Massacre at Deerfield

On the evening of March 5, 1770, with a foot of snow on the ground, groups of Bostonians gathered around the Custom House on King Street. Some had buckets of water, after responding to a fire alarm. Others had clubs to defend themselves or perhaps to threaten the despised “lobsterbacks.” Private Hugh White was, in fact, being threatened by several wigmakers’ apprentices (Aron 24). When Captain Thomas Preston heard of Private White’s situation, he came with seven other soldiers to help. Words escalated into snowballs and stones, and the soldiers began to fight back with the butts of their guns. The crowd of Bostonians was growing and now numbered about 100 (24). Then, a huge chunk of ice came flying in from the mob and knocked

On the day of September 11, 1857, an emigrant party camped at Mountain Meadows was brutally killed by the Mormon militia aided by Indians. This essay examines two viewpoints regarding the massacre found in Sally Denton’s “American Massacre” and in “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Turley.

In The Unredeemed Captive, John Demos discusses the complexities within the sudden attack on Deerfield in Massachusetts including the experiences amidst of the invasion and captivity of the Williams family. John Williams, also known to be the father of the family, was a prominent and well-connected member of the New England clergy. He was also a Puritan minister who described with detail his overall experience as a captive from both The Mohawk Indian Tribe and The French Canadians, which in turn were considered to be allies. Following John Williams’s captivity, it became a matter of great concern throughout the colony. Soon enough, the Williams family had to experience the feeling of being separated with the realization that it might be the last time they would ever see each other again. Despite the misery, the life of the Williams family was changed forever when Mother

The light from the TV screen illuminated the bedroom in a flickering glow, as the screen constantly changed between a scene of a mass murder, and a female reporter in a black suit and tie. The reporter's voice droned on about how and when the murders had been committed, and how the culprit was expected to be the same Stihr as last time. The screen flicked back to the heaps of bodies, now closed off to the public by yellow warning tape. A vast and seemingly quixotic amount of blood covered the disemboweled and occasionally dismembered corpses of the night-shift workers at the Empire State Building. Alastor gagged at the sight of the bodies, closing his eyes and grasping blindly for the remote. Seconds later, his fingers closed around the

To set the stage for the narrative history book, Unredeemed Captive, on a day in late February of 1704, the town known as Deerfield, Massachusetts was raided by Mohawk Indians. They captured and killed many individuals as well as families, then sent them on approximately a two-month long and snowy journey to Canada. One family in particular was a prime target of the Mohawks. John Williams, the Reverend of Deerfield, was married with five children. He and his family were targeted because of his value and importance to the community. Deerfield was holding a French man by the name of “Captain Baptiste,” who was of equal value and importance; therefore, Williams was needed to make a trade for this man.1 Eventually, Williams was able to provide

“In 1749, captain Pierre-Joseph Celeron de Plainville set out from Montreal and proceeded to the shores of the Allegheny and Ohio River demanding that the British traders lower their flags from their trading post and retreat to the eastern slopes of the Appalachians” (Schwartz,6). This would lead to even more issues as a year continued. When the burden was far too great to overcome the two sides met in Paris. This lead to nowhere and the stressful relationship over control of Northern America agin grew even greater. On July 1,

Even after days, months, and years our six survivors struggle to get back to the life they once had before the terrible disaster. Through all the forty years after the explosion, they had to deal and cope with the terrible flashbacks of the bloodied bodies and corpses. They will had to deal with the empty space that was left in their hearts made by deaths and of many close family members; and although many family members didn't die immediately, many died in the months and years following. Also, the bombs did not spare much or any money, shelter, and provisions; meaning our survivors had to endure poverty and homelessness. The novel comes to a

This chapter provided information from the trial of Captain Thomas Preston. The chapter asked the question, “What really happened in the Boston Massacre”. Chapter four focused on the overall event of the Massacre and trying to determine if Captain Preston had given the order to fire at Boston citizens. The chapter provides background information and evidence from Preston’s trial to leave the reader answering the question the chapter presents. Although, after looking through all the witnesses’ testimonies some might sway in Captain Preston’s favor, just the way the grand jury did.

