by Evan Haefeli, Kevin Sweeney
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Product Description
This volume draws together an unusually rich body of original sources that tell the story of the 1704 French and Indian attack on Deerfield, Massachusetts, from different vantage points. Texts range from one of the most famous early American captivity narratives, John Williams s The Redeemed Captive, to the records of French soldiers and clerics, to little-known Abenaki and Mohawk stories of the raid that emerged out of their communities oral traditions. Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney provide a general introduction, extensive annotations, and headnotes to each text.
Although the oft-reprinted Redeemed Captive stands at the core of this collection, it is juxtaposed to less familiar accounts of captivity composed by other Deerfield residents: Quentin Stockwell, Daniel Belding, Joseph Petty, Joseph
Kellogg, and the teenaged Stephen
Williams. Presented in their original form, before clerical editors revised and embellished their content to highlight religious themes, these stories challenge long-standing assumptions about classic Puritan captivity narratives.
The inclusion of three Abenaki and Mohawk narratives of the Deerfield raid is equally noteworthy, offering a rare opportunity not only to compare captors and captives accounts of the same experiences, but to do so with reference to different Native oral traditions. Similarly, the memoirs of French military officers and an excerpt from the Jesuit Relations illuminate the motivations behind the attack and offer fresh insights into the complexities of French-Indian alliances.
Taken together, the stories collected
in this volume, framed by the editors introduction and the assessments of two Native scholars, Taiaiake Alfred and Marge Bruchac, allow readers to reconstruct the history of the Deerfield raid from multiple points of view and, in so doing, to explore the interplay of culture and memory that shapes our understanding of the past.
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Average Customer Review:
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 Coherent, balanced, & well documented, 2006-07-14
This work skillfully profiles the 1704 raid on Deerfield in sections entitled `Creating Communities,' `The Raid,' `Negotiating Empires,' and `Preserving Communities.' The authors examine assailants and victims in depth to enable the reader to decide who (if anyone) was right or wrong. Formative history, the raid itself, the aftermath, and lasting political significance is admirably related.
A minor criticism is the lack of a wider discussion of the English/Iroquois alliance against the French (e.g. Gabriel Druillettes and Jean Paul Godefroy's rejected mission for mutual alliance at New Haven in 1651; NY Governor Thomas Dongan's declaration of the Iroquois as English subjects in 1683, etc). The English protected and supplied a confederacy that attacked New France and her native allies (Hurons, Ottawas, Eries, Andastes, Delawares, Neutrals, Tobacco, Illinois, etc) mercilessly from 1609-1701. This was a smart move (as Philbrick points out in `Mayflower' - Mohawks were largely responsible for defeating Metacom - King Philip - 1675-6).
The authors don't fully explore the routine, repeated Iroquois assaults involving French families whose members fought at Deerfield (Pierre Boucher and 40 other colonists held off 600 Iroquois at Trois-Rivières in 1653; the previous year the town was devastated by the massacre of it's governor and 21 other habitants. Joseph François Hertel de LaFresnière spent 1661-3 in Iroquois captivity after torture including loss of a thumb and burned limbs). Iroquois assaults on New France make the Deerfield raid look like a walk in the park. On 4 August 1689, for example, 1500 Iroquois attacked Montréal, destroying 56 farms and killing or capturing over a hundred colonists (all with English blessing). The following year Phips unsuccessfully attempted to take Québec with 2000 men and 34 ships.
Another minor entertainment disappointment: the lack of a more robust description of English Imperial efforts (including Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker's leadership of the British attack fleet in 1711, and a wider view of the Mathers, whose history in Salem bears attention). These are, however, minor issues.
This work is a valuable contribution well worth reading. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Showing the confrontational and friendly relationships between diverse groups of the times, 2006-04-03
Any collection strong in Native American or early American history should make Captors And Captives: The 1704 French And Indian Raid On Deerfield a collection acquisition: explores the raid from different viewpoints of the raiders, both French-Canadian and Native American, and the Deerfield villages alike, showing the confrontational and friendly relationships between diverse groups of the times. In using the individual experience to provide history and social and cultural insights, Captors And Captives provides an outstanding social coverage.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
The most in depth study of the 1704 raid to date., 2003-12-12
This books breaks down to what leads up to the most infamous destruction of a town during any of the four French/Indian wars.Very well researched and layed out to make you part of the history thats happening.A play-by-play of the actual attack with excellent reference charts as back-up info as the saga unfolds.I can't say enough about this book,definitely not dry history in any sense.If your a colonial military history buff or a student of the French and Indian wars than this is the one to read.
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