group. This book portrays the sad and bloody shadow side of our perennial American Thanksgiving Day myth of happy camaraderie among European settlers and their native hosts. Anyone interested in the earliest origins of the United States will want to read this dreadful tale of greed, violence—and amazing courage on all sides.” —Lisa Alther, author of Blood Feud“Resurrecting one of the most fascinating and horrific stories of colonial America, Jay Atkinson delivers a riveting and thrilling narrative of savagery, murder, and revenge. His elegant prose animates the drama, allowing readers to experience not only the terror and visceral anger that Hannah Duston felt while being held captive, but also her sense of relief upon brutally killing her tormentors and returning home. Atkinson also provides a nuanced perspective on the deeply troubling relationship between whites and Indians during the early years of the American experience. This book is an excellent read.” —Eric Jay Dolin, author of Leviathan and Fur, Fortune, and Empire
About the Author Jay Atkinson, called “the bard of New England toughness” by Men’s Health magazine, is the author of eight books. Caveman Politics was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program selection and a finalist for the Discover Great New Writers Award; Ice Time was a Publishers Weekly Notable Book of the Year and a New England Bookseller’s Association bestseller; and Legends of Winter Hill spent seven weeks on the Boston Globe hardcover bestseller list. He has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, Portland Oregonian, Men’s Health, Boston Sunday Herald, and Boston Globe magazine, among other publications. Atkinson teaches writing at Boston University and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. He grew up hearing Hannah Duston's story in his hometown of Methuen, Massachusetts, which was part of Haverhill until 1726. He lives in Methuen, Massachusetts.
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Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Woman in the Wilderness By David Johansson What a page-turner! The story of Hannah Duston’s captivity and revenge will mark you forever. Atkinson plunges you into the cold water of the Merrimack river, makes you feel like brushing the snow from your shoulders, and marches you alongside the Indians into a world of wilderness now forever lost. Lost that is — except on Atkinson’s pages. He writes English prose like a master, and his canvas is as colorful as a mural. Painting the big picture of colonial America, when the French and the English struggled for dominance and Indians were used as mercenaries, Atkinson zooms in for the close-up on Hannah -- his steadfast heroine, giving you the thrill of intimacy with her iron will and unforgettable deeds. The author then pulls back for the establishing shots of what made the circumstances of her tragedy possible. Caught in the center of a triangle of warfare between French Catholics, English Puritans, and displaced Indians, Hannah Duston’s story becomes their nexus, that place where the forces of history find expression in a single human lifetime, one representing the terrible collision of native and European cultures. Atkinson’s background as a novelist is on full display here and his sensual images jolt history into hot, breathing life — without invention; indeed, the transparency of his work runs as clear as ice-water, and that is the clearest lens we’re ever going to get to peer through at this one-of a kind spectacle, this unique biography, not only of a woman, but of America. Massacre on the Merrimack is an important, beautiful book, and we’re extremely lucky to have it.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Knowledgeable and worthwhile By A. R. St Jean If you love native American and early colony history this is a book that must be read. It gives and excellent view of life both with the colonists and the native tribes in addition to the fascinating story of Hannah Duston. It also makes one wonder if todays Americans could endure a life that was so harsh, demanding and fraught with constant danger every day.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Forgotten era of colonial America comes to life (in gripping & graphic detail) By Phil O. In Massacre on the Merrimack, author Jay Atkinson has created a gripping narrative of a time in colonial American history oft-forgotten, when early English settlers struggled to live sparsely on the land of New England, and only one hard winter or bad harvest separated them from disaster. In the period chronicled here (roughly, the 1680s until Hannah Duston's story in the spring of 1697), the colonists are part of a much bigger conflict between England and France, played out between colonies in New England and Quebec, with local Indians (already in steep decline due to disease and conflict with colonists) struggling to maintain their respective advantages, and siding with European powers when it suited them.The star of the book is Hannah Duston, of course, but some of the other narratives of Hannah's peers told in this book are just as gripping (and many much darker). Living on the frontier -- as Haverhill, Massachusetts, was in those days -- was risky business. Massacre opens with the harrowing, bloody raid that started Hannah on her journey and left close to 10% of Haverhill's population dead in a matter of minutes. As he draws the broader picture, Atkinson makes clear that this raid was hardly an isolated event; it was a fact of life for those early settlers.In the modern age, there's some controversy about the actions Hannah took to secure her freedom, and whether they were all justified. Atkinson doesn't opine on this, but he does make an effort, as far as the source material will allow, to tell the story with a more even-handed sensibility than earlier accounts may have had. Whatever your opinion on Hannah's actions, you'll find it hard not to be invested in her story as it unfolds and resolves in epic fashion.Once I started reading this, I found it hard to put down -- even the copious notes that follow the main text make for fascinating reading. For anyone with even a mild interest in early American history (or an interest in screenworthy survival stories), I'd unreservedly recommend this.My sole criticism of the book (a mild one) is that I would have enjoyed an epilogue looking at how Hannah's story came back into prominence in the 19th century, leading to her being (supposedly) the first woman in American history to be honored with a statue -- the statue that inspired the author to write the book. Judging from what I've been able to find on the Internet, that's a pretty interesting story, too.Finally, for anyone interested in a broader view of this period, I'd recommend Alan Taylor's American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Vol. 1, which does a great job of looking at the colonial period (and not just through the English-speaking perspective). I read this a few years ago, and found it as gripping (in parts) as Atkinson's book.
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