In 1637, warfare started to erupt between a group of English colonists and an Indian tribe named Pequot. The English settlers along with a

In 1675, the Algonquian Indians rose up in fury against the Puritan Colonists, sparking a violent conflict that engulfed all of Southern New England. From this conflict ensued the most merciless and blood stricken war in American history, tearing flesh from the Puritan doctrine, revealing deep down the bright and incisive fact that anger and violence brings man to a Godless level when faced with the threat of pain and total destruction. In the summer of 1676, as the violence dispersed and a clearing between the hatred and torment was visible, thousands were dead.(Lepore xxi) Indian and English men, women, and children, along with many of the young villages of New England were no more; casualties of a conflict that

There were rumors accumulating but by 1704 there were so many over a long period of time that everybody just ignored but still took precaution. Since they had been alerted to the possibility of a raid, they all took refuge within the palisade, and a guard was posted. The raid occurred in winter which was atypical. There was a couple feet of snow on the ground. The Indians would have to walk nearly 300 miles to get to Deerfield and return back with captives. The raiders swept into the village, and began attacking individual houses. Reverend Williams' house was among the first to be raided; Williams' life was spared when his gunshot misfired, and he was taken prisoner. Two of his children and a servant were slain; the rest of his family and his other servant were also taken prisoner. Similar scenarios occurred in many of the other houses. The residents of Benoni Stebbins' house, which was not among the ones attacked early, resisted the raiders' attacks, which lasted until well after daylight. A second house, near the northwestern corner of the palisade, was also successfully defended. The raiders moved through the village, herding their prisoners to an area just north of the town, rifling houses for items of value, and setting a number of them on fire. The captives were rounded up and marched to Canada. The word “raid” does not sum up to the events that took place in Deerfield. In this interpretation of the “true” story of Eunice Williams, it

It is the middle of winter in 1704 and all is calm in this small Massachusetts town. From the darkness of the trees, French and Indian forces converge upon this town with the goal of acquiring captives—perhaps even just one captive specifically, the town minister, John Williams. The guards have fallen asleep at their post and the residents of the town are given very little time to escape the attacking warriors and soldiers. Among those who do not escape are Reverend John Williams, his wife, and his children, along with over 100 other now captives. This story is told by John Demos in his historical, non-fiction novel, The Unredeemed Captive. Demos focuses on the Williams family and their transition from life as French captives in Canada back

In December of 1763, drunken men from the town of Paxton, Pennsylvania raided a Conestoga Indian tribe. This assault resulted in the death of twenty indian. In response to the event Benjamin Franklin wrote, “The universal concern of the neighboring white people on hearing of this event, and the lamentations of the younger Indians when they returned and saw the desolation and the butchered, half-burned bodies of their murdered parents and other relations cannot well be expressed” (http://www.britannica.com/event/Paxton-Boys-uprising). The motivation the men had to commit such a horrifying act against innocent people was the belief that the tribe scalped whites and pillaged cities. Since many frontiersmen were sympathetic with the Paxton men, no charges were ever pressed. Neighboring indian tribes fled to the town of Lancaster for protection from the aggressive Paxton men. However, the frontiersmen then led to Lancaster in search for the indians. The Paxton men gathered the helpless Conestoga indians and butchered them. To this day it is unclear if local authorities attempted to intervene. The mob left without an witnesses so their actions were left unpunished. Colonial authorities in Pennsylvanian demanded that the killers must pay for their action. However, frontiersmen rallied to defend the Paxton men, forcing the officials to gather a militia. With this violent mindset, there was no person from either

The Unreedeemed Capitive discloses the story of John Williams and his family becoming captives of the French and Mohawk Indians and after their return from Canada, pursuing to “redeem” Eunice Williams, John William’s daughter, back to a puritan lifestyle. Starting at Deefield, Masschusetts, October 1703, “Reverend Mr” John Williams writes a letter to the governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts Bay of the apprehension of being attacked by the French and the Indians and a request to abate the taxes to help rebuild a fort.(p.11) On February 28, Deerfield was attacked. After the massacre, John Williams, his family and other residents of Deerfield became captives of the French and Indians. They now had to march to Montreal in the snow on a unknown

It was sunday and an unusually warm evening for October eighth. ⅔ of 59, 500 buildings were made of wood and the city had previous fires. Shed barns were flammable material everything was wood. AND THEN a person named sullivan saw a fire on the way home and he saw the fire a “single tongue of flame shooting out the side of the o’ leary’s barn.” and the reason the barn caught fire is because a cow kicked over a lamp and caused the fire!! The fire lasted thirty-two hours and it lead to a lot of death and destruction the boy who jumped in